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Jimmy Lai has been convicted of national security charges in Hong Kong.
China has turned ice and snow resources into hot economic driver.
And US President Donald Trump utters blockade of sanctioned oil tankers leaving and entering Venezuela.
Welcome to Road Today, a news program with a different perspective.
I'm Gaena in Beijing.
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Hong Kong's high court has found Jimmy Lai, an instigator of anti-China riots in the city in 2019, guilty on two charges of conspiring to collude with external forces and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious materials.
The central government's Hong Kong Liaison Office says it supports the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the verdict against Lai.
The State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office has also backed the ruling, adding that any attempts to obstruct Hong Kong's efforts to safeguard national security are doomed to fail.
Meanwhile, a small number of Western politicians and media outlets have used the pretext of human rights and freedom to smear Hong Kong's rule of law.
In response to these claims, today we have invited Professor Qu Qiang from Minsu University of China to offer his analysis and response.
Thanks for joining us, Professor.
Thank you.
Professor, Jamie Lai has been convicted under the law.
For our listeners, could you please briefly explain why he's found guilty?
Well, I think the reason is very, very simple.
I know there's a lot of complicated, you know, a plot or stories going on.
But just one simple conclusion.
During the rioting in Hong Kong back in 2019, Jimmy Lai actually has been agitated and also tried to organize lots of the organizations and behavior, including the violence, tried to split the country, tried to compete the treason against their own mother nation and all government in the name of so-called discontent. but actually the whole thing is that behind him there is a whole lot of the organization of the foreign funded organizations try to fund him and arouse all kinds of this riot and violence behavior in Hong Kong society and eventually caused a lot of law criminals you know violent behaviors and also vandalism arson in the Hong Kong society and also injured many of the police officers So by being such an evil brain behind this riot in Hong Kong, and I think he committed lots and lots of bad consequences to Hong Kong, and also he needs to suffer from all these bad consequences legally.
Then focusing on the trial itself, do you think it was fair and conducted according to the law?
Of course.
Any country, in any given country on this earth, from developed nations like United States, like European Union countries, like Japan, and to the developing nations like ASEAN nations, Latin American nations.
Any kind of behavior try to split the nation, try to introduce in the foreign interference to jeopardize your own society's stability, try to commit all kinds of violence against the police officers, try to break down the democracy in our society.
Law and order will all be considered as treason.
This is probably one of the highest kind of crimes against the current legal system, only next to the murderers.
So I think in any given country, this behavior is not tolerable.
So he must be facing this kind of judgment by law.
So I think he deserves every bit of all this by his own doing.
Professor, the national security law helped bring stability back to Hong Kong and safeguard the long-term implementation of one country, two systems.
But it has been criticized in some Western media.
What's your take on this?
How crucial of this law for Hong Kong?
Well, I don't know.
This is basically very hypocrite and double standard.
In all those criticizer countries America UK, Australia all of them have their own national security law.
And, to my understanding, this is more stricter And it's more harshly implemented than what we're doing in Hong Kong.
For example, in Hong Kong, if you committed the treason on the street and try to commit this vandalism or arson, the worst thing you're going to face is going to be a captive.
You're going to be detained and you are going to be brought to the prison.
But in America, if you are doing so, all the patrollers, all the troopers, they can shoot you on sight dead, on the first sight.
So I think they have even the harder standard against this kind of the crimes, more than China, more than Hong Kong, but why they're accusing us lack of democracy or so-called human rights?
And I think Hong Kong really need this national security law, because Hong Kong, as a small but also independent entity, only got their own version of constitution after the 1997.
So I think the legal system based on this new Hong Kong's special administrative region are actually not very thorough.
So I think that really filling the blanks helped Hong Kong government to fight against those foreign interference and the forces try to overturn, try to split Hong Kong and also unstabilize this society.
And also I think we have witnessed how national security law has been taken in place and taken effective.
For example, in the 2019 riot, hong kong society has been really vandalized and unstabilized.
Violence anything you haven't seen it.
But with the national security law and its implementation we've been seeing the order has been restored really quick and also because we have this newly restored stability and also prosperity, based on that, lots of very dangerous, hazardous behavior against the local national security and the society's stability will be preserved.
So that would make people feel more confidence of this one country, two system.
If you cannot even deliver the basic or most minimum standard, like the stability or safety in the society, who's going to believe you can maintain one country and two system?
So I think this is really a law, very timely.
Professor about this case.
Some Western allies also argue that Hong Kong can no longer tolerate dissent.
Do you think Lai's case is really about freedom of expression or different opinions?
Is dissent really the essence of this case?
Of course not.
I don't think Jimmy Lai's problem is not about so-called speech freedom or dissent.
But he is trying to hook up with the foreign violence, foreign money, foreign interference.
Try to use all kinds of the media platform to unstabilize Hong Kong and jeopardize local society.
So I think in every given society, we all preserve the speech of liberty.
But I don't think speech is an absolute concept.
There are still some bottom line you should not to go across.
For example, if in America, if you curse the senior citizen or you try to use your language, try to violate the minor people, you know the children's.
Guess what people will do to you.
I don't think even you need the policeman.
You know, i think the a warm-hearted uh, you know, just a walk buyers will just use their freedom of gun to violate your freedom of speech, to stop you immediately.
That's America.
So when you're talking about the UK, when you're talking about Japan or the other nations, they all have their bottom lines.
Definitely not going to be violated.
So I think this is another issue.
But be blurred by the foreign forces in a disguise of so-called democracy.
No, they're missing the point.
It's not about democracy.
In Hong Kong, hundreds and thousands of people are standing there saying do not engage violence, do not split our country.
We want stability, we want our job.
Come on, i just want to go to the job and earn my salary.
Why you're burning my office down?
Why are you trying to rob all the supermarket?
We don't want to see that.
That is also people's voice.
Nobody are hearing.
Then can we say jimmy liar, violating their democracy and a freedom of life, of life.
Building on that, Hong Kong officials, when meeting with the press, have pointed out that foreign consulate staff from over 30 countries were invited to observe the trial and could see firsthand how open and fair it was, but this was largely ignored by Western media.
So could you please help us delve further into the purpose of such reports?
What do you think Western attention to this case is really about?
Defending freedom and democracy or pursuing other political agendas?
A double standard.
Hypocrisy and also national benefit is always the only standard in there.
In America, they say we love democracy, so-called democracy or voting system.
But come on, let's take a look in so much of so many of the American allies, the ruler of their nation are dictators.
But America never says anything about that because it's in line with Americans' benefit and it's in line with their own standards.
So being a dictator is not a problem.
So many nations having the voting systems have the Western-style democracy.
They're conceding that.
No, they're calling them evil and a crooked democracy, and then they're going to overthrow them.
So this is always the result and consequence of geopolitical gaming.
This is always the double standard based on the national or even private profit.
So I think if you're adding into this kind of standard the so-called fair and justice rule of law and that thing's just something you need to ignore.
Indeed.
When reading Western media coverage, we find it striking how much bias and double standards it contains.
Professor, earlier you mentioned about this.
If any Western country, be it the United States or the United Kingdom, had faced a similar situation in which someone used the media platforms in an attempt to undermine the political system or overturn their regimes.
How do you think they have responded?
Will they really show the same level of tolerance they now claim to advocate?
I don't think you need the if.
Let me tell you what they did happen and America and the UK or other democratic countries are doing.
For example, 2021 and the Capitol Hill riot.
American government actually started a large-scale investigation and accusation towards all the participants.
Hundreds and hundreds of them get in the law case.
They get, you know, penalty.
They get all kinds of that.
You know the result, a legal result out of it they get indicted and also they are going to do their time in the prison.
So America are also trying to indict all those people in the name of treason or having all this suspicion to hook up with foreign forces, to give them the probably one of the most kind of the punishment.
So this is very big.
If you are a Kentucky resident, if you're coming here to support your President Trump back in 2021 and the result is you get contained and then you're going to go to the prison.
And there, every day, you only get one bomb and one water or even no water.
You're going to get tortured.
You're going to get bitten.
You're going to get even raped or molested.
And that is how you get it.
And after that, even though now a lot of them has been released because they have just committed a minor crime you know, missed in demeanors but they have no compensation then lost well, say we're not doing anything wrong, we're just trying to, you know, find out the truth even though you're not doing anything, anything seriously.
But you deserve what.
Have you participated, you showed yourself up there, so you deserve all this.
Just go to see the interviews.
Tucker Carlson he did lots of interviews for all the victims during this Capitol Hill riot.
And also if you go to UK, you see UK have very strict anti-terrorist law or anti-spy law.
And if you commit that kind of a crime, or if you are thought or considered to commit that kind of a crime, you'll get serious trouble.
For example, in 2020, there are students taking on the streets in London and a lot of them have been accused by such kind of a name and get into the prison.
And I think also...
In New York we've been seeing just last year, lots of the students in Columbia University or in New York University try to support certain tribe and fight against some other tribe or nation.
And immediately, 168 students get busted on the grassroots land, on the mawn in the campus of the Columbia University.
Nobody are talking about the students' freedom of the free speech, right?
Nobody are talking about that kind of rights.
They get busted.
They get expelled from the university.
They cannot go back to the campus anymore.
And they're considered to be criminals.
And sometimes some of them actually serve some time in the prison.
So when you come to all these you know real fact and evidence you will see how double standard they can be when it's really going to their own benefit.
I still remembered Nancy Pelosi used to say the riot in Hong Kong is probably the most beautiful scenery on the street.
But when the Capitol Hill are seeing so that, She's yelling, that is purely criminal.
Those are brutal barbarics.
See, this is a brutal and barbaric double standard.
Thanks, Professor, for those in-depth analysis.
That was Professor Qu Qiang from Mingzhu University of China.
The United Nations Road Tourism Organization has honored Harbin as a road, ice and snow tourism city of excellence.
Harbin is famous as China's ice city, is where modern winter sports in China began.
The city ice and snow economy is now worth over 160 billion yuan or about 23 billion U.S. dollars.
So for more on this, joining us on the line is Dr Yao Shujie Chang Kong, Professor of Economics at Chongqing University.
Welcome to our show, Professor.
Hi.
Professor, the UN World Tourism Organization has named Harbin World Ice and Snow Tourism City of Excellence.
In your view, what were the core evaluation criteria behind this recognition?
What kind of China solution does Harbin offer for the development of global ice and snow cities?
Yeah, first of all, very encouraging news for Harbin.
And congratulations for awarding the great title.
But Harbin has been working very hard.
Actually, the first ice skiing personal experience was in 2003.
It's 22 years ago.
So the development of the ice and snow economy in Harbin has a very long history.
And they have evolved over time.
I have to say that the development of the ice and snow economy in Harbin is alongside with the general economy development in China.
As more and more people are getting more prosperous, they spend more time for tourism from different parts of the country, particularly in the south, where most people they didn't see any snow in their life.
So, you know, the ice, you know, industry in Harbin become very, very attractive for the people from Guangdong and other southern provinces in China. so the rewarding of this i think the criteria is number one is the scale number two is the creativity uh because the ice industry the ice and snow uh you know industry in harbin has become more and more sophisticated lots of technology lots of new product and lots of uh you know surrounding activity and product around the ice and snow activities as we can see that it's not only the culture and leisure, tourism, it's also some sorts of history and also the local culture in the Harbin and Heilongjiang area.
Not only that.
I think Northeast China, including Jilin and Shenyang, also to some extent have lots of spillover effect.
And certainly Harbin is the engine of the ice and snow.
You know the ice and snow industry in the northeast part of the country and this comprehensive condition amount to be awarded for this title for excellent.
Then what do you see as the key drivers behind this success?
The key driver is the consistent effort by the local artists and the local government, Because the natural condition ice, long periods of ice and relatively easy to build up the ice castle, the ice equipment and also, you know, tourism cities in Harbin this is the natural condition.
The second is that as more technologies are applied, people are able to create more attractive sculptures, more attractive structures that appear to be highly attractive, beautiful and it is unusual for the people living in the warm weather area, in the south of China and even in other parts of the world.
And the third is that China's economy in general has been growing steadily and people are exploiting different ways of getting out of their hometown to see something different.
And the ice and snow activity in Harbin is something really unique.
And it is so attractive.
People are more happy to spend some time exploiting not only the ice and snow structure activity, The cold weather, but also, you know, exploiting Harbin as the ancient and very attractive city on the border close to the country like Russia and Korea.
And also the whole city along the northeast region, as I mentioned, Jilin and also Liaoning.
All together, it becomes a very, you know, cluster of tourism cities surrounding the ice and snow.
And it's getting bigger and bigger.
And people's interest is getting higher and higher because of the innovation, the idea, the combination of ice and snow with cultural history and the country life.
Professor, a recent report shows that ice and snow industry is moving beyond tourism into areas like equipment manufacturing, training and exhibitions.
Which parts of this value chain do you think have the biggest growth potential?
And where are the toughest bottlenecks right now for China?
Yeah, the central linkage is of the ice and snow industry is certainly tourism.
You know, tourism, you've got people from outside, let's say, Harbin.
Of course there are attractive people around Harbin as well, but most money actually comes from outside.
So this kind of centre tourism idea.
And then because, in order to become this ice and snow city more attractive, then you created the downstream and upstream industrial activities.
For example, like equipment to make the ice, like the technology to make the ice cube more tolerable to the warm temperature.
And also the different sculptures.
That would require lots of skill and technique, including education in the art industries.
It is a whole chain upstream and downstream to create lots of industrial activity surrounding the tourism of the ice.
Now, what is the bottleneck?
I think, as the economy is getting bigger, more and more people are demanding more complicated ice products.
This would require lots of talents, lots of creativity and also new technology, particularly the AI services, including information, for example, digital information, how to demonstrate and marketing the product to a much wider audience to make sure that people, before they come to Harbin, they already love the ICTs.
So this is concept uh fully comprehensive marketing strategy technology, innovation and the quality of services uh, for example, like tourism, like hoteling uh, and associated with the services of hotel, a tourism and also gifts.
Think about how to create more value, how to create more products that the consumer would need.
These are the kinds of industrial marketing and production driven by the new technology, upgrading of the structure every year to make it more and more attractive.
Not only the skills, but also the sophistication, the beauty of this product.
Professor finally, looking beyond domestic popularity to global competitiveness, how can China's ice and snow economy move from attracting overseas tourists to position itself as a major global destination for winter sports?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, just going for tourism is one thing, but lots of people who are fully sport active, So the skiing also the playing of snow and so on.
You need to create more activities that attract people to different interests, not just coming to see the scene, but also to do it, engage in the process.
Thanks, Professor, for those insightful analysis.
That was Dr. Yao Shujie, Chang Kong Professor of Economics at Chongqing University.
More to come, Trump utters blockade of sanctioned oil tankers leaving and entering Venezuela.
Reports show Arctic sea's warmest year on record since 1900.
You're listening to Road Today.
We'll be back after a short break.
You've been listening to Road Today with me, Gaena, in Beijing.
Now let's move to China-Ghana relations.
Ghana's President, John Dramani Mahama, said that China has been a long-standing partner in supporting Ghana's infrastructure, industrialization and vocational training.
He added, under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, major transformative infrastructure projects have occurred in many African countries.
He made remarks in an interview with my colleague Wang Guan.
Let's take a listen.
This year, Mr President, marks the 65th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between China and Ghana.
As president, as former vice president, how would you reflect on this very important relationship that you have been helping to build upon this very anniversary?
And where do you want to take it for the next phases? an important milestone.
Ghana was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with China after we gained independence in 1957.
And a very friendly relation developed between our first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and Chairman Mao, and also with Prime Minister Chiu Enlai.
They developed a personal friendship, and so it drew the two countries together.
And so that relationship is one that we cherish, and 65 years in that relationship is an important milestone.
We're celebrating this 65 years anniversary in a world that is changing.
That is very different from when Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Chairman Mao and Chu Enlai existed.
And so we need to pivot that relation to look at the new global order, and that's why I am supportive and very excited about the initiatives that President Xi is outlining.
For instance, the initiative on governance, global governance initiative.
And I believe that Ghana and most of African countries support that initiative.
The other initiative, like the Global Security Initiative, that works towards security for all.
In Africa, we all have our own problems of security, issues of cyber threats.
Aside from that, we have violent extremism.
Uh, china itself has its own challenges with violent extremism, and so i think that there's a time for us to partner to ensure that everybody can live securely and be able to create prosperity and opportunity for their people.
You met president xi some 10 years ago and now you're meeting again.
Actually, you just met with president xi.
How's the meeting this time go?
Yes, i met president xi um, like you said, 10 years ago, and so I was not surprised.
When he became president and began the serious reforms that have advanced, you know China to where it is, he remembered clearly our meeting at that time.
Indeed, is the third time I'm meeting President Xi, and he remembers every single occasion that that we met.
Yeah, that's impressive.
What the areas of cooperation did you discuss?
Yeah, we discussed many areas, and one of the areas we discussed was trade between Ghana and China.
You know that the global order is changing.
Countries are acting more unilaterally, and so we believe that it is a time for countries that believe in multilateralism to actually show solidarity and come together.
And so China has offered Africa a zero tariff policy.
Ghana has started negotiations with China.
And so that negotiation is taking place.
We can sign off as the second country for zero tariffs with China.
Your Excellency, if you look at the trade data, that is very impressive.
$11.8 billion of trade between Ghana and China in 2024.
That is more than 7% of annual increase.
And that momentum continued into this year, 2025.
Actually China is Ghana's biggest trading partner.
And trade between Ghana and China has continued to grow exponentially.
The zero-tariff policy is now kicking in.
And so I believe that it will create a conducive atmosphere for us to grow that trade even more.
We're looking, on the Ghanaian side, for Chinese industries to come and help us add value to the products that we have so that we can export back into the Chinese market.
Apart from that, there's the important issue of harmonization of standards.
China has about 40 standards, and so we need to harmonize our standards with the Chinese standards so that it makes it easier for us to export into the Chinese market.
So those are the areas we're ironing out, and I think that we can reach understanding as long as the relationship between us is what it is.
You raised a very important point, Mr President.
That is the re-industrialization or industrialization for some parts of Africa.
That is, to move up the value chain.
Do you think China has been coming in to help in this regard, when it comes to infrastructure building and vocational training, producing skilled workers for not just Ghana, but Africa as well?
Yes, China has been a true friend of Africa.
And I believe that under the Belt and Road Initiative and under FOCAC, major infrastructure projects that are transformative have occurred in many African countries.
I can speak for Ghana. we discovered huge quantities of gas offshore.
And we decided that we wanted to use that gas for power.
But you need to process that gas before you can generate power in a thermal plant.
And so China invested almost a billion dollars to set up our first gas processing plants at a place called Etiabo in Ghana.
Up to today, It produces the bigger parts of gas to fire our power production in Ghana.
And so that is a symbol of the cooperation between China and Ghana.
We have our second largest hydroelectric power dam at a place called Bui.
That also was a power plant that was built by China.
China.
Everywhere you look, you can find the footprints of China.
Accra is a capital and the biggest city.
40 million gallons of the water clean drinking water that is treated and pumped to Accra every day, as a result of a facility that was provided by China to expand their own water treatment plant.
And so, yes, China has been a partner when it comes to infrastructure development.
I cannot talk about the roads.
As for roads and bridges, there are so many of them.
Stadiums.
Yeah.
And stadiums markets.
I would say that China has been pivotal in Africa's infrastructure development.
In other places, they build railways that interconnect cities.
In Ghana.
They finance rural electrification projects, and that is why today, Ghana can boast of about almost 90 electricity access in our country, one of the highest in Africa.
What about vocational training and cultural exchanges programs?
Mr President, some vocational schools and Chinese medicine institutions from Tianjin are partnering with Ghanian institutions, as well as the Confucius Institute.
You do not have just one but three Confucius Institutes in your country.
We have three of them in the three public universities one in Accra, one in Kumasi and one in Cape Coast.
I think that it cements the exchange between Ghana and China.
Many Ghanaians are beginning to speak Chinese.
I know quite a few here in Beijing. they come back with the skills that they acquired in China.
And there's a good colony of Chinese speakers.
And so it's interesting.
When Chinese companies come and establish industries, sometimes they don't need to bring Chinese people to Ghana.
They find a pool of Ghanaians who are qualified and can speak Chinese.
And so it makes it very easy for them to employ them and be able to carry out their work.
China also funded our University of Health and Allied Sciences.
And so the campus that's the University of Health and Allied Sciences, that's training a lot of doctors, paramedics and other specialists, was funded by China.
And that is one of our public universities that has a good reputation, is performing very well, and that was based on friendship.
He was Ghanaian President John Dromani Mahama speaking with Wang Guan.
This is Road Today.
We'll be back.
Welcome.
I'm Elav Elad, economics professor and member of the Data Science and AI Center at New York University, Shanghai.
On the World Today program, you can find in-depth and impartial insight, as well as critical commentary, on key trends in the Chinese economy, financial technology, business and blockchain to prepare for the world tomorrow.
Join me on World Today.
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U.S.
President, Donald Trump has ordered a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
He also said the fleet around Venezuela will only get bigger.
Caracas is accusing Washington of maritime piracy in a formal letter to the United Nations Security Council after the US seized an oil tanker.
So to delve into this, let's have Professor Cao Ting, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies of Fudan University.
Thanks for joining us, Professor.
Thank you for the invitation.
Professor, President Trump has declared on social media that he views Venezuela's current government as a foreign terrorist organization and on the same day, ordered a full and comprehensive blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
What does this designation and blockade actually mean in legal and strategic terms?
Well uh, in legal terms, the us has designated non-state groups as foreign terrorist organization, but has never designated the recognized governments of a un member state as a foreign terrorist organization.
So such a move would be legally normal and highly contentious.
So it would criminalize any transaction with the Venezuelan government by US persons, including providing material support.
It could also trigger sanctions on third parties dealing with them and make all members and certain employees of the government inadmissible to the US.
And under international law, a full and comprehensive blockade is considered an act of war or an armed attack unless authorized by the UN Security Council.
Unilateral blockade would violate the freedom of navigation principles in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
So, regarding strategic terms, the blockade would be the most aggressive US action in the Western Hemisphere since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
We know that Venezuela is already in a deep economic and humanitarian crisis.
Blockade on its primary export and import would cripple its economy, likely worsening food and medicine shortages and migration flows, placing immense strain on neighboring countries such as Colombia and Brazil.
Professor, some reports suggest the US is using the banner of fighting drug trafficking to block Venezuela's oil exports, in effect cutting off its resources.
Do you agree with that rating?
What do you think Washington is really aiming for here?
Is it about drugs, regime change, or something else?
Well, I think analysis does not reflect completely the true intentions of the U.S.
We know that the US has long regarded Latin America as its backyard and pursued the non-Monterey doctrine, or doctrine of now.
We call it doctrine of Donald Trump or Trump culinary of the Monroe Doctrine.
So the U.S. cannot tolerate any anti-U.S. regimes.
We know that the Chavez and Maduro administrations, with their persistent anti-US stance and efforts to promote Latin American integration, have become stumbling blocks to the US hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.
So we can see now the US has cut off Venezuela's oil revenues through sanctions and supported opposition forces and forced the overseas assets of the Venezuelan government and its officials and pressured the international communities to recognize the so-called interim government.
So we can see that the intentions of the US are to overthrow the Maduro regime and install a pro-US administration.
So I think the real intention of the US action now in the Caribbean area is to overthrow the Maduro regime.
We see others are calling this a modern version of the old banana wars, where the US once used military force in Latin America to secure control over bananas and sugar and now use these sanctions and blockades to control oil.
Do you see any similarity of this?
We can see that the core logic of the US policy toward Latin America has essentially remained unchanged over more than a century.
And recently Trump's policies toward this region.
We can see many political observers, namely the doctrine of Don Joe or Trump, corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
So Latin America can be called, we know that this region has abundant resources.
So Donald Trump has long committed the resources in the region and is intervening in their development through some protests such as capital infiltration and agreement-based pressure.
So many American companies have already gained a foothold in, such as Argentina's lithium projects and Chile's cooperation framework, etc.
Also, we can see that Trump has stepped up efforts to squeeze out China's influence in Latin America.
Now we can see the US continues to pursue the hegemonic control over Latin American strategic resources and political landscape.
So the approaches we can see are evolving from overt military intervention to more covert economic coercion.
Professor, even if this is framed as a counter drug operation, can cracking down on Venezuela actually solve America's drug problem at home?
At a time, you know, when marijuana is legal in many US states and opiate crisis is getting worse.
Some argue Trump is being soft domestically but tough overseas to win political support.
How do you see that contradiction?
Well, we know that pressure in Venezuela cannot resolve the U.S. deep-rooted domestic drug crisis.
First of all, the US epidemic stems from domestic structural factors that have little to do with Venezuela, such as the large demand for illicit drugs fueled by socioeconomic disparities and inadequate regulation of the such illegal drugs, and also the control of the domestic border is very insufficient.
So sanctions and political pressure on Venezuela do nothing to address these drivers.
And another thing is that Venezuela is not an important part of the regional drug trade.
While some drug shipments may transit through Venezuelan territory, the country is not the primary source of the drugs flowing to the US.
We know that most cocaine originates in Colombia and Peru.
Some other illegal drugs are manufactured domestically or smuggled from other regions.
Now we can see the US action.
It's only to divert attention from its failure to tackle demand at home and to cooperate constructively with other Latin American nations.
Thanks, Professor, for those in-depth analysis.
That was Professor Cao Ting, Director of Center for Latin American Studies of Fudan University.
This is Road Today.
Stay tuned.
Welcome back to Road Today.
Arctic temperatures from late 2024 to late 2025 have reached their highest level since 1900, according to a major US climate report released on Tuesday.
The report finds that the Arctic is warming at more than twice the global average, with autumn 2024 the warmest on record and winter 2025 ranking second.
Scientists warn ongoing glacier loss is driving rising global sea levels, threatening water supplies and increasing natural disaster risks for communities and coastlines.
So for more on this, my colleague Song Ruixin spoke with Wu Changhua, president of Global Climate Academy and chair of the governing council at the Asian Pacific Water Forum.
Dr Wu.
The data describe a system in runaway change, that is, the arctic warming at roughly twice the global rate and then atlantification now reaching the central arctic ocean and 95 percent of the oldest and thickest sea ice already gone.
So, in plain terms, what does this mean for the rest of the globe and what are the most tangible and real world consequences people outside the arctic should be bracing for over the next decade?
Sure.
Actually the Arctic is warming not just twice.
Actually roughly, it's two to four times faster than the global average.
That matters because what happens in the Arctic, it doesn't really stay there.
It goes much, much further beyond actually the Arctic.
So what does that mean?
If you think about the global climate system as a structured sort of system, and the Arctic used to be acting more like an anchor right
It's been anchoring the global climate system there.
But today, with all the things happening, so the anchor is now weakened.
So what does that imply?
It implies that the weather becomes more persistent and they stream.
It's not just hotter as extreme weather events, all kinds of actually.
If you look into the atmosphere, the jet stream patterns become slower and become more wobbly and causing long lasting heat waves, cold snaps, droughts and floods.
Then if you look into the ocean, the oceans absorb more heat, accelerating the global warming elsewhere.
So that's pretty much what is happening there.
With all those things happening, what are the tangible consequences in the coming decade there?
We literally started to see more frequent stuck weathers.
For instance, we talk about extreme weathers, we often say, oh, this is the heat domes, right?
Why is the heat waves actually happening?
And then suddenly you know, downpouring precipitation there is because of the installed rain systems there.
And if you look at, you know prolonged cold outbreaks, extreme winter, you know events, storms there.
That's pretty much becoming the common and commonly seen situation there.
And in the meantime we started to experience greater volatility, not just warming, as I said, sea level rise definitely accelerating.
And then our food system and infrastructure system, insurance systems actually all under stress there.
That's for sure.
Now, look at it from the science perspective.
We all know actually, when the temperature rise and the scientific data shows a warmer, you know, for every one degree Celsius warmer air can hold up to 7 more water vapor.
So when the air holds more water vapor, what does that mean?
That means actually it's going to be more acting like a blanket, actually, trapping or heat.
So that the war literally becomes more devastating.
That's pretty much what's happening on the planet at this moment, particularly in the Arctic region.
I think the latest research shows there's a tremendous sense of urgency.
The global community needs to pay attention to it, understand it.
Hopefully somehow that will trigger another round of global acts rather than being in a slow death sort of mood there.
To me surprisingly.
Atlantification used to sound like a technical concept, but now it's something.
Scientists are directly measuring the central Arctic.
So what you are really saying is that what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic.
It feeds directly into this system people rely on everywhere?
Yeah, pretty much so.
I think the word actually, atlanticification sounds very scientific.
What does that mean?
It means actually, so our current planet is a system, system means systems there.
So we have atmospheric sort of system, then the ocean current sort of circulation system there as well.
The atlanticification means A warm, salty Atlantic water.
Now is pushing further into the Arctic region and mixing upward.
What does this do to the system?
It literally erodes the cold, fresh surface layer that once insulated the sea ice there.
So when that layer actually is weakened, there we started to experience and literally observed the fast melting of the sea ice.
That's pretty much happening at this moment there, meaning actually the sea ice melting faster from below the heat and the salt mixed more freely, large-scale circulation actually becomes more fragile.
And two, it's a particular risk, actually, to the North American and European region.
For short term, immediate term, which is already sort of happening.
We started to see rising volatility in seasonal weather patterns, extreme cold weather and prolonged winter seasons there.
Midterm perspective.
Actually, we're going to see more like the weakened Atlantic meridiana overturning circulation, which is, you know, commonly known as the AMOC.
And basically, if that happens meaning the circulation actually would dramatically being slowed down, meaning in the wintertime in particular we're going to, you know, the northern hemisphere will get a less warmer sort of a current from the equatorial region.
Right.
Because the circulation slows much, much, much sort of very, very worse.
And so longer term actually, there is a sort of probability somehow.
If this circulation system you know, somehow being disrupted there, you can imagine the consequences.
Actually, extreme weather events would definitely come along with it there.
I think that's why you know this danger, this sense of urgency.
It's so prominent today because you know, if that really happens, literally the northern hemisphere will experience even more extreme, more frequent, more intensified sort of extreme weather events.
That's going to be really impacting our lives and also livelihoods there as well.
Okay, if I'm hearing you correctly, the Arctic is acting less like a frozen buffer but more like an amplifier for global climate extremes.
That's pretty much so, actually.
I think that there is a phrase called Arctic amplification.
Because, as we were talking about here, the planetary wide climate system and the Arctic region plays a very critical role actually for adjusting, maintaining the weather stability, climate stability of this planet.
Now, with all the changes to the warming intensified warming, particularly in the Arctic region we do not really enjoy that sort of climate or weather stability anymore.
That's why we are experiencing more disruptions, more extreme weather events.
On one side, we are bearing the losses and damages there.
But in the meantime, we've become more vulnerable, right?
We need to figure out how to adapt within such a short period of time because of this sudden occurrence of those extreme weather events.
I think that's the sense of urgency, sense of crisis.
Right.
I think that connects directly to a conversation we had last year, Dr Wu, if you remember, when 2023 to 2024 were confirmed as the hottest year on record by the EU's.
I think the name should be called Panicus Climate Change Service.
And that leads to the policy question.
I mean if the current response from the public or governments can measure it with what is increasingly a community level crisis, both for Arctic residents and for the global systems that depend on Arctic stability.
I think the answer is very, very clear.
We are far from it, right?
And if you look at what is happening, if you look at the scale of changes we're talking about here, it's a planetary right.
If you look at the speed or the pace of changes, there is a decade.
You know decade is sort of long.
And then, if you look at our response at this moment, we're still stuck in the bureaucratic incremental sort of space there.
Meaning we are dealing with facing non-linear changes, disruptions there.
Somehow we're still trying to respond in a way, sort of linear sort of way, right?
That's not really matching at all.
That's why we are bearing more consequences and we are suffering from more losses and damages there, because somehow our responses and actions lagging far behind of what is really happening at this moment.
That was Wu Chenghua, president of the Global Climate Academy, speaking with Sun Ruiqing.
That's all the time for this edition of World Today with me, Gaena.
Thank you so much for listening.
Bye for now.
