Hello and welcome to World Today!
I'm Zhao Yang. Coming up, Donald Trump has begun his second term as a return to the White House after four years.
What will be his priorities and what do they mean for the US and the rest of the world?
The arrested South Korean president appeared for the first time at his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court.
What will happen next?
Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, beginning his second term as he returned to the White House after four years.
In his inauguration speech, Trump declared that American decline had ended and the Golden Age of America begins.
On this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.
We will be the envy of every nation and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.
During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first.
Hours after the inauguration, Trump signed a series of new executive orders.
Two of the orders will pull the U .S.
out of the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord while another one will delay the ban on popular social media app TikTok by 75 days.
The president also pardoned about 1 ,500 charges in the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
So what can we expect from Donald Trump's second term as US President?
We are joined by Dr. Mark Shanahan, Associate Professor of Political Engagement at the School of Social Science, University of Surrey.
Professor Chiu -Chiang, Fellow of the Belt and Road Research Centre at Minzuo University of China.
Professor Shanahan, let me start with you.
Once again, Trump emphasized putting America first in his inaugural address.
How does that set the tone for his second term?
And what do you believe will be his top priorities compared to his first term?
It was really interesting listening to him at the inauguration.
He brought the event indoors and it just made it feel a lot more like one of his rally speeches.
And in fact, pretty much the tone, the style and the content that he delivered was like one of his stump speeches.
There is a whole different change of direction in this second term.
But what has happened is he has the Senate, he has the House on his side, he's already remade the Supreme Court in America to be far more politically active in favour of conservative thoughts and conservative ideas.
So whereas in his first time in office from 2017 he was kind of floundering around looking looking for policies, looking for ideas.
He's had time to refine them.
So while it's not new, America First plays very well to his large magazine constituency.
It plays well to American business as well.
So in trade, he's going to be aggressive.
In environment, it will fit in behind those trade goals.
So drill -baby -drill was one of his sentiments.
in international relations, it becomes very very transactional.
It is, everything becomes a deal, a deal is there to be made.
Trump has to come out the winner.
There's a lot of zero -sum thinking within this.
If you're in America and you're on side with him, this could be an exciting four years.
But if you are the half of the American voters who didn't vote to him, and he got 49 .8 % of the popular votes, then it's going to be a very difficult time.
He's not going to prioritise minorities, he is not going to prioritise women, he's not going to prioritise anybody who doesn't fit that gender norm he talked about yesterday of men and women.
And if you're an immigrant trying to get into the country, it is going to be a very, very hard four is, if you've already arrived in the country but are not a citizen, it's going to be a very worrying time.
Okay, so Professor Chi, what is your biggest takeaway from his address?
My first big takeaway for his inaugural speech is it's very, very long.
Actually it's twice the lens of its previous his inaugural speech happened in 2017 actually doubled the lens.
And according to my observation, his speech this time is quite, you know, what we call the stream of his own thoughts.
Well, he called it a fabrication, but actually, it's not a very clear platform, nor a very detailed action plan, but more of his own thoughts.
Even though it turns out to be very assertive and also very optimistic and the less a violence the less off, you know, kinds of the confrontation which happened in his you know, election speeches.
But this time is still not like that.
Mary go around and your joyful like kind of I'm very happy that you elected me and I'm very thankful for that, but more like he you know want to express himself with the confidence and a little bit of arrogance or something.
And what I would like to see is that he mentioned a lot of things like culture, economy, immigration issues mostly.
And all this comes with his personal, very strong sentiment, but without a detailed plan and action.
So we know, from his speech, we know where he's gonna go and where he's gonna focus, at least in the first 100 days of EC, no new presidency, but after that, what's going to happen?
We don't know. And basically he focused on a lot of things, you know, in America or in America's yard, including Canada, including Mexico, or his alliances, or in Latin America.
But he didn't mention about many things.
You know, he mentioned a lot before, for example, like international international issues like China, like, you know, Russia, and Ukraine and the balasan issue.
He didn't mention anything at all about all those issues.
And also he seems didn't mention another important thing about political retribution that he suffered from, and how he's going to, you know, retaliate towards those quote unquote enemies.
So lots of important things actually has been missed at during the speech.
So I'm kind of disappointed.
okay so uh professor shana hain fump stated that america's decline is over and he vows to restore national pride what do you think he sees as the root causes of america's decline and how realistic are his promises for revival well he'd like to tell us that joe bidon the democrats liberals are the cause of america's decline but that decline is a moot point since coming out of is when Joe Biden was handed a really, really tough economic hand.
He's really turned around the economic decline in the country out of the G7.
America is performing far, far better than any other country at the moment.
Domestically, they have created more jobs over that.
Inflation was a problem, it was a tricky problem, but it's come down.
Prices are not going up as quickly as they were.
So the decline painted by Trump picks up on his American carnage from eight years ago, and it's sowing the seed of an idea in the mind of Americans.
He, right the way through the election, was painting this picture that America was just based on problems, that there were problems to be solved, and he was the only person who could sort out these crises.
Now, many of the crises are manufactured.
He declared a state of emergency on the southern border, but actually the numbers of people coming across the southern border from Mexico, maybe having traveled through Latin America to get there, are lower than they have been at any point in the last five years.
so a lot of this decline that he speaks of is rhetoric, it is manufactured, it is confected crises, but Trump has to be the hero of his own narrative.
He said actually on Sunday night he was going to act with historic speed and strength to fix every crisis this country faces.
I think he thinks he's Superman.
Well Professor Chu, actually Dr. Shannon and mentioned earlier this deep division in the country and Trump actually promised a return to national unity, but if we consider his policies like his policies on immigration or his proposals on gender identity, do you think his approach is helping to unite America or are they further deepening the divisions in the country?
Yes I do agree with Professor Shannon about Trump needs to be the hero about his own narrative.
That is absolutely true if you take a look at the agenda mentioned on inaugural speech by Trump.
book? Well, what Trump has been facing is a vindictive divided country, the Incong gap, huge, huge income gap.
Recently there is an anecdote happening in China and America that a lot of TikTok immigrants have moved to their little retino.
They've been double -check, cross -check each other's lives.
They find out even though America have a higher, higher, much higher GDP per capita, but they're leaving standard basically according to the PPP, well lots of them find they're actually not so good as China and people are wondering what's happening, even though they're making 5 ,000 US dollars, even 10 ,000 US dollars a month but still their life's leaving standard is lower than somebody who is making like 1 ,000 US dollars in China.
What's wrong with that?
This is just just one example and make lots of American citizens feeling so shocked and letting alone there are many things.
On one hand, America allegedly are still the land of free, a country of brave, but still they're facing so many setbacks and international conflicts.
They're facing so many not free situations right now.
For example, the little government in America America is long gone.
That's just not only a narrative or story.
That becomes a miss already.
In America, they have huge and a huge government more than ever.
It's even larger than China.
Look at the government employees, slash, the whole population, it's bigger than China already.
It's the biggest in the whole world, one of them.
So America are facing lots and lots of troubles in forming a unified narrative, combining defining its past and before.
So, Trump wants America to return to its past, Gloria's situation, but actually he can't make it.
So, you see what's the trick of Trump is that he tried to provide people something he can't actually manage.
For example, stopping the illegal immigrant and their access towards American visa and getting into American border.
I think he can't, to some extent, deliver that or nominally deliver that.
And then he wants everybody to forget about the situation of the current dilemma.
And then focus on what the things looks like in legend, for example.
The immigration on Mars, for example, to have Canada and Panama back in American soil.
And those are basically something, well, very, very hard to deliver.
But what if, in four years, they made just a snitch inch of the progress in this regard?
People will still think horror acquire about Trump, maybe of that.
So he used this sort of what we call the deja -vu -like image to lure people to look into the space, look into the galaxy, look into some old Roman empire -like of glory and forget about what's really happening on American soil and a reality.
So I think that this is what Trump is doing, and he is a true expert of doing that, selling dream, selling passion, and then try to let people together around him and his flag in a banner.
But eventually, according to our observation, if the current and a real situation cannot be solved, like the fiscal budget, like the debt, like the gap, like the bureaucracy and large government.
And then I think Trump will face another mass of four years instead of making a huge legend.
Yeah. And Professor Shanahan, you earlier mentioned about those aggressive actions on immigration, including sending troops to the Southern border and haunting illegal entry.
And also we know he had sent an executive border attempting to end birthright citizenship in the U .S., how do you think these issues will play out in American society and what kind of impact will they have on immigrant families?
They make American society even more divided.
The policy is ever more divisive.
Not so long ago, I was over in Kansas.
Kansas is right in the middle of America, 1 ,500 miles to the border, one way 1100 miles to the border the other way and I was asking people there what their biggest issue was and they said immigration that there was this real fear of immigration and I looked at the county statistics of where I was staying and it was 91 % white so I was saying where are these immigrants?
What are the problems they're causing?
And we worked out that the only immigrants we could find were the guys who were running the Mexican restaurants in town so I said you want them to go, should they be kicked out of the country?" And they said no of course, they're not, absolutely not, they're great, we really like them.
So when you talk to white, middle Americans on a one -to -one basis about the people living in their communities and around them, they value them.
But because immigration has been pushed through the media, Much of local media has disappeared in America.
You have big syndicates now sending the same stories to small -town papers, small -town TV stations all across the country.
You have the huge impacts of social media, not least ex, under Elon Musk.
The message and the rhetoric is that all of America's problems come from immigration or come from existential threats.
other countries China included outside of the borders of America so Trump focuses on strengthening those borders this position through strength but it's a paper tiger it's not real and what we're going to get for four years is a lot of triumphalism particularly from the white middle American community who supporting the MAGA community, if you like, and if you're part of an immigrant family however much you are contributing to the success of the country, you're always going to feel some element of threat.
This comes from populism, it's populist nationalism, right -wing populist nationalism, and it is insidious.
It's really quite a dark time for America.
Okay. Professor Chu, on the other hand we see that Trump also presents himself as a champion of the American dream especially for working -class Americans and minorities.
But we know that immigration has historically been the key part of this American dream narrative, isn't it?
So does Trump's immigration policy kind of contradict this inclusive spirit of the American dream?
Yes, it does, but here is the problem.
The American dream, based on one precondition, that is in America, you always have ample opportunities to be explored by everybody.
Sometimes there are more opportunities than the existing resident on the soil.
So you need to attract more people to come into this land to create a bigger cake.
And everybody will make it even bigger cake.
That's how the game works.
So American dream will actually become American reality.
A beautiful reality in the past 100 years, it looks like so.
But with a globalization and with American itself's development, I think the cake, American soil, and sometimes even extended cake in American -centered globe are actually getting smaller and smaller.
There are not enough, or at least for now, there are not enough cake for everybody.
No enough cake for newcomers and even no enough cake for, you know, the existing people on this land.
So I think periodically Trump needs to, you know, shut down the entrance, shut down the door and do not allow more newcomers to come and And try to sort it out, how can they distribute the cake within the current and existing population and people on American soil?
And that is how we think about this problem.
And also there is another problem.
When Biden's administration tried to solve the problem by introducing in more of the population or illegal immigrants, quote, unquote, what they thought is that if we can have more people, more brains, more hands to come to this land, probably they can find and they can create more of the cakes like what happened like 100 years ago, 200 years ago.
But here is not a similar situation anymore because more people does not, you know, exactly mean or absolutely mean there are more cakes.
Sometimes there means more of the mouse instead of having more of the cake.
So, I think the current American mechanism in the administration, the government, and all kinds in creation, in innovation, cannot effectively levitate all these resources, cannot use all these human resources and brain powers like before, so the condition to create wealth or larger cake in America or this magic just vanished.
I think that's a reason why Trump wants to do so.
He clearly realized that.
So instead of mentioning about the old way, or we can just do something brand new.
How about we absorb Canada into a United States soil?
Canada looks like a good target, very large territory, so much of the resources.
It must be enough to create new jobs for new American bourgeoisie or new income class, and letting alone we can absorb a Panama again and we can extend our power to some other soils, and even colonize Mars.
It seems like a very brutal and blunt explanation or important solution towards what he wanted to achieve.
I think even for the most ordinary people can understand what he's talking about.
But if we're talking about how he's going to deliver this promise, I truly don't know if there are any really feasible plans.
Okay, so Professor Shanahan, how do you think this America -first approach will reshape U .S.
alliances and international relations?
It doesn't work well for international relations.
A lot of what Trump was saying around the Panama Canal or what he's previously said about Canada, about Greenland, and all of his rhetoric around fence and around trade, the whole idea of America First is zero sum.
America has to win and if there is a winner everybody else loses.
It's all about winning, winning, winning, coming down to very binary deals, coming down to very transactional involvements with the world.
When you're looking at trade in a globalised world where we do operate through interconnected systems to be starting to throw out tariffs, willing nearly to be threatening other countries, even that you can see the upside for Trump is that he wants to encourage American manufacturing, he wants to encourage American innovation.
That's for the good, but you do that within an international system not by trying to impose over -Americanism on everything, at the expense of what works globally in terms of international trade at the moment.
Yeah, so Professor Chu, one last question.
With the new Trump administration in power, how do you think US policies to what China might evolve.
Currently, according to Trump�s inauguration speech and all his previous agenda, domestic issues seems to be the priority.
They need to solve this problem first, and they need to clear up their ambition on Canada, on Greenland, on Panama, and also they even want to land on Mars, and letting alone they want to clear the deep state of the dream swamp and retaliation affiliation is still on the hidden agenda.
So, if he wanted to fight a winning war in America, so they wouldn't want to confront all the competitors in every France, for example, to put themselves in the swamp of trade conflicts with China or Ukraine crisis with Russia or These are all the Palestine issues with Israel or Iran.
So I think for the first year or first, at least 100 days, I think, well, we are gonna be safe.
And there still are lots of space for us to cooperate with each other.
And never doubted that, but still, American are trying to have a wide spectrum of mutual benefit.
And that there are spaces for cooperating with each other for sure.
But later, I think according to what I just said, But America will find out what Trump find out the reality, well, the concrete issues cannot be solved by just a selling his dream of Greenland, Canada or Mars.
So he still needs to come back on the earth, put the feet on the earth in the face of reality and then find out they still need to find extra dough or cake even to shake off his alliances or shake off his competitors because he cannot solve their own problems.
So on one hand, China needs to still keep a good will, cooperating with America, especially with American people.
They are kind people.
I do like them, just to read a little retinol recently.
But still, we need to focus on what's the potential problem we're going to have with the deep state and also the current administration.
As Chairman Mao has said, you need to find your opportunity out for further cooperation.
That is Professor Chu Chiang, fellow of the Belt and Road Research Center at Menzuo University of China and Dr. Mark Shanahan, associate professor of political engagement at the School of Social Science, University of Surrey.
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We'll be back. This is World Today.
I'm Shaoying. Arrested South Korean President 으 서 has attended the third hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul.
This is the first time in the country's modern history that an impeached president has attended a court hearing in person.
and then. Shengham has more.
The hearing will largely focus on President Yun's team trying to justify his martial law order back on December third.
We already heard from his lawyers saying that the president really had no intent on following through on his martial law order and that any sort of use that has come out about his ordering of the arrest of political leaders or with the Speaker of the National Assembly are completely false.
This hearing will also focus on getting evidence and submitting evidence.
And both sides will present both witnesses and evidence, and the court justices will decide whether or not to accept that into evidence.
We know that this is the first time we've seen President Moon in an official capacity, since that martial law decree order.
But what the President's team is arguing is that really the National Assembly and the opposition lawmakers really had a stranglehold on his political agenda.
That's why this was a national crisis in the martial law order was necessary at this point.
There won't be any witnesses being presented.
We're going to continue to see hearings every Tuesday and Thursday, except for the Lunar New Year holiday.
President Yoon has already indicated that he will be president of these hearings moving forward.
That is SHANKHAM REPORTING.
And for more, we are joined by Dr. Lin Tai -Wei from Soka University in Japan.
Dr. Lin, thanks for joining us.
UN is the first impeached president in South Korean history to attend its own constitutional court trial.
I mean, how significant is this president, both legally and politically?
Well, this is definitely unprecedented.
So whatever happens will become precedents for subsequent references in future cases, if any.
So many legal specialists, as well as constitutional specialists and political scientists will be observing this trial very carefully, even items like whether he can attend his hearing was in dispute after some legal experts, including the defense, actually says that there is no power to stop the sitting president from attending his own hearing.
right? So whatever you see now, whatever we experience from this trial will be unprecedented and will be recorded as precedent.
Yoon tells the court that he has lived with a firm belief in liberal democracy and he said as the constitutional court is an institution to defend the Constitution he hopes the justice can consider him favorably in various respects.
How do you interpret his statements?
Well, he has mounted the defense that he was reacting against the so -called, quote unquote, anti -state forces.
And therefore through his defense, the team, he wishes to produce the sort of reasons for why he had called for the martial law.
As a result that the defense has been put forward by his team, which of course has been rejected by the opposition.
considered, saying that it was basically a cover -up or excuse for his action.
So this trial goes on.
We require time, and it remains to be seen which sort of side of the argument will prevail, and whatever prevails will become precedent indeed for future cases.
Right now we have to see the conclusion before we can make any analysis.
Yeah. Okay. So, so even if the impeachment revolves around the abuse of presidential powers, then how do you think this trial might impact the future relationship between the President and other political branches in South Korea?
Well, because in the liberal democratic system that South Korea has, indeed the most liberal democratic system, the office is separate from the person, right?
So the office is separate from the individual.
So the powers of the offices are spelled out very carefully.
That's why we can see that the Parliament managed to get the majority vote to defeat the martial law that was ordered by the President, and the President eventually had to accede to the parliamentary vote.
So the office and the individual are completely separate.
And if this democratic procedures prevail, it will remain so.
Therefore, the impact should be a little felt within the institutional aspect.
Okay, well, the case has triggered violence and chaos among union supporters.
And this highlights the intensity of his support base.
So what does this say about the political polarization in South Korea?
And how does that impact the ongoing legal proceedings?
Well, the political polarization is quite, sort of a long standing.
There has always been a polarization between the conservatives and the rights versus the left and the progressives.
But in fact, you will find this sort of polarization in other two party systems, in other liberal democracies as well.
Of course, South Korea has its own particular characteristics, with one side that is clearly much more pro -West, pro -American, pro -Japanese, and the other side that is much more conciliatory towards, for example, North Korea.
So these polarizations have its own Korean characteristics, in addition to the usual traditional two -party system kind of division in the liberal democracy.
And this is likely to exacerbate the polarization, given that it has generated greater resentment on both sides against each other in terms of accusations with the right sort of thing that this was sort of a political reaction or response.
While the other side says that it is to maintain democratic institutions, so the polarization will go on, not forgetting that there are also social polarizations as well.
Well, we don't know what's going to happen next yet.
But if the constitutional court upholds the impeachment, what will be the next steps?
Well, the president would have to defend himself.
And currently he has been stripped of his powers, but he remains president.
He remains to be able to maintain his immunity against the criminal charges with the exception of treason and insurrection.
Those two charges are not protected from the presidential immunity.
Therefore, the results and the outcome of the trial is very important to see what happens to these two charges that the presidential powers have no immunity over.
Ok, thank you Dr Lim Tai -Wei from Soka University in Japan, this is World Today, stay with us.
Welcome back, this is World Today, I'm Jo Ching.
The International Monetary Fund expects steady global economic growth of around 3 .3 % in 2025 and 2026.
The IMF predicts above -average growth for China and India and has raised forecasts slightly for the United States.
However, growth in the European Union, particularly in Germany, is expected to be slower amid high energy prices and potential U .S.
import tariffs. The predicted global growth of 3 .3 % is slightly up from 3 .2 % in 2024, but it is still far from the average 3 .7 % annual growth between 2000 and 2019.
For more on the world economy, our Zhao Yang spoke with Yan Lai, professor of economics at Will Lamett University.
So, Yan, the IMF expects the world economy to grow a little faster and the inflation to keep falling this year.
So, tell us, how do you view the global economy this year?
Right. So, I think in IMF's words, there have been the so -called upside risks that it's mostly due to the United States seem to be growing quite fast.
This year, they projected the United States is going to grow at 2 .7 percent, and 2 .7 percent again in 2025.
But the robust growth in the United States was also in a way in tandem with the risks in other countries.
Their growth has the so -called downside risks, due to mostly the elevated policy uncertainty.
And of course, this policy uncertainty comes largely from the United States 47th president, Donald Trump.
And so there are these policy generated disruptions that could in some ways interrupt the process of this inflation and so that would again have a bearing on monetary policy which then also have implications on fiscal sustainability and financial stability and so on and so forth.
So I think IMF warns that we're likely to see more divergence between countries.
So you have again the United States growing quite robustly, but then the European economy, the Japanese economy may not do so well, not to mention some developing countries that could continue to see strong dollars which affect their trades and also that burden.
So I think IMF really something some warning that stronger multilateral rules and corporations are needed to offset the kind of divergence risks.
And according to IMF, the global inflation is forecast to fall from 5 .7 % last year to 4 .2 % this year.
So, yeah, what do you expect for global inflation and how would affect the major economies monitoring policies like the US Federal Reserve and how do you expect it?
Right, so I think the inflation rate has come down.
And that largely has to do with the restoration of the global supply chain.
We do see some kind of DC inflation, but let's not forget but this is to mean that price has been going up year over year, right?
So this 4 .2 % increase inflation still means that the price is going up, they're not going back down.
But again, that process could be stew for jyle.
As we mentioned, that there are still geopolitical uncertainties in the world and there's also increasing trade fragmentation and in general, protectionist policies around the world.
And so that could disrupt the global supply chain and also elevate some of the resources costs and reduce efficiency.
So all of these could still in a way disrupt that this inflationary process.
I think the United States also stands out as a particular, I think, a risk in the sense that Donald Trump's has pledged policies like mass deportation of immigrant workers, tariffs, and also tax cuts and fiscal spending.
All of this could elevate inflation And so that means the Fed is probably going to slow to cut rates.
And now I think some of the consensus is that the Fed is probably only going to cut twice in this year.
And so again, going back to what I said earlier, this is going to continue to strengthen the dollar value against other countries.
And so what that means is that for countries that have weaker currencies, their import cost are going to increase, right, including imported energy and food costs.
And so that could in some ways elevate their inflation.
So I think there's still quite a bit of uncertainty as far as inflation is concerned, but I think IMF points out that the more of the downside risk is on the growth side.
Because the projection of 3 .3 % of global growth rate, even though it's better than the previous year or the two years ago during the pandemic years, but it's still substantially lower than the average of 3 .7 % between 2000 and 2019.
So that means we're likely to see slower growth with still relatively high inflation rate, at least for 2025.
The IMF does believe and forecast that inflation rate will continue to go down in 2026 as well.
So, Yan, so which countries or regions do you think will be the driver for the global economy this year?
Well, I think the Asian economies are always the big driver in terms of growth.
So when you look at China's forecast, IMF is forecasting China to grow at 4 .6 percent, and India is going to project growth at 6 .5 percent.
So the entire emerging developing Asia is going to grow at 5 .1 percent.
So, this is much higher than the average growth rate of 3 .3 % of the world.
So, in general, right, the advanced economies are growing at a slow rate at 1 .9%, whereas the emerging and developing markets are faster at 4 .2%.
And again, Asian economies like China, like India are going to really take a lead in that growth momentum.
And talking about the world's second largest economy, China has rolled out a lot of stimulus measures since late September.
So what's the effectiveness of those policy measures and what do you expect for this year and what do you think is the capacity for China in terms of boosting the productivity?
Right, I think these are all excellent questions.
I do personally believe that the IMF's forecast for China is relatively conservative.
Let's not forget last year in 2024, they made the forecast in January and April for China's growth rate only at 4 .6%.
But then July, after they visited China and learned about the Chinese stimulus policies, they revised the growth projection upward to 5%.
And so we just got a number and China did grow at that target 5 % growth rate in 2024.
So what that means is that never underestimate, I think China's growth potential, especially as you just mentioned, after September last year, there has been a policy pivot.
The Chinese government has rolled out a series policies, fiscal, monetary, and specific policy supports for consumption, for housing market, also stock market and so on and so forth.
So I think these policies have been super effective as far as stimulating growth is concerned because we see economic activities really accelerated a lot in the last quarter of 2024.
And the government continue to pledge more stimulus policies.
For example, the trade -in program is going to be extended and also to be expanded in 2025.
So this is going to help to stimulate consumption.
So I believe that China's growth momentum will continue to accelerate the growth and also continue to have the kind of industrial transformation.
So you mentioned productivity growth.
What we know is China has made a lot of progress in technological innovations.
So, some of these emerging and leading technologies is showing, you know, much faster growth in the industrial output than the average industrial output growth.
What I mean is, for example, when you look at the production of EVs, industrial robots, 3D printers, integrated circuits, all of these growth are much faster than the overall, you know, industrial output growth.
So, what I can see is that there are a lot of these innovations and technological driven growth, and these technologies would then further be integrated in some of the traditional sectors, right?
So like digital technology, it's not going to just be in the ICT industry, but it could be applied in manufacturing, in services, and all of this could drive productivity growth.
So I do believe that, you know, China is going to have a good year in 2025, thanks not just to this fiscal and monetary stimulus, but also really to its technological innovations.
And you know its complete industrial supply chain and the tail end dividends and so on and so forth.
There is Yan Leng, professor of economics at Wollamu University, speaking with my colleague Zhao Yang.
This is World Today.
Stay with us. You're listening to World Today.
I'm Zhao Ying. The BRICS grouping has admitted Nigeria as a partner country.
Brazil, the rotating chair of the BRICS, says Nigeria shares convergent interests with other members of the group, noting it plays an active role in strengthening South -South cooperation and reforming global governance.
Nigeria has become the 9th BRICS partner country, joining Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan.
Joining us now in the studio is my colleague, Jing Hong.
Thanks for being here.
Hello, Zhang In. So Nigeria's Foreign Ministry says that BRICS presents a unique platform for Nigeria to enhance trade, investment, and socioeconomic cooperation with member countries.
What is your understanding of the potential benefit that Nigeria could gain from getting engaged in the BRICS?
Of course one potential benefit is the expected increased trade with the BRICS member countries, especially in some of the industries like oil and gas, agricultural, and manufacturing sectors.
Another potential benefit is increased investments from BRICS countries, including better access for Nigeria to technologies from those countries.
Since Nigerian President Bola Tenubu came into office in the year 2023.
He has announced a series of ambitious reforms that he hopes will diversify his country's oil -dependent economy and revive the growth.
Foreign investment and access to cutting -edge technologies are very important, honestly speaking, to advancing those economic agendas for Nigeria.
In the meantime, because Nigeria represents the largest economy and the most populous nation in Africa, I guess it has certain ambitions for regional even global influence.
I guess previously some people in Nigeria might have this particular question on their minds.
Why is our country not engaged in the BRICS mechanism at a time when a few other African nations have become phone members even?
Now this position as a BRICS partner country will give Nigeria a stronger voice on the global stage.
It will enable Nigeria to participate in discussions on international issues and better influence global decision -making.
Well Brazil has played a pivotal role in admitting Nigeria as a BRICS partner country.
What is your take on Brazil's point that Nigeria plays an active role in strengthening South -South cooperation and reforming global governance?
I think of course Brazil has a valid point in this particular argument.
The fact that Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and a major producer of oil means a lot to the BRICS entity, I think.
Nigeria can of course help boost the economic influence, the global influence of the BRICS, including its actual influence, its actual weight in some specific sectors like oil trade.
Let's keep in mind that the combined GDPs of the BRICS member economies have already surpassed the debt of the G7.
And then, I think in a bigger picture sense, Nigeria's alignment with the BRICS represents parts of a bigger pattern regarding emerging powers seeking to reshape the international order through strategic economic partnerships rather than military means.
I mean, if you are to take a look at all these countries that have recently become full members of the BRICS or are very much interested in in terms of joining, they are all what some people call as medal powers.
Somehow this is a key characteristic of today's international relations, because we are seeing the rise of medal powers reshaping the international landscape through strategic economic partnerships and influence building initiatives like the BRICS, there is an ongoing shift away from the post -Cold War unipolarity.
And against this backdrop, the reform of global governance is arguably something inevitable.
So why do you think Brazil has made strengthening South -South cooperation in reforming global governance, the priority of its presidency this year.
Strengthening global governance reform and global sales cooperation, these two agendas are arguably the common aspiration of all those countries that are involved in the BRICS.
Now, with regard to Brazil, Brazil is attaching great importance to the BRICS cooperation mechanism which realistically speaking has really delivered a lot of benefits to Brazil.
Think about the new development bank which is now headed by former Brazilian president Dilma Rucev.
And when we talk about Brazilian President Lula da Selva, I mean in his previous term in office from 2003 to 2010.
He was instrumental in terms of this effort to build the BRICS into an entity was tremendous global influence.
And his return to the Brazilian presidency a couple of years ago has really added new momentum to Brazil's participation in the BRICS mechanism.
That's the way I see it.
So do you think Nigeria's partnership with the BRICS is going to impact its relationship with its traditional Western partners?
Well, Nigeria will, of course, indeed have some work to do, some diplomatic work to do, I think, in terms of balancing its relationship with traditional Western powers, traditional Western partners, while at the same time deepening ties with the BRICS and other fellow emerging economies.
That's the diplomatic pattern of many global south countries nowadays.
Nigeria's ties with the West, led by the United States, have actually spanned over a period of more than 60 years.
However, this relationship, in the opinions of many observers, has not really translated into translated to substantial benefits for Nigeria.
So at a time when the BRICS is providing an opportunity to jump -start Nigeria's development, its infrastructure building, its broader economic momentum, why should Nigeria let go of this particular opportunity.
My final point is that BRICS is not an anti -western alliance.
If you think about member countries like India, Brazil, South Africa, the UAE, none of them are anti -western.
Some of them are even allies of the West.
So with that in mind, this idea that somehow betraying the West and the BRICS, you can only choose one.
This kind of thinking is quite outdated.
OK, thank you Jing -Heng, and that's all the time we have for this edition of World Today.
today. To listen to this episode again or to catch up on previous episodes, you can download our podcast by searching worldtoday.
I'm Zhao Ying. Thank you so much for listening.
See you next time.
