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This is World Today.
Hello and welcome to World Today.
I'm Zhao Ying. Coming up, the 11th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations takes place in China's Shandong Province.
How does it contribute to mutual understanding in today's polarized world?
Donald Trump says the 50 % tariff on copper imports will take effect on August 1.
How will it impact U .S. industries and consumers?
Chinese Premier Li Cheng has expressed the country's support for Arab countries in strengthening strategic autonomy, enhancing unity and self -reliance, and pursuing development paths suited to their national conditions.
He made the remarks during a meeting with Arab League Secretary -General Ahmed Abul -Gait in Carol.
Premier Lee is on a two -day official visit to Egypt.
He said China is ready to further align its development strategies with Arab countries and proceed with their high -quality belt and road cooperation.
For more, Shi Yaowen spoke with Haitian Abu Bakr Metawali, first economist at Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry.
As an economist closely following China -Egypt relations, how do you assess the significance of Premier Li's visit to Egypt and his emphasis on further strengthening strategic coordination to safeguard the common interests of both countries?
Actually, the visit has a very strong meaning because it shows a strong relation between Egypt and China, because from time to time we have very consistent visits.
It's mutual visits between the leaders, two country leaders as the president of Egypt has visited China eight times and just back as a foreign minister also from China.
So I think this has a very significant meaning because it shows how deep the relation between China and Egypt, and especially in this circumstance, the Middle East is under fire.
You know, there is a lot of war around us from Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Gaza now, Yemen.
So the Middle East is under very dangerous circumstances.
So China wants to show solidarity and show support for Egypt because China -Egypt is a very very good and very big all the civilizations and we have very deep relations not only from now from thousands of years the visit also highlighted expanding cooperation in emerging fields like new energy artificial intelligence the digital economy as well as the blue economy how does egypt plan to leverage these areas to enhance this industrial competitiveness and what specific roles goals, do you expect Chinese technology and investment to play?
Actually, China is the biggest support now for the industrial innovation and the technology at Egypt.
Now the investment in the Sonstanag economic zone has reached eight billion dollars.
This is even beyond our imagination.
We started with one billion dollars in just a few years, and just doubled and tripled until it reaches eight billion dollars.
So now, the biggest factories are going on with Chinese partners, especially in the service command and economic zone.
And we also cooperate with China with regard to digitalization, and we have the fifth mobile network, 5G, with also cooperation with China.
And we have the satellite base, we already launched our last satellite with cooperation cooperation with China, also, and the technology of this being transferred to our engineers, so we assembled the satellites, so aerospace also we can cooperate with China.
I think the cooperation is going deep and deep, and since we signed the comprehensive strategic partnership with China in 2014, since that time, we are witnessing a lot of success a lot of deep frogs in all aspects and especially now we are focusing on you know industrialization and technology transfer and living our you know industrial zones so china is giving us a wonderful support thanks for china for this support and we are now living from the private sector now also a lot of companies big companies big tech are coming to egypt and you know because we already developed our infrastructure we
have spent a billion billion of dollars to develop our roads and railways and the ports and also thanks to china to support our boards and innovation so uh all of these not only one field or two fields i think all the economic uh activities uh you can find the chinese you know government chinese financial institutions And also, during his meeting with the Arab League Secretary -General, Premier Li expressed the support for Arab nations pursuing development paths suited to their national conditions and for unity among Arab countries.
So, how does Egypt view China's role in supporting Arab economic self -reliance and how can this support help address regional challenges such as economic integration or security?
Actually, China is a big player in the world now.
It is the second -biggest world economy, and their role is increasing in political issues and dialogue and mediation day by day.
So of course Arab League is looking forward for more cooperation with Chinese governments, development, Chinese partners to enhance the situation of the region, because our region now is under pressure from many directions.
And because also we need to do more projects for in terms of infrastructure, industrialization, digitalization, artificial intelligence cooperation, and also energy cooperation, all these aspects need the cooperation with China.
And since the last China -Arab states forum, we have witnessed the signing of a lot of agreements between China -Arab states, and now we are like almost a full partnership with China.
Most of the, all the Arab countries had joined the Meccan Road Initiative, and we are welcoming all the direction, just share with with Chinese government.
And recently, as you know, Egypt has joined Shanghai Cooperation Organization also, and we also like to share all the activities that, you know, we find the Chinese role in the global governance is very important, and we support the initiative coming from China like this initiative and solving tensions with dialogue and other issues.
We know before Premier Li visited Egypt, he was in Riyadh participating in BRICS Summit.
As Egypt officially joined BRICS last year, so how does it view the role of BRICS in supporting global self -development?
And in practical terms, what new opportunities do you see for China and Egypt to deepen cooperation under this mechanism, such as in trade, finance and investment?
Actually, Brexit now is being more and more going to represent the global south.
Because the whole emerging market now represents the biggest countries like China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, a lot of countries now are represented in this block which is important countries.
There is a waiting list of other countries that want to join.
So the magnitude of this block is going bigger and bigger and by nations, by populations, even now is going to be like 50 % of the world population and more than 40 % of the GDP.
So the influence of this block is going to be amplified more and more.
This is one side. Another side is cooperation is not only trade cooperation, but also economic cooperation and supporting the infrastructure through the new Development Bank, that represents the global south interests because they give the loans with the low interest and without preconditions.
And also the Brexit block supports the exchange between the members with the local currencies And also borrowing with local currencies, this is a big advantage for countries like Egypt because we also suffer from big loans from foreign currencies, so to be able to take more loans or to complete our infrastructure development is also a big advantage.
And for the Global South now they also urge for global solutions for the debt crisis, taxes, for the economic challenges, for protection of the trade now that the United States is raising the tariffs against all the countries.
So, we need to restructure the global system, such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the IMF to represent the importance of the Global South and the real weight of those countries.
countries because since the World War 2 there is no real representation.
So the country has been changing a lot.
So these countries since World War 2 was not that strong or not that big an economy, but now the world has changed so the global order also needs to be changed.
Given today's geopolitical uncertainties and rising unilateralism, how do you assess Egypt and China's shared stance on resisting hegemonism and promoting a multipolar world order?
Now we are witnessing, especially this year, the year of Trump's roots, or Trump's, you know what kind of policies.
Trump is talking to the world like he is a student and he is a master.
And he just put his law and he didn't allow any others to put their own ideas or dialogue, He just neglected that international law with regard to the United Nations, with regard to the trade organizations law.
We already said since many years.
So Trump didn't allow to apply for these laws and limit his own law.
So this makes all the world now thinking deeply about this issue and feels dangerous, how this situation is going to be very dangerous and makes global uncertainty very high and the tension can be escalated at any time.
So Egypt can also feel this danger and want to stop any instability in the world and thinking positively to make the world more peace and more just and give the opportunity for other countries to develop their own economy and get the benefit and prosperity for their own people.
That was Hisham Abu Bakr Matwali, first economist at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry, spoke with my colleague Xu Yaowen.
This is World Today.
We'll be back. You're listening to World Today, I'm Zhao Ying.
The 11th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations is taking place in Qufu, Shandong Province.
Bringing together scholars from around the world to the birthplace of Confucius, the forum explores the relationship between cultural diversity and modernization.
This year's theme is Beauty and Diversity, nurturing understanding among civilizations for global modernization, reflecting China's vision for preserving cultural diversity while promoting peaceful global development.
Topics range from the origins of civilization and Confucian culture to family, social development, and the role of AI in shaping our future.
More than 500 guests attend the forum, including around 300 international participants from over 70 countries.
Named after nearby Nishan Mountain, the birthplace of Confucius, the forum has become a key platform for cultural exchange and global dialogue.
For more, we are joined by Aynur Tengan, senior fellow at Taihe Institute and chairman of Asia Narratives Substack.
The theme of this year's forum is Beauty in Diversity, Nurturing Understanding understanding among civilizations for global modernization?
How would you interpret this theme in today's global context?
Well, it's actually a continuation of the theme.
I mean, these are the three pillars that China has been pushing forward, especially when it comes to the civilization initiative, the idea that countries have to be respected and they have to be understood.
It's not just about telling China's story.
It's about understanding everyone everyone else's story?
Because if I understand your story, I can tell my story to you in a way that makes more sense.
And this is really what's important.
Okay, so what is the significance of holding this forum in Qufu, Shandong province, which is the birthplace of Confucius?
Well, it's about wisdom.
I mean, this is the whole point.
This is going back to the Chinese Chinese ancient culture, it's the single most important area philosophically about how you order a society, this idea that you need to be virtuous, that there's a structure, that there are certain things that you need to do in terms of serving rights, honoring your parents, the way that you treat your children, the way that you interact with others in your your society virtue is very important in fact no society can exist if it has no virtue and by that i mean if without virtue there's no values without values there is no commonality and this is really important
as we look around the world today and it's separated by these issues but not my values if you talk to people uh individually and they hopefully have the same values but they separate themselves or are pushed to separate themselves by these kind of false narratives.
Yeah, but can you be more specific on how some of Confucius' core values are still relevant in addressing the challenges that we are facing today?
Like if Confucius were alive today, how might he say about challenges like AI ethics, climate change or global inequality?
quality? Well, I mean, there was always a sense of natural order through Confucius.
He didn't just spring up.
There were things that happened before him, the I Ching, things like this.
There is this sense that we have to have an ordered society.
So when I say that a society has to be ordered, everything around it, there has to be a rhythm, you have to respond to nature.
So when it comes to AI, the ethics there would be very simply that AI has to be controlled.
It has to be something that is positive.
There has to be humility and understanding and going back to this idea of values in terms of climate change.
This is a responsibility.
Humans create the change, and therefore it is humans who have to change the change to respond to it.
So it's very, it's, as I said, it's a philosophical continuation.
It's about how you approach the world, the idea that there are responsibilities not only between individuals, individuals in society, but also between human beings and the surroundings that they have. So do you believe Confucianism can also offer a viable ethical framework for global governance today?
day. I do. I mean, it's not a question of, uh, this is not a ideology where you say, oh, you must follow this.
There are, are simple, um, things that you can take out of it.
Uh, for instance, what, what are human desires and then how do we control those desires?
Um, and that is very important.
It's in many ways, it's a way of other societies reflecting on what they're they're doing and what they need to do.
For instance, in America and Europe, it is sometimes very hard for them as former colonial powers to reflect on what has happened before.
They tend to just say, well, I don't want to talk about that.
That was in the past. Now we're good people and we don't really have to think too much about it.
We're certain we know what to do.
A society that that is dedicated to learning, is one that can grow, one that thinks it knows everything, cannot possibly grow.
And these are all constructs where, if you study Confucianism, and you understand that, you know, this is not, it's not going to necessarily translate into every culture, but the process of analyzing exactly how your culture works and what is is necessary is very, very important.
Well, when we talk about modernization, it kind of has long been associated with westernization.
So do you think this mindset is shifting now?
Like, are we seeing signs that the global South is asserting its own philosophical traditions in defining what progress really means?
Yeah. I mean, there's no question about different approaches.
And this is something that it was always present.
If you look at the history of civilization, the civilizations in Africa are immensely long.
It was kind of the birthplace of humanity in terms of a civilized version and then spread out across nations.
China was lucky to have a culture that survived for so many thousands of years.
But in Africa, it was destroyed.
And especially over the last 600 years when you have, you know, colonial groups coming in, it was convenient for them to say, oh, these are savages, you know, because, you know, if you ask most people in the United States about Africans, they would just say, oh, well, you know, they're just, you know, wandering around in loincloths.
They have no culture.
They're savages, things like this.
Well, quite the opposite is true.
While African civilizations were sprawling, they had medicine, they had geometry, they understood the stars, things like this.
People in Europe, it looks like, were wandering around in bear cloth skins and things like this.
So, it's a reversal.
What we're doing is going back.
A lot of African nations are rediscovering the roots of what they are.
And they're saying, look, you know, we got some things from the West in terms of, you know, understanding technology and different ideas.
Some of them calculated religion and things like that.
We need to return to our cultural roots.
This is really, really, really important.
Okay. But some would argue that Confucianism emphasizes harmony, social order and collective well -being, while Western traditions often celebrate individual rights, freedom and self -expression.
So do you see a fundamental contradiction between these worldviews or can they be reconciled and even complement each other?
It's always a question of balance.
If you have a society that eliminates the needs of the individual, it's oppressive.
If you have a society that only considers the desires of the individual, you have chaos.
It's always a question of how you create that balance.
And culturally, there is no one balance.
There's a different balance in China and Asia.
There are different perspectives on many, many things.
It doesn't make Asia right.
All right. It just says this is the cultural context.
The same in Africa, South America, even the United States.
They have their own sense of these things.
So this idea that the switch is on or off, that our ballot box and free speech entitles us to be superior to somebody just because they're able to create order and get rid of extreme poverty and raise 800 million people from poverty into the middle class.
I mean, there are always impediments.
And this is what is really, in many ways, very dispiriting.
This idea that, you know, I'm right and you're wrong.
There is no such thing.
There is just the right thing to do under the circumstances that you find yourself in.
You don't know ultimately if everything's right, but you have to make a decision.
So, I mean, discovering the cultural context and the comfort zone of your nation and how you balance individuals and society is absolutely crucial.
You know, we're at eight billion people right now and it's expected to expand.
If we do not have civilization, social order, social cohesion, a balance between individual society, all you will have is conflict.
Well, some critics see forums like Neishan as expressions of soft power.
So how can we ensure that platforms like this remain genuine spaces for mutual understanding instead of being perceived as instruments of geopolitical influence?
life. Look, if I'm, if I'm determined, if I have a large loudspeaker, uh, for instance, I have the entire Western press, uh, saying what I want to say about China.
Uh, there's really not much you can do about that, but you can lead by example and you can also, uh, and that means when you're talking, especially the global South countries who've experienced, uh, colonialism, the bad side of it.
If you say, look, let's listen to each other's stories.
Let us understand each other.
Let us figure out what the balance is.
Not copy each other.
Simply reflect and think about what the social order should be.
Increasingly, you're going to see people from outside, from the developed side saying, you know, that makes sense.
I don't, you know, what we have isn't making sense.
I mean, look what happened with TikTok, right?
When people suddenly got on and they started meeting people who are just regular people online and all of a sudden realized these are good, decent people.
And they didn't wish anybody ill will or anything like that.
Those are the kind of breakthroughs that are necessary for, you know, people to get along and not just people, but also countries.
This idea that I have the right to take from you to extort you with threats because I'm bigger than you.
this is not a recipe for sustainability it just means that right now i swallow my pride and i give in but i will remember and when i have the opportunity i will figure out some way of getting back at you and this this desire for revenge we see it all around the world everyone thinks that they're in the right and that they have the right to to quote self -defense which which in some cases, like Israel, means that they have the right to kill innocent women and children.
That is not sustainable.
The ones who survive, what are they going to do?
They're going to be easily radicalized and at some point they'll want to return and do what was done to them unto those they perceive who did it to them.
You're listening to World Today.
I'm Zhao Ying. U .S. President Donald Trump has announced the new 50 % tariff on copper to start on August 1st. Trump said he made the decision after receiving national security assessment.
Copper prices rose to record highs after the announcement.
Copper is the third most consumed metal globally, behind iron and aluminum.
The U .S. imports nearly half of the copper it uses, with most of it coming from Chile.
For more, we are joined by Professor Liu Baochun, Director of the Center for International Business Ethics at University of International Business and Economics.
Professor Liu, thanks for joining us.
It's a pleasure. So Trump says the copper tariff is based on national security grounds, and he cited copper's role in semiconductors, defense and infrastructure.
But how legitimate is that justification in your view?
He's barking at the wrong tree.
His cure is worse than the disease, meaning that he's doing the opposite.
Instead of protecting the U .S. national security, he's really there to injure the U .S. national security.
Now, based on the basic logic, now that the U .S. is heavily reliant on the impulse of copper uh copper as part of the national security consideration he should there be there to ensure a stable reliable uh supply from other countries because the u .s normally imports about uh 900 900 ,000 metric tonnes on a yearly basis.
So, if that is so important to feed into the semiconductor industries, electric vehicles to support his power grades, and not to mention it's a defence system, so he should be there to incentivise the imports You know, by the U .S. businesses, and also to engage in a very sincere basis with the key suppliers, you know, like Perot, like Canada, to make it less costly.
Now, you know, adding 50 % tariff on it, he's really blocking the smooth and fair the imports into the United States.
So therefore, logically, he is really doing the opposite against the U .S. national interest. And not to mention that he's also violating a number of other rules like WTO rules, you know, for unilateral decision.
uh over the tariff and also the uh for the north american uh free trade agreement which means the uh the uh u .s uh mexico and canada free trade agreement so it's totally bluffing okay but do you think this fifty percent corporate tariff is is like a firm policy decision or is it just perhaps a bargaining chip in some broader trade negotiations like Trump always likes to do?
Very likely, it is really a bluffing to enhance this bargaining chip.
But after all, the copper is important, but as a total value of the US imports, it's not as significant as compared with other industries or other key material like rare earths so uh now you know uh spending all the time uh to uh grab the uh concessions possibly from this uh uh countries and also trying to corner the uh you know those the exporters to invest in the u .s mining industry It's not really worth the whole effort and plus they are not really forming a competitive position with the United States.
Yes, the US has some key reserves with the copper mines in Nevada and the Midwest states, states but the u .s is not really ready to further invest into those uh industries uh which are not uh only the costly but also is environmentally uh you know the antagonistic so they are shifting more uh to the global supply and therefore you know the uh in this way uh in this way trump Trump doesn't have much of the bargaining cards over this.
So that's why I would call it a bluff.
So what exactly does he want from those exporters?
He doesn't even know at the moment.
OK, well, as we know, the U .S. imports nearly half of its copper and that's they're primarily from Chile, Canada and Mexico.
These are all close trading partners of the U .S. So how might this move impact America's trade relations with them and how are they going to respond?
Well, fundamentally, he's there to undermine the credibility of the USMCA, which is the Free Trade Agreement, with the key neighbour, Canada and Mexico.
ago and uh he's also invading into the trust with parole uh which is protected by the u .s you know parole and u .s chile free trade agreements so this is really total a violation of the u .s existing commitments and it can trigger disputes either within wto or inviting a ready retaliatory tariff.
But more interest is that of the U .S. industry.
So the U .S. consumers couldn't bear that.
And so the backfire is now even worse.
If I were in the supplier's position, I wouldn't do anything because you are really trying to restrain what exactly you need.
So therefore, I would rather stand stand and see, you know, what is going to happen at home.
So, therefore, there's not really much they need really to do, but really they can file complaints within existing the trade framework.
And the, you know, with time, I think the U .S. people, U .S. business community can fully realize It is not realistic and it is working against the U .S. interest and he will eventually drop it.
Okay. So as you said, U .S. consumers could end up paying significantly more for goods that rely on copper.
So how do you expect this tariff to affect consumer prices and inflation?
Well, if you calculate the percentage of the cost of copper within electronics, within the power grays, within the e -vehicles, they're not really very significant, and it does, Of course, they add further cost to the entire supply chain, but the symbolic the meaning out of this by antagonizing the trade relationship with all key partners, even on some minor issues, can really be there to trigger the retaliation, the distrust, and also the complaints from domestic consumers.
So right now, particularly when the U .S. is trying to bring more jobs at home, but the U .S. couldn't really tolerate more of the mining industries anymore.
Look at the rare earths.
Even if they need it critically, they still wanted the rare earths to be processed in some other countries like Canada.
So, therefore, it is really impossible.
And consumers would feel the pinch and, of course, will add further inflationary pressures on the US marketplace.
place. So it is the entire notion and the entire package of his reciprocal tariff that is there to combine with the copper tariff that is there to further shore up the inflation pressures and make the consumers unhappy.
Thank you, Professor Liu Baocheng, Director of the Center for International Business Ethics at University of International Business and Economics.
This is World Today.
Stay with us. you're listening to world today i'm enjoying rescuers in flood hit texas are battling tough conditions to search for the missing the devastating floods have killed at least 119 people with many victims children over 170 are still missing at his tnc has more search and Rescue operations have expanded by the day and so has the number of casualties from this historic incident.
This has now gone down in history as one of the most devastating and deadliest disasters in the history of Texas.
It's just a tiny snapshot of what prevails this entire neighborhood into the next neighboring county as well.
You've got hundreds of trees that are either bent sideways or some of them have just been snapped in half.
I mean, it's an awe -inspiring spectacle.
To give you an idea of how forceful these flash floods were, I was talking to some of the witnesses earlier.
They said it only took some minutes for the water to rise several meters and take anything in their way now in the meantime the state officials are also coming under some criticism regarding a early warning system that didn't exist for the most part in much of this area even though traditionally in the past several decades similar flash floods tend to take place in this area every football team makes mistakes the losing teams are the ones that try to point out Who's to blame?
The championship teams are the ones to say, don't worry about it, man.
We got this. We're going to make sure that we go score again and we're going to win this game.
The way winners talk is not to point fingers.
They talk about solutions.
This was Governor Abbott's way of deflecting some of that criticism.
Perhaps he was saying that we're going to learn from our mistakes for the future.
But many people thought this This was an insensitive way to compare essentially what's happened here to a football game.
But for now, these search and rescue operations are still going on.
As the governor himself said, we expect this to continue in a full scale operation as long as it's needed until that every single unaccounted person is finally accounted for.
This is a weather phenomenon that is currently happening in multiple locations and just across the border.
actually in the state of New Mexico.
We've just had other flash floods happening in a historic mountaintop neighborhood called Ruidoso, where at least three people have been killed, two of them, unfortunately, children.
That is Edis Tien Son reporting.
Scientists warn that climate change is likely to make extreme weather events like those experienced in Texas occur more intensely and more frequently.
For more, we are joined by Andy Marks, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization.
Hi, Andy, thanks for joining us.
My pleasure, Jialing.
Well, actually, we've seen devastating floods in Texas before, but this one is kind of different.
What made this storm so catastrophic?
Well, Jialing, as you just mentioned, You know, many scientists attribute more frequent, more severe weather catastrophes to man's impact on the natural environment.
But I want to take a little bit of a different tact here because I think there's another way to look at this.
And, you know, I would say that this is the high cost of denial in the American system.
system, because whether we're looking at floods, as we've heard earlier from the piece, that there are numerous floods happening now, whether they're wildfires, like the recent one in Los Angeles, hurricanes or even mass shootings, that these rarely strike without warning.
So forecasts are made, hazards are mapped.
The risk is actually quite well understood.
And yet the response, whether at a national level, at a state level or a local level, is repeatedly framed in terms of shock.
You know, this is unprecedented.
It's, you know, an extreme event.
And I think it actually is not entirely this failure of foresight then, but it actually represents something deeper, which is a governing culture in the United States.
that is shaped by short -term incentives institutional fragmentation meaning the federal government the state government the local government often have uh difficulty working together but also maybe most importantly of all is a long -standing belief in american exceptionalism so it's this conviction that the united states by virtue of its destiny its ideals or because it's favored by God is uniquely exempt from the constraints that face other countries.
And so when we look at these, this catastrophic flood in central Texas, and it is an absolute tragedy for the families that have been affected by this, but, you know, really shows a pretty pretty familiar sequence here that is a recurring pattern and really not an anomaly.
OK, you mentioned this denial.
And actually, we know that Donald Trump has this skeptic view toward climate change.
So how might the Trump administration's policies, such as its emphasis on fossil fuel production over renewable energy, exacerbate the frequency or intensity of extreme events like this?
Well, I think it certainly does not help jolting.
But again, I think that this is a problem that is deeper and more pervasive than any particular political official, whether it's a president, a governor or a mayor taking any particular policy position.
Because Because again, you know, today we're talking about, you know, again, this extreme, unprecedented flash flood.
And in some ways that is true.
But at the same time, you know, we see this over and over again.
It's wildfires. It's hurricanes in Florida, you know, where sea levels, we all know, are rising.
Insurance markets are collapsing and hurricanes becoming more destructive.
So the issue then is that, you know, again, it's a systemic issue.
I would say mass shooting.
Now, of course, this is not a national.
This is not a natural disaster, but a manmade one.
And yet it still follows this similarly predictable trajectory.
So I would not completely pin the blame on the Trump administration's policies.
But again, I would point to a systemic problem that I think is quite, if not entirely unique, but certainly more pronounced in the United States.
OK, so now we are hearing warnings from scientists that climate change is feeling more extreme weather like this.
But based on what we know so far, just how strong is the link between this flood in Texas and global warming?
Well, I think, you know, again, I'm not a climate scientist, but my understanding is that we do we should not consider this causal, that man made man's impact on the natural environment makes creates conditions where these kinds of events are more extreme, happen more often.
frequently. So that's my understanding.
Okay. So what do you think are some of the practical steps that maybe cities or communities can take to better prepare for these kind of storms?
Well, I think certainly, you know, as we heard in this, in the reporting on this, early warning, you know, better procedures for evacuation, things like this.
But, you know, know, again, I think there's a systemic dimension to this because another aspect, I think, of the American system is this drive towards false economy or false cost savings where organizations, institutions see, oh, you know, we haven't had this problem.
So we remove these safety measures.
We can save some money.
And yet when the moment comes when they're needed, Uh, they're not there.
So I would say in terms of what can be done, certainly tangible practical measures are important, but perhaps more important than that, uh, is a shift in thinking or a shift in, uh, focus, uh, away from short -term cost savings.
Okay, thank you, Andy Mark, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for China and Globalization.
This is World Today.
We'll be back. You're listening to World Today.
I'm Zhao Ying. European Central Bank President Christian Lagarde says central banks across the world are facing rising challenges due to trade -related shocks and the resulting hesitation in investment and growth.
Lagarde has expressed concerns over global economic stability amid an environment clouded by rising tariff tensions.
Talking with my colleague Guan Xin, the ECB president also highlights the long -standing cooperation between China and the European Union, emphasizing the importance of working together to address shared economic pressures.
When I look at the global global economy I see an economy that has sustained a series of incredible shocks you know we have short memory but when we remember what we faced in the last three years it's incredible so from those successive and almost compounded shocks eventually the global economy came out with a high degree of resilience and this is particularly the case in Europe and unfortunately as we were you know, going into this recovery mode, great uncertainty landed on our global economy as a result of the tariff threats and the announcements that were made and then withdrawn and paused
and negotiated. And that has dampened global growth expectations.
Our projections have been revised downwards so have the projections of the imf the world bank the oecd and most countries are affected it's not a win -win situation it's a lose -lose situation that we are looking at at the moment and it's aggravated by the level of uncertainty that is actually putting a break a hold if you wish on many investment projects on many developments because investors are not too sure what the future lays ahead.
Right. And of course the impact of US traded policies are front and center of many discussions.
President Trump has delayed the planned 50 % tariffs on EU imports.
China and the US has just concluded the first round of talks in London.
How do you assess the recent and developments.
And given how uncertain U .S. trade policy has been, how is the ECB preparing for potential trade shocks?
The European Central Bank has one key mission, and it is stability.
So in our mission, we have price stability, but we also know that they cannot be price stability without financial stability.
So we are very focused monitoring the potential risks, the uncertainty that abounds around the European economy to anticipate any further consequences and be able to respond.
But at this point in time, what I will say is that we have stabilized prices at the level that we were expecting.
We are within a range of our medium term target which is two percent and we are in a good position to withstand future shocks.
So we have to keep that stability as much as is required under the circumstances and we stand ready for that because our objective is stability.
Right. So given all these pressures for central banks, may I ask how hard it is now for central banks to navigate the uncertain economic environment?
And since you are here in China and you held extensive discussions with the People's Bank of China, how much coordination may be ongoing to manage these shared pressures?
I think all central banks in the world are currently facing the same issues.
Because of the unprecedented shocks that we faced, because of the uncertainty that we have now, we really have to rely on multiple indicators, on a series of models, on sensitivity analysis, on scenario analysis to try to anticipate what the activity will be in the world, where prices will be heading, where employment will go, to calibrate our monetary policy.
And I think that all central banks face the same issue.
Models in the traditional way do not have all the answers to those questions.
So we have to use multiple antennas and indicators and instruments in order to assess the situation and the future situation of our economy.
Now, with the PBOC, the Central Bank of China, we have a longstanding relationship, a good relationship.
We cooperate, we work together, we look at the same issues.
We have this deep understanding of issues.
And that's one of the reasons I'm visiting China is to continue to support and feed that excellent relationship that we have had.
And you came at a time when China and EU are celebrating their 50 years of anniversary of diplomatic relations.
From your view, what are the most important lessons for this longstanding relationship?
And what are the greatest opportunities for future cooperation?
operation? You know, and I observed the last few decades, and particularly in a context of global relationship, open trade between countries, the progress that China has made, the progress that Europe has made, the benefits that both regions have had as a result of this his international trade expansion, which was spectacular over the last few decades, I think that we have to persevere and we have to continue that global cooperation.
It doesn't mean that we agree on everything.
It doesn't mean that we open all doors without restrictions, because each of the regions, each of the countries is going to focus on on its degree of security, in terms of supply, in terms of general security.
But we have to cooperate and we have to work together and try to make the best of that cooperation in the interest of all parties.
That is European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde speaking with Guan Xun.
And that's all the time we have for this edition of World Today.
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I'm Jiaming. Thank you so much for listening.
See you next time.
