YouTube Transcript: Demystifying China | Jayant Bhandari
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The speaker, based on 16 years of personal experience in China, argues that Western perceptions of China are largely inaccurate and ideologically driven, presenting China as a highly efficient, open-minded, and rapidly progressing society that is often misunderstood.
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Um today I want to talk about
demystifying China. Um I have been
visiting China for the last 16 years. Um
often multiple times a year, sometimes
for extended days. uh this year I have
spent more than half of so far of this
year in China traveling to big cities,
small cities, villages.
Um I have over this time come to see
China not through ideology or media narratives
narratives
uh but through my own deep experiences
interacting with companies, locals,
street vendors, bureaucrats. Um I have
uh what I'm going to talk about is based
on what I have seen, what I have
experienced and what I have heard. Um
much of what people in the west believe
about China is just untrue.
It amazes me no end how persistently and
deeply people across the political
spectrum hold negative images of China.
I suspect Washington's propaganda and
when I use Washington I mean the
American government and when I use
Beijing I will mean Chinese government
because they might not represent their
people. I suspect Washington's
propaganda has seeped into the minds not
only of leftists and hawks but even of
thoughtful conservatives and libertarians
libertarians
because they often repeat the same cliches.
cliches.
Chinese as I have experienced are
inwardlooking and focused not
expansionists. They are not looking for
a war not the average citizen. They are
not threatening. You want to have a
fight with Chinese, he wants to find a
way out of it.
I have found their society to be more
curious than they get credit for. They
are not as sensorous as many people
think they them to be. Um, contrary to
popular perception, they are very
open-minded. At least the ones I have
come across are very open-minded.
students, um, private company workers or
even bureaucrats.
They are self-critical. Um, and they are
reasonably truthful. Um, and when I say
reasonably truthful, you have to
understand that twothird of the world's
population has no clue what the word
truth means. I did not know what the
word truth meant until I was in my early
20s, until the time I arrived in the UK.
So Chinese are reasonably truthful.
Now yes, if I ask them about Tibet or
Shinshan or if I want to want them to
criticize, if I incite them to criticize
XJ Ping, they will probably avoid
confrontation on that subject.
Now I um um I I I'm quoting statements
of two people
in this audience uh and this is what in
my view so no offense to everyone but
I'm just talking highlighting the
influence of the media narrative. Uh a
friend asked me if I have ever been
worried about being arrested in China.
Another one um asked me if I have ever
been followed in China. Um and I have
been as I said to many parts of China. I
seriously doubt it. Um I have been
followed in Myanmar. Military
intelligence followed me. Um I was
arrested in Zimbabwe because I was
taking taking some forbidden
photographs. Um I have traveled with
insurgents in Laos. I have traveled by
myself in just alone in the ungovernable
parts of Congo. Uh I have been close to
100 countries. Uh I have traveled with
the state operatives in North Korea. Um
I can usually tell when I'm followed. I
don't think I have been followed in China.
China.
Um uh just about uh a year or maybe two
years back uh I decided um to walk
around a very controversial mosque in a
small in a village in China. Uh we had
stopped over and I decided I just wanted
to take a walk around it. I even went
inside it.
Um an hour later uh a police car showed
up um to look for this browncoled Arabic
looking guy um um and uh because they
had failed to trace me to a a hotel. I
was not registered in a hotel. I won't
tell you the details. Um
so he came over and asked me for my
passport. Um I declined to show it to
him. Um he uh we uh and
um and I told him why should I I'm not
crossing the border. Uh I am within
China and well within China that you
have no reason to ask me for my
passport. This young officer understood
my question and the implications that um
I was um the underlying issue with that
question and he said that's perfectly
fine. show me an ID because the Chinese
law requires you to have an ID all your
time, all the time with you. Of course,
I did not have a Chinese ID. He behaved
with me professionally and politely. Um,
eventually after u some um uh
discussion, I showed him a PDF copy of
my passport on my cell phone. Um he took
a photo of my passport, apologized and
he he told me I should never have been
asked for to show my passport and he
moved on.
Now um ironically in the statist world
we live in uh this in absolute term was
of course unpleasant. Um but it was no
worse than um and perhaps even milder
than what I have experienced in many
countries uh including in Canada or
Germany. Uh I have been asked for
passport twice by uh plain dressed uh
people who claimed to be policemen uh to
show my ID cards in Germany.
So nothing special about China. You can
in isolation uh nitpick on things to do
with China and show it in bad light.
uh now in China and elsewhere in the far
east uh people are very careful about
publicly voicing their political
opinions. So this kind of seminar is
probably not going to work out in China.
Um, I have however never in my uh 16 20
years of uh traveling in Far East Asia
ever heard of someone getting a knock um
at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, hooded by
the police and taken away to an unknown location.
location.
Uh I have talked with people about what
happens when someone crosses a political
uh line. Uh usually what happens and
this has always been the case. Uh a call
starts from the higher authority. It
comes down distills down to the your
immediate supervisor and he will calmly
explain to you what your limitations
are. Uh not too different from what you
have in North America. Unfortunately,
uh, if you express certain political
views in North America on race, sex, Amy
Wax talked about it, you risk being
cancelled. And indeed, I have been
cancelled. I was cancelled from a
Frankfurtbased mining conference because
I was deemed to be homophobic and
sexist. Th those were not intelligent
enough to blame me for uh racism which
is what they should have done actually
had they thought things properly. Um
uh China has what I consider to be the
most capitalistic economy in the world.
Um despite the communist label, it's a
label. Forget about it. Ignore it. Don't
repeat uh it all the time. It operates
with astonishing efficiency. Transaction
costs are minimal making goods and
services not just cheaper but
increasingly of higher quality sometime
meeting Japanese and German standards.
And I I think these days mostly meeting
German and Japanese standards. It
boggles my mind no end that China is not
a micro nation. It's not Monaco or
Singapore. It is a the biggest uh among
the biggest countries on the planet. Um
but it boggles my mind no end that
despite this um despite the fact that
from your underwear to the high-tech
equipment here most of things have been
manufactured in China. Many many people
think China is a paper tiger and if at
all they accept the growth story of
China they credit it to dictatorship. So
they basically want to make their claim
unfalsifiable if I use that scientific
term. They just don't want to accept
that China is growing, progressing and
improving irrespective of what evidence
I show them.
Uh in much of the third world and I'm a
very um in I'm I'm I'm a very um I don't
like this purchasing power parity
concept in in economics. In much of the
third world, yes, I can buy uh cheap
food, but uh there's a difference
between cheap food made on a street
corner and good food made in a highclass restaurant
restaurant
kitchen in Switzerland. I don't like PPP
measurements. Uh but when so when I go
to a third world country and if I want a
western kind of lifestyle, I don't I
don't pay less. I actually pay more
because western lifestyle in a third
world country actually becomes more
expensive not cheaper contrary to what
purchasing power parity might tell you.
China is a rare exception. I love it.
Uh I can get western quality services or
much better actually for a third or
fifth of price that I would pay in a
western country. Uh it is not unusual uh
for me to pay just $1.50 for
accommodation in a nice five-star hotel
with two buffet breakfastes included.
This is not unusual in a tier three city
in China. In fact, um last year I was
transiting through Guju and I had booked
a nice hotel
and I know it's hard to believe. I paid $10
$10
for my overnight accommodation,
personal pickup, personal drop off to
the airport and a buffet breakfast.
Um, so you can imagine that they are
trying to make money from that $50 or
$10. You can imagine the efficiency of
that country. Taxis cost you a fraction
of what you would pay anywhere else in
in in most cities. When I take taxis,
the cars are amazing. And I ask them
often, how good are these cars? How have
how long have you run them? And they
often say without a problem for the last
two years.
And I pay a couple of dollars from going
from one part of the city to another
part. They are so cheap. Uh banks are
open during the weekends sometimes late
in the night. I know I understand there
are people working and they are not uh
they maybe don't want to go home. I'm
talking about at least one side of the
equation. Um Renbimi maintains a almost
a parity with US dollar. It's not fixed
but it's close to a parity but the bank
deposit rates are better in China.
Now in these 16 years I cannot think of
many occasions when I was cheated. In
fact, I can think of only once that I
was overcharged by a taxi when I tried
to take a taxi in Beijing from the
nightlife area. Uh people drink too much
and the taxi drivers use that as a
reason to make money. In 16 years once
uh the in these 16 years the
transformation in China has been
staggering. Um when I first arrived in
China in 2010, actually the same year
that I started this seminar, um I went
out in Shanghai to search for coffee u
and I found something barely drinkable.
It was watery. Um really couldn't be
drunk. Um today, forget Shanghai. I can
go to tier three city um and the range
of coffees available easily surpass that
found in Germany, Switzerland or France.
You get really top quality coffees in
China. Um likewise I thought until
recently that Canada had the best and
tastiest fruit. Uh but flying over China
you see miles and miles of green houses.
they have erupted. They have mushroomed.
Uh in many parts of China, the scale and
quality of domestic agriculture has
improved so quickly that Chinese in
Chinese in my view today produce the
best fruit anywhere.
This is what I think about the Chinese
character. They have taken kaizen, the
Japanese concept of kaizen to heart.
They are keen learners. They absorb new
ideas. They absorb them quickly. They
adopt them. They adapt them and they
institutionalize them and without
backsliding they continue to improve. Um
China keeps ratcheting up and when they
do something worth adopting it swiftly
becomes a part of their culture. This is
amazing. You try educating and doing
good things to third world people
otherwise they slip back right away.
They go back to their prior existence in
no time. China keeps ratcheting up. I
think this is the key to their success.
One image this is which is hardwired in
my mind. I was in Changa just by myself
walking around the museum which is not
Changa is a city not too far from Wuhan
a few months be before COVID hit. Um and
I was sitting on a bench and this old
woman who is a jan who was a janitor.
Now, of course, in China is not
communist. It's not a welfare state. If
you don't have money, you go hungry, so
you better work. This relatively uh old
woman climbed up a pole to brush off
dust off that pole. I was mesmerized
watching her. I have that video and t
photograph with me. I use it sometimes
in my presentation. That image is
hardwired in me. She didn't have to do
it. I don't know if I would have done it
in her her shoes.
Uh u but that is uh for whatever reason
their system works. Uh either they take
pride in their work or their the
structure of their organizations is such
that people at least show that they are
proud of what they are doing.
Uh now um you know I I as I said I come
from a hellhole. I grew up in a horrible
hell hole. Hell hole is probably not the
right word for the the place I grew up
in. Um but those people where I grew up,
they constantly say that we supply the
CEOs to the US. Um um I grew up in India
of course. Um now um you should never
ever judge
a society based on the highest IQ people
from that society or the most successful
people of that society because you're
not looking at an average. you are
statistically wrong at looking at just
the high IQ smart people or rich people.
Um what I assess a country based on is
their average people. And this janitor
in my hardwired uh uh information uh it
tells me what an average Chinese I have
seen to be. Um uh from what I see in
China and of course this is partly as a
tourist. I have never worked in China. I
am of course a business traveler or a
just a traveler or even a backpacker
when I was 16 years 16 years back. Um I
don't see any any sense of whining among
those people. So when I stop a janitor
to ask her something she smiles back and
responds to me. Um unlike uh welfare you
know there are people we have there's a
a class that we have managed in the
western world which is a whiners which
is entitled and which always holds a
victim card.
Um u in China from Chinese government's
point of view if you don't work you go
hungry for them it's that simple. It's
not a communist country in that sense at
all. Um, and I am all for that that
ethic. I have been hungry, broke. Rick
has known me when I was uh pretty broke.
Um, I have been broke and hungry. And I
think the best education any young guy
can ever get is to not have money. It
teaches you to be entrepreneurial and
think about give providing value to the society.
society.
Now that doesn't mean Chinese people go
support mixed with accountability
because all compassion and tolerance
should come with accountability
u takes care of people who don't have
jobs who are disabled or whatever else.
Um, and I think not having the victim
mentality and not being given a space to
uh express their sense of entitlement
makes them less distracted and happier.
I'm talking about the lower class, lower
paid people.
Now, wages, surprisingly, this is what
capitalists should be in. Wages in Hong
Kong and China rise and fall with
changing economic conditions, which I
doubt happens in in any other any other
place in the world. uh you should not be
surprised if the officer you go to meet
this morning ends up delivering your
Amazon delivery kind of thing uh the
same afternoon he is allowed to hustle a
bit uh on the side if his salary has
gone down recently.
Now last year I after the capitalism and
morality seminar in Vancouver I flew to Shanghai
Shanghai
uh with a domestic connection. Uh my so
I flew into Shanghai. I flew into Tokyo.
I stayed overnight in Tokyo. I took a
flight to Shanghai and I had an onward
in domestic flight in China. Uh my
flight was about 20 minutes late uh with
a 20 minute left for connection. There
was no way I was going to catch my
domestic flight because the
international arrival and domestic
departure are two ends of the airport
there. Uh I came out very relaxedly
because I knew I had missed my flight.
Uh when I came out uh someone was
holding a a a banner with my name on it.
He photographed my boarding pass uh and
me. He sorry he took a yeah he
photographed my boarding pass in me and
said go that way. U
u now um the um this is something I have
become accustomed to. What comes across
as might be a bit blunt is is the
Chinese way. It's a Chinese and
Singaporean way. They they just they are
more functional rather than um um I sit
with maybe unnecessary politeness
sometimes. Not that I have anything
against politeness. Western culture
continues to be supreme for me. But I'm
just highlighting the negative things
that have sunk into the minds of the
western people because of Washington and
because of media propaganda.
Uh now I started walking to where he
said and I knew you know there would be
no one uh next. I would get lost and
eventually lose my flight. There was a
chain of agents on the way who knew who
I was and they said go that way. go that
way. I was ushered to the top of the
line when they needed to because I still
had to do customs and immigration in
those 20 minutes. Um, and I made it to
the my plane in less than 20 minutes.
Um, I don't know um how to set up an
organization like that.
I actually don't know how that was
achieved. Um,
just to add, I was not flying business
class. I was flying economy. So it was
not that I was given special privileges
because I was flying first class or
business class. Now I have visited
government offices in China. Uh they are
again blunt. They you walk in and they
want you out very quickly. They want to
you do your job very very quickly. The
goal is very simple. Do the job and let
let the citizens go. Um they don't waste
time on pleasantries. you if you go to S
arrive at Singapore airport or Chinese
airport or Japanese airport or Korean
airport and say good morning they'll
probably not even look at you or not
even respond to you.
Um they don't u you know I I I'm all for
pleasantries but I am not for
pleasantries with government officers,
not with politicians, not with
bureaucrats. Um um when dealing with
immigration and police, I want an
interaction that is brief and not
condescending chitchat. When an
immigration officer in America says
good, uh hello, how are you? Maybe I
don't want to respond to him, but I'm
forced to respond. So, I don't like that
condescending chitchat. Uh if I can send
if I can avoid selling saying hello, I
like it. That's what I prefer about
China and Singapore. Um because my anti-statist
anti-statist
principles hold a higher value than politeness
politeness
in China. That is exactly what I get. In
these 16 years, I have never met a
heavy-handed bureaucrat in China. Um or
for that matter in chi, Japan, Korea,
Singapore or Hong Kong. And I have spent
extended times in all these countries.
uh recently uh 3 months back I was
driving around with a host and I said
why don't I see those city police
officers these were uh a different kind
of police officers removing street
vendors from the street um and his
answer was officers have been giving
given more productive roles um they have
they have demarcated a tacet line
between what officers can do and what
street vendors can
um at least among the people I have
encountered u and I'm talking about a
street corner guy to
normal people I meet and average guy or
bureau uh corporate guys I mean meet I
don't see a fear of police among them so
this you know I I have nothing uh uh I'm
saying nothing about what happened 30
years or 40 years back in China I'm
talking about today I simply don't see
fear in the eyes of the and average
citizens when it comes to the government.
government.
In fact, I know someone in China who is
suing the local police for something and
she he or she has no fear of reprisals.
Um, put it simply, everyday systems work
in China. People are responsive,
conveniences are real and
despite my negative views of purch on
purchasing power parity things are
actually very inexpensive.
Uh it has become strangely over the last
one or two two years extraordinarily
safe. People now leave their as they do
in Singapore they leave their women
leave their poses on the table and go
away and come back later. That's how
safe China has suddenly become. Um
um China has dealt with religious
extremism. They had Islamic extremism
extremely well. Um you I don't see any
sign of it anymore. Um and if this
contradicts western narrative, perhaps
it's time to trust my direct experience
um over the ideological filters I'm
required to put on. Now let me get to
some of the principle here. It is
commonly believed um that um pacifists u
pacifists like Mahatma Gandhi the
so-called Mahatma Gandhi um when when
you get hit show your other cheek and
that softens the other person. That's
not how the world works. The world is
very Darwinian.
Um you cannot win a war for civilization
without fighting for it. You must fight
for civilization to the limit
governments work. They work to the limit
that citizens are prepared to stand up
and fight.
Uh yes, Chinese fight. There are
literally hundreds of thousands of
protests in China every year. Uh Western
media won't talk about it. U but they
protest when they need to protest. Um um
um
and I have seen Chinese citizens loudly
shouting at their public servants when
the time comes. So yes, they fight. Um
now um once I was driving in southern
part of China near Golden Triangle with
some people uh this is a those people
who don't know this is an area long and
famous for drug smuggling. Um our car
was stopped by the police. the only time
ever that my car was stopped by the
police. Um, now China imposes massive um
penalties for drug offenses. Um, I don't
know what they are. You probably don't
stay alive for too long. Um, it seems
smugglers still take the risk because uh
why um why do they take the risk? Um,
that is why police has stopped us. uh my
suspicion talking with people is that
Chinese ports and infrastructure is so
efficient that the riskreward calculus
shifts in the minds of the smugglers
they prefer to use China. Um when your
logistical ecosystem is as frictionless
as China's is and regulatory framework
even criminals are tempted. Um,
Um,
now the question is, and I have tried to
figure this out. Does China supply
fentinile to the United States?
I don't know. I I'm only talking about
what I know, what I have experienced in
my 16 years. Um, so I asked a successful
businessman recently and I said, "Does
China, Chinese government enable supply
of fentinile to American citizens?" And
he said he wouldn't be surprised. Again,
this indicates the openness with which
people can respond to you. Um, but
remember in this building, you just have
to go down two blocks or four blocks and
get a free shot of drugs supplied by the
government. So why should you be blaming
China for supplying drugs when you
supplied free of cost using tax money
and government resources? Now, maybe
that's the right thing to do. I'm not
saying that. All I'm saying is you
enable you I can get any kind of I think
I can get any kind of drugs. I don't
consume any drugs within a block from here.
here.
Uh so why blame China when western
governments fail themselves. Now I know
and you know I'm saying things here
which does not sit which are assumed not
to sit well with Chinese government. I
have in my podcasts uh always mentioned
that I consider Hong Kong and Taiwan to
be sovereign countries. So I'm not here
to please China. I'm here to talk about
facts that I have seen. Now I know Zjin
Ping declared himself a lifetime
president. I found it repulsive the same
as I think I'm sure most of you did. Um
um but not just because of that but also
because it seemed that he faced no
opposition from within his party which
makes you very unsecure
about how rapidly things can change. Um
it is claimed and I I don't
have anything against it. It's claimed
that some of these were eliminated who
faced capital punishment um uh under the
pretext of corruption charges because
everyone was corrupt 20 years back. Uh
um um but then don't never judge
political leaders in isolation uh
because political leaders are like that.
Uh here is my view on democracy. John is
gone. So but here's my deal view on
democracy. Democracy brings in into
power virtue signalers, demagogues and
incompetents, people who hollow out
institutions like termites. Yet the same
governments demand that China open up to
democracy and allow foreign backed
protests. Washington, again talking
about government, not the people.
Washington incites pro-democracy
movements in in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Um, and I have experienced that, which
I'm soon going to talk about.
Would it be then so outrageous if um if
China responded in kind and um helped
supply fentinile in response? Well, I
mean, why do you agitate other people in
the first place? Um 15 years back 15 16
years back after traveling a bit to
China I had a very innovative idea. I
thought China was booming. Um corruption
was booming at as a result. Macau had
recently exceeded um um recently
exceeded Las Vegas in terms of casino
gambling revenue. Uh and it it had
become a hub hub for money laundering
and um um money laundering and whatever
else. uh it it became a pleasure center
for for Chinese who hadn't experienced
certain pleasures in life. Um
construction was everywhere in China and
I had this brilliant idea. I'm an Indian
at the end of the day. Um um I thought
this corruption money would flow into
properties and it would flow into casinos.
casinos.
I lost my clients and lost at least 90
to 95% of that money. Some of that went
to zero. Casinos disappeared. The
property market collapsed. Now I asked
those people, my pe my Chinese contacts
who are critical of uh Z if um what they
think about corruption, they all admit
that they have not paid a bribe in
years, maybe a decade, a decade or more.
Now I come from a third world country
and I mentioned in my introduction that
for me the issue is not about socialism
or capitalism. For me the biggest issue
is savagery or um civilization and
corruption me corruption exists at a
totally different dimension. It does not
deal with the dimension of the spectrum
between socialism and capitalism. It's a
completely other dimension which is
which corrods which destroys everything.
Um and um and that is for me the biggest
reason why China institutionally will
continue to improve. Uh
Uh
alcohol is very inexpensive in China. Um
for a dollar um you even in a nice
restaurant you would pay a dollar or two
for a big bottle of beer. Uh so alcohol
is expensive is inexpensive in including
heineken kind of drinks. Um u and you
can drink publicly in China. There's no
problem in drinking in public. Um but
surprising things have happened as time
has passed. People drink less and less.
So much less that you could go to a $10
or 15 10 $15 buffet restaurant where
alcohol is included in the buffet price
and you hardly ever see people getting
drunk. That's how things have changed.
Um comp public servants are required not
to drink when they are on business. Um
so they can't drink with when they are
being c looked after by private
companies or by on public work. Um and I
have seen them behaving that way. In
fact that has also come down to private
companies. Private companies avoid
drinking. Um
what I you know you might not agree with
the rule the kind of rules China has but
I have come to accept that they are
becoming a they have become a country of
the rule of law rather than the rule of
man which is the key distinction even if
I don't agree with the the rules they
have um
um some dismiss China as merely copying
um hey if you could copy this the whole
of Africa, Latin America, the Indian
subcontinent would be as rich as China.
China is five or 10 times richer than
these hells. Copying is not easy.
Copying is a tough tough job. Um,
Um,
now it's funny that uh libertarians and
conservatives don't want governments in
the western countries to interfere in
the in the market. But when Chinese Xi
Jinping refused to get involved in um in
uh in the property market to support it
and when it was crashing they were
making fun of him that he should have
participated in supporting the property
market. When uh lobbies corporate
lobbies uh got involved were were
asserting themselves um in in Beijing uh
they were cut short um and some of those
billionaires suffered consequences. Now
maybe I don't agree with how it was done
and what was done but corporations have
no business lobbying with the government.
government. Um
um now
look at the social aspect of China. Um
now I prefer the Christian moral fab
fabric. uh but unfortunately we have
mostly erased that um in in most of the
world uh social problem as a result does
not uh work very well um
in in in in China the government comes
and then if that's the only institution
left then I don't know what else is
there for the except for the government
to control the celebrities from uh
encouraging people to behave in a
perverted Hey. Uh, however, you can find
shops of sex toys and tattoo parlor very
easily in China. They don't control
private sex life. What you do in your
bedroom is not, from what I see, is not
controlled by China. What?
>> What's that?
>> Okay, I can respond to that a bit later.
Okay, they have no one child policy
anymore. That was 30. Yeah. But 30 years
back, I can go back 100 years back and
talk about World War I and World War II
and the crazy things happened. Okay. So,
I'm talking about China of today. The
>> Yeah, sure. Um, there's more nuance to
it. A lot of most minorities did not
have that restriction at all. Yeah. The
Western media won't tell you about it.
Let me complete myself. I know I'm I I
I'm running out and um I just want to
conclude it and then we can maybe
respond to it when we do panel with
Brian Lenny or privately with you. Um um
the so they they don't and you can
always nitpick on isolated issues. I
actually think one child you you have to
control populations of the some of the
third world hols. You if you haven't
been there you don't understand what is
happening. they are growing like cockroaches.
Uh again I I I I'm not defending
anything. I'm just portraying a picture
of what I have experienced in China. Um
though so yes the the public display of
sexuality is not approved in in that
country and I'm very happy for it. I
don't want to see people's genitals on
the street in pride parades. Uh and
because I don't like it doesn't mean I'm
homophobic. I just don't like it. It's
not what should be done. Um, [laughter]
[laughter]
okay. I I have to conclude very soon.
Um, I um what about Hong Kong and
Taiwan? Um, I spent many months in Hong
Kong and I had perfected uh information
on when the next protest, democracy
protest would happen in Hong Kong. And I
would be there standing at the corner
watching that protests happening. They
throwing bricks at police cars. um
blocking roads. I saw all that for
months in Hong Kong. Uh and I was a
witness to a historical event. I was
standing at the bottom of the most
important Chinese flag in Hong Kong
outside the Chinese main government
office. And one person climbed up the
the pole and brought down the flag and
desecrated it right in front of me. I
immediately left after that. I knew what
was coming. uh and this whole squad
teams came over uh five minutes later.
So I I did this that was the only time I
ran away from those protests. Um there
were literally um tens or maybe a
hundred flags of Australian uh
Australia, Canada, US, United Kingdom
frying there. Canadians don't understand
this, but hardly not many countries
would allow foreign flags to be flown
within their jurisdictions. China
allowed that until that last moment when
when I saw this democracy movement going
masticizing I would say. Um so again I'm
I'm not in big favor of that democracy
movement. I would have preferred Hong
Kong to be to stay independent but I
would have preferred Nancy Pelosi kind
of people not to agitate China.
Um um
really from my experiences China is one
of the most open countries in the world.
Um um until recently India wasn't
issuing visas to China. You can't fly
direct from India to China despite that
they have connected borders. Um and
China actually offers free gifts to
Indians for applying for visas to China.
And again these visas happen very
quickly. Now um um really visas visa
policies are usually reciprocal. China
does not follow a reciprocal policy.
Virtually all of you can fly to China
tomorrow without a need for visa.
Chinese need a visa to come to your
countries. They don't follow that
reciprocal arrangement because they
think in terms of what is good for you.
This is what Maxim Bernier would say
that let them apply import duties. We
don't care about them. Um and actually
my view is that Chinese would not have
imposed any duty structure or export
restrictions on Chinese goods had Trump
not made a fuss about it because at the
end of the day China does not want to
destabilize or delegitimize their government.
government. Uh
now let me change the topic a bit and
just to to conclude this um for all its
discipline and cohesion China's rise is
not self-generated. Chinese don't want
Chinese government doesn't want to hear
that the foundations of its prosperity
were laid by extraordinary generosity
from the west above all the United
States. Without it, its trajectory would
look very different. Without the West,
nations like Japan, China, Korea,
Singapore would still be mired in
primitive conditions. The spring of
humanity and civilization is the west
and its unsmatched intellectual class,
its law, raw liberty, openness, fixation
on truth, individuality and creativity.
So at the end of the day foundation of
whatever China has achieved has come
from the US and the west. Still remember
copying is not easy. It is one of the
most difficult jobs you can do. Do
Chinese share that craving for liberty
for for that do they have that vision
for the unknown? Do they have that near
religious um um um u belief in belief in
freedom uh particularly which America
embodies? Um I don't think so. Um but
such a spirit is not necessary for
economic growth at least not for
economic growth.
Um um this this influences their
institutions. They those expecting
American style equality would be shocked
in China. um Chinese structure because
of the way they have come to exist and
there's a concept called called 0ero to
one and one to n one 0ero to one means
uh philosophy ideas basic science
creativity which is the realm of the
west but then there's the realm of one
to end which is the realm of perfecting
those ideas and creating technology and
products that is the realm of China
China and Japan and Singapore uh now the
the interesting thing is that um
you should not expect American style
equality in China. Um they suppress
creativity. Um they impose a strong peer
pressure. Uh do I work for a Chinese
company? No. Sorry. Um they become
emotionally constipated. Um we all all
people from the outside the western
world are deeply emotionally
constipated. I was talking with Darcy
this afternoon. I was telling him that I
still feel despite having lived in the
west for 30 years, I still feel
sometimes this cloudy unknown wave of
anxiety hit me which comes from this uh
scars that that are left from the
hellhole I grew up in. So emotional
constipation is a big problem. um
uh and and then they'd want to take
corrective actions by sending their
children to corrective institutions to
infuse creativity and in innovation in
them. Sorry, that's not how it works. Um
but really ladies and gentlemen, it
makes no sense to compare China with the
US. Um you should be comparing China
with Kenya, Uganda or India because
that's the group it belonged to two or
three decades back. And that is why you
should not be complaining about one
child policy when you can actually
disappear in virtually all of these
countries 20 years 30 years back. Even
today I mean in India you can just
disappear in no time. Um and so by that
measure China has done extraordinarily
well. Um and there's really no true
parallel in human history. Um I see
personally I see I just want to conclude
here. I see a huge conflict between
western culture and Islam. I see even
sharper conflicts between um western
culture and Hinduism. I know people
don't see it that way but that's how it
is. There is a huge conflict between
Christianity and non-Christian cultures
nonjudo-christian cultures. Um uh I
really don't see a way for the western
culture to work to work in symbiosis
with the third world. It simply will
never work. Their visions clash and that
is why uh importing these millions of
third world people with animalistic
tendencies and tribal tendencies which
become worse in the freedoms of the
west. Um you are doing no good to the
west. did never assimilate. This is a
fake belief that people assimilate over
generations. No, they become worse with generations.
generations.
Uh however, I see a genuine symbiosis
between um Japanese, Chinese um and
Koreans and the Western people. Um again
you have to understand that you are not
compare you should not be comparing
China with the US right away because
China really is a developing country
even today. I personally wish when I
visit the west and I visit China I wish
that they could work together in
symbiosis rather than fight with each
other. China is not the enemy of the
west and west is not the enemy of um of
China. I think my guess is my instinct
is that and this is something I don't
know because I don't see the back
offices in Beijing but I think that the
most of the problem resides with the
with Washington they likely create more
problems than Beijing would because
Beijing has Beijing is uh is not a
democracy. they don't they don't have to
necessarily create a demagoguery which
Washington might want to do. Uh within
East Asia, China may now be the most
open-minded society in my view. Uh even
more open-minded than I guess Singapore
is even today. I think that's how
open-minded Chinese might have become.
Um, and I would not be surprised if 0ero
to one the base the the the raw libert
libertarian values might be starting to
ignite in China. You might start seeing
flickers of that already and I would not
be surprised because of the homogeneity,
safety and the institutional structure
that um that Chinese have provided. uh
eventually when the western societies
start getting into trouble because of
the crazy things with bringing in third
world people they have done the higher
IQ people of the west start leaving for
Singapore, China, Japan and Korea. Uh
and I think that will be what China
already wants. They are recently they
started issuing a special visa K visa
which allows you to just move to China
if you are well educated. You have a
special qualification and live there and
see what happens with your life. They
will not issue you citizenship and no
country should issue citizenship to
foreigners because then it leads to
ethnic conflicts. Uh my view is that
Chinese trajectory is upwards. I I meet
people Chinese every Chinese is
paranoid. All intelligent people are
paranoid. Chinese IQ is 105. Uh I'm a
big believer in IQ. I think Chinese IQ
is the is is is the cornerstone. Their
homogeneity ensures that there's harmony
and their homogeneity the disposion of
IQ is low which means that they don't
have those 180 IQ people and they don't
have the idiot IQ people either. Uh but
that reduces uh conflicts. Um um I think
China is here to stay and I would not be
surprised if China ends up becoming the
next America. Ladies and gentlemen,
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