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Trump and Xi Jinping: clash of the megalomaniacs · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, April eleven, twenty twenty five. Peter Dutton is
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  Speaker 1: steering clear of Australia's CBDs in the run up to
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  Speaker 1: the federal election on May three. Exclusive new analysis by
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  Speaker 1: The Australian shows the opposition leader is focused on winning
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  Speaker 1: seats in the outer suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
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  Speaker 1: You can check that out and all our election coverage
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  Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au. Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump and Shijinping have a lot in common and that's
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  Speaker 1: why they're knocking heads in an earth shattering kind of way.
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  Speaker 2: Today.
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  Speaker 1: Our man in Beijing, North Asia correspondent Will Glasgow on
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  Speaker 1: how President she has mishandled the tariff war and how
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  Speaker 1: it can possibly be resolved. In the latest ad for
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  Speaker 1: Calvin Klein underwear, the Puerto Rican rap superstar Bad Bunny
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  Speaker 1: real name Benito Ocasio shows off his abs while dancing
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  Speaker 1: around in his Calvins. These cotton box of briefs are
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  Speaker 1: at the center of the trade war between the United
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  Speaker 1: States and China. That's because Calvin Klein's parent company PBH
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  Speaker 1: has been blacklisted by the Chinese government. Blacklisting is one
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  Speaker 1: of the tools China users to influence global trade. Previously,
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  Speaker 1: its hit defense companies like Rayfeon and Lockheed Martin for
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  Speaker 1: selling arms to Taiwan. America accuses China of other tactics too,
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  Speaker 1: like pressuring US companies to give up their intellectual property
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  Speaker 1: or putting tight export controls on goods America wants like
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  Speaker 1: critical minerals. So what's the problem with bad Bunny and
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  Speaker 1: his calvins?
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  Speaker 2: Do you have your carbin zone?
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  Speaker 1: Well, China took great offense to PVH, declaring that, in
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  Speaker 1: line with the US government regulations, it would no longer
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  Speaker 1: buy cotton from China's Shinjang region, where human rights organizations
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  Speaker 1: say there is mass enslavement and forced labor of the
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  Speaker 1: local weaker population, something China denies. Black Bands and China's
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  Speaker 1: other tactics, plus a giant trade imbalance, are all part
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  Speaker 1: of the reason why Donald Trump slapped massive tariffs on
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  Speaker 1: China and it all escalated from there.
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  Speaker 3: Sujan Pen and Donald Trump are both determined to be
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  Speaker 3: the strong man, to not look weak, to not back down.
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  Speaker 1: Will Glasgow is the Australian's North Asia correspondent, and he's
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  Speaker 1: written a searing opinion piece that accuses Chinese President Shijinping
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  Speaker 1: of epic blunders in his handling of the situation.
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  Speaker 3: They're both megalamaniacs, right, So advising each of them that
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  Speaker 3: you're doing the wrong thing or your strategy is not
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  Speaker 3: working is a very brave well, Frankly, it's a career
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  Speaker 3: ending decision in both the Trump court and in the
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  Speaker 3: She court.
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  Speaker 1: So here's where we're at on China. After weeks of
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  Speaker 1: escalating tariffs, Donald Trump announced on Liberation Day he'd slap
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  Speaker 1: China with a fifty four percent tariff. China's Xijinping fired
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  Speaker 1: straight back with a thirty four percent tariff on American goods.
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  Speaker 1: Trump hit them with another fifty percent. She added fifty
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  Speaker 1: Then on Thursday, Trump reset tariffs in all countries to
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  Speaker 1: ten percent, except China, which went up even more to
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five percent.
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  Speaker 4: President She he's a friend of mine. I like them,
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  Speaker 4: I respect him, but they haven't treated our country. Are
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  Speaker 4: sure I'd beat with him?
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump described Jijinping as a friend to someone he respects,
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  Speaker 1: a good leader. Do you think the feeling's mutual.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean the insincerity is mutual, right, I mean
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  Speaker 3: in official exchanges, they each pretend right to be polite.
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  Speaker 3: Trump does this additional thing, and he's done this all
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  Speaker 3: the way through with Hihimpan buttering him up, publicly praising him,
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  Speaker 3: saying he's a great leader, a smart guy, a great negotiator,
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  Speaker 3: or a tough negotiator, all these things. But yeah, overnight
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  Speaker 3: Trump says nice things about she. He also ramped up
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  Speaker 3: tariffs again that doubles the costs of Chinese products into
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  Speaker 3: the American market, the biggest market in the world. For
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  Speaker 3: a lot of traders have told me directly. This was
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  Speaker 3: last week. Many Chinese firms said there's no way we
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  Speaker 3: can deal with America, that we can trade to America,
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  Speaker 3: and they were very surprised at how high that level was. God,
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  Speaker 3: you know, that looks like the Sunny Times.
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  Speaker 4: Now one week on, Biden allowed China to just take
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  Speaker 4: advantage of us. We had like a trillion dollar deficit
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  Speaker 4: with China, trillion dollar deficit.
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  Speaker 1: The way mo foreign leaders deal with Donald Trump, he's
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  Speaker 1: just to capitulate. And we saw very graphically what happens
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  Speaker 1: when you don't capitulate the shouting match that Voladimir Zelenski
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  Speaker 1: got himself into in the Oval office when he chose
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  Speaker 1: not to just g nod and agree with what Jade
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  Speaker 1: Vans and Donald Trump was saying. Why isn't Hi Jinping
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  Speaker 1: choosing that course?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think there's a third strategy, which
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  Speaker 3: is tried to not talk to him right.
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  Speaker 2: And keep away.
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  Speaker 3: Anthony Albernizi has mostly taken that approach. Some people on
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  Speaker 3: the Liberal Party have criticized him for it. Frankly, I
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  Speaker 3: think it's a pretty smart one. Just don't be on
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  Speaker 3: Trump's radar right, having his attention is very dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: But she has taken Yeah, the third approach.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, no one else has done this, of counterpunching,
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  Speaker 3: of being tough.
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  Speaker 2: Why does he do it?
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  Speaker 3: Hijinping sees himself as the leader of a country as big,
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  Speaker 3: as important, if not more than America. He thinks he
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  Speaker 3: should be treated as a peer, and he thinks he's
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  Speaker 3: being grievously disrespected by Donald Trump, by America, and he's
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  Speaker 3: made it very clear he won't tolerated. Now how successful
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  Speaker 3: it is, in my opinion, in this last week, it's
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  Speaker 3: been an absolute disaster for China. They're a total outlier
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  Speaker 3: because Xijianping couldn't do what other world leaders did, which
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  Speaker 3: is either you know, he didn't need to butter a
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  Speaker 3: ma up like that is an approach for Vietnam and
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  Speaker 3: Japan and South Korea's leaders. They directly, they called and
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  Speaker 3: spoke to the president and whatever they think privately, they
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  Speaker 3: tried to deal with him respectfully, tried to charm him
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  Speaker 3: into giving them better terms.
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  Speaker 2: Now their outlies too. Most people just didn't speak to Trump.
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  Speaker 3: They waited to see if the markets would force his
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  Speaker 3: hand before these tariffs actually came into effect. As it was,
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  Speaker 3: he did his back down less than twenty four hours
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  Speaker 3: after they took effect because of a total meltdown on
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  Speaker 3: Wall Street and around the world and on.
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  Speaker 2: The bomb market.
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  Speaker 3: Had China just set in its hands and done nothing
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  Speaker 3: or done nothing more than rhetoric, I mean, it could have,
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  Speaker 3: as it always does, filled its papers with angry editorials
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  Speaker 3: about America. I mean, it's been making a lot of
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  Speaker 3: hay in all the upset from capitals around the world
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  Speaker 3: about America. There's a lot of opportunity for China in that,
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  Speaker 3: and it's still going to exploit that as much as
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  Speaker 3: it can. But what it did, it took actions as
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  Speaker 3: well as that, and that's what's created this problem for Trump.
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  Speaker 3: And it just seems that by temperament cision Ping is
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  Speaker 3: incapable of not counterpunching, and frankly, in Donald Trump, his
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  Speaker 3: mirror image, Donald Trump is incapable of being hit and
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  Speaker 3: not counter punching. Right, they have a very similar world
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  Speaker 3: view and that their products. A very different political systems.
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  Speaker 3: But there's a lot of similarities between these two.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. So can this possibly be resolved? Being strong
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  Speaker 1: and acting like the biggest panda in the zoo has
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  Speaker 1: worked for China until now they are able to use
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  Speaker 1: their muscle to make sure that companies who want to
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  Speaker 1: do business with China have to play by China's rules.
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  Speaker 1: What's the worst case scenario for China in this instance?
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  Speaker 1: If the tariffs do remain, for example.
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  Speaker 3: A week ago before Liberation Day, this current scenario would
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  Speaker 3: be the worst case scenario, frankly, if not worse. Like,
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  Speaker 3: you have ten percent reciprocal tariffs on every other economy
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  Speaker 3: in the world and over one hundred and twenty percent
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  Speaker 3: on China. So the logic of moving your supply chain
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  Speaker 3: outside of China now is profound right.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Apple's quietly.
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  Speaker 3: Done a lot to move supply chains, already reduce its
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  Speaker 3: reliance on China, moved to India at quite a pace,
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  Speaker 3: move into Vietnam. This current regime, this current setup the
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  Speaker 3: Trump's put in place, gives a lot of incentive for
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  Speaker 3: that to happen. And that's a very dangerous position for
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  Speaker 3: the Chinese economy. China has the option, which it did
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  Speaker 3: do in its first term, of not actually collecting the tariff.
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  Speaker 3: So there's some things it needs from America, and what
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  Speaker 3: it does is it sets a tariff and then actually
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  Speaker 3: it's customs just let the product in because they need it.
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  Speaker 3: I expect that will be happening in case so they
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  Speaker 3: can't replace it, then they're scratching around for other tools,
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  Speaker 3: which you know, as you said in your earlier example,
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  Speaker 3: punished an American clothing company for not using shinjung cotton
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  Speaker 3: or having an opinion on that.
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  Speaker 2: They can do that.
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  Speaker 3: They can cause a lot of terror for American multinationals
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  Speaker 3: operating in China. But seen from Washington, isn't that just
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  Speaker 3: nudging the process they want? Isn't that just going to
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  Speaker 3: scare American multinationals out of China. China's in a buying there.
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  Speaker 3: It's certainly got a lot of tools to make I'm
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  Speaker 3: very painful for American or any other multinational in China.
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  Speaker 3: But that has a consequence, you know, and weighing that
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  Speaker 3: up's tricky for it.
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  Speaker 1: Both Donald Trump and the person who was until today
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  Speaker 1: his premier advisor on tariff, Pitt Navarro, have said that
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  Speaker 1: the issue is not so much tariffs or even unfair practices,
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  Speaker 1: it's the deficit, the fact that America buys more from
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  Speaker 1: China than itself that this comes into more of a balance.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the only way we'll go to see any
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  Speaker 1: kind of resolution here.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think the US China showdown or superpowered tussle
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  Speaker 3: goes so beyond trade. Right, Let's just say in some
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  Speaker 3: magical future there was a perfectly symmetrical trade relationship between
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  Speaker 3: China and America. The build up by the People's Operation Army,
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  Speaker 3: it's not going to stop freaking out the Pentagon. It's
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  Speaker 3: not going to change in any way. China's ambition to
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  Speaker 3: reclaim Taiwan bring it under its control. Same with the
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  Speaker 3: territorial disputes in South China. See again, that's just in
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  Speaker 3: that domain. And then you go into the cyber world.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, China's huge cyber capacity that just keeps growing
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  Speaker 3: and it's become very sophisticated in recent years. Well that
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  Speaker 3: doesn't go away with that kind of scenario either. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, just name the domain. China causes anks to
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  Speaker 3: America and America causes it back to China, right.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, there is definitely a lot.
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  Speaker 3: Of psychology going on between these two leaders with huge egos,
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  Speaker 3: but there is also a big ideological component to this.
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  Speaker 3: America sees itself as a country of manifest destiny. It's
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  Speaker 3: destined to lead the world. It sees its system as
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  Speaker 3: one that others should follow. And you know, Shijinping he's
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  Speaker 3: the President of China, but before that, he's the general
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  Speaker 3: secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and they see America
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  Speaker 3: and its political system as potentially an existential threat to it.
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  Speaker 3: What she's top KPI is not trade relations or economic growth.
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  Speaker 3: It's keeping the Chinese Communist.
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  Speaker 2: Party in power.
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  Speaker 3: One thing she has got is a clear enemy, right,
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  Speaker 3: and he's got he runs a Leninist dictatorship. His party state.
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  Speaker 5: Media will be making it very clear that Donald Trump
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  Speaker 5: and Imperial America is to blame for all this, and
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  Speaker 5: if you feel hardship, blame America right I mean the
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  Speaker 5: Chinese internet right now, the reactions to what America has done,
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  Speaker 5: the reactions that you see online are just venomous.
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  Speaker 3: People are talking about we need to beware for biological
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  Speaker 3: attacks from America. They could send another coronavirus. Like there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of paranoia swirling around China. There was already
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  Speaker 3: before all this happened about America's intentions. Everything that's happened
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  Speaker 3: in this last week and overnight just completely confirms that
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  Speaker 3: conspiratorial idea that America is out to contain China.
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  Speaker 2: And frankly, I mean, is it a conspiracy?
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  Speaker 3: You know, Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said just after
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  Speaker 3: the greatest Chinese CounterPunch, We're going to work with our
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  Speaker 3: allies to work against China. Trade was the kind of
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  Speaker 3: last buttress in this relationship. She had already got the
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  Speaker 3: American business community really offside. It was a very dangerous
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  Speaker 3: thing for him when he lost that. China had always
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  Speaker 3: had America's business community making the case for China within
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  Speaker 3: the American political system. Privately, many in that American business
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  Speaker 3: community wanted Trump to get tough on China. She he
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  Speaker 3: didn't address any of those concerns from the Americans. So
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  Speaker 3: quite a while ago, both sides have sort of singled
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  Speaker 3: out the other as a threat, as something that needs
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  Speaker 3: to be dealt with, And you know, I think we're
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  Speaker 3: just living through a really historic part of that story.
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  Speaker 4: I think he's going to want to get to a deal.
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  Speaker 4: I think that's going to happen. We'll get a phone
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  Speaker 4: call at some point and it'll be off to the races.
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  Speaker 4: It'll be a great thing for them, it'll be a
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  Speaker 4: great thing for us. It's going to be a great
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  Speaker 4: thing for the world and for humanity.
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  Speaker 1: Will Glasgow is The Australian's North Asia correspondent. You can
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: read all his coverage right now at the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: com dot au