China and the Pandemic
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How have China's relations with other countries changed since the arrival of the virus? The US and China have been facing each other off for years, but increasingly other nations are questioning the benefits that China's growing dominance has brought. David Aaronovitch explores how that is being viewed within China itself. Has trust in the communist regime declined or are nationalistic attitudes strengthening? And what changes might this bring to global power dynamics in the future? Contributors: Professor Niall Ferguson of Stanford University, Rafaello Pantucci from RUSI, Yu Jie from Chatham House, economist and author Dr Linda Yueh and Professor Steve Tsang from SOAS. Producers: Kirsteen Knight, Sally Abrahams and Rosamund Jones. Editor: Jasper Corbett.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David O'onovich. The briefing room is the intellectual panic room where buffeted by claims and counterclaims, you and I can quietly and calmly get to understand a big issue with the help of the top experts on the subject. |
| 0:21.3 | This week, how much has the pandemic damaged relations between China and the West? |
| 0:35.3 | In the pandemic world, a new Cold War seems to be in danger of breaking out between China and the West. |
| 0:42.7 | Tensions between the US and China had been growing before the coronavirus outbreak, |
| 0:47.4 | but have deteriorated in the last few months. |
| 0:50.1 | And it's not just the US. |
| 0:52.2 | This week, Australia called for an independent global inquiry |
| 0:55.6 | into the origins and spread of COVID-19, a call which was met by a Chinese imposition of |
| 1:01.3 | swinging tariffs and selective bans on Australian imports. Here on the BBC, Matthias Dopfner, |
| 1:08.8 | chief executive of German technology company Axel Schenger, |
| 1:12.3 | said that Europe now needed to choose which side it was on. |
| 1:16.2 | Dealing with China, showing a bit more self-confidence is overdue, and I think Europe now has |
| 1:22.5 | to make a decision, including the post-Brexit UK, whether we want to establish the Transatlantic Alliance of |
| 1:29.4 | free market economies or an alternative alliance with China. So I think for Europe, it's absolutely |
| 1:36.8 | high time to decide. So how much damage has the pandemic done to relations between China and the |
| 1:43.0 | West? And what's the outlook once it's over? |
| 1:46.7 | Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 1:55.4 | Let's start with the view from the US. Professor Neil Ferguson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford |
| 2:02.5 | University. Neil Ferguson, what is the US view of China's handling of the pandemic? And how's |
| 2:09.8 | that view evolved? Well, I'm always careful about saying there is a US view on anything. |
| 2:14.6 | Remember, we are deeply divided in this country on all issues. But I think the |
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