Leaders of China, Russia, North Korea send a message to the West
The World
PRX
4.6 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un stand together to watch a massive military parade roll through Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in an act of solidarity against the West. Also, a deadly landslide in western Sudan highlights the challenges of getting aid to conflict zones. And, Gaza war tests historic alliance between Germany and Israel. Plus, a class at Yale University uses rapper Bad Bunny's music to study Puerto Rico and colonialism.
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| 0:00.0 | The Chinese military put on quite the show in Beijing. Jets overhead, modern weaponry on display. |
| 0:12.0 | It was a real show of force, but also a demonstration of China's clout. |
| 0:17.6 | I'm Carolyn Beeler. Today, what China's parade signaled to friends and foes across the globe. |
| 0:23.7 | And in Sudan, a landslide wiped out a whole town, and civil war is keeping aid from getting in. |
| 0:30.8 | A ceasefire is absolutely essential. It's really only with the full and active cooperation of the |
| 0:36.5 | war in parties that it's going to be possible. |
| 0:39.4 | Plus, tell me you're not jealous. Students at Yale get to take a whole class on Bad Bunny. |
| 0:45.9 | This album allows us to sit down and focus on Puerto Rico, a place that most of my students don't fully understand. |
| 0:54.0 | All that and more today on the world. |
| 0:58.8 | This is The World. I'm Carolyn Beeler. Thank you for joining us. We begin the show in China. The images |
| 1:05.4 | coming out of Beijing today are striking the symbolism unmistakable. A smiling Xi Jinping of China striding through Tiananmen Square |
| 1:13.9 | flanked by heads of state from Russia and North Korea. The three leaders watched together as a massive |
| 1:19.9 | military parade ready to roll through the streets, beginning with a gun salute. |
| 1:35.3 | 80 shots marked 80 years since China's victory over Japan in World War II, which the parade commemorated. But given the shifting alliances on the global stage, the three leaders were |
| 1:39.9 | also sending a message to the world. Simon Rabinovich, the economist new Beijing Bureau Chief, was in the crowd today. |
| 1:47.9 | It started off with speech from Xi Jinping, and then, of course, he reviewed the troops, |
| 1:53.8 | and then the parade began, and many, many people marching in lockstep, large different |
| 1:59.1 | formations, Army, Navy, Air Force, but also |
| 2:01.8 | cyber information security as well. Jets flying overhead and then a parade of very modern |
| 2:08.7 | and potentially quite frightening weapons. Yeah, I want to get to those weapons in just a second, |
| 2:14.0 | but first the crowd. I assume there were a lot of people there. There were thousands and thousands of people who were obviously handpicked. This was not |
| 2:21.4 | ordinary members of the public, but members of the party members of the government, of different |
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