This is John Batchel, a conversation with colleague Charles Ortel. He's in Malaysia.

And looking at China's future in Southeast Asia and across the globe, Charles finds much to

puzzle about these members of the European community in Australia and the United States who speak well of China's

future as if it is the once and future king. There are no good numbers to back this up,

especially because certain numbers, like real estate numbers, have stopped being published

by the Chinese regime, government, or permitting others, private

enterprises publishing them.

Chair Charles explains much more of this later tonight.

China, the future leader, except the facts of the present.

Here's Charles.

I think the status quo elites in Europe and in Australia and in other places that trade with China,

many of those people and the apparatuses around them have all been bought off by China.

It's pretty easy to buy off these people.

You contribute money to their non-profits, you hire them various ways. And so a lot of the

legacy influence shapers, particularly the publishers, the people in academia, they've all

been fully invested on the idea that with 1.4 billion people, ever many people, China has, that's, you're looking at the future.

And they, you know, if we have any kind of democratic rule over globalist institutions, China deserves to have the upper hand.

So people, you know, signed off on the idea that China is going to be the next leadership for the world for centuries

and are willing to concede that leadership role now, even though China hasn't demonstrated

and now apparently refuses to demonstrate, that it's capable of taking that role.