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With American politics, everything seems to be changing by the second.

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Makes sense of what's happening in the US. with new podcast episodes throughout the week. America. Listen on BBC Sound. We're going to be talking a lot about China today, so we've assembled an all-star cast. As usual, in Beijing, it's Laura Bicker. Hello, Laura. Hello, how you doing? Very well, thank you. And here in the studio is Deputy Economics Editor Darshini David.

Hello, Darshini.

Hi, Adam, how are you?

Very well, thank you. And I'm going to be even better when we discuss Chinese proverbs before we do the news. I thought we do some ancient wisdom before we do the news. Everything in China kind of works on a longer time frame than we're used to. And Laura, I noticed Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, used a Chinese

aphorism in his remarks with Kirstarmer, which was range far your eye over long distances.

Yes. What does that mean? Of course, China's playing the long game. and he's urging others to do the same.

When it comes to any kind of political event, China is always playing the long game.

And I think that's what people need to remember.

This is not a government, this is not a president, they need to worry about

elections. Every four or five years, he's not going to have to go out there and say,

look, vote for me. So when he's talking about range your eye far, he's talked about look to way

towards the horizon. Stop thinking about your political problems now. Think about the reaping the rewards of this

kind of meeting. Little problems like human rights in Hong Kong and amongst the Uyghurs, for

example. Right, Doshini, we got one for you, having written a book about the environment.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Not uttered by President Xi today, but it is a well-known Chinese proverb. It is. And it is an interesting one, isn't it? Because first visit by a British PM in eight years in China, as we've been hearing from the likes of Laura, has changed so much in that time. And what it's got to offer countries like the UK has changed so much in that time. But so too have the complexities of the relationship.

And you've got to wonder maybe if we need to be looking at some of these things a little bit earlier on.

This is what happens when you get great experienced broadcasters.

You can fire them a Chinese proverb and they will pivot it into analysis of today's news.

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