The U.S.-China rivalry, Taiwan and Hong Kong | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

American CEOs used to swoon over China, its vast consumer group has been a magnetic attraction for decades, but doing business there has become so complicated and risky with intellectual property theft and a magnified image law used to intimidate the business community that American companies have pressed the pause button. In addition, the relationship between the United States and China has become contentious due in part to Beijing's belligerent activity towards the thaw and in the South China Sea, the incident From last year's spy balloon and the list continues to make things worse, the Chinese economy has hit an export wall. growth is slowing, the country is drowning in debt and youth unemployment has skyrocketed.

Entering China to tell that story is almost impossible for most Western journalists, but when US ambassador Nicholas Burns invited us to come for a visit and an interview, we were granted visas. She spoke with him at his residence in Beijing. For the first time in 40 years, more money is leaving China than is coming in from American, Japanese, European and Korean investors. Why is that and how problematic is that for them? It is a real problem for this economy, they have 1.4 billion people here, they have to continue growing and foreign capital is important. You ask why I think there has been a contradiction in the messages from the government here in China to the rest of the world, on the one hand they say we are open for business, we CH Japanese non-US companies here, but on the other hand , they have evicted six or seven American companies since the raid last March, they have entered American companies, they have closed them and they have made accusations.

Very unjustifiably, US companies include Banan Company and Mince Group, a company that performs due diligence for other companies that might want to invest here, was raided last year. Five of their Chinese employees were detained and are still there. Another signature. was assaulted L the message was not loud and clear a report about it was put on state television accused Western consulting companies of espionage and theft of military and national security secrets they want the investment to return and are raiding American companies and their Han passed an amendment to its anti-espionage law and it is written in such a general way that it could be that American businessmen could be accused of espionage for engaging in practices that are perfectly legal and acceptable anywhere else in the world to collect data Do double diligence so you can decide whether you want to invest in a company or form a joint venture.

What do you think the Chinese are afraid of these companies finding out? What do these due diligence companies care about? Know? I think they want to control data on Chinese people, on Chinese companies, and I think that's at the heart of the problem with American companies that operate in that sphere. Ambassador Burns told us that is just one of the concerns he hears. The theft of intellectual property from American companies here is what all American companies fear, yes, all kinds of American companies began flocking to China in the early 1980s, after the country opened up to the West under the then leader D sha ping and now American banks operate here.

Walmart has more than 300 stores nationwide. Shoppers here in Shanghai can buy Levis, browse an Apple store, and get a caramel frappuccino. Starbucks has six thousand stores in China, a thousand stores in Shanghai and they want to continue building because coffee was a tea culture for hundreds. For years now, at least among young Chinese, it's becoming a coffee culture and they love Starbucks, they love Starbucks and I'll buy them a cappuccino. I'll take one, thanks. Boeing is here and Tesla Fizer Chevron Intel, but while some companies are thriving. Many foreign companies are concerned about the business climate under President Xi Jinping.

If we follow China from the death of Mao to the opening of China to the world, we have seen a kind of closure, we have seen a centralization of party power we have seen an increase in repression of the people of China here, that is a very trend. significant in the last decade with her under her leadership, part of that trend includes the president and she is reversing many of the market reforms that unleashed China's economic miracle. has been growing for 40 years the fastest growth rate in recorded economic history 8 9 10 Growth rates of 11% have lifted 800 million people out of poverty, but what is happening is that the growth rate is slowing slowing down most economists now project they will be at 2 three 4% growth maybe even lower in the next support for their society if it is so low that will be difficult for them if there was so much explosive growth if so many people were lifted out of poverty Why are you moving away from what worked well?

I think maybe they have conflicting priorities. The government here in China certainly wants the economy to grow, but they also have a national security mindset. They want to control the data. That is why the right to control is more important than economic growth. It seems that way. it's open to debate what you're hearing we're hearing both messages it sounds like you yourself don't know the direction it's going what I sense here is that the biggest energy is with those on the National Security side of the Chinese government well By In the morning, how are you on a train trip from Beijing to Shanghai?

The ambassador noted that in the decades before President Shei, China boosted its economy by investing in these high-speed trains, roads, factories and skyscrapers that illuminate Shanghai, China's financial capital, but Under President XI, China lost last year more than $120 billion in long-term foreign investment due to a weakening economy and harsh government tactics that have left American businesses uncertain about the future. There are many American companies here. they just folded and left because of the current business environment, you know, that's interesting, not many, not many, not many, why not China is the second largest economy in the world, it's a big market, so some American companies have left, but most have stayed. companies are moving at least some of their operations to Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, but they are not leaving China, the irresistible market for American businessmen, it is gigantic, maybe they are not leaving, but they are not investing, they are not making investments important until We can see exactly where the government is heading because of the 1.4 billion potential consumers, some companies like Disney are increasing their investment.

Welcome to Shanghai Disney Resort. They recently expanded their Shanghai Disneyland which we're told is thriving with a $9 billion company based in Crystal Lake. Illinois is another American company that bucks the trend of capital flight. Apar Asia President Shangu Gang, a Chinese-born American citizen, showed us one of his five manufacturing sites in China. We are manufacturing for some of the biggest US brands, actually US consumer brands. The factory makes packaging and dispensing devices for food, pharmaceutical and beauty products sold in Asia. All our clients, like PNG, L'Oreal esela, are all here doing business in China for almost 30 years.

Recently, they invested $60 million in a new Shang factory. The gang says that even in a slowing economy, the company is doing well, American companies here, as the ambassador well knows, are pausing or cutting their investments, but not this company, you are expanding well , because we are here for the long term and we believe in The consumer power of the growing middle class is 1.4 billion people here and, imagine, for example, health and the same with cosmetics and beauty and beverages, all those sectors, packaged foods, these are really the largest markets, so we are very confident. In the long run, what does it say about real trust in the US-China relationship?

It seems to say that you believe things will get better. What I'm asking is a great question for the Ambassador. I think so. I hope so. We'll See Actually Burn says he's wary of the future, as the fundamental

rivalry

and mistrust between the United States and China is shaking the confidence of the business world and has brought our relationship to its lowest point in half a century. Is our relationship more competitive? relationship in the world right now this is the most important, most competitive, most dangerous relationship that the United States has in the world right now and I think over the next decade I want to quote you again and tell us what you meant that you said that divorce It is not an option, it is true that our two countries have to live together and I think this is the greatest tension in the relationship between the United States and China.

China is our most important competitor and at the same time China is our third largest trading partner. 750,000 jobs in the United States. at stake agriculture China is the biggest market for us agriculture 1 of all our agricultural export products are sent to China, which was $4.9 billion last year, so we can't afford to have a real break here Well, compc jobs would be complicated for some people. They say we are so competitive with China that we should end the economic relationship. The consequence of that would be that 750,000 American families would not be able to put dinner on the table, which is an extraordinarily difficult balancing act in my job.

You are a good brother. I had never considered myself that way. Well, we have competing interests here and balancing those interests is the reality in the US-China relationship. Let's compete. We have to compete responsibly and maintain peace between our countries, but we also have to get more involved in the Law of Balance and the biggest economic problem in China today when we come back, one in five people in the world is Chinese, the population of China is four times the size of the US and the country is It has a vast area of ​​3.7 million square miles and dominates the Taiwan Strait, where half of the world's trade flows each day and is located about 100 miles from Taiwan.

President XI likes to say that the East is rising, the West is declining, but economically the United States is prospering compared to China In December, credit rating agency Moody's lowered its outlook for China to negative and it faces a long-term demographic problem term: a decline in the birth rate that experts say is irreversible, meaning the country is aging and shrinking. Ambassador Nicholas Burns took us on a The tour begins in Beijing. The ambassador and his wife Libby like to take early morning walks in a park near his residence. This is a 600-year-old Ming Dynasty park called Ron Park.

It is a place for many retirees and many young people and is tremendously active where the locals come for their morning routines such as Tai Chi yo-yoing and pingpong. Oops, you couldn't tell in these scenes who, that China, where the copandemic began, is still emerging from the trauma of President XI Jinping's oppressive zeroo policy. 68, a career diplomat who has served in Republican and Democratic administrations, arrived in China at the height of the zero covid lockdowns and quarantines when my wife Libby and I arrived here in early March 2022, we were quarantined in this house for 21 days for 3 weeks Shanghai, a city of 26 million people, was completely closed for 63 days.

What was that like in the city? We had women who needed to give birth and we had to find a way to get them to the hospital. We had Americans who wanted to give birth. but they had to find a way to get out of their closed compounds to the airport, so zero Co worked for a while in 20 and 21 they had very low or relatively lower infection rates, but by 2022 it had really divided this society and sparked rare widespread protests. Then, in December 2022, President XI abruptly ended the policy, the last thing this government is going to accept here is volatility.

Volatility is something that Yorg Woodka, a German businessman who has lived and worked in China for more than 30 years, has not seen since the Tianan Square uprising. in 1989 you represent BASF, the largest producer of chemicals in the world, you said that this is a country with post-traumatic stress disorder, a country with post-traumatic stress disorder, what do you mean? Well, everyone has been traumatized by the lockdowns that took place in many cities in China and the kind of messages. that came from the leadership is for their own safety and then the blockade was lifted in reality it was more of acapitulation of the government the blockade basically went away and like a bad tsunami we are going to lift it they never said they were wrong that is not The system admitted that they did something wrong and then it was basically like a tsunami was spreading throughout the country after They lifted him up.

December January I would say a billion people were infected and certainly many people died. Independent analysts say approximately 1.4 million people died, this type of environment really changes your attitude towards life and in business we thought we were going to have a comeback story and we had a good couple of weeks and then the economy has basically fled since what do you know, after Co in the In the west, in the United States, in particular, we had a huge and rapid rebound. Why didn't it happen well here? I think Co has also covered up a couple of long-term problems that China has been accumulating, for example in real estate.

I reported on real estate 10 years ago with amazing sites like this of empty buildings in city after city across the country. Today they are similar hollowed out vacant lots of unoccupied and unfinished apartments known as ghost towns when I was here 10 years ago I never expected to see these buildings still here what was then a real estate bubble grew and finally burst this real estate crisis is in the heart of China's economic decline has anyone counted the number of empty units, I mean, across the country? In Germany we have 82 million people who could move here immediately 80 80 to 90 million apartments are empty 80 to 90 million apartments sit empty unfinished over the years Chinese banks readily lend money to developers as the construction boom created millions of jobs and fueled China's growth, but in 2020 President XI's government took clamped down on rampant borrowing, causing major developers to default on their loans and run out of money.

Look, the facade isn't even finished. Says they couldn't even afford to tear down the cranes in January ever Grand, once China's largest developer was ordered to liquidate its remaining assets, left in the lurch millions of Chinese citizens who bought these apartments before they were built, the developers owe their customers who paid the magnitude of 1 billion of us, so if I made the down payment on one of these apartments, will I ever see that money? No, you won't see the money, it's gone, it's over, it's over, so I mean, it's really dramatic. 10 years ago we were told that this, what was the way people invested money for their retirement fund is that it is still the case, 66% 23 of the average wealth of a family home is in apartments, that loss of wealth has depressed spending. of consumers and dragged down the economy we wonder if people blame President XI for that or for the deaths from covid, but it was impossible for us to evaluate public opinion or if it matters as long as no one from the government gave us an interview that we could know how Yorg Woodka, who has lived here for 30 years told us that it is not a good idea to bet against the Chinese people, what are some of the positive aspects of the economy?

They have a strong manufacturing base here, but most of it is really between people's ears, the brains of the Chinese entrepreneurs who really made this success story possible. China is not really good at basic research, but it is fantastic at development, They are world champions in making products better, faster and cheaper, they are better, yes they are in some areas, our Chinese competitors are breathing down our necks and basically driving some of us out of the market, for example, China now It manufactures more than 80% of all solar panels in the world, dominates the wind turbine market, and is poised to overtake Japan as the world's largest exporter of automobiles and more.

We are the largest trading partner of twice as many countries in the world as the United States, so they have a leading trading partner with over 60 countries in the world and now, with heavy government subsidies, they are quickly becoming the leader in electric vehicles in last quarter, the automaker. byd overtook Tesla as the world's best-selling electric vehicle maker Shanghai-based Neo is trying to break through with high-tech innovations in December, the company unveiled a new battery with a range of 620M, more than 200M more than Tesla's high-end model. This is our flagship William Lee, the CEO and founder of Neo, says its battery swapping technology allows owners to swap out their dead battery for a

full

y charged one in less than 3

minutes

, exactly it's uh, 2 and a half

minutes

. 2 and a half minutes. and a half, yes, we already installed a 2200 uh exchange station in China.

China is also developing a humanoid robot industry. Look, after many years it is becoming a reality. Alex Goo is the founder and CEO of Forier Intelligence. Hello, last year he launched his gr1. first generation humanoid we can make an arm, you can move the arm, yes, you see, oh, look at the fingers, oh my god, can you play the piano, yes, in the future, you definitely can, in the future, Also in the future, he says robots could quickly provide medical care to the Chinese. aging of the population, maybe we can, for example, remotely control these types of robots to help my grandfather, for example, yes, I think that President XI, who visited this company last year, called for the mass production of humanoids by 2025 in his annual New Year's speech. about the country's economic problems and acknowledged for the first time the high unemployment rate, yet he has set a long-term goal of doubling China's economy by 2035 and surpassing the West in technology.

Our companies and technology experts compete in artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum technology. Mathematics, all those technological advances will lead to a new generation of military technology. Our two armies are competing for military supremacy, who will be the most powerful and important strategic part of the world, which is the Endo Pacific. She and Presidents Biden met in San Francisco in November in hopes of restoring military communications between our two countries that China had severed. I think we have returned to a more stable relationship between the two countries, but it has been a roller coaster. The lowest point, according to him, was the spy balloon. incident last year, but there has also been a build-up of military bases in the South China Sea, an increase in air raids near Taiwan and the drone of US military aircraft.

Is there a drop in temperature in the South China Sea? No, and that's a problem. don't do it and then in Taiwan, after Speaker Pelosi's visit, we have seen for 16 months a much higher rate of Chinese air and naval activity, which is very intimidating, intended to intimidate, which the Taiwan does not have that They have not withdrawn. that and I think ultimately they want to become and overtake the United States as the dominant country globally and we don't want that to happen, we don't want to live in a world where the Chinese are the dominant country when the Cold War ends. we all thought our system had won yes you know his system failed our system stood up now he came back and said no no the communist system is the right way I guess we didn't bury him after all you know it's interesting to compare the old cold war with this era what distinguishes this era from the old Cold War The Soviet Union had a strong army and nuclear weapons it had a very weak economy that in no way competed with ours China's economy is very strong we are dealing with an adversary a competitor in China was stronger than the Soviet Union in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, so if that was a Cold War, what do you call this?

It is a competition of ideas, a battle of ideas, our idea, America's great idea of ​​a democratic society and human freedom. versus China's idea that a communist state is stronger than a democracy, we don't believe that, so here's a battle over what ideas should lead the world and we believe those are American ideas, the US Navy helped securing victory in two world wars and Today, during the Cold War, the Navy remains a formidable fighting force, but even officers within the service have questioned its readiness, while the United States spent 20 years fighting land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon watched China, its biggest geopolitical rival of the 21st century, build the largest Navy.

Around the world, China has threatened to use that Navy to invade Taiwan, an important American ally as tensions with China continue to rise. We wanted to know more about the current status of the US Navy and how it is trying to deter China while preparing for the possibility of war the Navy is always on alert one third of the Navy is always deployed and operating at all times the Navy is currently assembling about 300 ships and there are about 100 ships at sea right now around the world Admiral Samuel Paparo commands the US Pacific Fleet whose 200 ships and 150,000 sailors and civilians They make up 60% of the entire US Navy.

We met him last month on Loyed's aircraft carrier USS Nimitz near the US territory of Guam southeast of Taiwan and the PRC or PRC as it has been operating. a naval officer for 40 years how operation in the western pacific has changed in the early 2000s the navy of the people's republic of

china

assembled about 37 ships today is assembling 350 ships this month the new foreign minister of

china

, Chin Gong, issuing a stern warning to the US, said that If Washington does not change course in its stance towards China, conflict and confrontation are inevitable last August, when then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, became the highest-ranking American political figure to visit Taiwan in 25 years, China called it a blatant provocation, the People's Liberation Army.

They fired ballistic missiles into the sea around Taiwan and surrounded the island with planes and warships, so Chinese warships now operate closer to Taiwan after Nancy Pel's visit. Yes, the best guess anyone has about China's ultimate intentions for Taiwan comes from the CIA, based on their intelligence. assessment China's President Xi Jinping has ordered the People's Liberation Army to be prepared to take back the island by force by 2027 and if China invades Taiwan, what will the US Navy do? It is a decision of the president of the United States and a decision of Congress. It is our duty to be prepared for that, but the bulk of the United States Navy will quickly deploy to the Western Pacific to assist Taiwan if the order comes to help Taiwan thwart that invasion.

Is the United States Navy ready? We are ready. Yes, I will never admit that I am prepared enough. Yes, President Biden has stated four times, including on 60 Minutes, that the US military would defend Taiwan, which is a democracy and the world's leading producer of advanced microchips. 604 to reach the USS Nits we traveled for the first time. to the westernmost territory of the United States, the island of Guam in the middle of the Pacific Guam was taken by Imperial Japan two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The US Marines recovered it two and a half years later and the island of The size of Chicago became an indispensable strategic foothold in the Western Pacific just as it remains today.

From Guam we boarded a Navy Greyhound C2, a Cold War-era transport plane that ferries people with supplies one way. and return from land to the aircraft carrier. It was a short flight to the ship and an even shorter landing. amazing first Cod Landing yes oh very nice certain operations before admiral paparo Rose led the Pacific Fleet he flew Jets and graduated from the school known as Top Gun when you talk about ships which is the most powerful in the US Navy. The US is an aircraft carrier and its Airwing is capable of conducting 150 air-to-air strikes or sorties per day, with surge levels, the ability to deliver 900 precision guided munitions every day and reloadable every night, so although China now has the largest Navy in the world, they don't.

They don't have anything like this in terms of aircraft carriers, they don't, but they are working towards it and they have two operational aircraft carriers right now: China's two diesel-powered aircraft carriers and The US 11 nuclear-powered aircraft can carry a total of about a thousand more attack aircraft than the navies of all other nations on Earth combined. I will tell you that we are here to stay right in the South China Sea and in this part of the world andI think that's the message that I really want to convey not only to China but to the whole world that we will sail wherever international law allows.

Lieutenant Commander David Ash flies fa8. Is he informed about the growing military threat from China and the progress the Navy is making against it? Absolutely yes, absolutely, we do and they are making great progress in many key areas the Chinese the Chinese are from a military point of view this video from Weapons Systems Officer Lieutenant Commander Matthew Carlton shows his FA18 strafing ground targets with a machine gun at a US gun range near Guam the pilots in the nits Additionally, conduct daily air-to-air combat drills or dogfights. How aggressive has China become on the air? Aggressive and, just a few examples, include unsafe and unprofessional interceptions where they move within single digits of feet of other aircraft displaying the weapons they have. boarding the air of other aircraft operating in international airspace by maneuvering their aircraft in such a way that they are denied the ability to turn in One Direction if they are safe and professional then no problem everyone has the right to fly and sail wherever they want international law is there. dictates but the Chinese are putting pressure on it China's increasingly aggressive measures in the Western Pacific, invading territory, fishing illegally and building bases in the middle of the South China Sea, have pushed nations such as Japan and the Philippines to close their Military ties with the United States and Britain Last week the United States and Australia signed a historic agreement to jointly develop nuclear-powered attack submarines to patrol the Pacific.

This is how China and Taiwan appear on most maps. This is how the Chinese Communist Party views the Western Pacific, including the South. and the East China Sea from Beijing Taiwan is the fulcrum of what China's leaders call the first island chain, a constellation of American allies stretching along its entire coast. Control of Taiwan's coast is the strategic key to unlocking direct access to the Pacific and sea routes. 50% of world trade is carried China has accused the United States of trying to contain them. What do you say to China? I would say: Does it need to be contained?

Is it expanding? Are you a largely expansionist power? The United States was the champion of China's rise and we are in no way seeking to contain China, but we are seeking to make them follow the rules. China's Navy, a branch of the People's Liberation Army, is now the largest in the world. China is also using its 9,000 miles of coastline. rewrite the rules of fighting at sea, as these images from Chinese state media show that its military has invested heavily in long-range precision guided weapons like the DF-21 and DF-26 that can be used to target ships Chinese People's Liberation Army rockets Calls to force they kill aircraft carriers and have practiced shooting at mock-ups of American ships in the desert that look a lot like nits since the United States has been operating in China's backyard in Western Pacific, they have been developing missiles to attack our assets, haven't they? specific missiles absolutelyYes, first I will say that the United States is also a Western Pacific nation, so it is not China's backyard.

It is a free and open Indo-Pacific encompassing numerous treaty partners and allies and yes, we have seen them greatly improve their power projection. capacity how much do you care about the strength of the PLA rocket? I worry about, you know, I would be a fool not to worry, of course, I worry about the strength of the PLA rocket, of course, I work every day to develop the tactics, the techniques and the procedures to counter it and continue to develop systems that also can defend us against them about how far we are from mainland China, 1500 nautical miles they can attack us.

Yes, they can, if they have the objectives set, they could attack this. aircraft carrier if I don't want to be hit, there is something I can do about it. US Navy planners are not only planning how to evade China's rocket force, but also how they could effectively defend themselves from the vicinity of Guam. This ship has the range to approach Taiwan without refueling in the air. Ships like the US destroyer Wayne Meer, part of the Nimit strike group, would need to sail much closer to China to fire their missiles at any force invading Taiwan, a naval academic we spoke to compared.

It is a boxing match in which one fighter, in this case China, has much longer arms than his potential opponent, the United States. I will give you many examples where a shorter fighter was able to prevail over a long Farm Fighter by being alert. maneuvering and we can also stay and move. While we develop those longer-range weapons, there is another area of ​​modern naval warfare where the United States had an advantage and retains a large advantage over China. I just noticed from the corner of my eye, this is a Los Angeles Class 688 Class A attack submarine, this is the most capable submarine on the planet, you know, with the exception of the newest class of Virginia class submarines.

The exact number is classified, but our best estimate is that there are about a dozen nuclear-powered fast attack submarines patrolling the Pacific at any given time. They are difficult to detect and track, something China is trying to figure out how much more advanced it is. American submarine technology than Chinese capability in a generation and, uh, in a generation, I think within 10 or 20 years but Broad L I don't really talk in depth about submarine capabilities, it's the silent service since the visit of Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. China's military leaders have remained silent and ignored the US military's efforts to keep lines of communication open even as a Chinese spy balloon reached US airspace and was shot down by the United States.

If the US and Chinese militaries cannot communicate via a Chinese spy balloon, what will happen when there is a real crisis in the South China Sea or with Taiwan? We will answer the phone; Otherwise, we will do our best assessment based on the things they say in open source and based on their behavior to define their intentions and we will act accordingly. Doesn't that make the situation even more dangerous? The American and Chinese militaries are not talking, yes, several sources inside the Pentagon told 60 Minutes that if China were to invade Taiwan, it could very well begin in outer space with both sides targeting the other satellites that allow cyberattacks with guided weaponry from precision against American cities and sabotage. of ports on the west coast of the continental US could follow a recent unclassified war game if the US had prevailed, but losing 20 ships, including two aircraft carriers, sounds good, it's a plausible outcome.

I can imagine a more pessimistic outcome and I can imagine a more optimistic outcome. We should have a clearer view of the costs we potentially incur. There are about 5,000 Americans aboard the ship. The ship is almost half a century old given the current needs of the Navy in the Pacific and because there is fuel left in its nuclear plant. reactors the aircraft carrier's life at sea is going to be extended Is your hope that the power of the US Navy's force posture will deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan? It is not my hope, it is my duty together with allies and partners to deliver intolerable costs to anyone who disturbs the order in violation of the security of the nation or in violation of the interests of the nation, the saying that is see p Empire, which is if you want peace, prepare for war as President Shei of China prepares for a state visit to Russia tomorrow, to strengthen that Alliance, we discuss critical questions about the state of the US Navy and its readiness when let's go back. 60 Minutes has spent months speaking with current and former naval officers, military strategists and politicians about the state of the U.S.

Navy, a common thread. There is concern in our reports both about the size of the US fleet and its willingness to fight. Navy ships are being retired faster than they are replaced, while the PRC or PRC Navy is growing bigger and bigger every year. We asked U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Samuel Paparo about this during our visit to the USS Nimitz, the Navy's oldest aircraft carrier, we call it the decade of worry. We have seen a tenfold increase in the size of the PRC Navy technically. Speaking, the Chinese now have the largest Navy in the world in terms of number of ships, right, numbers matter, yes, as the saying goes, quantity has a quality of its own, at some point they are going to reach numbers that they don't we can prevail.

I'm not comfortable with the trajectory, if you look at a map in the Indo Pacific, one thing is clear: there is a lot of water on that map, so ours has to be a maritime strategy. Republican Mike Gallagher and Democrat Elaine Lauria served together in the house. Armed Services Committee last Congress What is it about the US Navy that has allowed the two of you to find common cause? I think we share a sense of urgency as we see growing threats from China, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. we feel we are not moving fast enough to build a larger Navy.

Congressman Gallagher is a Navy veteran representing Green Bay Wisconsin. He chairs the new House committee on China. He worries that under the Navy's current plan, the fleet will be reduced to 280 ships by 2027, the same year the CIA says China is aiming to have the ability to take Taiwan by force, so we will be more weak when our enemy is potentially stronger. China's increasing rhetoric and possible aggression against Taiwan we will have to be prepared to respond today. with the forces we have today former Congresswoman Elaine Laua represented Virginia Beach until last January an Annapolis graduate Lauria had a 20-year naval career before being elected to Congress What would you say is the current state of the US Navy?

USA? I believe the Navy did not receive the attention and resources it needs for two decades. I mean, I served on six different ships, each of those ships was built during or as a product of the fleet that was built in the Cold War. Both Mike Gallagher and Elaine Laua have pushed for government money for shipyards in or near their districts, but they say this has less to do with jobs and more to do with Homeland Security, if we don't get this right, all these other things we're doing in Congress may ultimately not matter. If you think about what a coherent grand strategy against China would be, hard power would be the most important part of that and the Navy would be the most important component of your hard power.

Over the past two decades, the Navy spent $55 billion on two investments. that didn't work out, the first was a class of destroyers known as zomalt, the futuristic combat ships that were supposed to revolutionize naval warfare. 32 were ordered, but only three were released. The cost of each ship, by one estimate, was more than $8 billion, making them the three most expensive destroyers ever launched to sea. Another example is the local combat ship or LCS, designed to be a fast, all-purpose shallow water warship. Nickname little shit ship The last few decades of the Navy have been described as a Lost Generation of shipbuilding.

It's too dramatic, I don't think. We are still struggling to build ships on time and on budget and that is something we absolutely need to fix. Last week we spoke with Admiral Mike Gild at the Pentagon. He is the chief of naval operations and is responsible for building, maintaining and equipping the entire US Navy. Is the Navy in crisis? No, the Navy is not in crisis. The Navy is on point. every day it is being surpassed by China. No, our Navy is still able to prevail, but that is not blind confidence. We are concerned about the trajectory China is on with China's behavior, but we are in a good position right now, if we ever were. going into a fight against them, how would you describe what China has been able to do militarily over the last 20 years?

What's most alarming is the growth of not only their conventional forces but their strategic nuclear forces, there's cyber capability, there's space capability and how they're using that to force other nations out of certain areas in the South China Sea instead. to recognize international law. They want to control where those goods flow and how what lessons did the US Navy learn from someof America's shipbuilding mistakes? Over the last 20 years, I think one of the things we learned was that we need to have a well-established design before we start bending metal, so we go back to what we did in the '80s and '90s.

Forward there is a tendency among great powers to view each other's naval capabilities with deep suspicion. Toshi Yoshihara of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments may know more about China's Navy than any Western scholar. China will have around 440 ships by 2030 and that is, according to the Pentagon, why China can build more warships faster than the US? China has clearly invested in this defense industrial infrastructure to produce these ships, allowing them to produce multiple ships simultaneously, essentially surpassing many of the Western navies. The combined Chinese Navy relies on a booming commercial shipbuilding industry kept afloat by generous state subsidies, cheap materials and cheap labor in the United States, it's a different story after the Cold War ended. to the shipbuilding industry.

Consolidated and many of the shipyards where ships were built. and kept closed what do you think when you see China's shipbuilding program? It is very solid. Do we have enough shipyards? No. I wish we had more commercial shipyards during my career. We have gone from more than 30 shipyards to about seven. one of those shipyards is run by Huntington Engles Industries, which built the new state-of-the-art Ford-class aircraft carrier after controlled explosions in 202 21 to prove it could withstand combat. Ford approached the rollout 6 years late and billions of dollars over budget. The Navy isn't just struggling to build new ships on time, according to the Government Accountability Office, or GAO.

There is a delay of several years in the repair of the fleet's ships. Our delay in maintenance. It's one of the main things I'm working to correct, so just three years ago we had 7,700 days of delay, that is, extra days in a shipyard by ships when they were not operational. We have reduced it to 3000, we are not satisfied. maintenance delays mean sailors can't come home because the ship that's supposed to replace them isn't ready means longer deployments means being away from your family more it's a huge strain on the workforce the more ships we can have available to ship to sea alleviates many of those problems that you pointed out.

Sailors join the Navy to see the world, so it's my job to make sure those maintenance delays go to zero and we can get those ships sailing as fast as possible just in the last year, at least 10. Sailors assigned to ships undergoing maintenance or working in maintenance facilities have died by suicide. It's an issue that we're taking very, very seriously and down to every leader in our Navy, everyone has the responsible ability to take care of each other, take care of each other. On the other hand, there is no wrong door to knock on when you need help.

Admiral Guild says the U.S. Navy's biggest advantage over China is American sailors. Their goal is to modernize the U.S. fleet and have those sailors serve alongside hundreds of unmanned vessels by 2045. I think unmanned is the future, so I think about 40% of our fleet in the In the future I think it will be unmanned, they are like underwater drones, some of them are highly capable of launching mines and perhaps other types of weapons that Admiral Gild talks about. the Orca is an extra large unmanned underwater vehicle, can you tell us what it will do or is it well classified?

At the very least, it will have a clandestine M placement capability, so it could be done in a very secretive, but very effective way. but the GAO reports that it is already a quarter of a billion dollars over budget and three years behind schedule. That particular platform is behind schedule. It is the first of its kind when delivered. I see a very high return on investment from that particular platform because because uh it will be among the most lethal and stealth platforms uh in the U.S. military arsenal the total Navy budget request for fiscal year 2024 exceeds quarter trillion, an increase of 11 billion from last year, the focus is on China, the defense of the US.

The Chinese consider this stance aggressive. The Foreign Minister just said: "Stop containment. This may lead to conflict. Perhaps the Chinese Minister will not like the fact that the US Navy is operating in collaboration with dozens of navies around the world.world to ensure that the Maritime Commons remains free and open for all nations, the Chinese want to dictate those terms and that is why they do not like our presence, but our presence is not intended to be provocative, it is intended to assure and reassure to allies and partners around the world. the world that those sea routes remain open the global economy has literally floated on sea water since Mazy dong won the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and the losing anti-communist side fled to a small nearby island Beijing has insisted that that island Taiwan is an integral part of the mainland, the US has followed a strict RPP respecting the one-China policy, but maintaining a special relationship with Taiwan today a progressive and prosperous democracy in September President Biden promised in this broadcast that the US .will protect Taiwan Last week the Taiwanese government said China aims to normalize its military pressure on the island that intensified after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited in August with its largest military exercise ever held. in a display of terrifying military power.

China subjected Taiwan to three days of non-stop raids with more than 100 warplanes and a barrage of ballistic missiles and warships surrounding the island delivering a loud and clear message that China could suffocate Taiwan any time it wanted. You think they are going to invade, yes, that is a question of if they invade, it is a question of when they will invade. Admiral Lee Shiing, who used to head Taiwan's Armed Forces, has been sounding alarms for years because as China's military has grown, Taiwan's has shrunk, the number of uniformed soldiers has dropped to half over the years, the length of mandatory service has been reduced to just 4 months, an Admiral Lee complains that the government has been buying the wrong weapons for years: US tanks and jets instead of smaller portable missiles.

What I understand is that you think that the military needs these stingers, javelins and drones exactly what they need in Ukraine. Yes, this is who and you will not receive them now because they are giving them to Ukraine. In my opinion, we already ordered it, it is not enough, but nevertheless we started ordering that, but we have not received any yet because other counts also have a type. of similar requirements we are not in the main list, but we need them now, yes, we need them now. Did the Taiwanese military waste all those years buying those big guns?

I think you already know this, but we don't have time to waste anymore. Taiwan doesn't get US military aid, it buys the weapons, but manufacturers can't meet demand. The Taiwanese have already purchased about $4 billion worth of weapons that they have not yet received. We were surprised that few here seem to share the admiral's sense. urgency here in Taiwan you never know the dragon of the north recently sent warships to surround the island people told us over and over it's no big deal China has been doing versions of that for 70 years well a lot of it of the world thought an invasion was imminent, polls show. that most Taiwanese think that is unlikely in the short term, if ever, and that is reflected in what we saw in the capital, Taipei, where life goes on uninterrupted in the morning, traffic flows usually.

Shoppers do what they always do during the day and at night we saw older people painting. outdoors and teenagers practicing hip-hop routines despite the threat from the north, this kind of threat is our daily life Wan dingu, a parliamentarian from southern Taiwan, says a kind of war has already started in China. They are trying to annex Taiwan for the last 50 years. They try everything. Otherwise, maybe I can give you very specific figures. There are 20 million cyber attacks a day, yes, every day. Wong, who sits on parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Defense committee, took us to a high-security lab where engineers track such attacks.

Taiwan, yes, it is a small island, but we are proud of it. The map shows China's attacks in real time when they hit Taiwan and it is very close to China. Yes, unfortunately, China also hopes to defeat Taiwan without firing a single shot as they dream. that, in addition to cyber warfare, they are trying to sabotage Taiwan's thriving economy and intimidate politically powerful groups such as farmers and fishermen in Wong's home district of Tinan, who have been especially hard hit by a series. of export bands when Speaker Pelosi was here yes, China they told us they banned 1,000 products Taiwanese products many from your region down here hurt some individual businesses like the fishing industry Are there any grouper here? 90% of grouper exports went to China last year but suddenly in June Beijing banned grouper from Taiwan devastating fishermen piled up boxes and boxes of fish China also went after pineapples crushing Farmers like this young couple devastated our pineapples got stuck in Taiwan and we lost $60,000 and I understand the ban was that sudden, without warning, without warning, the government fought back with a pineapple for freedom campaign to entice everyone to buy and eat lots of pineapples, oh OMG, they are so sweet, our housewives have a voice, let's eat pample at our dining table, everyone eats. they have their dinner for lunch they provide pineapples we find a fairly prosperous country a leading exporter of bicycles and other sports equipment this small island is a technological giant in agriculture Innovation and especially in semiconductors Taiwan is practically the world's only source of the thinnest microchips manufactured almost exclusively By one company, tsmc China depends on these, like the rest of the world, for things like iPhones, advanced computers, and auto components. tsmc founder moris chang, 91, explains why many people here think the chips protect them from xi jinping's attacks.

I have heard this expression um silicon shield or chip shield talking about your company, well, it means that maybe because our company provides a lot of chips to the world, maybe someone will refrain from attacking it if that person's priority is economic well-being. -being I think they will refrain from attacking, what if the priority is to come here and nationalize your company within you? You know, a China, if there is a war, I mean, it will be destroyed, everything will be destroyed. China says some of their Chinese communists say: invade Taiwan and occupy tsmc make it a party owned company then we will be superpower US, Japan and Europe we don't supply terrestrial chips they will follow Chinese orders but that's naive right?

Why is not just a cheap company, even a sausage company, so naive? You need a recipe, you need human capital, you need to know how to manufacture, manufacture those types of products if there is reunification, what would happen to you if you die, you die, yes, you go to bed and then many Taiwanese like me will die? Beijing has sanctioned Wongatu personally for being openly independent, pro-Taiwan, and passionately defends the country's progressive democracy. We saw campaign signs everywhere validating the island's commitment to clean elections and freedom of expression. Beijing has promised that if there were reunification, Taiwan would be able to maintain many of its freedoms, and yet in 2019 China broke a similar promise to Hong Kong.

I know that the protests led to beatings, detentions, and stripping of democratic rights, affected Taiwan, and led President Sai in Wen, leader of the aggressively anti-reunification party, to win re-election by a landslide. We are firmly determined to defend our freedom, democracy and way of life, given what happened in Hong Kong and the recent military escalation, we were curious to know why people are so stoic. They were asked if they were in denial or apathetic. A Taiwanese writer said that it is something like global warming. You know it's there. and it's going to get worse, but most people get on with their lives, what can an individual really do?

But then the Taiwanese see the Ukrainians take on the Russians. He so inspired Jack Yao, a young coffee seller fromTaipe, who went there to help in the fight. You're going because you're Taiwanese, yeah, what's the connection? It is like the situation in Ukraine and our situation is very similar. They also have big neers and they were the communists and we have to face communist China and they always want to take us away. Do you want to take us? Did you have in mind that if you are going to fight for Ukraine, other people will come here and fight for Taiwan?

Yes, what the Ukrainians have done is raise a question here in Taiwan about whether that small democracy can stand up to their threats. Neighbor, why can't we see civil defense classes like this one on how to identify Chinese fake news during an attack emerge and this night class in the park on how to operate two-way radios in Morse code and the Internet get wiped out? we want our students to be able to apply a tourniquet in 30 seconds. Enoch Woo, a former Special Forces soldier, is giving training workshops on how to treat gunshot and shrapnel wounds and conduct search and rescue, and Admiral Lee wants to go a step further and call for the government to arm Taiwan's citizens. and create a volunteer force like Ukraine, if Ukraine can do that, why not Taiwan?

You know, I'm trying to convince our people that it's important because this is a symbol of deterrence resolve, so you're proposing what I assume. I would call the Ukrainian model similar. The people of Ukraine really inspire all people, but do all people change fast enough? I don't believe it. Do you think Taiwanese people have the same kind of determination? I firmly believe it because we value how we live, we love peace. we don't like war but we won't see it our democracy our life for peace we are going to surrender there is a chance you will surrender no, there is never a chance Hong Kong is famous for its carefree capitalism after 150 years as a British colony the city It returned to Chinese control in 1997.

China promised Hong Kong partial autonomy for 50 years with an independent and dependent legal system and guaranteed freedom of expression, but many Hong Kongers believe the Chinese government is undermining those limited freedoms, so they demand

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democracy the right to elect their own leaders without interference from Beijing who are the protesters and what are their chances of success to know we went to Hong Kong but to understand what is happening there you have to start here in Beijing on 1 October they threw a carefully choreographed birthday party for the Chinese regime it has been 70 years since the communists took power the show of strength and stability of a rising superpower was also a warning to the pandas of Hong Kong in the pandemonium of Beijing in Hong Kong 12 1,200 thousand inhabitants of the South were not in danger Mood to celebrate Hong Kong residents demand a democracy inadequate for their city of 7 million inhabitants.

Many wear masks to hide their identity from police on the 70th anniversary. The march began peacefully as they normally do. You're right in front, always at 71. Jimmy. He has lived the Hong Kong dream, was born in mainland China, fled the communists when he was 12, went from rags to riches, from a worker in a textile factory to a billionaire with a chain of fashion stores and then this in 1989 , when Chinese tanks massacred students in Beijing's Tenan Square. He became involved in politics and founded a media company in Hong Kong that is not afraid to criticize the Chinese government.

I like to participate in the delivery of information because I believe that information is freedom, he told us. Hong

kong

ers are demanding. real democracy and are fighting to preserve their basic human rights. The Chinese government's intention to take away our freedom is so obvious that we know that if we don't fight we will lose everything. What do you mean by losing everything? Well, when you lose your freedom, you lose everything, what do you have? I mean, you have a wonderful city. Prosperity, that's what Chinese people think, they think we only have a body, we don't have a soul, you just make money, have a good life, don't think about it. politics does not think about freedom it does not think about human rights it does not think about the rule of law just eat enjoy life why that is not enough because we are human beings we have a soul we are not a dog and we are not willing to accept interference every time Mayor of Beijing at the anniversary celebration the president of China, Xiin Ping, predicted a better future for Hong Kong, but many in this city do not trust him.

This gentleman proudly paraded with an American flag. This man is a refugee from mainland China. He says he swam here in 1962 and hates the Chinese Communist Party. Many of the protesters carry umbrellas. This started five years ago at previous demonstrations when they were used to protect themselves from pepper spray. Now the protesters even have their own anthem. They have launched this orchestra. Version Let freedom reign Go the lyrics, glory be to you Hong Kong, we share the same value as you Americans, what we are fighting for is the first battle of the new Cold War, the cold war between the US ., China and China, and you're saying their values ​​here in Hong Kong align with those of the West, yes, because of our British past, they didn't give us democracy, but they gave us the rule of law, the free market, the right to private property, free press and they don't have any of those in mainland China.

No, they don't have any of that for Jimmy, they lie, those values ​​are not cheap, the Chinese government has pressured companies not to advertise in their newspaper, he told us, they cost them millions of dollars a year, that's why few businessmen here they dare to criticize the rulers of China. Take responsibility to fight because this gives me meaning to my life. You, this young woman of barely 20 years old is called Paris. She dresses this way when she protests to protect her identity. The people of Hong Kong have been subject to city-wide terrorism for four months. she's been on the front lines, the risk I'm taking is almost 10 years in jail on riot charges, you know, maybe even more, why are you willing to risk your future for these protests if Hong Kong has no future? , so what?

It's my futureHere I don't see Hong Kong having a future. You know, if the movement fails, are you and other protesters willing to risk dying? No, I'm not willing to die, but you know I accept that it's a possibility. I think Hong Kong is at a point where things can't go back things can only escalate from here protesters and police blame each other for the escalation police say protesters keep attacking them protesters say police keep overreacting by beating them When they are already down when this group sets up against the police with metal bars, an officer shot one in the chest at Point Blank Range.

He survived and became one of more than a thousand protesters who were treated in hospitals. 2,000 have been arrested. I think it's difficult when all we have are umbrellas and the police have a lot of weapons. at your disposal not only do you have umbrellas we saw protesters throwing Molotov cocktails um and we have seen yes tons of cocktails I would say that the police have forced us to do this we saw the protesters empty a suitcase full of Molotov cocktails and set fire to a station subway the Beijing government uses scenes like this to paint the protesters as riots paid for by foreign agents the protesters say they will not leave the streets until their demands are met but the Hong Kong authorities do not want to give in it is a stalemate and only the Chinese government in Beijing can break it.

China has quietly doubled the size of its Hong Kong garrison in recent weeks. This video appears to be a thinly veiled threat about what Chinese troops might do. Bernard Chan is a Hong Kong delegate to China's rubber stamp legislature. You wrote that Beijing sees this as a threat to national security. Why is what happened in Hong Kong a national security threat to China? Well, look at some of the slogans he used. the protester says the Hong Kong liberating revolution of our times and then you know we have a protester carrying flags of the United States, the United Kingdom and so on, how is that a threat to a superpower like China?

I do not think you know it. It will be useful when in any country you see signs that another country is involved in your local politics for 30 years. The West has condemned China for the way it handled the Tienan massacre in 1989. How do you think the world will view Beijing's situation? response to these protests in 30 years and I certainly think they don't want a repeat of what happened in 1989, so I think that's why they still want the Hong Kong police to deal with our own problem, the spark of these protests was last month, the Hong Kong government eventually withdrew the bill, although the protesters' demands had expanded to include full democratic democracy This protest is about politics It's about values ​​It's about civic freedom The professor Samson Yun is studying the protesters.

His researchers have interviewed more than 13,000 of them. He told us that most of them are middle-class, highly educated young people with no official leaders to organize. Through online forums, the People come up with tactical ideas about how to escalate the protest, how to be innovative, and people actually put this into action. Can you give me an example of how people came up with the idea to protest at the airport? It received a lot of support, so it became a real action. Jimmy Li, the dissident media mogul, says his relatives in mainland China have been threatened with arrest unless he moderates his criticism and refuses.

I decided a long time ago that I'm not going to be intimidated by you I said look to help with this I'm not going to think about the consequences what I do I'm just doing the right thing Li says his house is under constant surveillance an apparent attempt to scare away visitors hello I'm Holly Williams from 60 Minutes Hi, can I ask who you are and who you represent? No comments No comments Hello ma'am I'm Holly Williams from 60 Minutes Are you here every day ma'am looking at Mr Lie? No, I don't think he wants to talk. to us later at the protest there she was again excuse me ma'am, are you still here following Mr.

Lie, still taking pictures of the people around Jimmy Lie, still not talking to us this week? China pressured people out of Hong Kong. Apple removed an app. that could help protesters evade police Google dropped a game about the Hong Kong protests and an NBA team executive apologized after tweeting his support for protesters, but on the street the intimidation tactics of the government have backfired, according to Professor Samson Yun, more people are joining the fight because of repeated police brutalities, even peaceful protesters think violence may be necessary. Yeah, I think it's definitely not indiscriminate violence, it's more directed at law enforcement or government authorities.

I think right now the government is still trying to suppress the protest and is unwilling. to negotiate with the protesters, the young protesters are idealistic and perhaps naive, but Jimmy Lie says they are Hong Kong's last chance for freedom as I saw the children come forward and confront the police. He moved me a lot. I admired them. Why is it your turn? because they risk their lives to protect this place we call home. The lie told us that their generation has failed them in the 30 years that we have done nothing, the previous generation to ensure freedom, the way of life of our children and that is why they have done it now. stand up to fight for themselves