Have world leaders found common ground at Paris AI Action Summit?
51:57 Share

Hello and welcome to World Today, I'm Zhao Ying. Coming up, at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, China has called for common development and security in the field of AI. World's largest EV battery maker CATL has filed for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Romania's president has resigned to preempt an impeachment bid by opposition parties in parliament.

China has repeated its commitment to global AI collaboration for security and shared progress. Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing made the pledge at the two-day Paris AI Action Summit, which concluded on Wednesday. China has also joined 60 other countries in signing an international agreement on artificial intelligence, pledging an open, inclusive, ethical and safe approach to the technology's development.

The United States and Britain refused to sign the declaration. The event gathered over 1,500 heads of state, officials of international organizations, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries.

For more, our reporter Song Rui-Hsin earlier had a talk with Professor Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist from the University of New South Wales' AI Institute in Australia. Professor Walsh, why are France and India co-hosting this summit and how significant is it on the global stage? I think it's pretty significant. AI is having a large impact upon so many different economies.

The previous summits, the first summit was held by the United Kingdom, second summit by South Korea. France is trying to step up to the mantle here, try and make sure that Europe plays an important role in the AI race, and especially within Europe, France itself.

And then, you know, the other interesting party, of course, is India. Not only is India co-hosting it, the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Modi attended the summit, which emphasizes the importance that he places on it. Indeed, I've had the pleasure to meet Prime Minister Modi and have a conversation with him about intelligence. I can tell you he's keenly interested in the topic.

So French President Emmanuel Macron recently announced a over 100 billion euros investment plan for France. So in your opinion, how substantial is this commitment and what does it mean for France's position in AI research? Especially given your experience in Paris, what does this mean for Europe's broader role in the global AI stage? Well, 100 billion dollars is a lot of pocket change.

Well, it used to be a lot of pocket change, but you've got to put that in the context of what the other bets that are being placed elsewhere are.

contrast this with what just was announced in the United States, Stargate, this ambitious project involving OpenAI and a number of other partners. That's 100 billion in the first year, 500 billion or so over the course of the project. So 100 billion is a lot of money to be putting on the table, but it's actually quite small stakes compared to what the US is putting down and possibly what China may be putting down. That's been the mantra up to now, which is, who's got the deepest pockets?

the US has been outspending the rest of the world in the expectation that that was going to win them the race. And what's interesting is, well, you know, the announcements we saw out of China, Deep Seat, this new state-of-the-art performance model that has come out of China, really put the cat amongst the pigeons, not only because it's as good as the best of the West, it's as powerful, as capable as anything that the tech companies in the West have trained, but

which demonstrates that China at least is not behind as many commentators suggested. But also they did it for a lot less money. They claim to have done it for just $6 million, which is an impressively small amount of money to build such a cutting edge model.

And that opens the door, I think, not just for China, but actually for everyone that anyone, you know, who can rustle up $6 million or perhaps, you know, will only get less. You know, there is a trend to try and do these things cheaper and cheaper.

can therefore compete. So that really does open the opportunity for other countries to compete in this race. Yeah, DeepSeek's success has reduced financial barriers for global AI participation. Then what are the primary challenges for Europe's AI development? Like people are saying that the question remains whether this event will have a long-term impact or if it will be a flash in the pan.

Well, there are two primary challenges that Europe faces. One is Brexit in the UK.

The UK is probably the leading nation in Europe in art and intelligence. It's had a long history. DeepMind, for example, the company that was acquired by Google, came out of London. More money, more VC funds is invested in AI in London than anywhere else on the European continent. So the fact that the UK is now somewhat distanced by Brexit is

is a significant disadvantage for Europe competing on the world stage in AI. That's the first trouble. And then the second is the EU has always been quicker to regulate.

This has given consumers and the public in Europe greater digital rights. I mean, we saw this with privacy, the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation. Anyone who's ever gone to Europe has had to click the buttons, giving consent for your data to be used, knows that that has given back privacy. But nevertheless, these sorts of regulations...

are feared to slow down development. And the EU has certainly leading the way in terms of regulating AI. The 1st of January this year, the EU AI Act came into force. The AI office in the EU is now putting that into effect.

We've yet to see, I mean, it's early days, we're only a few months into the implementation of the EU AI Act, whether that's going to have a chilling effect onto the growth of artificial intelligence within Europe and whether that will shift the

continue to shift focus to the US, China and elsewhere. Professor, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing expressed China's willingness to collaborate with other nations on AI to ensure security and share achievements, aiming to build a community with a shared future for mankind. How do you assess China's contributions to AI development so far?

Well, China has announced over the last 10 years its ambition to seek economic, military and other dominance through the use of technologies like AI. And it's gone about that in pretty good short order. And it has become a major player in the last 10 years. 10 years ago, if you were asking me this question, I would say China's not got a significant AI industry. Chinese AI researchers are not at

the cutting edge of the field they are today. We see this with deep seek many announcements, largest large language model in the world today, not is out of China. In fact, I think the two largest AI models with most members of parameters are out of China these days. China is definitely neck and neck with the US by many measures.

I do see, though, a splintering happening. We saw this with the Internet. I mean, we've ended up now essentially with two Internets. There's the Western Internet with all the Western tech companies like Facebook and Google. And when you go to China and various other places, you discover there's a different, completely different ecosystem provided by Chinese tech giants.

And there's very little interplay between the two. And I could see that happening again. You could see that happening not only because China being protective of its own industries, but also the West.

We always have to see things like bans on TikTok. And here in Australia, the government's just announced bans on deep seek from government computers. You can see the world splintering into two different offerings of artificial intelligence and countries and consumers will have to choose which one they want.

China hosted a side event titled Progress in AI Technology and its Application that is focusing on China's advancements in AI development and governance strategies and vision for international cooperation. At the event, Duncan Kasbeck, who is the executive director of the Global AI Risk Initiative at Center for International Governance Innovation, says that much of the world's AI top talent will come from China.

So how do you foresee China's global impact in the field of AI research? In your opinion, will China be a leader or a mediator? No, I can see China leading. I mean, China now invests as much in R&D as the United States. We look at the global rankings of universities. Chinese universities have done a remarkable job of creeping into the top 10, are

So they're a force to be reckoned with. And indeed, what's interesting, especially when we focus on AI, is that the US put in various export restrictions. So, for example, the GPUs, these computing processing chips that are the heart of training AI models, their export restrictions on the latest NVIDIA GPUs.

And that turned out actually to be an incentive for Chinese researchers to be more resourceful, to actually be able to build models with less compute, with second generation GPUs. And indeed, you know, show to the world that you don't actually have to throw so much money, throw much compute at solving these problems. So, you know,

Necessity was the mother of invention, one feels, and that's actually encouraged, incentivized Chinese researchers to actually push the envelope and demonstrated that the U.S. hopes that they could actually hold back China using tools like export restrictions are misguided.

And what's interesting is that now that we know you can do this, and much of the details of this have been published, the weights are downloadable, you can run it on your own computer. It's like running the four minute mile when Roger Bannister, the first man to run the four minute mile, ran the four minute mile for the first time.

40 or 50 years ago, lots of people were then able to run the 4-minute mile because we knew it was possible and we knew how we did it. And the same will be true for these advanced AI models. We know China was able to do it with DeepSeq much cheaper, much more economically. And so lots of us can now do that. Indeed, there's lots of efforts now to recreate DeepSeq using even less hardware and even less compute.

There's Hugging Face. This is an open source collaborative platform where AI researchers around the world share their results. There's a project on Hugging Face now to do exactly that. So indeed, you know, I think in many respects, you can see the US restrictions have backfired splendidly on the US and indeed have incentivized and enabled China to get to the cutting edge and even perhaps a little bit ahead.

The United States and Britain did not sign up the final statement of a French hosted AI summit that said AI should be inclusive, open, ethical and safe. So how do you interpret their position on these statements? And what's the impact of two big science powers and not publicly declaring on these AI development principles?

Well, it's unsurprising. It must be very disappointing for France, who would hope, you know, to have some, you know, substance come out of the summit. But to have two of the key players, as you mentioned, the US, one of the leading nations, UK, a long history of scientific excellence, not to sign this. Unsurprising, because if we look back, you know, what did Trump do on the first day of his second term in office? He signed an executive order to...

undoing all of the safety, AI safety work that President Biden had put into place. He's in bed with obviously Elon Musk, with Sam Orman, with the tech brothers in Silicon Valley, wanting nothing to hold back US tech companies from winning this race. And he's not going to, clearly he's not going to sign or his vice president is not going to sign anything at this summit that would possibly do that.

That is Professor Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist from the University of New South Wales' AI Institute in Australia, speaking with our reporter, Song Ruixin. Coming up, the Bank of England has cut interest rates to 4.5%, the lowest since June 2023. This is World Today. Stay with us.

Welcome back. You're listening to World Today. I'm Zhao Ying. The Bank of England has cut interest rates to 4.5%, the lowest since June 2023. The 25 basis point cut makes borrowing cheaper and is intended to boost spending, but the lower rate can also lead to smaller returns for savers.

The bank also slashed its growth forecast for the year. The UK economy is expected to grow by 0.75% in 2025, down from its previous estimate of 1.5%. For more on this, my colleague Zhao Yang spoke with Yan Liang, a professor of economics at Willamette University.

So, Yan, the Bank of England has cut the interest rates to 4.5%, the lowest level for more than 18 months. So what's the purpose of it? Well, the purpose is to try to stimulate the economic growth of the UK economy. So as we know, the UK economy is not doing very well. Basically, they forecasted the annual growth for 2024 would only be 0.75. This is according to the Bank of England.

And their growth forecast for 2025 also remained very low at 0.75%, which is almost less than the IMF's forecast. So that means they're really thinking that the economy is not going to do very well, and therefore they are cutting the interest rates in order to stimulate the economy. This is actually their third cut since the starting of their cutting cycle back in August in 2024.

Now, that said, the Bank of England also expected the inflation rate to rise from the 2.5 percent right now to 3.7 percent by the third quarter of this year. And they basically explained that the inflation is going to be driven by energy prices as well as rising water bills and bus fares. And so that in some ways would limit the room for them to continue to have the rate cuts.

So that means that the UK economy is probably going to continue to struggle and achieve a very low growth as they expected in 2025. And the government has made growing the economy one of its key aims. And Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a number of measures recently to try to boost the UK economy. So how do you view it and will they work?

Well, I think the finance minister's budget plan includes six major measures. And one that I think would help the economic growth is the increase in government spending.

But that said, I think there's still a lot of struggles of the economy, given that they actually had a whole decade long of budget conservatism. And so they're really lacking investments in infrastructure, education and innovation. Their productivity growth has remained quite stagnant since actually, you know, the 2008 global financial crises.

So I think there are a lot of headwinds, not to mention political instabilities. If you remember their previous, the least true administration only lasted for 49 days. So there's a lot of policy inconsistency. The Brexit also contributed to the economic slowdown.

Now, I think the final challenge also is the potential tariff that is going to be imposed on UK's steel and aluminum, not to mention the potential Trump says 10 percent of the tariff crossed the board. So all of these, I think, remain to be headwinds. And even I think, you know, for Reeves budget, there's also the clause about increasing employers insurance tax.

So I think that also makes some people worried about how this is going to raise the labor cost and it's going to further slow down investment and growth. And what about UK fitting into the wider European landscape? What's the situation of the Eurozone economy and has it actually hit the bottom of this curve?

Well, I think, again, it remains to be seen. I think the most forecast to put the European economy growth to be positive, but really below 1% or around 1% growth. That is a relatively slow growth rate.

especially I think when it comes to the two leading economies in Europe, Germany and France, their economy in many ways are struggling, right? Germany is forecasted to contract actually by 0.2% for 2025. It grew by a very slow rate of 0.3% in 2025. France, this year's growth rate was forecasted at 0.8% by the IMF,

And last year, it was estimated to grow at only 1.1 percent. So just suffice to say that because these two economies account for half of the European Union's GDP. So when these two leading countries are only achieving very slow growth in this year, this is not going to be great for the entire European economy.

And talking about the German economy, actually, as you mentioned, it is Europe's biggest economy and once the region's economic engine. So what's behind the setback of Germany's economy? And what reform do they need?

- Yeah, I think the German economy has some, I would say relatively short term challenges, but they also have long term structural difficulties, right? So when it comes to the short term, I think this last year and at the beginning this year,

It appeared that, you know, the domestic demand has been pretty weak for their manufacturing goods. For example, auto sales have been pretty slow and foreign demand for manufactured goods also were slowing down. That coupled with high uncertainty and uncertainty

The construction sector was also dragged down by labor shortages and with domestic demand. So all of this, I think, presented challenges in the short term for their economy to grow.

So right now, I think, you know, as inflation rate clamp down and as the real household income is growing, it is likely that in 2025, the consumer demand could rebound and private, you know, with the

consumption rebounds that could also help potentially with their investment. So I think there are some bright spots, so to speak, in this year. But still, there are remaining these long-term, I think, structural issues that need to be gradually, I think, in a way, unlocked.

So the demographic aging issues, the lack of public investment, especially in digital and green economies, the low productivity growth and so on and so forth. All this, I think, will still remain a long term challenge for Germany's economy. And what about French economy?

Right. So the French economy was helped quite a bit by the public consumption that has gone up by 2.1 percent last year and also by public investment that has gone up by 3.3 percent. So in other words, the government sector, the public sector has contributed very positively to their economy. And also their net exports have been pretty strong last year overall, even though it did slow down in the fourth quarter.

But the exports of transport equipment had really helped to drive their net exports and therefore drive their GDP. But that said, I think, you know, their last quarter growth has been really like last year. It actually contracted by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024.

So, you know, there is the concern about, again, political uncertainty and also less favorable international environment, as we just mentioned, in terms of the Trump's tariff war. And so I think all of this is going to weigh on the French economy.

The bright spot still is their service sector that has been helping them in the 2024 year. But the production of goods have contracted. So again, from a sectoral perspective and also from a demand perspective, you know, there remain to be challenges. And what kind of reform do you think does the EU need to revive its economy? And how important is political factors in all of this kind of economic discussion?

Well, I think, first of all, Europe as a whole really needs to think more strategically about where their new growth driver, their new growth spots are. And that also requires a lot more coordination in terms of their public investment and their fiscal policies around Europe.

among these different countries. We know that, as I mentioned earlier, the French economy was helped by some of the public investments and consumption. Yet I think the German economy was really, in a way, hard hit by their ultra conservative fiscal stance.

So I think according to the doctor report, the European Union really requires, you know, 800 billion euro worth of investment annually. So I think it really takes a lot of coordination for all these countries to get together and decide on their public investment schemes going forward.

And the second major, I think, policy measure is to have better policy coordinations among countries, including their industrial policies, their trade policies, and so on and so forth, to really have a more integrated market. And then last but not least, I think a lot more attention and focus on cultivating productivity growth by promoting technological innovations.

I think that is really important to boost productivity growth for the European economies. That is Yan Liang, a professor of economics at Mo Lamit University, speaking with my colleague Zhao Yang. You're listening to World Today. We'll be back after a short break.

This is World Today. I'm Zhao Ying. The world's largest electric vehicle battery maker, CATL, has filed for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The deal is expected to raise at least US$5 billion. That will mark Hong Kong's largest IPO in five years. According to the company's filings, Bank of America, China International Capital Corporation, China Securities International and JPMorgan Chase are joint sponsors for the listing.

CATL says its EV batteries are used in about 17 million vehicles, representing one in every three EVs around the world. Its electric storage systems batteries are used in more than 1,700 projects globally. For more, we are joined by Dr. Yao Shujie, Cheng Kung Professor of Economics at Chongqing University. Professor Yao, thanks for joining us.

So why has CATL chosen now to pursue a Hong Kong listing? Do you think now is the right time for the company to take this step? I think the timing and also the listing in the place have to be decided by the market conditions.

The listing in Hong Kong at this time is probably the perfect time for cattle because the market is more stable in Hong Kong. People are starting to be more attracted to the new vehicle industries, particularly the new battery factors by CATL.

So it is a time to boost the production capacity, - especially there is a strong requirement for the company - to establish some foreign branches, - including the fairly large factories in Hungary, - which is going to penetrate into Eastern and Western Europe. So the listing in Hong Kong is a precondition.

for the company to finance the operations of the OBC factories. Then why opt for a secondary listing in Hong Kong instead of other global financial hubs like New York or London? How does this align with the broader trend of Chinese firms prioritizing homegrown listings?

Well, Hong Kong is a very stable financial market, especially for mainland companies, because you can see that politically, militarily, Hong Kong is a very safe place. And also the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is one of the most important stock exchanges in the world.

So, listing in Hong Kong is a major gateway to the international financial market and investors. And also, it's a long-term stability and security in mind. Because London, of course, New York, they are very good, they are very large, but you look at the international condition at a particular moment, there are lots of uncertainties.

especially the battery industry, which could potentially be targeted by some sort of Western blockage or other strict conditions. So it is safe to stay in Hong Kong rather than in other parts of the world, such as London or New York.

Yeah, and CATL's plan to list in Hong Kong could raise at least 5 billion US dollars, and that will potentially make it the largest initial public offering for the city in five years. What do you think this listing means for Hong Kong's financial market and its role as a global financial hub? Yes, Hong Kong's prosperity to some extent depends on the prosperity of mainland China.

I think if more companies are able to list it in Hong Kong, it will strengthen the Hong Kong position as an international financial hub.

Of course, Hong Kong security markets, the financial center of the world, can also attract companies from other countries as well. But in this regard, I think the strength of the mainland economy is particularly important for Hong Kong to maintain its leading role in the international financial system.

Well, as you said, part of the funds raised will go towards its international business expansion, including a battery plant in Hungary. How important is this expansion for CATL? And also, what does this mean for the global EV battery market?

Yes, I think because the expansion in the overseas markets, in this case you mentioned about Hungary, the Hungary factory, it requires a lot of investment. And this investment could be raised through the initial public offering in Hong Kong to meet the financial requirement.

As the real business, the battery operation, I think by establishing gigantic factories in Hungary is useful for the development of the new vehicle industries in Europe, particularly for the Chinese companies who are able to go out to Europe, Eastern and Western Europe.

because there will be a steady supply of battery for the new vehicle cars. And maybe in the future we'll see BRD and other Chinese car makers, they will follow the suit.

They could establish factories there, so they could reduce the logistic cost, the component cost, and so on, to increase the competitive advantage of the Chinese new vehicle industry, not only the battery industry, but also the entire new energy car sector.

Yeah, but we know that CATL is actually facing rising geopolitical tensions, especially after being added to the U.S. Department of Defense's list of companies that they claim have links to the Chinese military. So how might these tensions affect CATL's international operation and also investor sentiment around its Hong Kong listing?

Yes, I think it certainly will have some difficulty in the United States. And we mentioned earlier why the listing is in Hong Kong rather than New York. This is one of the concerns. As the battery production, there is also another concern when it is put into operations.

Because the US government under Mr. Trump could find any excuse for national security to stop or slow down the expansion of CATL into the international market.

So there is a battle here or some sort of a game between the company and also the international relatively hostile environment because they could find any excuse of national security

to stop the battery entering in a particular market such as the United States and some allied countries, let's say in some country stay in the European Union and so on and so forth.

This is why CATL established factories in Hungary, rather than, let's say, Germany or France. Because Hungary has a traditional good relationship with China, where the political system and also the ideological value

are quite similar. So to put the factory in Hungary is already taking this kind of potential conflict into consideration. On the other hand, Hungary is a member state of the European Union, and by entering the Hungarian market, I think it will more or less get accepted by the European Union.

So international geopolitical tensions is now forcing companies to make very strategic choices of where to locate, where to invest, and where to raise capital. So this is a very complicated decision-making procedure right from the public offering

to the factory establishment and also the national distribution system.

any business, they face potential risk. But political risk is probably the most unpredictable risk. So any large company, particularly the Chinese multinational companies, such as CATL, they have to consider all these kinds of potential challenges and risk before they make any major, you know, establishment, obviously, you know, in China.

in Europe, in the United States and other parts of the world. Thank you, Dr. Yao Shujie, Chang Kung Professor of Economics at Chongqing University. A Chinese mainland spokesperson has expressed the wish that the film Nojia 2 will be screened in Taiwan soon. The animated blockbuster has aroused heated discussion on the island, with many expressing hopes to see more mainland films.

Zhu Fenglian of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office said the discussion reflects the shared historical memories and deep emotional resonance of Chinese culture across the Taiwan Strait. For more, we are joined by Liu Kuangyu, researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Although Nezha 2 has not yet been released in Taiwan, it has already generated significant interest on the island, and some are even considering traveling to Chinese mainland to watch it. What factors do you believe have contributed to its popularity among Taiwan audiences?

uh yes there is a sort of uh intense uh pre-release buzz in taiwan for this film i think this uh high level of popularity they first stem from the dissemination effect of social media uh in particular the numerous uh possible reviews and on towing on tick tock and xiao hongshu and refreshed box office records as well as

Presses from Taiwan media and filmmakers, they say it was a masterpiece as a pinnacle. And all those can promptly enable the people in Taiwan to feel the enthusiasm that Neutra has brought to the entire Chinese mainland, even the whole world, despite the news blockade by the DPP authorities.

And on the other hand, the movie are extremely high artistic quality and commercial operation capabilities is another factor. We can see that there are a lot of comments from the Taiwan media or news platforms that say Nezha

The first part was very good and there is even higher rating on the Taiwan streaming platforms. And they say the style, the artwork of Nojia is very great. It gives a very delicate feeling. And some say they have been moved and touched by the Chinese ink art.

watch animations 30 years ago and they're now not at all surprised to see such high quality words like Nezha and many others such like commentator Cai Zheng Yuan they are very surprised to see the painstaking and innovation spirit of the movie production team because I think in notes

Such strong innovation capabilities and professional proficiency and the level of film industry are the manifestations of the continuous outburst of the contemporary Chinese mainland's soft and hard power, which is a fundamental reason that's attracting the attention of public opinion in Taiwan.

Well, as we know, the film draws inspiration from traditional Chinese culture. How do you think people in Taiwan perceive this cultural representation? Yes, for people in Taiwan, actually, Nezha is a very familiar figure because the Fujian, Taiwan region is one of the important areas where the worship of Nezha is popular. In local areas, Nezha is known as the so-called Lord Prince or Marshal of the Central Outer and is high

highly respected by the people. And legendary stories of Nezha and the major of Nezha on rural era stages are the common cultural memories of people, many people in Fujian and in Taiwan. We know that during the Ming and Qing dynasties, people from Southern Fujian, they migrate across the straits to the island and they replic their belief system

replicated the belief system of Southern Fujian almost completely according to what it was like there in their hometown. And the little Nezha actually they have taken root and spread in various parts in Taiwan. They have not forgotten their hometown.

We see that in the 90s, the 1990s, some Taiwan believers, they returned to Yibing, to Sichuan to trace their roots and the Nezha Palace in Tui Pin Mountain in the local areas recognized as an ancestral temple of Nezha on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

In modern eras, I think the interpretation of the image of Nezha has continued on both sides of the streets for 100 years and continues today. We see the traditional image of Nezha as mostly like a majestic war god, symbolizing extraordinary martial power and ability to subdue demons and evil spirits.

And now there is a unique cultural phenomenon of electric sound three princes, which called Dian Yin San Tai Zi in emerging Taiwan, which is also originated combining the traditional Nezha worship and modern electric sound culture. So I think

the people in Taiwan can very well receive the cultural origin of Nezha, the cultural origin of Nezha and also the language, the ethnicity. I think the Chinese culture is the spiritual root and belonging of the people on both sides.

Then what are the primary obstacles preventing the film from being released in Taiwan? We know that Nojade is the only Asian film to enter the top 30 of the global box office chart. But although many Taiwanese people feel proud of this and they hope that this excellent work can be released in Taiwan as soon as possible, this wish may become nothing due to the strict regulations and political consideration of the Taiwan administration. We know that according to regulations,

on the so-called relations between the people from the two sides of the street in the Taiwan region. Chinese mainland films must be reviewed by relevant departments in Taiwan authorities before it's being released in Taiwan. And what's more, only 10 million films can be released in Taiwan each year, subject to some sort of lottery results. Because in last year,

the Taiwan Authority already announced 10 million films to want to slaughter it in 2025. So that means actually, at least in the next year, Nezha has no chance to meet the Taiwanese audience in local cinemas. But in contrast, we see that Chinese mainland has lifted the quantitative restrictions on important films from Taiwan region since more than 10 years ago. Well, given the current political climate, how do you think Taiwan audiences perceive

films from Chinese mainland. Do political tensions influence their willingness to engage with such films? Well, ultimately, Noi Dazhu evokes emotional resonance due to the common cultural heritage of both sides of Taiwan Strait.

For example, like Lu Lixi, who is a former captain of the Taiwan Navy, he said, "Niu Jia Tuo is the story of the Chinese people themselves." And we see that Jie Wenji, who is also a former foreign affairs official in Taiwan, stated that these Chinese storylines with rich cultural connotations were familiar to everyone since childhood in Taiwan. The imagination of the Asians are vividly presented through sound,

image and plot offering a highly modern audiovisual experience is full of appeal and many comments like this. So many media and people in Taiwan are highly dissatisfied with and confused about the unfair quota system imposed by the Taiwan Authority on the Chinese mainland films. Apparently

Although there is still political difference between the two sides of the straits, and many people in Taiwan still have some vague misunderstanding about the mainland, but the mainstream public opinion still hope to keep actually at least art separate from politics. Good works are naturally popular, and there's no need to make a so-called one-size-fits-all

So do you believe that cultural exchanges like films, literature and other art forms

can play a role in promoting cross-strait relations. Yes, I believe so. I also take this movie as an example. The Nezha Chute is not only an adaptation of the traditional mythological stories, but the Nezha spirit it contains also triggered a shared cultural confidence and emotional resonance across the strait.

from the highly successful "Noja First", which is the birth of the demon child in 2019 to the hit movie "Noja 2" this year. Both are based on the stories of these classic figures and feature imaginative and reasonable narratives. And then this allows the audience to experience both a classic

and modern feel and the construction of these nerja films and the nerja images also helps to shape the common understanding and emotional connection with the society on both sides of the straits, especially among the younger generation. And this serves as a crucial, very important foundation for cultural exchanges, for people's understanding, mutual understanding, which is

significant for elevating cross-strait political tensions, inspiring the silent majority of Taiwan in Taiwan to approach more rational cross-strait relations and jointly building a path towards the future. That is Liu Kuangyu, researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. You're listening to World Today. Stay with us.

This is World Today. I'm Zhao Ying. Romania's president has resigned to preempt an impeachment bid by opposition parties in parliament.

Klaus Yohannes said he was stepping down to spare his country from the crisis following a canceled presidential vote last year. A second runoff vote for the presidential race was due December, but Romania's top court annulled the election. Last month, tens of thousands of Romanians took to the street in several protests, called by the far right to protest the vote cancellation, with some demanding for Yohannes to resign.

For more, we are joined by Kamal Makkili-Aliyev, affiliated researcher at Roval Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me again. Thank you. So first of all, why do you think, I mean, what do you think has made President Yohannes decide to step down? Well, I think it was mainly to preempt an impeachment motion initiated by far-right opposition parties in the parliament.

So this party, they hold around like a third of the parliamentary seats, if I'm not mistaken. And they accused UN of failing to address concerns regarding election security following allegations of Russian interference during the previous elections.

during the previous election cycle and the political turmoil began actually when far-right candidate, Georgescu, one of the main far-right candidates, won the first round of a presidential election in November 2024. If you remember, there was a huge scandal around it. So subsequently the Constitutional Court annulled the election due to allegations of Russian interference and some electoral violations and it extended basically on its term until the new election could be organized. But

Ioannis basically said that he wants to spare Romania right now because of this kind of political crisis and this impeachment motion. Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, the Constitution allows the president to stay until a successor is elected. But now opposition parties argue that this applies only during war catastrophe. I mean, how legitimate were the legal arguments for impeachment?

It's hard to say exactly because I am not a specialist in the Romanian constitutional law. As far as I know and understand with my background is that the Romanian constitution actually allows a president to remain in office until the successor is elected. And that is actually typically applicable during the times of war or a catastrophe, you know, something extraordinary happening.

And while the Constitutional Court permitted the UN to stay until their scheduled elections, the initiation of impeachment proceedings by the far-right parties probably says a lot about how contentious the interpretation of the Constitutional Court is.

So, Ioannis' resignation to avoid impeachment, you know, it can be, can set like a complex precedent, even legal precedent, potentially making the opposition faction even more bold in issuing the impeachment friends and trying to resolve the future political disputes in this way in Romania. So basically influencing in negative ways stability of the Romania's constitutional framework.

Well, apart from the alleged foreign intervention, are there any underlying domestic factors that have contributed to the rise of far-right populism in Romania? Like how have economic, social and political issues played a role in shaping public support for these movements? Well, socioeconomically, the Romanian society has been frustrated for some time. There have been persistent economic disparities in Romania.

Particularly when if you look at the urban and rural areas, which is not uncommon, but this was particularly hurtful for the rural areas in Romania. And that led to a widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership for a long time.

Many citizens feel left behind by globalization and there is a disillusionment in the traditional political elites, the ones that are striving for closer EU integration. And of course that creates a fertile ground for populist movements and far-right opposition parties. There is also political disillusionment because the Romanian political leadership on both sides of the aisle is known for political and corruption scandals.

They are perceived as inefficient. And there is a lot of eroded public trust in political institutions, you know, that you can see in this country. And that also, you know, feeds into this hunger for change.

There are also a lot of different cultural and nationalist sentiments. It's actually a very complex question in Romanian society. It has its own past. It has its own nationalistic past. It has its own World War II fascist legacy. It has its own dictatorship legacy during the Cold War times. It is very...

you know, very complex society. And Romanian sovereignty and traditional values became more popular recently. So that also there's a segment of population that actually wants this kind of a change towards more nationalist, towards more sovereignty-oriented Romania. Well, President Duhanas was known for his pro-European Union and pro-NATO stance. So how do you think his resignation will affect Romania's foreign policy?

Well, his resignation actually introduces this kind of uncertainty regarding Romania's foreign policy direction, because that is a blow to the political forces in Romania that were advocates for the closer EU integration, closer NATO integration and the interim leadership

under the if I'm not mistaken mr. Bologna he's a Senate president is expected to maintain this kind of direction but you know if it's going to be a pre-election kind of on the stage there's still an uncertainty what's going to happen after the elections it also gives the potential rice to even more fire right far-right fractions or maybe

even the center moving towards the right direction in the parliament. And it, of course, feeds into this, you know, expression of Euro skepticism and pro-Russian sentiments. And that can, of course, potentially lead to the revalidation of Romania's commitment to Western institutions. But it's, again, very up in the air right now. Yeah. And very briefly, do you think Johannes' resignation and the May election rewind could potentially cement far-right influence in the country?

As I always used to say, there is of course a potential, but that potential is not yet to the full extent and it's very questionable. The resignation of the upcoming election, it creates this opportunity, but the outcome will largely depend on the voter mobilization and the strategies that the centrist and pro-European parties and the public response from the far right side of the platform. It's going to be depending on these things.

Well, thank you, Kamal Mikhail Aliyev, affiliated researcher at Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden. And that's all the time we have for this edition of World Today. To listen to this episode again or to catch up on previous episodes, you can download our podcast by searching World Today. I'm Zhao Ying. Thank you so much for listening. Bye for now.