Shadowing Practice: What are tech CEOs seeking in China with Trump? | DW News - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Now, Trump traveled to China with a delegation of more than a dozen business leaders.
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Now, Trump traveled to China with a delegation of more than a dozen business leaders.
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The technology industry bosses were among the most prominent of the CEOs in Trump's trade and industry entourage.
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The high-profile delegation includes Elon Musk,
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the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook,
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and Jensen Huang, head of the world's most valuable company, NVIDIA.
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Both China and the U.S are vying for the position of world leader in high tech in many areas of technology.
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but especially in AI.
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Especially ahead of their negotiations,
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Trump's Treasury Secretary hailed the meeting saying that the world's two AI superpowers are going to start talking.
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Let's bring in James King.
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He is a senior research fellow on China at the British think tank Chatham House.
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He just published a book on Global Tech Wars, China's Race to Domination.
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Welcome to the program and thank you so much for your time.
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What criteria do you think the Trump administration used to choose these specific CEOs?
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What does it say to you?
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No, I wouldn't want to be too scientific about this.
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My understanding is that this trip and the people on the trip were decided at pretty short notice.
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But if you look down the list of the very powerful US CEOs and other senior executives,
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you can see that they fall into two categories.
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One is the heads of big US companies
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that have massive business in China and are regarded as kind of friends of China.
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You know, they've been going back and forth for years and they have business to do.
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And the other is those US companies that have business in China,
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but are having a really hard time.
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And those guys, I would put in the category of people who have problems to solve.
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So I think that's basically the category.
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But a lot of US business people didn't go.
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You've got most of the Fortune 500 that are American companies have business in China.
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So this is a fairly slim delegation compared to some that we've seen in the past.
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What do you make of the Treasury Secretary's comment
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when he says the world's two AI superpowers are going to
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start talking? well i mean you know it's an interesting comment uh my understanding of the us
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and china's relationship over ai is it's mostly adversarial uh you
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have the us throwing enormous amounts of money uh at ai you've got companies like anthropic
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and open ai making huge progress but using billions
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and billions of dollars to get there and then you've got lean
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and mean chinese competitors
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that appear to be making similar strides in ai with much much less money
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and producing uh large language models these uh these ai companies uh
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that are much cheaper to use and just as efficient running on much less compute.
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So my understanding is that the US's attitude towards Chinese AI is that this is a significant competitor,
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a peer competitor to the big US companies.
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I don't really see much mileage in the idea of cooperation between US and Chinese LLMs.
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Maybe I've missed a beat on that.
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Maybe there's some plan in the works.
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But to me, that seems pie in the sky.
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And where would you say,
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I mean, if you broaden it out beyond AI and look at tech more broadly,
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where do you see China currently standing in the global tech hierarchy and stacking up against Silicon Valley?
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In which domains is it now ahead of the United States?
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Well, you kindly mentioned my book before it came on.
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My view has been for two or three years
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that china has already effectively won the tech rivalry between the us and china
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there are several pieces of evidence
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that we can cite for this one is the website of the aspi the australian think tank
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that shows that china is now ahead in 66 out of 74 critical technologies critical advanced technologies
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that is and there are plenty of other uh readings on this as well
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So I think in all but a few areas, China is ahead.
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The areas where it's not ahead are things like semiconductors.
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Jensen Huang, the head of Nvidia,
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is in China at the moment.
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China, of course, wants to get some of the most advanced semiconductors that it can to power its AI models.
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And there are a few other areas as well.
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I believe that some of the US AI companies are still just ahead of Chinese competitors.
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And there's a few other areas of tech as well where the US is still ahead.
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But in general, China is moving at warp speed,
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climbing the technology ladder very rapidly indeed.
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And U.S companies are losing their position that they've held for decades as the leading tech companies in the world.
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Given that dynamic that you've just highlighted,
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what do you see as the most misunderstood aspects of China's tech strategy in Western discourse right now?
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First of all, I think the West has been extremely slow to understand how quick
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and how pervasive China's ascent up the technology ladder has been.
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Now, I believe that we can see this.
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For instance, the French president,
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Emmanuel Macron, basically said this the other day,
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and some other leaders, including Friedrich Mertz of Germany has paid tribute to China's tech advance recently.
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But the first point is that the West has been very, very slow.
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And I think that comes down to the fact that there hasn't been very much contact,
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especially over the COVID period between the West and China.
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But now I think people are waking up and they're beginning to realize that China is really,
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as Xi Jinping puts it,
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China is undergoing changes unseen in a century.
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And we are seeing a whole new paradigm for the global economy,
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which is going to be based on Chinese leadership in tech and in many other areas.
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So what does that mean then when we're talking about the next frontier in competition?
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If you drill down into the specifics,
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where do you think that the decisive battles are going to be fought?
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I think they'll be fought in all major technologies.
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But if we particularly look at areas like biotechnology,
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pharmaceuticals, China is already moving ahead.
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Of course, we're all familiar with what's happened with electric vehicles.
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China's supremacy is now undoubted,
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but also the batteries that go into electric vehicles.
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China is already number one and gaining market share.
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The issue for companies in Europe
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and in America is Chinese companies are now starting to disrupt some of the biggest companies that we have.
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And so I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that here in Europe,
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many of our largest companies over the next five years will be concerned about their survival,
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literally their survival in the face of Chinese competition.
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And it's not going to.
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Sorry, James, I just wanted to follow up on that on that point that you just made.
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You know, given that, what would be your advice then to to those Europeans and European companies,
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you know, as they navigate this world shaped by U.S.-China tech rivalry and as you've highlighted future Chinese tech dominance?
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Well, this, I think, part of the way forward is shown by what Trump is now doing in Beijing.
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Having spent most of his pre-presidency and most of this term,
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at least at the beginning of it,
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criticizing China, talking about how the US was going to shut down China,
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he's now making nice to China because he realizes that you have to have a hybrid strategy.
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You have to protect your national security interests while at the same time helping your biggest companies address the China market.
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And that's what all of the guys on Trump's plane are trying to do.
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They're trying to sell more to China.
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I think Europe should do the same.
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We need hybrid strategies where we try to help our biggest companies do business in China,
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compete with China outside China,
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and yet also protect our crucial national security interests.
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And that is a balance that I think countries in Europe are only just beginning to get a grips with.
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James King with Chatham House, thank you.
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Thank you very much.
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Context & Background
The video discusses a significant diplomatic trip made by former President Trump to China, accompanied by key leaders from the technology industry. Prominent CEOs such as Elon Musk and Tim Cook were part of this delegation, which aimed to explore the tech landscape and address the competitive dynamics between the U.S. and China, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence (AI). As the discussion unfolds, insights are offered by James King, a senior research fellow on China, who analyzes the motivations behind selecting particular business leaders for this trip and the overarching implications for tech relations between the two superpowers. This context is essential for English learners looking to grasp how business and politics intertwine and affect communication in a globalized world.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- Massive business in China: This phrase reflects the scale at which U.S. companies operate in China and can be used in discussions about international trade.
- Adversarial relationship: Understanding this phrase helps in articulating the competitive tensions between nations or companies.
- Global tech hierarchy: This term is useful for conversations regarding the ranking and power dynamics in the tech sector.
- Peer competitor: A phrase that signifies a rival who holds comparable status or capabilities, particularly in business.
- Cooperation versus competition: This concept is vital when discussing the dual nature of international relationships, especially in technology.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively learn English with YouTube videos like this, consider using a shadowing app that allows you to practice pronunciation and intonation. Here’s how to tackle this video's content:
- Watch the video once: Focus on understanding the general gist without worrying about every word.
- Transcribe short segments: Pause the video after a sentence or thought and write down what you hear. This helps with comprehension and vocabulary.
- Use a shadowing site: Play the video alongside your transcript and try to mimic the speaker's tone and speed. Shadow speech is an effective technique to enhance your fluency.
- Record yourself: This is an excellent way to compare your speech to the original. Note any differences in pronunciation or rhythm.
- Review key vocabulary: Go through the top phrases listed above and practice using them in your own sentences, which is also beneficial for IELTS speaking practice.
By consistently applying this shadowing method, especially with focused content like the discussions around U.S.-China tech relations, you'll not only improve your language skills but also gain insights into global issues.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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