Lingling Wei

Peter, our first question is from Glenn Loveland from Scottsdale, Arizona.

Excellent question, Glen.

Look, China's progress is most visible in areas like electric cars, infrastructure, and application of AI.

They're doing incredible things.

Whether they're actually writing the global rulebook for those industries,

That's another matter entirely.

A lot of China's changing technologies, they're often proprietary or they're just flat out incompatible with the system we use here in the United States or in Europe.

But here's the kicker.

Is the world really going to adopt a smart city blueprint that is built on China's very specific model of mass surveillance and centralized data control?

I'm highly doubtful on that one.

Peter, what are you seeing on the ground in China?

It seems to me that what China is adopting here is really a good enough strategy.

Let's tackle the next one.

Nicholas Misakos from San Francisco.

That is a fantastic question because it gets at the heart of Beijing's long-term strategic mindset.

Beijing has been working under a fundamental assumption that the relative power of the West, and specifically the United States, is in a decline.

They say the East is rising, the West is declining.

Right now, the Chinese see a historical opportunity, and they're intentionally positioning themselves

to become the new center of gravity for the world.

They're basically building infrastructure and trade networks that literally seek to bypass the systems long established by the United States.