the former us vice—president joe biden has accepted the democratic party nomination, to challenge donald trump in the 3rd of november us presidential election. in the biggest speech of his almost 50 years in public service, the 77—year—old set out a vision for bringing america together. president trump's former chief strategist, steve bannon, has pleaded not guilty at a court in new york to fraud and money laundering charges related to an online campaign to build a us border wall. he was released on bail of five million dollars, and must not leave the country. the russian government says it's prepared to consider a request for the kremlin critic, alexei navalny, to be transferred outside the country for medical treatment, after his supporters said he was poisoned. he's now in a coma after collapsing on an internal flight.

now on bbc news it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. increasing tensions between united and china have plunged relations to their lowest level in decades. this comes at a time when the world is facing its worst recession in living memory. could this reshape the global order? my guest is one of asia's most influential thinkers, kishore mahbubani, a former singaporean diplomat. he believes that covid—19 has weakened the west and made china bolder. is he right that this is now asia's century? kishore mahbubani in singapore, welcome to hardtalk. why do you believe that covid—19 will mark a shift in power to asia?

kishore mahbubani in singapore, welcome to hardtalk. why do you believe that covid—19 will mark a shift in power to asia? covid—19 will only escalate the shift of power, it was already happening beforehand, so we saw since the yeari until the 1800, china and india were always the largest economies and they are coming back, but clearly covid—i9 is accelerating it because what is a big shock to the world is that the most competent countries in dealing with the pandemic are the asian countries. the number of deaths per million in east asian countries, south korea, asian, others, is less then ten. in europe, it is in the hundreds. in the united states, in the hundreds. why is this happening? i do not know why.

it is an indicator. when it comes to competence in governance, it is shifting to asia. that is a pretty bold statement! are you not reading too much into this? it could be that asian countries that had to deal with avian flu and sars in the past 20 years, which has perhaps improved responses and senegal in africa did well because of its response to ebola six years ago and learned important lessons. that could be a reflection that they are better prepared. are you reading too much into this? you are absolutely right. it could be because of the past preparations but i suspect it reflects also something quite deeper. canada has also suffered from sars, as singapore did and certainly, the more competent medical systems in the world were always supposed to be in the west, in every sense of the term and they had much better healthcare systems as well. this is why i am saying

it is very puzzling that the east asian countries have done so well. if you look at the economic picture as well, the first economy to really bounce back from covid—i9 is china. you have written many books, you write evidence based, but the fact of the matter is when you mention china and how it has responded well, we simply do not know. president macron in france in april when he asked about the response, he said let's not be so naive to say that china has been better at handling this. we do not know. there are clearly things that have happened that we do not know about. the chinese are accused by many of withholding information, you do not get the complete picture. i'm very well aware of the perceptions of china. i suspect that president macron was making his statement 19 april — by august and september, it would be a different picture he would give today. in the case of china,

you are right, we cannot get all the information, but there is data, there are people going down there and my friends have actually gone to china and they were in shanghai a few weeks ago and they were quite amazed that all the restaurants are full in shanghai! amazing! you cannot get a booking! life is returned to normal... that is what berlusconi said, the italian prime minister, when italy was deep in economic problems, he said that the restaurants were all full. very anecdotal. you made your point on china, you will not be swayed. you have a new book on china, one strategically placed over your shoulder there, you have said there about china, that in asia, its neighbours, no—one feels comfortable sharing a small room with an elephant, no matter how benign. but the fact of the matter is many of china's neighbours do not see it

as a benign powers. it is a new level of concern over china. let's be clear about that, 0k? china used to have an economy one tenth the size of united states, but in 1980, is a bigger economy then the united states. it's become much bigger, and when you become much bigger it is perfectly natural for the neighbours to be concerned. the big question is most of the time are they getting along with china or are they confronting china? and this is the one thing that you have to give credit to china for. most of the time, they are getting on with china and guess what? for many, even america's allies, in east asia, japan, south korea, philippines and thailand, they do more trade with china than they do with the united states of america. so the chinese have clearly caused a lot of concern

but i believe they are also managing and making mistakes. i was questioning your use of the word benign because when you hear what some of china's neighbours say, particularly pertaining to the fact it has set up military bases in the south china sea, malaysia is very annoyed, vietnam, the philippines, and the malaysian prime minister warned against a new version of chinese colonialism. indonesia, injune this year, sent a letter to the united nations stating that it economic interests are jeopardised by china's territorial gains in the south china sea. i could go on and on with numerous examples. they do not see china as benign, kishore mahbubani. i completely agree with you. in fact i agree that that term benign is an oxymoron. china is not benign, united states is not benign. every superpower will defend its interests.

that is the 3000 year rule of politics. they will not change, the united states or china. but you also mention that the malaysian prime minister said in 2019 about a new form of chinese colonialism. guess where he was in april 2020? april 2019, he was in china for the belt and road initiative, one of the opening keynote takers! the belt and road is a huge flagship policy by xijinping, in 2012, but it is facing setbacks to build infrastructure projects all over the world because of covid—19, it is meant that there is slow economic growth in china and elsewhere.

there are growth and debt issues, high project costs and all the rest of it and a lack of local participation, even local opposition so perhaps things are changing on that score? you know, it's important to get the timeframe right, 0k? the belt and road initiative is not a one year, two year initiative. it is a 100 year initiative. and the chinese probably have something planned over the next 30 or a0 years and when you take a long journey, there will be setbacks but let me give you one statistic. countries around the world are free to join the belt and road initiative or to reject the belt and road initiative and japan has rejected it, india has rejected it, australia has rejected it that out of 193 member states and the un, 120 have signed up to join the belt and road initiative. if three and four rejected it and 120 accept, is it a failure or success? no, i said it is suffering setbacks, for reasons that may become apparent as we carry on talking. but you have also described

china is arguably having the most autocratic government in the world. the british historian max hastings has accused you of letting off chinese authoritarianism and repression of human and civil rights for far too lightly. aren't you guilty of doing that, kishore mahbubani? i am not a defender of chinese authoritarianism. i am an objective observer of chinese performance. just for your information, the harvard kennedy school has come out with a study injuly 2020, pointing out that the level of support for the chinese communist party in the chinese population, and they did the survey over several years, has been going up steadily. why is that happening? are the chinese people stupid? why are they going from 80% to 90% for support for the chinese communist party because the chinese communist party has become, and this

is what i'm talking about, one of the most meritocratic institutions in the world and i tell a story in my book, and i had a research assistant in my book, a bright young student from china telling me the story of her life, and she was so sad, she was number two in the class, and i asked you what's wrong with being number two in the class? and she said only the number one is selected to join the chinese communist party. so you can imagine the aspirations of young people in china, the best people... you know what, kishore mahbubani. .. one could cite numerous examples and you know that. there was a recent example in the economist magazine thing that many in the chinese communist party resent the brutal campaign by xi xinping to eliminate enemies, and the degree of opposition he faces is reflected in the number of personnel changes he has engineered in the military and hierarchies.

plenty of examples of his authoritarianism and at home and also in his reduction of autonomy in hong kong, the treatment of the uigher population, and many were held in concentration camps. i'm glad you mentioned the economist because that magazine in 2020 came out with a cover story pointing out quite amazingly, people keep thinking that the chinese economy is going to collapse and have many problems, that the economy cannot recover and the economist is one of the most critical of china, saying do not count on china collapsing. what i'm trying to capture is that as a political analysis you must never engage in wishful thinking

and i understand what you are dealing with and the china we are dealing with today, in 2020, is the most formidable china that has ever been. the chinese people have experienced a greater improvement in their standard of living in the past a0 years then they have in the past 4000 years. they have seen that but you know now because of covid—19, slowing global economy, recession, the worst in decades, the imf is now forecasting a growth rate in china of about 1%. 0k, granted there is a drop of 8% in the united states, fireworks, and in india, also a forecast of 8% drop, that china may be doing well but by own standards, 1% growth is really very bad and is what the former australian prime minister kevin rudd, a big watcher of china, speaks mandarin fluently and all the rest of it, he said that an already slowing economy and the ongoing impact of the trade war with the us

and now covid—19 have placed president xijinping leadership under its greatest internal pressure yet. i have enormous respect for kevin rudd and you are right. he is a very good china watcher but at the same time, i also have a lot of other friends who watch china equally carefully and it's all a matter of context. at a time when no major global economy, not one, can register positive economic growth after this massive global recession, china is registering positive economic growth. and of course china could fail, like i completely agree with that, china could fail, but if you are a realistic planner, are you going to plan for something that may or may not happen?

in the case of china, you have two plans, one may fail but one may succeed enormously and if it succeeds enormously, guess what? we have a different global world, a very different global chemistry and now we have to do with a new elephant in the room. so i'm trying to help the west prepare yourself for something that you never imagined. what china has accomplished in the past a0 years is something no—one had imagined. with the covid—19 pandemic we are seeing many countries retreat from globalisation, countries like the uk said we can't even produce our own personal equipment, there is some urgency to diversify and shorten supply chains, localise them, and that would operate to china's detriment because of, because it has been so plugged into all of this. yes and no. i will give you an example. japan is financing its industries, is taking them out of the region.

southeast asia benefits. guess what? southeast asia's biggest trading partner is china. there is a virtuous circle here. by the way i would say don't write off globalisation yet, please, because i want to emphasise the reason asian economies are coming back so fast is they are biggest beneficiaries of globalisation. nobody in east asia wants to walk away from globalisation, theyjust have to do things differently and be more careful and i don't buy the story that they will be rejecting globalisation and in east asia, people are not closing the doors. we don't know yet. bloomberg has said that even if relocations, bringing production back on shore, even if these relocations are small, bloomberg says that the trend of globalisation to localisation is real, but we will have to see. turning to the united states.

just one line. the law of comparative advantage has not changed. if countries that obey the laws of comparative advantage succeed and do well in the countries that don't and close themselves up like north korea, they will not do well. the law of competitive advantage is a higher economic law. sticking with the economy, sam sachs from yale in the united states has said that united states and china are willing to weaponised global trade, both of view technology firms as not global actors. we are now seeing how dominance of artificial intelligence has become a key component of the rivalry for power between the united states and china. that is the real battleground now, isn't it? absolutely. i completely agree with you.

if you ask me, i wish that states and china could have had some kind of basic agreement on what they can or cannot school of thought in the united states, and the united states is trying to suppress the rise of china, and they believe the only reason china has succeeded is they are in the american market, and they are trying to decouple china with america, hoping that china would collapse, but i wouldn't bet on that china would collapse, because china has invested so much in its own technology, and there is technology coming that will create lots of competition a lot of countries, but this is an unpleasant reality that we have to live with. it shows how business and economic and trade logic no longer prevails in this relationship between china and the united states.

even if it hurts profits, the united states, and donald trump are saying to companies, cut your ties with for example, wechat, the chinese app. even if it causes harm, and this was put to donald trump, he said whatever. we are seeing a real change, a hardening in the position of the united states. that is basically what my book is about, trying to explain why the united states are standing up to china. at the same time i also hope that the united states will focus on the most important reality of the united states, which is that the average income of the bottom 50% has gone down over a 30 year period, and university economists have described how there is a sea of despair among the white working class,

so united states has to revive its economy and make it strong again, and guess what. the most dynamic economies are in east asia. china is one of them, but there are others over here, so if the united states wants to jumpsta rt its economy and include the world, it has two co—operate with asia. at some point in time it will come back. we are seeing that shift. apple has only said it is shifting part of its manufacturing of its iphones to india, notjust in china. we are seeing bans of sales of us computer chips to china, and you make it out as though it is just united states, but it is who fired the first shot in this technology war, google, facebook and by china, so there is reciprocal action. you can blame both sides. you can blame both sides but at the same time, let's be fair. the trump administration has been acting erratically, irrationally, without a strategy, henry kissinger told me this.

the chinese do have a plan and they are working according to it, and so, if the united states wants to enhance its own interests, and i'm not saying that the united states should act its against its own interest, the united states should be doing, cooperating with the world in the united states walked away from the transpacific partnership that it had been negotiating for years, a geopolitical gift which trump through away. henry kissinger told you that there is no proper strategy. a slightly long quote to give to you, but one by the former m16 chief, speaking in july of this year. "we must be careful not to turn china into an enemy, as you are just saying, we need is engagement

in crucial issues such as climate change and regulating international trade, but china's leadership must also understand they will pay a price if they try to impose the system and standards on other countries, either through the belt and road initiative by manipulating economic leverage for political ends or by more forceful military and intelligence actions. so, there is also an onus on china to be mindful of what has just been outlined their. china is not interested in exporting communism to the rest of the world, so mike pompeo is wrong on that. the second point is the americans believe that the american society, the american example is universalisable, so anyone can become an american, you and i can become americans, and they would love it if we became americans. china is different. china, the chinese view is that chinese civilisation is good, but it is for the chinese. the chinese are trying to strengthen chinese civilisation to make it

once again the strongest and respected civilisation but they would be very puzzled if i said can i become chinese, they would say no, you are not chinese. you referred to the us secretary of state, talking of america and chinese ties, we have seen a real deterioration you could argue because of what has gone over taiwan and the us health secretary pays a visit to taiwan, the biggest visit in a0 years, makes concillatory statements about taiwan, and we have seen recently military exercises in the region by china. so, there is real concern now that as the foreign minister of china warns thais are pulling back from touching upon redlines of the relationship, of course taiwan a big redline for china.

do you think we might we actually see an escalation in relations between the us and china? a military congregation possibly? i am very worried because i fear there are some people in the trump administration who believe that the only way to get donald trump elected now, because the polls showjoe biden and harris is leading, the only way that they get donald trump elected is to start a small naval skirmish in the south china sea, and then there is a rally around the flag and then donald trump gets re—elected. that would be very very dangerous, and as you know when you start the sort of naval skirmishes, especially within two nuclear powers, it can get out of hand, things can get out of control, so i hope there will be a saner, wiser voices saying please don't do that, and i was happy to learn that the defence secretary of the united states may be going to china in the nearfuture, and if that happens that will be very good for the world because at the end of the day,

these two powers have to talk to each other, and they have to talk to each other. thank you very much kishore mahbubani in singapore for coming on hardtalk. my pleasure. in the last day or so, we've had some very windy weather across western parts of the uk. a storm swept across ireland, but on friday, it is going to be blowing a gale across many parts of the uk, certainly wales, england, southern parts of scotland as well. and all because of this low which has decided to park itself very close to the uk, and it will be with us until around

about saturday night. eventually on sunday, it should finally pull away into scandinavia. but until then, blustery conditions expected throughout friday. on top of that, some heavy showers, thunderstorms are possible, too. the heaviest of the showers will be across more western and northern areas of the uk. but let's focus on those winds because they will be hazardous. in fact, strong enough to take branches off trees, and even this time of the year, 50—60 mph winds are capable of bringing down weaker trees. so, some really nasty conditions for some of us. the funny thing is it's actually going to be a mostly sunny day, particularly across many eastern and southern areas of the uk. yes, with a few showers, but predominantly bright or sunny, and the temperatures will get up to around 25 degrees in norwich. obviously a lot fresher around western coasts where we'll see those howling gusts of wind. now, friday night into saturday, the low pressure is starting to pull away, but it's still very much in charge of our weather.

so, saturday, once again it's going to be a blustery day across the uk. the gusts of wind won't be quite as strong, but strong enough. on top of that, we've got further showers in the forecast and thunderstorms as well. i think the winds will be gusting more like 30—a0 mph on saturday, so not quite as strong as the ones on friday. temperatures despite the wind still managing to get up to around 22 degrees in london and norwich, and not far off 20 for our northern towns and cities as well. now, sunday, the low pressure has actually by this stage pulled into norway, and the winds are falling lighter across the uk. still a few showers in the forecast carried on a mostly north—westerly breeze. temperatures in the north dipping down to around 1a degrees, so a bit of a chill in aberdeen. but in the south, still making around 20 degrees celsius. so, once again, a very blustery day on friday. saturday's going to be quite windy, too. and then from sunday, it is going to finally calm down.

this is bbc news. i'm david eades, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world: joe biden lays out a vision for his presidency in accepting the democratic nomination to challenge donald trump in november's election. this is our moment, this is our mission. to be able to say that the end of this chapter begins here, tonight, as love and hope and light join here, tonight, as love and hope and lightjoin in the battle for the soul of the nation. he receives the full backing of the party and accuses his opponent of failing in the most basic of presidential duties. president trump's former chief strategist, steve bannon, pleads not guilty to charges of fraud,