join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics or. i'm showbusiness i'll see that. a low and welcome the cross off we're all things considered i'm peter lavelle the

coronavirus is a global health danger that is yet to be contain this fire and has also raised questions about the integrity of supply chains open borders and the weaknesses of globalization and dangerously this virus is being used as a political weapon. in the coronavirus i'm joined by my guest fred tang in new york he is president of the american china public affairs institute in delaware we have scott ritter he is a former intelligence officer and the united nations weapons inspector and in beijing we cross to john gong he is a professor at the university of international business and economics right cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate let me go to scott 1st here scott you wrote an. article i saw in the american conservative titled tit for tat coronavirus politics are making us sick what a wonderful title i like the last sentence a lot i'm going to repeat it for our audience here politics is trumping science and

medicine diluting the effectiveness of any response the consequences could be very well catastrophic what i mean by that go ahead scott. well again i'm not a doctor but we do have what appears to be you know prepared dimmick conditions or regarding the spread of corona virus this is something that has the attention of people around the world especially here in the united states but also japan and china iran italy everybody is feeling the effect of this it's a medical issue it's one that requires scientists and doctors to focus resources on to identify the problem and come up with a solution the united states should be a leader in this regard we are the world's largest economic power we're the world's you know we have significant resources can be brought to bear but instead of you know focusing our energies we have republicans and democrats we have a president and congress playing politics the president calling it

a hoax congress cues in the president of you know putting together teams that aren't a viable scientifically led by mike pence who they continually degrade there might be some legitimacy to their their complaints or the point is this isn't helping solve the problem this is we've turned this into a political one upmanship during the american silly season the worst time for political one upmanship a presidential campaign in the end result is we're not getting done what probably needs to be done to prevent this drone of ours from becoming a global pandemic i mean going to john in beijing i mean john you know as you look out western media particularly american media has been covering this i mean do you think that the american media is framing it correctly because i mean there is a very strong subtext that to know this is somehow china's fault or china can rise to the challenge of it because of its government because of its economy because of its people i mean there's

a very strong undercurrent of anti chinese elements being played out here at least that's my reading go ahead john in beijing. well from what i've been reading the american press so far i think that of a couple of issues here 1st of all you notice of blaming as you pointed out that this originates from china and it's or china's fall but i haven't seen this series of you square law i mean talk a lot about this the 2nd attack is about initial response to this in a some reports about china's government sort of cover up so-called a cover up and we're at the very least being slowing to respond to this quickly and the 3rd kind of a serious that you know it's an attack on the chinese system saying well china has this konya magic locked down city of 20000000 people you cannot be done it's impossible to do it or things are only going to get worse yet there has been pretty much refuted so far because in and look at the statistics in fact the number has

been good coming down dramatically as a matter of fact as of today the number of new cases in china i'll settle a province is less than 10 and the numbers nude in fact that within the who have problems with us are originated it is also less than 10 excluding the city of hama siddle will cost you have some problems you know the number is a new something but it's dramatically don so clearly i think the measures the so-called 2 konya maja's has been working very effectively so far and this also be indorsed by the the head of the show china joint investigative team this guy is a canadian doctor he had a very round statement at the press conference of 2 days ago 20 out that conclusively that the matches taken by china's government so far has been very effective so a clearly you know this is the very best these are awesome it was it that is

certainly not a message it's making american cable i can tell you that fred if this disease had come out of italy do you think the reaction would have been different. yes i think it will be different because right now since the tree was going on there is a tendency of the human eyes in china or whatever it's happening in china but people have to understand when the diseases and it when this should not be politicized because it is the real people who live and if it's matus and also if it's contagious if we politicizing it it's just going to affect and spread to more cities and more countries you know scott one of the broader issues i think that serious people look at this and look at policy is the whole question of globalization is being reassessed now because there is the charge the claim that a lot of these things that need to be to cured are only can be had from china and

not in the united states i think for example like penicillin it is no longer produced in the united states been outsourced here and i'm not blaming china and i'm blaming american companies for moving their i mean they abandon workers in america for profits ok it's very easy to demonize china in this respect but dummy china wants to get rich like everybody else here so the issue of globalization open borders supply change things like that go ahead scott well i mean it look we live in a reality in a reality based world where globalization is a thing and it's not easily reversed if it can be reversed we you know we've outsourced our entire economic model is dependent upon you know getting components at the cheapest possible price. you know and yes when there is an impact if china shuts down the factories that produce the components we need are producing those components of japan shuts down if it only shuts down if any nation that produces components that are used in the american economy should stay on you know obviously

there will be an impact but at the end of the day you know this coronavirus is this isn't you know the end of the world this. isn't something that's you know next insole threat to humanity it will be resolved in those factories will come back up and those parts will be provided produce so i don't see this as a as a threat to globalization but i do see the short term economic impact being politicized so that we we have people trying to score political points exploiting you know the short term inconvenience of you know of supply chain disruption well it does tell you that an event like this can have depth have an impact that may be unforseen and i think that and there is some i hope smart people reassess and think what's going on here basic medicine you should produce it at home but i think that's common sense it's common sense but it's not just go ahead no i agree but it's but it's not just coronavirus this is you talk about

a larger issue you're talking though about the larger issue of globalization we've always had a problem if politics intervenes if the china in the united states through a trade dispute you know we get the supply saying disruption if japan and south korea as you know problems with each other create this so it's not just coronavirus that you're talking about a larger it on globalization i'm agreeing with you i mean it was is highlighted this but this exactly it's highlighted here let me go to john here john what if you want to jump in john go ahead. yeah in my view you know there's the idea that their supply chain is greatly affected by this i think it's greatly greatly overblown you know initially there are some reports of. young double use factually because a european union some parts from china but you know other than dad i don't think this quickly a fact as a matter of fact the chinese government has been going out of the way to help foreign companies operating here in china given example when companies resume

production the 1st thing they need is mosques and other this in fact and other protective gear that kind of things to make sure that workers in a factious are not going to be a fact it and you know these supplies a kind of thing such a short supply these days each other and in chinese government minister of commerce has come out with a decree saying that we should have a proud people those companies foreign companies operating in china and if you look at the statistics the percentage of companies that have been coming back to production of the rate of resumption of production is almost 70 to 90 percent in most parts of china so i don't believe you know i have some doubt skeptical about the theory that the supply just been great to be a fact and as a matter of fact this issue has been precisely be used as a as a political weapon to sort of you don't quit companies can china out of out of china as a matter of fact the secretary of commerce wilbur ross at the very early time came

out and saying this could be a very good opportunity for american companies going back to united states you know it's very clear it's been politicized yeah i mean fred you know they would give your assessment what are the biggest criticisms of this whole thing of china is that it's not transparent enough do you agree with that assessment i mean you hear it all the time but when i hear something all the dogs in the mainstream media that's when i begin to doubt go ahead fred. well i think just this girl in the virus as the case china has been reporting numbers day by day province by province and it is very transparent if you compare that to the flu the influenza in the united states we have 16000 people who die from it we do not see that they number into a state by state. who was infected and who was hospitalized but i do want to add that about globalization globalization in the self it's good it helps low and of course it benefits most of the consumers in the world the problem here is supplier

management i do think that i do nothing to a lot of these businesses all manufacturing is coming back to the united states but these could be many in different locations of parts of the world so that we would not be you know in case of some disruption we would not be short change of this apart so i think the same way you know scott have talked earlier because of the trade was so for china was affected where united states would not sell to the chips of them for them to make so forms so i think that's another thing is the supply chain as a world for doing business we should not politicize that and using that as a weapon against each other and particularly since the the the at least the 1st phase of the trade deal is really quite contentious and there are some very big challenges ahead for both countries and again there are going to be policy makers going to look at what this call coronavirus and how it impacts trade and how trade

agreements can and should be made in the future i'm going to where we do get a short break here after that short break we'll continue our discussion in the coronavirus states that are. we're feeding our hopes our dreams our desires our money to compete this creates a war do we get back to normal like you that's that's a bad deal so when is technology jumping out of the street when it's the healthy need to keep you healthy to keep me informed or to keep me you know connected and i missed it so we will live in an area of the post screen area where we will live with less and all these screens and it will be more in harmony or it will help us make. these policymakers have grown accustomed to the

idea that every single problem can be solved with money why can't we solve the coronavirus of money printing the market now is starting to scratch just had a little bit and saying wait a minute that's insane so therefore valuations look like they're going to be marked already in correction territory on these markets down 10 percent are going to have to bear market valuations down 20 percent probably i think the likelihood is extremely high a 50 to 60 percent drop that's probably a 10 to 20 percent probability yeah.

welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle truman we're discussing the coronavirus. are let's go back to scott scott one of the things that's happened during the course of the last few we even months is the rise of conspiracy theories trying to explain what's going on here you have there was a law that lost control of a of this virus that was intentionally generated engineered by on the other hand maybe the american senate there because of the trade war and you have

a whole lot of a plethora of theories out there that are floating around on the internet why is that why is this happening or assisted nature of our age that a conspiracy theory for everything go ahead scott. was started so nature of the of the internet age especially where you're going to get this kind of buzz taking place i think one of the reasons why this has been nipped in the bud is because of politics you know there this is one of the things i was trying to say early on is there's a need for leadership for scientists for doctors for experts to stand in front of the public and inform them about exactly what is going on the exact nature of the threat and if they don't know something to look in the camera and say we don't know this is this time but we're working on it and we will get back to you that's not happening when we do get dr speaking their message gets diluted by politicians who either undercut or overhype what the doctors are trying to say you know there's

a lot of questions out there about you know we're just we're jackley coronavirus is you know how it's spread why do people who are asymptomatic 'd spread the disease things things of this nature how do you handle it do you wear a face mask you wash your hands do you do both these are these are things that i see. leadership could address early on educate the public inform the public and this would nip the conspiracies in the bud but you know these conspiracies thrive in a vacuum and right now we have a vacuum of you know highly sourced information about a coronavirus and so you know people are going to be speculate or be susceptible to speculation you know you know john i mean i've been following this very closely i kind of waited a week or so to do a program on because i actually what scott was saying was trying to understand the story because there's so many contradictory things coming about out about it not an unfortunate i think it's intentional because people are playing politics but john i mean i know you don't speak for the government in beijing but i wouldn't have to

imagine that the the government in beijing is a bit. curious and disturbed that you hear the president of the united states say something then you see the speaker of the house pelosi say another thing and they're squabbling and then you have a medical professionals giving us kind of the hard news this is going to be hard to contain a lot more people will probably catch it and we have to hold learn a whole lot more but you have this political level and then you have this expertise level and they're not talking to each other at least that's my perception of it go ahead john well 1st of all let me see if you were supposed conspiracy theory i think there's also a fish out of conspiracy theory as well but i think it's a bit different united states and you know the fact that the. conspiracy is to the user cell site sex yourself very well it's a business action and other than that there's also a group of people who need that if states that are vaccine and these people have a political agenda as you know and as i was i know there are people united states

refused to take vaccines and they're using this opportunity to sensitive public in this theory that this has a lot to do with people trying to get vaccines so this is not that pot in china in china i think there's a lot to do with people just trying to make money out of this and you know it's a it's a real big business. if you think about it you know the the these rulers these serious conspiracy theorists are not so much coming from serious media aldous they're mostly coming from these what's called grosse moved to new media outlets that coming from nowhere that make it out of money out of this it's a static and it's very set now with respect to the 2nd question about you know the inconsistency between what present trungpa st and what message prose is saying what the experts are saying that's from a c.d.c. are saying this is just very comical pinioned you know this is also quite. a funny that you know such an important issue concerning people's lives could be so much

split aside as the united states i can't stand from present trumps perspective it's not downplaying this these things he's going to weigh in this election and this is coming from nowhere trying to ruin his whole election chest but and democrats are jumping on this opportunity so so it's so it's very sad also to see that you know both sides of the congress of basically trying to politicize in this and taken advantage of this you know it at that and he i think that it's also want to make a point that it seems to me that the c.d.c. has been very slow in coming up which these tests. you know the supply is scant the price is high a lot of people ducking getting tested well john he had to get it done welcome to the american medical system ok and again one of the derivative elements of this whole situation with this virus here is the nature of the american medical system in the united states it's very everything is very very expensive things can become very very scarce i mean i was there

a young man in california that want to get tested and it ended up being like $3000.00 or something like that just to get a tatts oh my goodness here i mean that's a commentary and that's a big issue in the american campaign about what kind of medical system the country should have let me go to fred here fred you know kind of stepping back from all of this here we did have the 1st row. and of the trade deal it was a very contentious and i have to admit in the american media china is very much demonized i sometimes think it's you know the democrats they demonized the russians and the republicans they demonized the chinese at least that's the provision on cable t.v. but how can how is this going to move us russia i'm sorry u.s. china relations forward or are we in kind of a cold the sack right now go ahead fred. i do not think that you know this thing will help us with us china relations i don't think it will hurt but it does put even to face one deal on some floor of a hiatus because right now there is no way for china to to work all these situation

in the long run. maybe will put less tension on the trade. the less politicized let's call fully between the 2 countries better for businesses of post cites. for my perspective as american i wish both countries to open up. the products and the services free to both countries to trade i think that is really the long term solution rather than talking about the u.s. and only on specific products and services ok let me go back to scott here scum town do you feel. i just get this sense you know i don't know i kind of want to be just a to political here but i mean looking at the the discourse about this there's a lot of people and then a lot of people a lot of democrats want to see trump fail on this i mean that it's mind boggling i mean this is the disease doesn't have an ideological preference ok that's virus

will go after everyone but i get the very strong sense that because of all the squabbling they don't want to see this resolved politically in the united states and around the world they would like to see this to turn into a catastrophe personally for donald trump but of course that would be a personal disaster for anyone that gets this virus go ahead scott. 1st of all to say that i have not heard either joe biden or bernie sanders or elizabeth warren or any of the viable remaining democratic candidates articulate you know specifically we want trump to fail they actually say the exact opposite but then what happens is you know there's there's the political machinery that's not just you know the various campaigns but also the media the american mainstream media which i think is part and parcel of a group that once donald trump to fail and while they may not be cheering on coronavirus to bring down the trump administration i think they are cheering on the fact that the trump administration has shown some extreme incompetence in handling

this and they highlight this incompetence and that doesn't help the issue at all everybody should be working lockstep to resolve this issue politics should be pushed aside this is one of these national security issues where democrats and republicans need to come together and that's not happening because again we're kneedeep in the silly season of american presidential politics where everybody's seeking to get some sort of political advantage regardless of the cost yeah it's a really pathetic when you get to choose this issue here i mean it really tells it says a lot about our times here you know john one of the interesting things i'm trying to be positive here is that this should be a learning lesson for everyone in the world i mean what we're going to get past it we're going to get past this ok but it should be a learning lesson how to deal with that and i and i hope that will be the lesson learned from all this and i agree with scott completely this silly season of american politics you know it really blurs the vision of so many people and particularly in the media here but john i think this could be

a learning experience if people want to learn from it go ahead in beijing. oh absolutely i think what the ritual reporter has said it says it all you know is summarizes what has been done in china what has been effective in china well measures to take you know very detailed information i would keep referring to that press conference by. dr elwood who's the head of the year there show china joint investigation team he is in fact to recommend the many of the measures that are being implemented here in china but the problem is that what's up being done here in china is not very convenient from a political point of view in terms of attacking china's institutions the way of doing things so you know it's not surprising to see that very important press conference was not so much split or publicized the united states is very new to report about that conference a press conference very report about the report coming from the british show as

a matter of fact what the south korea is doing to some extent is essentially mimicking what china has been doing so i think you know again i said you know we're going to put our acts together to to to to to handle this human problem not so much politicizing this aware this being an issue between democrats and republicans where as an issue between the chinese is judicious versus american political system we should set aside a lot of this and try to take whatever measures that's been effective ok fred i'll give you the last word can we put all those things aside and resolve this issue on a go on on a global scale because i have my doubts go 40 seconds go to you fred go ahead. well i agree with you i have my doubts also especially from the united states i do think other countries when they have a rational mind they will start looking at china's case and learning from china so that they can help themself in the future well that's

a very very good point at the end of the day it's going to have to be a learning experience for all and unfortunately it happened right in the middle of the silly season as scott has pointed out to us that's all the time we have many thanks to my guests in new york and in beijing and thanks to our viewers for watching us here are to see you next time and remember. that. yes well this is how the.

why do we go to war because we view the key to economic growth is oil and energy we go to war is vice president cheney said for the oil that's why they invaded iraq for the oil that's why trump says the one thing we want syria we really don't want to go to war with russia we were. just control the oil. and the gas lines and the pipeline through afghanistan so the military is really an extension of controlling up world energy and oil.

is due to keep up with number 2 the pretty one with kids of you to home unfoldment don't going to pull. out of office in the. streets in the effort to trick our young. people. and i will put you on that we would love. to find out titles or. something to motivate to you all to see. some of it to. go. to calls to the world for the middle school the usual usual music school with the news from. the new.

or the supposed to all mean are just. midnight right now here in moscow in the headlines for you billionaire michael bloomberg drops out of the us democratic party's 2020 race and joe biden is kind of this event who's faced a backlash despite having a very super tuesday oh. look you might find any more political. elsewhere days off that much heralded peace deal with washington the taliban kills over 20 soldiers and police in afghanistan while the u.s. responds with airstrikes. now the flush for the keep an eye on greek border police clashing with those asylum seekers at the turkish border as a row with over refugees deep.