America, China, and the Future of Democracy

America, China, and the Future of Democracy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyTvl7bmaug&ab_channel=CyrusJanssen

By Cyrus Janssen

June 12th, 2021 for a special live stream event discussing a topic that seems to be on everyone's mind: Democracy 

[Music]
everybody welcome to today's stream my name is cyrus jansen i am of course a youtuber a vlogger business
consultant and someone that is very passionate about the countries of the united states my home country and of course the country of china now
today's stream is going to be talking about democracy now this is very much a hot
topic many people are very interested in this topic and of course i think many people
you know are very interested in learning about how democracy is going to evolve over the next few
decades and most certainly when you're talking about democracy one of the things that always comes up is the country of china
many people are interested to see you know will china one day embrace a democracy does china need a
democracy and you know and also i think what we've seen over the last year especially and you know since the
trump donald trump administration you know we've seen democracy in the united states of america
changed tremendously and i think a lot of people i know a lot of americans for example
you know we're really worried about the state of our democracy as well and so i basically wanted to
have a live stream today because i wanted to talk about you know democracy i wanted to talk
about china america answer some of your questions about this and again just have an open dialogue and
share some of you you know my thoughts about this so again democracy is a really interesting topic
to discuss because i want to come out and be very clear about this democracy most definitely has been the most
successful form of government you know that we've seen around the world and it has
actually been very helpful for many for millions of people and it has done a lot of good things
you know there's one thing that i think really does annoy me as a content creator that that speaks about china
and i think some of the other people that cover this topic and we discuss china is the fact that sometimes if we
say something positive about the country of china automatically we get labeled as being
anti-democratic or you know cyrus you're a communist or you don't believe in democracy anymore
that's certainly not the case you know i i think democracy is a very has had some very good success
over the past few decades but i do think that the world has changed significantly as well
and i think what we're again what we're seeing is we're seeing democracy has changed a lot i think when you look at democracy in
the 1970s and 80s of the in the united states it is very different than the democracy
that exists today and again i think there's a lot of americans that are worried about this
and i want to show a lot of you know some interesting statistics behind this in today's live stream
and again as we get started here i want to thank you all for joining and i think it's it's pretty awesome to
you know to be able to do this here live on youtube i love having the interaction you know being live with you
this is a great way to start my weekend and in the future on this channel what i would like to do is to do
more live streams talking about important issues and so for example if there's any future
topics that you would like me to discuss you know send me some messages and what i'm going to try to do is either do a
bi-weekly live stream where we have a general topic you know that we're going to discuss obviously today is going to be america
china and democracy and then moving forward in the future you know we're going to hopefully be able to tackle different
uh different topics and everything so let me just check into the chat as well i'm going to be trying to monitor this chat kevin thank you so
much for the first super chat really appreciate that uh
use my quote when the united states or the western works together with china the whole world wins uh kevin is doing some great things you
know he's he is from he's based in england and he is fostering a relationship you know with business relationship back in
a small town in in china and i think it's really amazing the work that he's doing i know he's really grabbed on to that
quote that i use on my channels as well and again that's something you know if you're following this channel that's something that i certainly will continue to preach we've
got a lot of people coming in from malaysia as well um the quantum alchemist
saying uh you know china is a semi-democratic model not democracy but again not autocracy is either while the united
states is clearly uh plutocrat ran autocracy so yeah there's there's a lot of things that we can
you know talk about when it comes to the united states and i'm going to bring up a couple of interesting graphs here just to help us all you know better
understand a little bit more about this so take a look at this data this is from 1977
and what i want people to have a look at is the this is i want to show everybody just how
democracy has grown around the world now we're going to focus really on three main regions here
now again this is 40 years ago 40 years ago the democratic nations that you can see obviously are the ones that you would
expect obviously united states and canada you know the western countries australia india japan
and these were really the main areas where democracy was not much of the world was a democratic you know
government back 40 years ago and in the past 40 years again look at those three regions asia
africa and south america especially south america almost everything flipping to blue you know all now embracing a democratic
you know form of government you know africa you know although not a lot of them embracing the full democracy
you see a mixed democracy and i think that's something that's really interesting is you know finding a hybrid government
so again we've seen over the last 40 years and i want to just be very clear about this because again many people come out and
say cyrus you're anti-democratic you don't believe in democracy i do want to establish that fact very early in this
live stream is the fact that you know democracy has done very well around the world
but i think it's really interesting well is when you look at you know this growth in democracy not everybody did embrace a full switch
to democracy there's a lot of hybrid systems there and this is something that i've certainly advocated on my channel in the
fact that it's really important for every country to go out and find a system that is that will work for them because
i know that every you know every country in the world there's over 200 countries in this beautiful world that we live in
everybody's country everybody's society everybody's needs it's people it's culture it's history everything's very unique and there is no
one way that is going to guarantee success for a country most likely a hybrid mix of policies is what is
going to work so i just wanted to establish that that yes democracy is popular it is growing but here's the interesting
thing it has proven that there is more than one form of government that does work
and that that's really something that cannot be overlooked right now and that is certainly something that china has brought to the table
is saying look you know we have found a very unique system we have found a system that is obviously
it's state-owned it is state enterprise state capitalism and our main focus
is going to be on how do we help the vast majority of people in the fastest way possible and i think when you
look that you know when you when you actually look at china's growth you know there's been
some incredible things you know we talk about poverty alleviation we talk about the standard of living here these are all important things that
really need to be discussed and i'm going to take a look at the comments here and here's daniel coming
in saying cyrus the illustration is wrong many are forced to adapt the democratic system through u.s hegemony hegemonist pressure
and that is true i mean i do want to bring that up as well is that my government the united states government has certainly been very
a very large advocate in in installing democracies around the world and this is something that you know i i
really struggle with as an american because you know there's there's there's something that you know i always hear
from american politicians for example for four years that michael pompeo was the um secretary of state
he always was saying america first you know we need to have america first that is the best foreign policy not only
for america but for every other country in the world i never really understood that concept
because you know you know and i've had people come out and say you know even china supports an america first you know foreign policy
and i said no you know china honestly really doesn't care what america is doing
china is really focused on what china's doing and i think there's it's really interesting when you see america and how
much money that we spend on war on military bases and really
trying to spread spread this idea around the world it's it's really a fascinating thing and
um also give me i get you know i want to just give a shout out to helen coming in with a nice super chat here nice thank you i
appreciate the support helen thank you very much i just love being with you guys here and just
being able to have an open mic this is this is really fun for me as well just allows my train of thought to flow
and a lot of ideas that i accumulate in the week to just come out on a live stream it's a lot of fun but anyways going back to that thought a
lot of times i really wish that as an american citizen myself i really feel that i wish our politicians would
spend more time focusing on american issues i actually wish american politicians
would be a little bit more selfish for example you know focus on americans focus on our issues because we have so
many people that are struggling inside the united states and i just don't think that we need to be spending all of our time and our
resources traveling around the world and again you know there is there is this savior complex that we do
have in the united states of america that we do feel that we need to come and liberate people
you know i've had i've heard many people just say look you know cyrus people in china are slaves people have
no freedom at all and if china really wants to experience success as a country
it much it must switch to a democracy and it's really an interesting concept to me because i think about it like okay
let's actually just look at that logistically how would that actually work you know how would china's government
completely change paths and go to a democracy the first thing is is we have to look i
think at the people you know does the majority of chinese people actually want democracy
and i'm gonna i'm going to i'm going to bring up a very interesting statistic here i want to bring up here
and i want you to take a look at this graph here this is quite fascinating i want you to look at the blue dots
first and the blue dots here indicate you know
the percentage of people in that country who feel that democracy is important now you can see you know
the the bigger countries poland south korea you know uh germany brazil even china
you know coming in at well all of these over 80 so we got china coming in at 84 percent of
of people according to this poll are feeling that democracy is important uh not
saying that it's the most important but it is important it's important value to them now the interesting thing and where this
really shift now again even even notice this on this graph the united states is coming in at 73 so there you can say that there's more
people in china that maybe have an interest in democracy but here's where things get really interesting
look at the orange dot here and we're just going to focus on the united states and china one of the lower scores or certainly in
the median here is the united states coming in at 58 percent so you have 75 percent of
people feel that democracy is important in america however you only have 58 percent
of people that actually feel the united states is democratic meanwhile you have 73 percent of the people in china
feel that their country is democratic now i think this is a really interesting graph because again
i think democracy can mean different things to to different people as well you know we always tend to think of
democracy as one simple definition one man one vote
and if for example if you're allowed to vote for the you know president of america i'm an
american citizen i have the right to vote for my leader you know in in november 2020
i was able to you know cast a vote for either joe biden or donald trump and my vote ultimately
decided who the united states president was now we can kind of get into this and talk
about the electoral college and how actually my vote didn't really count how it actually just were supposed to influence other people
that actually had the vote but generally speaking yes it might mean the electoral college is a bit of a bit
of a hot topic issue in the united states as well however it is really important to know
that this is how the united states system is but this is something that americans don't know and i have something really
interesting to under to talk about because i live in canada right now
and canada has a very different form of democracy and one of the things that i've tried to
do over the years i have tried to travel around the world and always approach things with a very
open mindset my mother is from germany and my father is american i was born in florida
but i grew up in a household with a very german mother interesting enough my mother's you know she has lived in america for 50 years
and she has never acquired american citizenship she is a proud german national she's very proud of her heritage she's
very proud that she's european and she really loves america obviously she's chosen to live there
you know her son was born there our family she continues to live there and she was very you know proud of the
country that welcomed her as an immigrant you know but she's also very proud that she's european and she raised me with
this ability to think objectively about the world to always look at things from both angles not just the american way you
know cyrus you're also half european you need to look at things from a different perspective
manzana guten morgen guten morgen i love it you know people come in here
we speak a little bit of german as well this is great also let me give this let me give a side shout out to luke luke
mao coming in with the super chat thank you cyrus all depends on what good for a country and what is the country's goal
i completely agree with that and we're going to continue to go down you know we're going to continue talking about this topic i have so many things
that we can share about this uh so i respect the deutsche yeah i speak german with my mother uh we
speak german because you know for my mother is living in america she lives in florida there's not many german speakers there
and you know it's it's great for her and and i actually you know german was my first language
that i learned in america and this is actually this is a side note this is an interesting kind of cultural
insight into america as well my first language and you know growing up was german you know i was raised by
my mother at home my father was working and i struggled when i went to kindergarten in america because i could
not speak english properly and as a result my mother was very scared you know that i wouldn't fit into
american society so she just switched over to english for me so i very quickly forgot most of my german and i didn't pick it up until
later and anyways we're going off topic there about german but the key thing is is that i wanted to
approach things with an open mind and i've tried i've been very fortunate to travel to over 60 countries around
the world in the past 15 years and i always take an interest in learning more about that country it's
government how the system works how the people perceive that and try to put myself in their shoes
and i think that's something that more americans need to do because i do believe that we have you
know this this entitlement or almost this you know this belief that america is the best way but again i'm
going to go back to what i've learned here in canada i've been living in canada for four years and this is quite fascinating um oh hold
on i want to give another shout out to reporter phi alex from reporter fire media has just joined the channel he is an admin on this channel alex thanks for joining
in buddy great to see you alex and i have done some work together on youtube and we got some exciting
things in the plans maybe i'll mention that at the end of the stream but alex is a good friend of mine so
i want everybody to realize this when i came to canada here's the interesting things i learned about canada in canada you do not elect your prime
minister canadian citizens do not have the freedom to elect their prime minister here
what you do instead is you actually elect your local member of parliament and then that
member of parliament goes on to vote for the party so typically what
you do here in canada is you would be voting for the party not the actual candidate and that's
something that most people don't know you see a lot of americans we assume that hey look at canada the uk australia
these are democracies exactly like america very different in fact and this is something that we need to look at again
you know canada's democracy is fundamentally very different from the united states again in the united states we can vote
directly for our our leader our president and canada other commonwealth countries you cannot you
vote for the party here's the other interesting thing as well in canada the current prime minister is justin trudeau
his member of the liberal party liberal party is the governing party right now in canada the the
current party that is managing canada that is running canada they can call an election at any
time and this is a really fascinating thing for me to learn as an american you know for example in theory you know
you could have an election you could have a prime minister election every year in canada every single year
you could call an election now governments wouldn't necessarily do that because obviously citizens would become tired of that
they'd probably become annoyed and they'd probably vote you out because it's like well we don't want to have a election every single year but again
this is a different this is just different in how it's set up we know for example in the united states
there's a very strict timeline on when there's elections it's every four years it's always in november it's going to be
in november 2024 28 32 36 40. it's a very systematic
system and the interesting thing about canada's government is is that there is a strategy
on when you call an election so for example justin trudeau in the liberal party when they feel that they have the
majority and they feel that okay i think we're in a position where we're most likely going to win the election let's call an election
and then as soon as they call the election basically both sides are all the you know political parties they have
about six weeks and to prepare you know for this election and this was
fascinating for me to understand because as we know in america you know you know for the 2020 election
i mean this started two years prior you know 2018 people were already like who's going to be the democratic
nominee who is going to be you know you have this huge buildup you know to the
united states elections you have campaigns lasting you know well over 18 months
and i remember you know living in hong kong in 2016.
and the problem was is you know it was a very highly anticipated election because again in 2016 barack obama was
finishing his second term so there was going to be a new president it was either going to be trump
or hillary and at that time you know we didn't actually know trump was going to win the republican party at that time you
had 12 more more candidates in the republican party the fascinating thing was is that you
know you saw you know for for the well over a year i was constantly asked these questions
about you know cyrus you know what who do you think is going to win the election who do you think who do you think's
going to win the election and it was actually a tremendous amount of pressure on me as an american expat because and it was just exhausting
because you know i didn't want to keep talking about the election for 18 months straight and i know for a fact every american you
know once the 2020 election was done regardless if you sorry the 2016 election was done
you know once trump won even if you didn't support it i think you were just finally really
like okay fine it's done like now we can kind of move on with our life again and we got a question in here it says in
most countries you don't elect the premier directly yeah and that that's that's true and that is exactly one of the big
cultural things because i guarantee you if you ask americans that they would be they would not know that fact and i
think that is something again when you see the united states traveling around the world trying to bring democracy around the
world and this this this idea or this concept that one man vote you must be able to elect
your leader that's not actually common even amongst many democratic nations and so that's
something that really needs to be established so again you know you have these different forms of democracy
now i want to i want to bring up some more stats here because i think this is quite fascinating and what i want to bring up is i want to
bring up this graph and this is a ranking of this is the democracy index
and this is this comes this is a yearly index compiled by the economist intelligence unit which is from an
economist group that is based in the uk from the magazine the economist and this basically is a ranking of democratic
countries now this is really some interesting data because you have
you know you actually look at the first thing here is the regime type okay we have the full democracy and i'm
gonna i'm gonna get into the definition of what a full democracy is now according to the economist and this this company based in the uk that ranks
democracy around the world every single year there are only 23 nations in the world
with a full democracy now no surprising here that scandinavia occupies five of the seven
spots you know with denmark finland uh sweden iceland and norway i've traveled to all
of those countries they really are fascinating countries in the way that they are run norway coming in you can see consistently
ranking you know it's out of a scale of 10 norway isn't at 9.8
at least you know for the last decade or so so very high ranking on this system and this is
talking about basically the purest form of democracy good to see canada the country that i'm currently living in at number five i think this would
surprise many americans you have countries for example like uruguay coming in at number 15
chile number 17 even the island nation of the mauritius coming in at 20 all ranked above number
25 the united states of america and this is something i want to talk about notice america is not a full democracy
it is a flawed democracy and what exactly is the definition of a
full democracy compared to a flawed democracy well we're going to bring that up and this is interesting full democracies
are nations where civil liberties and fundamental political freedoms are not only
respected but also reinforced by a political culture conducive to a
thriving of democratic principles these nations have a valid system of government
checks and balances an independent judiciary whose decisions are enforced governments
that function adequately and diverse in independent media okay that's a very important one the media is
a very important thing we're going to talk more about that these nations have only limited problems in democratic functioning okay so again
let's just go back to that chart so there's only 23 countries in the world
in 23 countries i would say in places because i'm going to put just disclaimer here number 11 taiwan is you
know taiwan is very interesting thing i mean united nations even the united states itself has recognized that taiwan
is part of china want to be very clear on that but it is obviously does have some obviously has
democracy in in taiwan very unique system that they have there on the island but again there is some great things
that are established here in the sense that there are only 23 countries in the world with this but
again now look at the flawed democracy and we're going to go back to that definition and i want you to listen to the difference of this and
this is the united states here we're talking about there are nations where elections are fair and free and balanced civil
liberties are honored but they may have issues media freedom infringement
and minor suppression of political oppression and critics these nations have significant faults in
other democratic aspects including underdeveloped political culture low levels of participation in
politic politics and issues in the functioning of the governance
now that is a very interesting thing to learn about when we're talking about this flawed democracy
and i think if we look at the united states for example we certainly we can certainly look at these you know
definitions the difference between a full democracy and a flawed democracy and i think it's very clear to see that
we do have some of these issues in the united states the interesting one enough as well is that we talk about
low voter turnout a lot of americans come out saying you know democracy is so vital for americans for
example you know you have to get out there and vote every vote counts you know it's kind of
funny as well because every election you know when you go vote you get this little sticker
you go in and you're encouraged to put it on your chest i voted and you wear it proudly for the day you walk around town you want everybody to
see that you voted and you've done your part taketh take into fact that we have over 300 million americans
in america right now and you know roughly and now 2020 again was
probably the most anticipated united states presidential election in recent history for sure i mean
arguably one of the most because of the population growth in america but again you know you still have just
over 50 percent of americans who voted so you know no matter really what's going on in america
one out of every two are showing up to vote you know the other interesting thing is is that you have countries like
australia who have actually made voting a requirement every citizen
of australia is required to vote if you don't vote you're actually penalized you're actually given a fine
that's something i think again americans would be finding find out very interesting to learn about so it's just really interesting how some
of our politicians you know really go out and we just
preach this concept that democracy is just going to be the silver bullet you know it's going to be
the silver bullet to all of your problems and and this is something that i really had an issue with when i was living in
hong kong now i was living in hong kong in 2014 when the umbrella movement came out and
it was actually a really interesting time to be in the city of hong kong and i want to i want to talk a little
bit about hong kong because there's a lot of people that come out and say that china is suppressing democracy look
at what it's done in hong kong now the interesting thing with hong kong that we have to remember as well
is that during the you know during its british rule you know the the citizens of hong kong
had very little democratic freedoms for example there was zero elections that happened in the city
of hong kong under british rule the uk appointed a governor you know every
cycle to fly to hong kong and become the governor you know hong kong people had no choice in who was governing
you know the city however in 1997 after the handover and this is also
quite interesting because there was a tremendous amount of fear you know you know leading up to
1997 many hong kong citizens were very fearful that when the handover happened hong kong went return back to china that
would be a disaster hong kong would fall apart you know the future of hong kong was doomed and you saw many people actually start
to immigrate outside of you know to basically leave hong kong that one of the areas that we saw a
tremendous amount of immigration was to here vancouver canada where i'm currently at and this is an interesting side note
this is why you see you know a tremendous chinese community here in vancouver and a lot of one of the interesting side
facts is when you come to vancouver and you go to really pretty much any chinese restaurant
almost all of the owners and the waiters who have been here for many years all of them are cantonese speaking you
know they all come from guangdong or from hong kong and you know many of them left in the early 1990s kind of
fearing what was going to happen in hong kong the actual opposite happened you know we saw hong kong continue to get better
you know for example up until a few years you know even until last year hong kong was ranking
number three in the world on the human freedom index and again many of those freedoms were guaranteed by
china and again china actually introduced voting into the system of hong kong now
again and the big issue in 2014 was the fact that you know hong kong citizens a lot of
them and again most of them was students and both of them was youth and this was again this was joshua wong and these these young students that were
they wanted universal suffrage they essentially wanted anybody to be able to just come in and run for political office now we know
that hong kong is a very important city in china and we know that obviously the
um the prime minister i forgot the title it's not prime minister's the president of hong kong or the um
what if the official title of the top ruling person i it is it is really you know obviously
the top person that is governing hong kong is going to have to have to have a relationship with beijing
there's no doubt about it you know hong kong is part of china there's going to be a relationship between the hong kong
government and the you know the communist party of china communist party of china ultimately is the ruler of hong kong
and again this is something that many people don't understand is that the future of hong kong is really guaranteed by a prosperous
relationship with the country of china you know with its homeland you know
and so it was really interesting to be down i was in i was in occupy central i would go down
there and talk with the students and i would say you know what are your biggest issues with
you know why do you fight for democracy what are your issues that want to be solved and they said you know we we just want
democracy we want to be like america we think if we can vote for whoever we want this would solve all of our issues
but you know and i think there is some really big issues that need to be solved in in hong kong for example
the the common one that you're going to always hear is certainly going to be the amount of of housing housing is a
tremendously huge problem and i think the bigger problem with hong kong right now is is the oligarchs
who control large amounts of land you have some of the most wealthiest individuals that control that
are just hoarding large amounts of land in hong kong that are not being developed
and obviously just by sitting on this land you you can influence the supply and demand
of you know real estate and of course if you have a huge area that's not being
developed that means that there's less housing available that means the price you know price of housing is going up i think one of the interesting
systems is actually the country of singapore in singapore there is a government policy that every
singaporean national has a pathway to home ownership that's quite incredible actually
singapore to be honest is probably my favorite country in the world i really love the government in singapore
i love the system how singapore works but again if you were to look back at this graph i don't have that data
immediately but if you're looking at the rank of democracy singapore comes in
at number 75 on this list that's something that not many people know you know so you know again i think a lot
of americans would say hey look at singapore it's a great country in asia it's developed tremendously look at the history of singapore over
the last 60 years you know that's because of democracy not necessarily true actually singapore
although a democracy it is a limited democracy and singapore has been a one-party state
since 1961 or 1959 i believe it is one of the two but for the better part of
you know six decades it has been a one-party state it has been the same political party that was instituted by
lee kuan yew and lee kuan yew is one of my favorite politicians of all time he is an
incredible visionary and lee kuan yew was not a fan of democracy he did not he spoke very negatively about it he was
educated in the uk i believe he's educated at either harvard or um uh sorry not harvard oxford uh
obviously hovered in the united states i believe believe he was educated in oxford and very educated man
the interesting thing about lee kuan yew is when he came out he had the vision to transform the
island nation of singapore and at the time what he did is he said
we are going to make english the national language and singapore for those of you that
don't know is very interesting because you have a very big diversity of cultures there you obviously have a lot of ethnically chinese people in singapore
you have a lot of malaysians you have a lot of indians you have a plethora of different nationalities and
cultures you know many singaporeans speak you know three four five different dialects and languages
it's really truly an incredible place and to come out and say we're going to
speak english this really cost a huge uproar in singapore excuse me we'll get some water
many chinese started revolting they said no we're we are ethnically chinese we want to read newspapers in in chinese
we want to speak chinese we we want to have multiple languages but again lee kuan yew is thinking what's our
nation going to be like 60 years from now when we are the only country in asia that has democracy
you know that democracy the only that has english as the official language what an advantage that's going to be and
again this is why you've seen such a competitive advantages for singapore one of the fastest growing regions in asia
tremendous amount of business and again what an amazing government policy to have a pathway for home ownership i
think that's kind of more the issue that we're looking at in hong kong you know for example i would like to see some economic reform happening in hong
kong where these oligarchs cannot control all of this land more public housing would be available
you know pathways for home ownership for hong kong citizens would be established i think that would create you know a lot
of societal benefits and these are probably the biggest issues that are facing hong kong right now but again i was amazed for me to go down
to occupy central and i would talk to these students and a lot of them were you know 18 19 20 years old and none of them had any
experience in the real world again when you're 18 years old what job have you had a lot of these student protesters
you know they were living at home with their parents you know they were you know again they're living at home you know their expenses are being paid
for by their parents they're supposed to be going to university to get a better education but no they're skipping class
and they're now protesting downtown and they have this concept like you know we are changing the world we are changing the world by
protesting and you saw a huge conflict because a lot of parents were speaking out no you're not changing the world you're
wasting your opportunity to get an education i'm literally paying your bills you have no experience in this world go
out and get an education at the same time what you also saw is you saw a tremendous amount of
businessmen and i've spent some time in hong kong and the interesting thing is is when you see people that kind of understand it on a
on a bigger scale you realize that hong kong people that really understand it realize that there's a tremendous opportunity for
them to do business inside the country of you know inside their home country of china you know hong kong is part of
china and hong kong citizens have a unique advantage you know for example hong kong citizens have their
hoi hyung jin which is the home return permit that they can travel back to china visa free
at any time you know they can establish businesses in you know china very easily much easier
than myself for example as an american citizen and this is what you see a lot of hong kong citizens taking advantage of that
doing business and making money doing well you know back in mainland china and really realizing the importance of
that relationship with mainland china and so again you know again it's you know we get into this big discussion
you know what is the point of having this democracy you know is it going to bring the change
in now i have a question here you know do we actually think that if we bring democracy to china
is that going to guarantee a better future for china now one of the things that you know
i look at i've been investing in the stock market for example for over 15 years now and i love
analyzing companies and seeing their long-term growth prospects and one of the things as an investor we
always say is you know past results does not guarantee future success however when you're looking at certain
successful companies for example you know i've been a shareholder of apple and starbucks for well over a
decade and you look at these companies that are just very very well established having a very
successful business plan and you just know you know it's going to be just this continual
compounding company that over the long term really does provide some great wealth as an investor
and does really provide you some tangible benefits you know there there are some you know great companies in america and
around the world for that matter that really provide some great opportunities now again i've used this analogy as well
is that i believe that china's government functions more like a business and again you can see this very clearly
in how the government and how the state comes out with these you know five-year plans china is
currently in its 15th i'm sorry 14th consecutive five-year plan this is a really interesting thing and
because again five-year plans you have a complete direction that you were trying to go
we know that china started its now 14th consecutive five-year plan they have now a tangible gold in front
of them to reach by the year 2025. now the united states for example
i believe that this is one of the the most difficult things in our democracy is the fact that
you you can never really plan long term and again we have for example joe biden won the election
and and again for and again this is something that we see with with with um america's problem with democracy
right now sometimes i'll get some haters on here that say my president lives in florida still
and when they when they say that that simply means that joe biden didn't win the election
donald trump is still president and again if you're an american and you believe that you're not believing in democracy either
because if you believe that joe biden didn't win the election you're not believing in a free and open democracy
so again this is where we come into this really big problem again where people are saying you know
it's like how does the united states travel around the world spreading our democracy when we have our own citizens who don't believe we're democratic
i mean take a look at this poll this is an interesting article that came out the united states is seen as a bigger
threat to democracy than russia or china the global poll finds okay now this is a this is a sample this
is this is from 53 countries around the world and that that's again this is some
really some red flags for me as an american more looking at the fact that i think we need to
change we need to take a look at american democracy and again this is why i always say my
message as an american i am a concerned american citizen i do love my country i want us to be a
little bit more selfish a little bit more focusing inward how are we going to fix this because again even economists the world
economist when they're analyzing countries around the world we are know that we are not a full democracy we are a flawed democracy we
have some very big issues the other thing about that is let's bring up that graph one more time to talk about
what is exactly a flawed democracy the big thing that we saw in here is media freedom infringement okay so we
have a huge infringement on on media now i want to talk about how why i think
talking about a democracy in 2021 has changed so much over the past few decades because
democracy it has changed a lot let me give you an example you know when we brought up that
that graph again and when i bring up the graph showing what the world was like in 1977 okay we
saw the majority of countries around the world was not democratic again in 1977 things were a lot more
simple and what you saw back in 1977 especially even in the united states is you saw
i think the political system and our media was very different back then for example back in the 1970s 80s and
even early 1990s in america when you presented one hour of news you
very much had to have a balanced reporting okay you had to have you know 30 minutes
of presented from the conservative side and 30 minutes presented from the liberal side you had to have both sides
presented inside you know any kind of news channel it had to be balanced it had to be fair
and i think this is a good policy because again one of the one of the problems is is that you can go
too far down the line of one political side where you know you were just brainwashed by one political party
and and this is exactly what we've seen inside the united states of america now the interesting thing about this was
i believe it was newt gingrich who was the speaker of the house back in the early 1990s
he came out with the idea saying you know what we should do why don't we why don't we come out and we get rid of
that rule let's let's have ultimate freedom on media so if you want to just be completely right
you can be completely right if you want to be completely left you can be completely left and we are going to abolish that rule in
our media that you have to present the the you know both sides of the story um guys
i want to take a moment here we've just passed over 700 people in the stream which is fantastic i'm really appreciative of all the support
great to see here um and i just noticed that jayo matt from the giao nation hey cyrus surprised you're streaming now
yeah buddy i like to start my weekends early in the morning you know i'm a morning guy many of you know i've got three small
children so this is just the perfect time for me i like to get up get a lot of you know my especially when
i do a lot of my work early in the mornings i usually get up between 4 35 a.m every morning uh here in canada to do a lot of my work
in the morning but yeah so we're talking about democracy we're talking about um china we got a message here i'm going
to take a look at the comment section sometimes i get in a roll like i don't see some of the comments coming in um what is one that i just saw um
cyrus you need to have a better shirt on good good idea actually you're right it doesn't look too good on camera i like that thanks
for the feedback so anyways but notice how that shifted let's get back on topic here i'm on a roll here
is in the 1990s the united states government changed that fact and they they said okay now media channels can
present only one side of the story and this is exactly what we've seen we've seen fox news and cnn now go to
the extremes and this has been my biggest concern and then you throw in okay in 2007 2008 the invention of
social media okay when i went to china in 2007 we really didn't have social media back
then okay you had the facebook the facebook as it was called back then and it was more of a very different
social media experience facebook back then i mean you had it as a way to you know you used to join these groups
and it was just very different you know advertising on facebook wasn't a big thing it was very you know even i don't even
think facebook was monetizing to be honest back in 2006 2007 i'm not entirely sure on that
but it was very different than it is today but again this is the this is the difference here
okay is that because we got rid of that law you now have media channels basically
being able to say whatever they want to see and i think this is a very dangerous thing inside america because for example
i've shared with this on the channel i actually come from a very ultra conservative pro-christian base in
orlando florida and when i like for example so everybody in my high school
everyone in my hometown everybody of my facebook friends they very much are the pro trump
community and so when i would log into my facebook it is entirely pro-trump and the problem is is
that you have everybody is watching fox news religiously everybody is only retweeting stuff from
from the trump side and so you have a very interesting take on how they see
um you know the election and and the politics and the policies and and the problem is is that i've had
i've seen friends in our circle where somebody has switched over to the to the left you know they've gone a little bit
more more liberal in their thinking and and you know a trump supporter will say well you're not my friend anymore like i
don't want to have anything to do with you anymore and friendships have been broken families have been broken and i think
this is really difficult you know i have you know i'm a christian i have friends that are atheist i have no problem with that i have
friends that are liberals i never really want to let politics you know get into that and just for clear record you know i'm not
my view on i'm kind of confused on what view i am because i don't really identify with either the republican or
the democratic party right now and this is something that i'm advocating for if there's ever been a time for a third party in the united
states of america we most definitely desperately need that right now in the united states of america
because i feel that there is a majority of americans who kind of feel like myself i i like things from both sides you know
from the republican and from the and from the democratic party and this is where you're torn in the middle because
at the ultimate day you like you like things from both sides but you have to choose one and it's a very difficult decision so
you know and i think and that's what you see a lot of people for example a lot of people were saying i'm going to vote for joe biden not necessarily
because i like joe biden but i just don't like trump and this is how a lot of people you know we're voting that way as well
so again the this is really a big thing and why the united states is a flawed democracy because because of our media
social media has beco has changed the game you know our world has completely shifted in the last 10 years
look at how much social media changes and influences things and again i've mentioned this several
times on the channel before if you've ever watched the movie the social dilemma this is a
i think it's a must-watch movie because it talks about the dangers of cell phone addiction the
dangers of social media and it is ironic because i am a content creator so you know i do feel it is it is an
interesting one because i am here on youtube and building you know i do have multiple social media channels
and you know i do try to be very objective and very fair and again my as you guys know my goal is
always to preach cooperation and learning to work together but it is it's really difficult when you have the
ability to manipulate people through social media you know and and so anyways
this is this is something that we really need to pay attention to so this this is these are some of the challenges that we are facing in
in the united states with our democracy um i want to give a little side note here to uh uh bay ray
uh send in a little chat you are amazing sticker ray always a great supporter i think a patreon subscriber and a big
supporter of the live streams as well so just want to thank you guys for the continued support and being here
and again you know we're uh you know we're consistently staying at over 700 people joining us here live this is
fantastic i want to thank you all for coming in and spending some time with me as we get the weekend started wherever you are in
the world and yeah so anyways i wanted to you know just talk about these things i think
i've you know i think i've pretty much hit all of the topics that i want to discuss so much today
let's let's open it up to some questions here i kind of want to cap this at one hour today
so let's open this up to some some questions uh hey cyrus could you share your thoughts on the g7 summit yesterday
um i need to i need to do a little bit more research on that i have not had a chance to go through everything
there so i can't publicly make a comment on that um 40 of people in america trust their
own government this is a big interesting thing i mean i remember donald trump sent out a tweet where he said
52 approval rating you know thank you america thank you for making me a successful
president something along those lines and you kind of scratch your head when you know obviously donald trump thinks
that's a great result for him to tweet that but 52 percent let's just be honest
you know that approval rating would not succeed if you were a politician in china and this is one of the things where i
think that we can learn from both systems so this is this is what i want america
to learn for example from china's system i would love to see america have embrace a little bit more meritocracy in
their system for example i think if you're going to be the united states president i think you should have some qualifications i think that you should
have you know you need to have a little bit more experience inside the political system you need to
have more experience a proven track record of success whether that's you know you start off as a governor you then move on
to being a senator you know i think that would be a really good system to have a little bit more experience in there
now i don't think that will ever happen because again this is kind of one of this is one of the best things about democracy
democracy we sell a dream we sell this dream and this dream is is that anybody can grow up to be the president
of the united states and i've heard many people say i've i've heard this and this maybe i'll go on record here saying that
you know dwayne johnson the rock he would be a great american president i've heard many americans say that
and in the sense is that he's i think he has probably the most instagram followers you know he has incredible social media
appeal but he's he's well liked by people around the world you know maybe we need a celebrity to be
this this this is the mindset of some americans and it's kind of scary when you i've talked to us about this with some
canadian friends here and it's like why would you think that a a movie star would be a successful president
and i said well you know when you think about it from the sense of you know just being a celebrity and and being a
good image of america you know i mean from a from a pr perspective you could
potentially market that and we also know that the united states president for example it's not just one person governing the country obviously
you know like donald trump donald trump had zero political experience he became the president and then of course he filled in his cabinets and he had
an entire team behind him so it's not like it's one person running the country there's many people behind him you know
but this is just an interesting thing where you where you have you know arnold schwarzenegger becoming the governor of
california you had you know another former wrestler becoming the governor of minnesota you have these former
celebrities becoming these politicians in america you could potentially see that donald trump has certainly opened the door
and has certainly made that argument that there is no need for political experience you
know to become a politician in america but i think it's important i would personally like to see that and i think as again
one of the things that i want people to understand about china and i've highlighted this in my
previous video is that china is constantly changing and i and i do see an instance for
example you know for i do see that maybe there is more democratic principles that are
implemented inside the country of china the interesting thing though is that not a lot of people understand this
there are over 2 000 local villages in china that have implemented local voting
and i think one of the other interesting things i do want to hit on this point i forgot to talk about is that china is such
a different country than the united states of america and one of the things one of the biggest challenges that china
faces is the fact that it is has has so much diversity with inside their country for example when
you look at the united states we have 50 states everybody speaks english
pretty much you can travel anywhere in the united states it's going to be very similar culture it's not that different
sure new york's going to be different from texas there's going to be some cultural differences there but let's say 99 of things it's you know
you're american it's not that different and in china it's actually very different and and i think this is really
interesting when you look at for example the provinces of xinjiang and tibet you know these are these
obviously are parts of china and but the culture there is very different they have their own local
culture which is actually beautiful and they have their own local language which is being embraced and being continued
the the hard thing that many people don't understand is is that when china comes out and says inner mongolia tibet xinjiang all of you
must learn mandarin people come out and say well you're eroding the local language no they're not actually if you travel there
you know the uyghur language the tibetan language the inner mongolian the mongolian language there's over 300 dialects spoken all
around china and the dialects vary i remember being in shanghai obviously speaking shanghainese you know people speak
shanghainese there you know you travel 30 minutes by train over to suzhou they speak suzhou knees
you know and then you travel another 30 minutes and it's a little bit different form of a dialect there there's hundreds of
dialects going on and you know this is something that is just very foreign concept to most
americans to understand in the sense that china has it's very difficult how do you manage this how do
you manage a country of 1.4 billion people you know i don't i don't believe that democracy would be the best thing for
you know a full democracy would be the best thing for that i think when you look at china as well it is
quite interesting and i wanted to share this i'm going to end this this is quite powerful because i recently read a blog post from
world affairs i believe it's worldaffairs.blog and this gentleman has written several
books about china i read really an amazing
really a fascinating insight into this and and and i'm going to be quoting a lot of
things from this article and so i'm going to be reading a little bit to use but just pay attention to what this article says here
china disavowed the communist model 40 years ago china's contemporary economy is modeled
actually after germany's 19th century system which could be described as state capitalism now this is a really
interesting thing and this is why i really like to go back and learn about history because you can learn from the mistakes
but you also learn about you know how these countries developed and how they are now
for example when you look at the empires of spain portugal the netherlands and the uk they became
very very wealthy over the centuries by the you know with their colonial past
they expanded across the world they had different colonies for example portugal colonized you know the city of macau we know the
uk has colonized all around the world i mean you know the uk had a tremendous colony all you know you know for many
years you know much of the world was colonized by the uk france as well you know the netherlands as well spain as well
germany never had that so germany was actually in a very big disadvantage so this was really
interesting back in the 17th and 1800s germany was extremely poor and the
problem was is all these other countries that were colonizing around the world you know they were looting gold and
silver and they were you know colonizing and they were doing all of these conquests around the world
that's how they became very wealthy now at the time what happened was because germany was so poor a lot of
young germans were starting to immigrate and they started immigrating to america for example and this is why you see you know a lot
of old german immigration you know you know many years ago my actually my um great grandfather from my
father's side immigrated from germany and my mother is a german national so i'm very heavy on the german ancestry
but it's very interesting to note this you know germany you don't see german colonies around the world now the
germany actually had to think of a solution we have a problem we're very poor
our youngest minds are leaving germany all of our countries around surrounding us in europe are much more powerful and
strong how are we going to compete with them this is what germany did is they actually said we're going to invest
industrial socialism or or what we can call state capitalism and this is what they did what they did
is that the government took on some of the capitalists biggest burdens and so for example what they did is they
started the government started investing in all of the infrastructure okay and it started paying for infrastructure
for salaries for basically all of the commodity prices for example if you wanted to manufacture things in germany
the government would subsidize that for you and in addition to that it started so here we go the government
subsidized and took ownership of basic things such as infrastructure mining transportation electricity water
now all of a sudden all of this is being paid for by the german government in addition to that they is that started
lowering the cost of living in germany and then they started offering free education now
when germany started edu you know implementing this free education it was really a win-win for everybody
because number one the society in germany was being educated for free so you had a workforce that was being
educated not only that companies were starting to employ people that had your education which was really
a very big concept back in the 1800s as you can imagine now as a result of these you know
socialist programs germany was actually became the first country in the world
to offer universal health care and they did that in 1883. that's something that you know not a lot
of people know and this is really interesting again how was was germany able to
you know revise their economy and become this very very important country again in europe
you know they couldn't go out and colonize so they had to come from within and this is again just to recap how they did this they said okay
we're the state we are now going to take this burden off of you if you're trying to start a company you have a tremendous amount of capital
expenses to get that business going we're going to take care of that for you we're then going to educate everybody for free
and we're going to provide you pathways now by doing all of this then germany was starting to innovate
and they started to really be able to produce now in order to pay for this taxes went up through the roof
and instead of for example you know before taxes were 10 they raised up to 50 percent now you're
thinking to yourself jimmy christmas you know that's a five times increase on taxes but think about in this standpoint would
you rather pay 20 would you rather pay 10 on 20 or would you rather pay 50
on 200 that puts things into perspective you you know if you're making a ton more
money pay pay more tax you know it's it's always it's like investing in the stock market for example people are like
you know should i sell this stock you know to you know avoid taxes if you're paying taxes on stocks you're
doing good you know that means that you're doing good you shouldn't be fearing paying taxes and so again
a lot of people saw you know people in germany were paying 50 tax but they were making 10 times as much money as before it was actually
working out for them so again um and again this is an interesting system when i said earlier
in the stream when you travel around the world and you're observing countries around the world when i when i travel to these
countries in scandinavia that are ranking number one on the democracy scale
their taxes are 40 50 and again you have very similar things where the government subsidizes
everything everything from health and education and you know long-term care as an elderly all the things are subsidized from the
government it's a very interesting model so let me tell let me give you an example of how this is working inside of
china for example china supplements many of the state-owned enterprises they
supplement things like cutting-edge internet technology now for example this is really
a a double benefit not only for these internet companies inside of china but also for
citizens for example in china you can be streaming 5g internet in china let's go to the
comment section what is what does that cost in china you know anybody that's living in china right now i i think it's something like
10 bucks a month i'm going to say i mean it's no more than 20 us dollars a month for your you know for your unlimited data
whatever it's going to cost you in um you know in china
you know internet in asia very much is extremely inexpensive now i'm going to tell you
you know for example the interesting thing is when i came from when i came from china and i and i came to live in canada
the cost of internet and the cost of cell phones here in canada is absorbent i mean it's unbelievable
you know it's unbelievable i think i'm paying something close to like 300 canadian dollars a month for my wife and i cell phone bill
and i think we get you know like 20 gigs of data a month you know i mean it's really expensive because canada is a
very big country it's essentially the same size as china and the united states the problem is is
that it only has you know a tenth of the population of america so you have you know you have to have this this huge
network but you don't have a lot of people paying for it so of course the cost is going to be more now the interesting thing in china let's
go back to that illustration here is that china comes out and they are now
going to be supplementing you know these cutting edge internet companies and as a result of this what
you can see is as you can see now china has the ability its companies have the ability to innovate
and this is why you see china on the forefront of internet technology why they have
invented 5g why 5g is available all across the country somebody in the comments said
look internet here i don't know what it costs but it's very inexpensive and you can access it in the countryside
and again this is really important thing when you look at how are we going to get people out of um you know poverty you know in
in china one of the successful things that have done is that is through this live streaming you know through you know
allowing farmers to live stream and sell vegetables i know you know mad and the barrett's for example i know that they went to
this very small village in china and i think it's awesome because you have for example
an older chinese gentleman in his 50s or 60s five years ago this guy would have never even owned a smartphone
now he's on doheen or kwai show or whatever chinese social media network he is he's streaming in 5g he's become a
little bit of an internet celebrity maybe in his local region and the guy selling you know vegetables
whatever it is that's a really unique story and again he's doing it through these e-commerce sites like alibaba
jd you know things wechat all of these things have really revolut revolutionized things but again if
china's government didn't get behind these these you know state-owned enterprises and begin to begin again
get behind these companies to really you know help reduce the cost and inspire innovation
you wouldn't have seen that and so again this is how china's model works very differently i'm going to go back and we're going to
talk about for example in america we have something called the fire economy that is
finance insurance and real estate finance insurance and real estate and and this is really how america's
system is going is you see these are the main things that are driving the american economy
you know for example one of the big things as we know the united states does not offer universal health care coverage universal
health insurance now here in canada where i'm currently living that is a principle now
it's funny this is a huge cultural difference between canadians and americans canadians can't really wrap their heads
around how the how do you guys not have universal health care in america you know how does that
possible and the thing about it is is because it's too lucrative it's it's too lucrative because
hospitals make a ton of money insurance companies make a ton of money the medical system big
pharma makes a tremendous amount of money these are tremendous drivers of the united states economy
insurance industry tremendous tremendously popular on wall street real estate casinos these these are
really the main so again the fire economy these are the main factors that are driving the american economy but again when you're not investing in
infrastructure and you know e-commerce all of these big things that are not being influenced
from the government you are more subjecting yourself to these big cycles and this is why we see the united states economy up and down
up and down boom and bust boom and bust you have a very cyclical thing you know we have not seen the same in
china okay you know china has not had a huge economic depression for example i was living in china in
2009 during the world financial crisis and china saw a you know certainly a dip but it
was not this plummet that you saw even 2020 you know you saw us economies everything just plummet
you know you saw china stay very stable actually grow a very little bit of percentage so you have a very different system and
i think this is something that you know can't be ignored um everybody we're coming we're so
excited to be streaming here we just reached i just saw 888 888 people here on the stream with us here today
um fantastic um obviously 888 great number for china uh very honored that you all choose to
spend your weekend here with me we have uh i love this aloha from hawaii um i agree with you but why are you
moved from canada why did you move from canada to china i've made a video about that you can search that i'll let you just watch that
video it's easier um to i'll sum it up in one sentence the reason i left canada was was
opportunity i had an opportunity to come here i'm an expat i've traveled around the world i go wherever there's
opportunities i had a unique opportunity here in canada that i wanted to take advantage of also
you know in the future um i i wouldn't be surprised if maybe one day we do move back to the united
states as i want to be a little bit closer to my parents as they continue to to age and maybe be a little bit closer
to them so you know it's it's a it's i think i think to be honest is a is a choice between good and good
i loved my life in china i thought it was if i think china is a fantastic country
the the level of safety that you enjoy as an expat there the amount of business opportunity that is there is fantastic but canada is also
a fantastic country so i think it's a choice between between good and good and i think united states still
very great country you know there certainly has its issues as all countries do but i think that we know we really we
really need to look at you know i i do get that question a lot you know why did you leave well you know
it's the choice between good and good and i made a video about that you can watch that for more in-depth analysis on that now again this is the main thing that i
really wanted to talk about and why we're talking about democracies and again why i think china's model
is is really interesting and and this is something that we're going to come to the conclusion of the stream i
i've always been very keen in learning as much as i can from different countries
and i think if you come out with the opinion that china's evil china is bad everything that china is
doing is wrong i don't think that you have actually given china allowed them to present their side of
the story and i think if you and i and i've made this point before if you analyze
china from the eyes of a westerner you will never be able to understand it
because china doesn't make sense and i'll give you a really interesting story i was actually spending time with my neighbor yesterday
who's a canadian man and he his wife is from australia and every year they would go back to
australia and they would fly through hong kong to get there and he grew up here in canada and he and
you know there's a large asian community here in the area where i live in vancouver and he said you know cyrus growing up i
never understood china and i certain and i never understood hong kong and i didn't get it
until i actually went there for example you know sometimes people here you know you know they can be a little
bit rude for example if you're in a crowded area they'll kind of just give you the shoulder and bust through and i was like hey you know why are you
so rude you know we're in canada we don't do that here you should be respectful and i always
kind of thought chinese people were rude and then what i did is i flew back to i flew to hong kong
and i started taking the metro system and i'm like wow they're not rude it's just that's that's kind of just the
way life is like you are jammed on the metro you kind of need to budge through sometimes it's not they're not trying to
purposely hit me they're not trying to purposely be mean it is just a a different culture because in canada
you have a plethora of personal space if you're living in a city like hong kong or shanghai beijing all of us have been
in the metro systems there you know personal space is not guaranteed in fact it's very little seen there so again it's kind of an interesting
thing unless you have been there and spent some time you know inside the country
you are not going to understand that at all and so you know i think when you when you hear
people that say cyrus if china were to embrace one man one vote it would then succeed you know as a country well i have to be
honest with you let's just look at it objectively china's achieved a tremendous amount of success over the past 40 years
china's government has revolutionized the quality of life you know for everybody i mean really for
everybody everybody no matter where you are on the spectrum in china you have been able to see an increase
and this is something that you know for example i know um you know many people many of the other china
vloggers have talked about you know is just seeing this you know again if you're 40 years old in china 50
years old you have seen a tremendous transformation in china or you know from compared from your childhood
to right now and this is tangible benefits when you look at a country like china that has avoided
war over the past 40 years and is in instead investing into its greatest asset
itself its citizens its country building infrastructure this is again why you're seeing china
continue to improve i mean by the year 2032 i believe there's going to be 50 000
kilometers of high-speed rail and china's you know china's goal is to make sure that every
i think it's every village or every city with a population of at least 500 000 people
is directly connected to the high-speed rail so they're essentially going to have every almost every place in china is
going to be accessible by high-speed rail now that costs china a tremendous amount of money to develop but again you know
what's in the best long-term interest of the country and its citizens you know the united states we can't get
any of that those projects done we have you know if you travel to our airports you know um
i had an australian friend say look new york laguardia airport it's a third world country that airport is absolutely disaster and it's and it's
very difficult when you hear you know i've had chinese nationals fly in and say you know
wow um this is america like this is your first perception of america is flying into new york airport or boston or
chicago i mean it's just you have this perception of what america is and a lot of times it's very different and
again i'm not trying to say that america is bad i mean there's so many amazing things in america but it is just very different
and so i i really love um i think matt if you're still in the mat from gio nation if you're still in the live
stream um you know matt came out on a live stream the other day and he said something that i thought was really brilliant i want to
share that and that is the fact that if you were going to go down to the path of going to the far extreme to hating
china and really putting out some very you know negative content about china
you owe it to yourself to go to the china and actually travel and experience it because i do know that there's a lot
of people that do not that have never even been to china or have very little experience in
china and you have to put yourself inside the eyes of the average chinese person i think if we look at china you know
chinese society you are going to be focusing on what is the most important elements for you okay and i
believe that if you ask the majority of chinese people what they're wanting to see is i want stability in my life
i want to make sure that my children have a better future than me i want to make sure that they have a
good job access to a better education and i think if you look at what china's
doing they are prioritizing these areas i have some videos in the pipeline that's going to continue to
explain this for example next next week we're going to do a video with baidu and baidu is taking
15 of profits and reinvesting into programs to help train the next generation of iai
artificial intelligence engineers they are investing in the future generation training these people up
there's still a lot of work that needs to be done i had somebody point out to me for example you know that that there's there's not
enough high schools in shenzhen you know that there there's a lot of people that don't have placement that's something the government needs to
address i mean obviously i believe that's a priority you're going to see more and more pressure you know for example we had the
gaucho which is the you know that is the national test in china that basically
admits you into college it is a national test and lasting anywhere from two to four days
depending on your region in china that was just this past week and it is the single most
important test in a chinese person's life a lot of pressure with the gao cow tremendous pressure on that
but you're going to need to see you know china continue to evolve and change but i think that's the one thing that china
has been able to do much easier than the united states of america at being able to address
whatever issues they are for example i'm not saying that china system is perfect you know there is tremendous issues that
do need to be solved but when you talk about for example the pathway to these education
and reducing poverty and you know how infrastructure is being built that most certainly is being prioritized
and is and continuing to improve on a you know yearly basis i think it was interesting i remember i
was watching daniel's daniel dumrell's video when he went to xinjiang and he said you know there was an issue
with the local people there they were not getting you know healthy drinking water and the government realized this and
they had a timetable for this water filtration system to be built in 24 months
but because the outcry was there and because people said look we you know this water is not functioning for us
you know what instead of 24 months we're gonna we're going to prioritize that and we are going to make it now eight
months it contrasts that here in canada we have indigenous first nations you know the
first nations are the indigenous people here that that you know that have had problems for decades
getting water you know decades because canada's government cannot you know
allocate the right money for that interesting thing again and i know many of you have seen this in the past few months
sorry past few weeks there were 215 remains of indigenous children found
buried in a in a private school here in british columbia now this was a horrific thing that
happened obviously this was in the past when you know canada has some very difficult very difficult times it was very
difficult to to make this discovery it's obviously a huge loss of face for canada as many people around the world always
think of you know canada as this friendly nation and this democratic nation and as but as a result of that
that justin trudeau said well we we we were going to allocate 10 million dollars to the to these in
you know first nations people we're now going to double that to 20 million and it was gonna take two years to get that implemented but now we're going to speed
that up and try to get it to you within a year which which is better but still it's like you can see the inefficiencies
there and and again it's also satisfied so if we didn't make that discovery of 215
dead you know uh children you know what would have that happened you know we would have seen you know would you
have accelerated it it's almost like okay you know i've lost some face here i'm just gonna try to do my best to rectify
the situation but that should have been implemented before you know that should have been implemented before and that's that so again this is where
we are really you know why i think that every country has a unique set of differences
and every country really needs to figure out what's best for them i think that china is going to continue
to evolve i think that the united states and other democratic nations are going to continue to evolve
your society should be continuing to evolve but when you go back to you know i think if you go to china and
this is this is something that i'm going to do when i go back to china is do some more street interviews what i would like to see for any of the
china vloggers out there i i would love to see street interviews with people you know just saying look what's your opinion as
a local chinese do you feel you know that what's what's your opinion what how do you feel that
the chinese government has taken care of you how do you feel with chinese government and their ability to offer you a
brighter future i think i would say i would go on record to say that you're going to have more chinese the higher percentage of
chinese have more optimism and more faith in their government to provide them a better future let's say five
ten years out then you do the united states because i know for a fact that in america we have we have so much many people that
are saying look i i just i don't have a lot of confidence in my government right now
and we really need to change things up so again as i mentioned earlier in the live stream i want to see american government be a
little bit more selfish stop looking at other countries around the world you always say america first
should be the best foreign policy how about you make america first the best domestic policy let's focus on our thing but again
you know somebody's asking will they really speak frankly will they do it i don't think they will and this is the reason why because there's so much
corruption inside america's government and we always talk about corruption and the thing is is that corruption is
illegalized in america it's legalized by lobbyists and this was really one of the the defining the changing moment for me as
an american citizen happened in 2017 when my home state was devastated by a
massive gun shooting down in south florida this was at majority douglas school
there were 17 children that were gunned down killed and these students said you know what
enough is enough i'm absolutely sick and tired of this bs we are going to take to washington and
we are going to demand gun change now marco rubio the senator of florida
went on stage and and he was confronted one on one by these students and they said stand on the stage right now and promise
to us that you will never take another dollar from the national rifle association take another to make a
stand right now that you were going to actually make some damn change that we need in america how many more children are going to be
gunned down in our schools and he stuttered and he said well you know i think it's important that we realize that the second amendment is a
very important concept in america i am most definitely going to try to do the best job that i can do
as a politician of the united states of america a land of freedom and democracy you talk you can talk bull
you know bs all you want you know at the end of the day he dodged the question you go back and you look at
it in his career he's accepted over three million dollars from the national rifle association there's no way marco rubio can run his
campaign as a politician unless he gets that money i'm sorry it's all about the benjamins
and this is what you see in america and this is this is why it's really hard to be independent because
you need money you have to have money to become a politician in america and
this is this is why now again like i i'm not saying that we need to ban guns in america i i do
support the second amendment in america simply in the fact that i know that you're never going to change that that
that is it but for example when somebody says hey i think we should institute some policies for example
that maybe you shouldn't have semiotic right raf you know rifles why do we have these weapons of mass
destruction you want to talk about weapons of mass destruction it's having civilians having semi-automatic rifles that can just mow
down people there's no point for a civilian to own a a weapon that can do that i really don't
see any purpose of that that should be that should be in the hands of people in the military designed for combat you know if you want
to own a rifle for hunting or for protection that's fine i have no problem with that i have no
problem with owning a handgun but it's difficult when you have these guns that can really kill a lot of people in a very short amount of time
so again this this is the problem and but i think you know again we have this optimism that
hopefully in america we can one day bring change and i think that is the biggest thing that democracy
is that is most definitely the best thing that democracy offers at citizens is hope
it might never it might never come but hopefully there is my hope for example for 2024
i'm really hoping that we get two young candidates from the republican and the
democratic side that can really challenge you know the norm i mean we know for a fact joe biden's not going to be running for a second
term i don't think he can make it but i think i mean are we going to see him pass the torch to camelot and let her run become the first
female president you know um you know what are we going to see here
um here we go first question why do they sell guns at walmart or kmart it's america baby we love it it's as
simple as that that's a simple answer there tommy thank you for the super chat thanks for
all you do yo yes we will continue to joe guys we've reached over 960 people in the channel here
i love spending time with you guys again i'm going to continue to do the live streams because um as a content creator that is spending
so much of my day studying and researching and analyzing consulting about china you know i i want to i i i reads i
consume so much information so for for me it's great to just come on here and have a little bit of a chat and here
with you yeah biden's health is taking a toll since he took office absolutely i tell you what the united states president
hardest job in the world no doubt about it um absolutely i would love to tune to see a different point of view mango
press is this on i'm not sure thanks for the content the live streams you should do this more often i'm going to try to commit to doing
twice a week guys you know because i really want to make sure that um you know you know that we
you know that we can can have this interaction in here somebody's asked a question about serpent zed a you know i i really don't like to get
into politics or to drama you know i i'm gonna have no comment on on him you know i'm gonna just say like you
know you do you you do me you know like uh you know i've had some interactions with him on on twitter
and you know i i think actually to be honest we kind of came to the conclusion it's like you know look i'm about building bridges
and you know he said look i'm about building bridges and i think it's basically like i guess we have different ways of building bridges i'm just going to leave it at that no
other no other really comments need to be made on that i'm going to be focusing the only person that i can control in this world is
myself the only content that i can control is my content the only channel that i can control
is cyrus jansen's channel and so again i'm trying to do my best to be a positive light in this
world this is the way that i see it so i'm not going to comment on anybody else's channel regardless if they're pro china
anti-china whatever it is you know you do you i do me so let's just you know i'm going to try to be that change
that i want to see in the world and i know for a fact and i truly believe this in my heart of hearts that
that a relationship with china most definitely is going to be the best future for the
world and i i have some exciting interviews so i guess that we're going to end the stream here i'm going to tell you some couple of things with some things that i've got in
the pipeline right now i'm going to be releasing this video tonight okay so this is my next video here is the thumbnail for that
can america can americans understand china this is a 13 minute video this is going to be this is the
thumbnail here image and so get a little bit of a preview for everybody that's on the live stream this morning
i'm going to be launching this in roughly um just under 12 hours time so this is going to be coming out if
you're if you're here in north america that's going to be coming out at 9 00 p.m on the east coast 6 p.m here on the west coast that of
course will be on sunday morning 9 9 a.m so make sure you come back and check the channel uh later today
wherever you are in the world you're going to be able to see this new video i'm very excited for this video because it you know i want to present things
from you know i believe that the vast majority of americans fail to understand china and i'm going to be
presenting two main reasons why i believe that to be true in this video i'm excited for you guys to watch that
and i'd love to hear your comments on that so make sure you watch that i've i'm i'm
reaching out to um a couple of i'm really excited about my real talk china series
and i i want to say thank you to everybody who has been supporting the latest video with that which has
been talking about digital currency we did an episode with richard turin and i really want to support we want to
say thank you for the great support that video was able to reach over 100 000 views and i think it's interesting because i
know that it was a 45 minute video it's on a very specific business topic
but this is something that i really have a passion for is trying to share you know that this is kind of my angle
if i can show you some of the interesting things that china is innovating and how american businesses are doing
business in china and and how they're going to shift the future of our world i think that we can convince more people
of having a better relationship with china and again i'm not trying to say that the united states needs to be best friends
and we're going to be we're going to become the closest allies in the world you know but there is another thing that i learned in
my research recently pierre trudeau when he went to china in the early 1970s
again he hope he established diplomatic relations you know before the united states did
the first thing he said is he said i will never let political differences come between our relationship i will you know china
is going to be china's different china the chances of china switching to america's
democratic system are the exact same chances that america will switch to china's it's not
going to happen guys there's no way that you know that america will ever embrace a socialist
you know you know socialism with chinese characteristics and there's no way that you know ameri
that china is going to embrace a full-fledged democracy exactly like the united states
so we have to really just put the political things aside i think if we just got rid of politics as far as
you know we just got rid of that element alone and we just focused on trade and business i think that we would have a great
relationship with china and i think that's where i'm trying to pivot us to and again i'm just trying to do my job and
my job is just as an american citizen who's very concerned about the pathway that we're going down you know we live in a
different world again it's not the 1970s we have nuclear weapons here we have you know there's a tremendous amount of
you know tension rising in the south china sea with the issues of taiwan america having its patrol boats over
there there you know the last thing we want is anybody to have become trigger happy and spark
something because we don't need war that's the bottom line so
anyways um thank you guys for your support here indeed i love seeing the
support on the channel i love seeing seeing uh people people said talk with kishmore from singapore
absolutely that's in the that's in the process as well i've reached out to him i i definitely want to
you know bring in some of these more quality quality good oh see jerry in here jerry if you're still on the streams
just see social limit has made a solid comeback jerry thanks for joining in the stream buddy good to see you here
um let me just go back to my comment section here alex from a reporter if i appreciate you spending time with me as
well um yeah i mean whoever steps into presidency wouldn't amount to the same thing anyway
with all the corporations that control congress this is an interesting thing and this is why i always say the united
states presidency is such a difficult job because you know you you really can't change
things very fast it just takes a tremendous amount of time the best example of that for example is just obamacare
health care you know we've been working on this for 12 decades we still don't have it sorted out and again it's just going to be continue
to change and change and that's where i think where where you america is the best country in
the world to live if you have money that's that's the bottom line you need to have money if
you're going to live inside the united states because for example you don't want to get sick in the united states unless you have very good health
insurance and health insurance is going to cost you a lot of money my parents before they reached retirement age and
were eligible to go on to the united states medicare system which you go on at age 65 you know they were paying a thousand us
dollars a month for healthcare for healthcare a thousand us dollars a month
and that's that man you just need to do that because you cannot afford to have an issue you know i have a
friend of mine that's in california um she's in her 50s she had to have
a she has a knee issue she has decent insurance they've you know they're middle class americans
you know and anyways they had a knee operation the bill came back 85 000 and and and
whatever insurance policy she had they were only going to cover twelve thousand dollars so she's left
paying almost seventy two seventy three thousand dollars she needs to pay out of pocket and she said look i'm retired you know
my husband's a little bit older than me he's retired you know how are we going to pay for this and she sharing that on facebook
and you p and immediately everyone's like oh don't worry you can just go ahead and refute that because there's an interesting culture
that happens with with and i'm probably gonna do a video about this talking about the medical system in america you know there there's a whole bidding
war you know you know in china when you go to china and you know how you can haggle with prices in china that's actually how the
medical system works in america it's almost like for example the doctors are going to charge you
let's just charge your 85 000 for this knee operation because you know inevitably she's going
to refute that she's going to go back to her insurance company the insurance company is going to call the hospital and say 85 grand come on
that's ridiculous give me 50 grand no no we'll do 75 all right let's call it at 60. okay you know what i got it
down to 60. so you know we'll pay well we'll pay 15 so how about instead of paying 75
you now pay 45. okay you've just saved 30 000 you know but that's that's how it works
it very much is this this system where now because you have insurance companies involved
you know you have to you have to charge your prices through the roof and so if you are wealthy and you have
fantastic medical coverage you're fine because you don't care because your insurance is gonna pay for it
and you can pay a thousand two thousand whatever it's going to cost you for the best health insurance in america and if you
are sick america is a great place to be sick if you have the health insurance because we do have the best hospitals and the best doctors
so that's that's kind of like where the double the catch-22 the double-edged sword you know america is a great place
to be but you need to have money if you're going to live there guys let's end the stream there we're coming on 90 minutes that was 90 minutes
this morning i want to thank you all for spending time with me here we got some exciting uh you know stuff coming out on the channel again
here's this week this video that's coming out next can americans understand china i'm excited to drop this later tonight i
wish you all a wonderful weekend wherever you are in the world and thank you very much to uh spending
time with me here on youtube take care

987 條評論
Hongde Li
添加評論…
@MikeyDaHammer
@MikeyDaHammer
2年前
As a Chinese citizen born in HK, I can assure that Brit HK never had democracy. Indeed, my uncle's childhood neighbour in the 60-70s was a university student. He was a a anti british gov individual, and was caught by the secret agents for publicly spreading anti gov topics. He was beaten badly and had severe internal injurires, and died few months after.
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@hhhhhung1423
@hhhhhung1423
2年前（修改過）
As a Chinese citizen born in Taiwan,I hope we can be unified one day.I really tired of others countries using cross-strait relations issue to take profit.
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@jessicaw8682
@jessicaw8682
2年前（修改過）
There is no such thing as a political system one-size-fits-all, only what suits best for a particular country or culture.
Taiwan is a classic example of a failed state since it has adopted a "democratic" system. It has got one of the most incompetent governments in the world.
I don't know what China's system will look like in 50 years or 100, but if it continues to evolve and improve as it has done so far, then the future is bright! :)
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@zeissiez
@zeissiez
2年前
Why democracy is overrated
I have been an expatriate in Singapore and China. China and Singapore have a similar government system. This is no coincidence, it’s the visit by Deng Xiaoping to Singapore in 1978 that inspired him to adopt the model in his country. They have an authoritarian system based on Socialism and meritocracy, and an economy based on state & private capitalism. There’s election in Singapore, but the PAP is so dominant and the media is so well controlled by it, that Singapore is effectively one party country. I was raised to believe in democracy. After living in Malaysia, Singapore, and China, I realised what I was taught was not entirely correct:
1. In any country, there are fewer intelligent people than less-intelligent people (a pyramid-shaped distribution). Since a democracy is a system where 3 idiots out-vote 1 smart person, democracy favours less-intelligent people’s decision.
2. Three preconditions for a democracy to function: a) no money politics. b) complete news freedom. c) a population with more smart people than less smart people. When money comes into politics, a) & b) are destroyed and a democracy becomes a plutocracy. There’s no country that satisfy c), not America, not even the Swedish, and of course not the Chinese or India which both have a majority living in the rural.
3. When a party wins an election by a small margin, the legitimacy of the win is low, because the result could go either way. When a party wins by a large margin, and the legitimacy of win is high, but it becomes a one party rule, because during the running of the government, the opposition has a small voice. So it’s self-contradictary.
4. In a democratic system, in the beginning, people choose the leader based on impression, not on the results. For example, no one knew how Trump would perform as a President, he did not even have experience in managing a town. It’s only AFTER he became a president that people knew about him, and damaged was already done. In a meritocratic system the leader has to work his way up and backed by a track record.
5. In a multiparty system, the country is divided right from the start. The sole aim of all parties is to win the next election. The parties bring along their supporter and people are then divided, and they waste a lot of time in constant fight and accusation. The US is currently at this state, it’s a divided nation. In Singapore and China. There’s much more political and social harmony. In democratic countries, political atmosphere often turn toxic. Racial issues are often used as weapon to gain support, resulting in less harmonious society.
6. Democratic countries face difficulties in implementing big changes. Plans, no matter how good they are, don’t get passed without a majority support. It’s natural for the opposition to not support any plans by the ruling party. Because their gain is our lost. As a result, many democratic countries suffered from stagnation. Democracy is a safety first approach, but the price to pay is very high. It’s akin to a person is afraid to fall, so he refuse to cycle or ride a motorbike, instead he choose to walk.
7. Mentality of the politicians. In many democratic countries, it’s difficult to get policies implemented, the politicians instead resort to superficial work to please the people, instead of digging down to real fundamental things that may not bear fruit in short time. The politicians in a democratic system tend to have a mentality of a contractor who serve a contract. The mentality of the leaders in Singapore and China are more akin to a father in a family. This is very important, only politicians with real sense of responsibility would sacrifice themselves for the people.
8. In many democratic countries, after an election, many policies are changed, and many projects are thrown away.
9. Lack of long term plans in democratic countries. When one party doesn’t know how long it will stay in power, and policies often get canceled if the opposition win, long term plans are scarce. In China and Singapore, there are long term plans in place. That’s why they grow more rapidly than democratic countries.
10. In a democratic country, how a citizen’s voice is heard is by the government? Every 4 or 5 years, citizens of a democratic country say: “I like you” or “I like someone else” in an election. That’s all. And there’s no guarantee the new government is better. In China, there’s a feedback system via a hotline by dialing #12345, where the citizen could use for complains. An officer is assign for every case and the response is timed. All cases are recorded in a central database. Most of the time problems are solved in a few days. The open cases are then analyzed in the background, if there are of high occurrence, a special task is set to look into the problem. The citizens will be called again after a specific time to check if their problems are solved. This way, the performance of each local government is accessed by the central government. This to me, is the new and advanced democracy for 21 century.
11. In Singapore and China. The government controls capitalism. While in many democratic countries, capitalism controls the government. Look at how the corporates have hijacked the political system in America. America is a corporate dictatorship where the Rich has TWO parties and the people effectively having NONE.
12. A government is more equipped with the knowledge of the domestic and international situation than normal citizens. They are more suited to make decisions than the people. People, especially young people and students, have limited knowledge of the real world, and easily misguided and instigated by foreign influence. Non Government Organizations (NGO) of the US, like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the British Mi6, have been funding oppositions in foreign countries to overthrow the regimes that don’t conform to their interests.
13. There’s a wrong assumption that a democracy is less corrupted due to existence of check and balance mechanism. Singapore is authoritarian, but it has one of the cleanest governments in the world. Similarly, it’s untrue to assume the abuse of power only exist in a authoritarian system. My democratic country had a dictator for 22 years. Indonesia had a dictator Suharto for 3 decades. In the US, there’s a dictator called the Deep State. Libya was the richest country under a dictator Gaddafi. After being “liberated” by NATO, the GDP now is just 1/3 of that under Gaddafi.
14. By giving the right for the people to vote, the rich corporates make the people forget they have one powerful tool: revolution. In a democratic system, after one party is changed, the money moves to the other side. The rich aren’t afraid of a democratic system. In China, the government has to perform, for if they have done badly, a revolution awaits. And the country start anew. Just like we have seen throughout the history of China.
Is the system in Singapore and China suitable for other countries? Definitely not. It would only suit countries with a Confucianism root like China or with traditional social values like the Scandinavians, in which the people regard a country is akin to a family, and the leader is akin to the father of a family. And it’s not suitable for societies which demands individual freedom above all else. What if the “father” happens to be a bad one? Few people know what is the system like in China. The Chinese have very long term plans. Every five years, they come out with a 5-year plan which is very detailed. These plans are advised by the various functional bodies in the country, using data and scientific ways, to cater for the need in the future. Everyone can see the details of the plan, and the rest of the 5 years, it’s just implementation. No one sits above this, not even the country leader. That’s why after one chairman is gone, the policies get carried on.
There are successful democratic countries like Norway and Sweden, because they got the socialism elements in their system: Free schooling, low medical cost, and the people have strong sense of social responsibility. Corruption is well controlled, and the government regulate capitalism tightly.
In summary, is democracy the best system? Definitely not. Is socialism the best system? Definitely not for most countries. What is the best system for most countries? The one which adapt to the actual needs instead of rigidly bounded to ideologies. If there’s a name for the ideology in China, it’s “Whateverworkism”. The biggest mistake the world has been making is when things don’t work, nothing is changed, and people still get trapped in the ideological dogma.
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@user-fd3ld9qc7d
@user-fd3ld9qc7d
2年前（修改過）
Democracy is understood differently in China than in the West. Democracy in Chinese is 民主, where 民 means ordinary people or commoner, and 主 means master/owner or priority. Hence democracy in China is not understood simply as one person one vote (btw, there is a reason why different people of different income levels are taxed at different rates, and this is basically why I disagree with different people with different socio-economic status receiving the same amount of votes), but is understood to be letting the ordinary people become the masters and owners of the country, or making the needs and aspirations of the people the utmost priority. When you compare this explanation with reality, where the Chinese government is doing a good job to alleviate poverty, building modern infrastructures to improve the livelihoods of the Chinese people (what all Chinese people wish to have), then the answer to the question of whether China is a democracy by her own definition becomes apparent. And remember, democracy is a mean and not an end. The end is about creating a society where all people are happy, prosperous and living fulfilling and meaning lives with dignity, and not about holding elections. If democracy is made the end, then it would become a religion (instead of being a social scientific experimental product as it should be) that is akin to a dog chasing its own tail, leading to stagnation, if not decline, and waste of social resources, evident by the state of many democratic Western countries in present reality.
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@optimalwin8327
@optimalwin8327
2年前（修改過）
China has already accomplished democracy as defined by Plato.
The concept of democracy as defined by Plato, a Greek philosopher, and reiterated by ex POTUS Abraham Lincoln is "government for the people, government of the people, government by the people". The tools to accomplish the concept of democracy are numerous and are limited by your own creativity, and is not limited to what the West have employed. Concept and tool are completely two different things. A CONCEPT as defined in a dictionary is "a general notion or idea; conception OR an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct OR a directly conceived or Intuited object of thought." A TOOL as defined in a dictionary is "anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose or concept." 
The West have employed (1) one person one vote, (2) universal suffrage, and (3) multiparty election system as tools in an attempt to accomplish the concept of democracy. This is by no means the only tools available or a must employ tools or the best tools used or the worst tools used. The appropriate tools to employ for each country needs to be custom determined based on history, culture, geography, contemporary geopolitics, and other factors. Whether a country has selected the "right" tools for its populace will manifest in the passage of time. 
Just take a look at the USA, with the passage of time, the verdict has been manifesting gradually over the decades that the USA have a very flawed democracy due to the "incorrect" or abusive use of tools selected. This flaw evolved overtime through its developed governance and policy structure, which in turn facilitate the very covert overwhelming of the democracy concept through the covert evolution of plutocracy governance structure and policy. Plutocracy governing has effectively controlled the “brain” of majority of its voting populace, hence the abusive use of tools selected to accomplish democracy concept by, for, and of the top 10% of society. For the tools employed by USA to supposedly accomplish real democracy, all the oligarchs and MIC need is to control the brains of at least 50% of the voting populace through at least three key strategies (1) effective control of most, if not all, major news outlets (2) shoddy lobbying legislation, effectively facilitate legalized corruption of appointed & elected government officials for the oligarchs and MIC to employ (3) effective control of supposedly charity type organization such as Human Rights Watch, National Endowment Democracy, Amnesty International, and endless other bogus organizations. Hence, rendering at least 50% of voting Americans brainless.  Have USA accomplished democracy through its plutocracy governance?  The answer is a resounding and Platonic NO!!
Now, take a look at whether China has true democracy by assessing its performance results with Plato’s definition of the concept of democracy. With the adoption of an economic concept coined as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, China have achieved great successes with its most extensive poverty alleviation program unprecedented in world history, wiped out illiteracy, no more malnutrition & homelessness, universal healthcare & education, just to name a few.  These great achievements happen to be basic human rights too.  Have China accomplished democracy through its meritocracy governance? The answer is a resounding and Platonic YES!! 
The selection of TOOLS is a very important and very critical tasks for the successful managing and governing of a country.  The bottom line is like what Deng Xiao Ping had said: It does not matter whether it is a white or black cat as long as it catch mice. Same analogy apply to the application of the concept of democracy. As long as true democracy is achieved, as defined by Plato, it does not matter what tools are being employed PERIOD.
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@ClassicOperas
@ClassicOperas
2年前
China has her own democracy that works great for China.  Such as, the same clothes worn by different people looks differently.  Do not impose on others and go after them telling them how to wear his/her clothes that fit them just fine; this is the democracy for them, their freedom and their right how they like to wear their clothes.
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@qaz120120
@qaz120120
2年前
An important thing to note is that most wealthy countries got where they are while not being a democracy. Democracy is more the result of prosperity and not the other way around. Democracy does not have any significant effect on the growth of a nation.
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@NathalieBlais
@NathalieBlais
2年前
Thank you always for such great content! I really, really like the broad, international perspective you bring to every topic; pretty hard to find in the media and much appreciated. I am learning a lot!
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@scienceisrealnotgod2873
@scienceisrealnotgod2873
2年前
China is lucky that they didn't adored western style  democracy otherwise it would take thousand of yrs for them to develop like my country India.
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@t4ac
@t4ac
2年前
Great video, Cyrus :) 
Few pointers about Singapore :
- National language is Malay. There are 4 official languages-Malay, English, Chinese(Mandarin in spoken form) and Tamil.
- home ownership is part of national identity/national security initiative - when push come to shove, one would stay to protect and fight for their home if crisis and threats arise. With no property ownership, more likely for people(citizens or otherwise) to just pack and leave.
- the brand of democracy tempered with paternalistic tendency is best described as 'socialist democratic' with a tint of autocratic overtone.
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@td7074
@td7074
2年前
Modern democracy is not the democracy 30 or 40 yrs ago. Modern democracy had mutated into something that serve the 1% rather than serving the mass.
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@joyjoyoo
@joyjoyoo
2年前
democracy is a moot point when the govt is not working in the interest of PEOPLE but corporations.
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@terencesim8050
@terencesim8050
2年前（修改過）
Thanks for all your hard work all these years, not just this livestream! You hit the major points about good governance (better word than Democracy). Would love your comments about the influence of the Military Industrial Complex on US politics. Btw, your final comment about US health insurance shocked me. I lived in the US 20 years ago, and was already complaining about the high medical costs then. But seeing how it has degenerated into a high-stakes haggling market left me speechless.
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@panyu2000
@panyu2000
2年前
Cyrus, thank you for putting up this amazing content for your insights and the effort in building bridge between Western world and China. About one point, does it occur to you that US is going around spreading democracy to other countries (building military bases / supporting color revolutions), probably less because it is believing democrasy is beneficial to them, but exactly the opposite. Democrasy makes other countries more susceptible to foreign (western) influences / manipulations and regime changes.
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@unifieddynasty
@unifieddynasty
2年前
Democracy simply means 'people's rule'. Western countries don't get to monopolize the word. China has its own form of people's rule, whereby if the Chinese people really don't like a government, they will topple it. It just so happens that currently, the views of the Chinese people and the CCP are aligned in the vast majority of policy positions. No ballots necessary.
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@bjrnhjortshjandersen1286
@bjrnhjortshjandersen1286
2年前
I like the balanced view of Cyrus and his quiet factual way of sharing points of view.
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@mandyluo1371
@mandyluo1371
3個月前
You’re courageous and inspiring Cyrus! The world needs more people like you.
@gamearena9519
@gamearena9519
2年前
Its not about systems, democracy or any other kind of guvernment. Its about the western hegemonis diplomacy about some countries. If western super powers want a country develop, the country will develop. But the US is firstly  intrested in manipolation of dynamic of geopolitics in favor of itself.
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@Shenzhou.
@Shenzhou.
2年前
Many Chinese are optimistic and look forward to a bright future ahead. However, many Westerners are increasingly pessimistic and tend to have a gloomy outlook of the future.
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@Coumei2009
@Coumei2009
2年前（修改過）
Democracy or autocracy are means of governing, not the goal of governing. The goal of governing is to deliver promises, measured by the percentage of satisfactory people. Unfortunately, in the US now, "democratic" election is used by politicians as a way to keep themselves in power. Everything is about the election, meaning staying power. that is the core of US democracy now.
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@daqiansun7944
@daqiansun7944
2年前
Great job Cyrus! Just want to add my two cents about difference of US and China: I felt that US is becoming less and less friendly to small/tiny businesses while China is more friendly. For example: in China when you go grocery shopping, instead of supermarket you can choose these huge farmers markets, some of them larger than a football field. Hundreds of shop owners run their own small booth selling fresh vegetables, meats, nuts, spices, etc. When you buy an apartment, you can go to these huge home decoration centers which may be larger than a shopping mall. Each has hundreds of tiny shops selling everything you might need to decorate your apartment. These shop owners are mostly not highly educated. They have to work very very hard because the competition is incredibly fierce. But they were able to make a good living and customers got great choices of products at low prices. On the contrary in US big supermarket like Walmart and homedepot dominate everything. The customers have limited choices and employee make low salaries. I guess that's part of the reason why so many blue collar Americans supported Trump. They lost the hope for decent life with their hard work.
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@belahatvany
@belahatvany
2年前
Thank you for the good work that you are doing. Partnership is gradually winning out over domination. We all have to work together to care for ourselves, each other, and our planet.
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@unifieddynasty
@unifieddynasty
2年前
Elections =/= Democracy.
Voting =/= Democracy.
Rights and Freedoms =/= Democracy.
The most fundamental aspect of democracy is that the people decide how they are governed. It is indisputable fact that the Chinese people presently support their government.
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@charmainewong6087
@charmainewong6087
2年前
China system, in many respects, has actually taken quite a huge reference from the success of Singapore. Mr Lee Kuan Yew is definitely a legend!
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@gohwee-hong2931
@gohwee-hong2931
2年前
It’s mind boggling always to listen to a great speaker like Cyrus …
Good to know the differences between a Full democracy vs a flawed democracy country … 
Interestingly to learn that countries like China & Singapore of which are doing very well economically are not considered as Democracy-savvy …
Good talk , Cyrus , do keep it up .
@relaxwhc
@relaxwhc
2年前
"How to have check and balance in China" is probably the better question than whether democracy suits China IMO.
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@AbelMalcolm
@AbelMalcolm
2年前（修改過）
China not only does a good job of taking care of its own citizens, China also does a good job of taking care of other people who are not citizens of China. China has a foreign policy that tries to lift other countries out of poverty too.  In marked contrast, America's foreign policy is designed to deliberately create poverty with the myriad of economic sanctions that America has imposed on just about half the world, such as the sanctions that killed millions of Iraqis until the US invaded Iraq, and now is trying to economically strangle Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Cuba, North Korea, etc.  China is making more and more friends thru out the world, while America is just piling up enemies.  That right there is a major form of democracy, where the rest of the world is voting for China. 
The American corporatocracy has been complaining a lot about Russia "interfering" in our so called democracy here, yet it is America that interferes in other countries' democracies, big time, more than anyone else in the world, by far. If anyone interferes in America's democracy it is these belligerent countries: the theocratic Zionist State of Israel, and the fanatical ISIS sponsoring fascist Wahhabi Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that would be it.  These are probably the 2 main examples of the 'tail wagging the dog'.  Furthermore, America has overthrown more democracies than it has helped to develop.  Most notably, in 1953, the CIA overthrew a very pro American and a very pro capitalist democracy in Iran (Google "Operation Ajax").  And then when the former Soviet Union decided to adopt American style democracy, America interfered there too, in fact, Time magazine had a picture of President Yeltsin on the cover, saying "how we put our man in the Kremlin". Yeltsin was an old senile alcoholic Russian President who presided over the break up & dismantling of the Soviet Union.  Russia already tried American style democracy, and it was a disaster. I'm sure the same thing will happen to China too, if they are also stupid enough to let America interfere in China the same way and if China trusts these so called "torch bearers of democracy".
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@andrewc3551
@andrewc3551
2年前
It doesn’t matter what kind government is when they citizens prosper, and get better each day.
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1 條
@Sirnkissako
@Sirnkissako
2年前
I am sorry to see the US falling apart in what may turn into a major bloodbath. The US has little left and has to get realistic and realize their real place in the greater context of the world.
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@NishidateKitsune
@NishidateKitsune
2年前（修改過）
Hi again, Cyrus. I missed this as I was very busy in the weekend preparing (yes I mean work-related) for Euro Cup. Yes there are many different types of democracies, and I've actually read the comments faithfully. The Commonwealth use the British Westminster system, but with a lot of variants amongst the different countries within the Commonwealth. My country adopts it as well but the issue with democracy is that it's too easily manipulated and in many countries the system is actually GAMED by the politicians (Do check out what some of my countrymen mentioned below as well. It's very clear that gerrymandering is a very horrid problem here.)
That being said, there are issues in other democratic countries as well (of which I will not comment as it's not right for me to say so). Seriously, Malaysia is what we call a "Constitutional Monarchy" and also a Federation of States (this is the same as the US). The political system is basically democratic, but let it be known: Our current sovereign (the "Agong") cares a lot more for us than those people in the backdoor administration currently in charge of our country right now.
My main point is this, and I want to reinforce what so many people mentioned in the chat. There ARE in fact countries with so much diversity in terms of peoples, religions, cultures, etc. that it would be absurd if you take a look at them from the perspective of someone not in the know. Take for example, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. . I quote Dr. M., "I believe that in the future, every country would be like Malaysia, all encompassing.". He said that during an interview by the US media IN the US right after he took power for the second time.
You've mentioned that you've dropped by Singapore before, you may have noticed the intermingling of races and cultures. It's the same in Malaysia. There are tons of underlying issues in Malaysia, some of them really bad, no doubt about that, but we're able to live together without being polarized like what is happening in the US. I've mentioned before in another of your videos long ago, the important thing is the ability to respect each other and not be narrow minded and say, "My way/culture/religion/etc is the only right way, you must follow".
This is why I like your work. The world have to learn to work with each other and build bridges and not walls.
Last of all, it seems that there are also other people (Malaysians and Singaporeans alike) who, like me, are advocating for a chat/interview with Professor Kishore Mahbubani. Do give it a thought.
Cheers, Cyrus, and stay safe!
Edit: What you've just mentioned about "You won't understand China if you view it from the eyes of a Westerner"... is also mentioned by Martin Jacques more than a decade ago. In fact I think it was two decades or more ago if my memory serves me right.
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@chongyeeyap9586
@chongyeeyap9586
2年前
Cyrus you are one of the most convincing democracy missionary. The 1st time I watched your programme, I said to myself that Cyrus is only 1 in a handful of bloggers that has the common sense to see that a  partnership between Us & China will  bring peace to the world and that you are sincere in seeking peace; but after today's performance, I rather doubt that there could ever be a man of wisdom in America that seeks to prevent the nuclear destruction of the world. AN AMERICAN DREAM. I am 87 years and it is 12 o'clock midnight. I will  post further analysis of your podcast. If I am able to make contact with my motherland gov't. I will recommend that you be kept on a short leash !
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@user-jb1mg7zy4k
@user-jb1mg7zy4k
2年前
Another brilliant speech from Cyrus. The whole world should hear this. Thank you.
@inuwooddog3027
@inuwooddog3027
2年前
They are different shapes of Democracy all around the world that you would never heard before.
In Malaysia, the political parties are based on your race. They are 9 kings of the states, who take turn every few years to rule as the national king.
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@juliuscesar103
@juliuscesar103
2年前
You actually had my attention for a full hour. Thank you so much for your enlightenment.
2
@ritalee2914
@ritalee2914
2年前
I don't hate democracy, but after all these years, I find nowadays unpeace in this world is all because of democracy.
3
@michaelloong964
@michaelloong964
2年前
There is no perfect "democracy" in the US in terms of voting during election. For example, the candidates of Donald Trump and Mrs Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election were nominated  by their respective party. Therefore, it is not a democratic process of choosing a candidate for presidency election by the general population. Secondly, Mrs Clinton did win the popular vote but failed to win the electoral college vote for the presidency.  The Electoral College does not represent every eligible voter. Thirdly, both of these two candidates were no popular with many voters but voters have no choice not to vote one of them to be the President. There is no democratic process for voting against the two candidates on the ballot to show that they are indeed not fit for presidency, especially Mr D Trump had no political experience plus having dubious character.  Fourthly, one man one vote in theory is a perfect idea but not practical as some people are either  too old or mentally too sick  to understand what is going on in the country. Fifthly, the US election is determined by the amount of money the candidate spent on campaign. This is non-democratic.It is not a"pure" democracy. The aim of democracy is for electing a government that can do things for the country but in reality,  many governments in the so-called democracy do things for the rich and powerful ,and many involved in corruption. The Chinese political process of electing a president may not be perfect in terms of so-called  prefect democracy, but is in reality so far the Chinese system produces good government that works for the common people.  The Chinese government has a every 5-year long tern plan for the nation's development which is not practiced in "democratic" countries. In fact , they often break their promises made during election campaign. Actual good  political work performance output for the people  is more important than pure theory of democracy.
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4 條
@emmawang1999
@emmawang1999
2年前
It is safe to say that both USA and China like democracy. The difference lies in how it is practiced. The US side thinks that elections are the only way to realize democracy, while the  Chinese side thinks that democracy can be achieved through consultation. The US side thinks that problems can be solved through public debates and grandstanding, while the Chinese side thinks that conflicts of interest is best handled by behind-the-door discussions. The most fundamental difference is that the US side thinks that the truth is determined by votes. The Chinese seek the truth from facts.
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@optimalwin8327
@optimalwin8327
2年前（修改過）
Cyrus, every nations are sovereign.  It is their rights to choose which definition or concept of democracy fit their nations.  It could be defined by Plato, Wikipedia, or most importantly UN defined and voted on by all nations.  It is important to quote which source or definition of democracy is being used when making comparison.   The key is no one nation or small number of nations be allowed to tell what other nations should do or  believe in.  Personally, I like the concept of democracy as defined by Plato because it is simple, yet very far reaching and leave a lot of room for tools customization to fit the uniqueness of each nations.
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@johnli6782
@johnli6782
2年前
Any governance system is just that, a governance system.  Regardless of it being better or worse than another, it's for each country to decide whether and when to adopt in whole, in part, or not at all, the governance system of another.  No country has any standing to lecture another on how it choses to run itself, let alone scheming to topple the governance system of another.
If any government believes in its own system of government, the result of it being a better system than another must manifest in the lives of its citizens.  The metrics for determining the quality of the lives of a country's citizens have generally been established and may be grouped into economics (physical wellbeing), cultural (emotional), and faith (spiritual). None of the metrics use political dissent as a measure of progress, as political dissent is not a goal, but a means to a goal.  It's aim is to put forth and implement the best policy through debate and understanding to better the lives of people.  It's absurd to establish dissent as a goal; as an indicator of a better quality of life. It is absolutely delusional to believe that the more we disagree, the better our lives will be.  Dissent must never be the goal, and when it clearly is leading towards self or mutual destruction, we can only hope that wiser men and women are there to steer the thinking and sentiments of the larger society towards coexistence, compromise, cooperation, or collaboration for the prosperity of all.
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@Don-co9zs
@Don-co9zs
2年前
Thank You,  incredibly informative. I did not think I would stay for 90 minutes, but I was riveted. I'm amazed at your facility with broadcasting information.
@ATrueCanadianBeaver
@ATrueCanadianBeaver
1年前（修改過）
Excellent analysis and examples given.... Singapore has been my favourite as a country with its own unique democracy with great vision for the people and country, as the late Lee Kuan Yew, as he eloquently put it (I paraphrase here): "Freedom has its limits" (just like the old saying that by yelling "Fire!" when there isn't one is not freedom of speech)...  As JFK said: "Freedom without responsibility is anarchy."
@lisa.e5776
@lisa.e5776
2年前（修改過）
Chinese votes with their hearts, their smiles and their joyous. They are practical people. They want immediate responses and actions from the government.  
The Democracy system of the West need  to wait 4 years. The Chinese people doesn't interested in this slow motion Government..????????
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@mateialexandrucoltoiu7207
@mateialexandrucoltoiu7207
2年前（修改過）
It is interesting to note that there are no city states that are doing bad in the world today. It seems like the fact that they are city states already provides them with a good foundation for a successful governance.
@scchai9656
@scchai9656
1年前
Excellent history lesson for me. Thank so much.
@baldwinxie1981
@baldwinxie1981
1年前
Hello, I am glad to see your contribution to the integration of Chinese and American cultures. Today’s world is polarized between Chinese and Western cultures. This can be clearly seen in China and the United States. The geographical locations of China and the United States are On the two ends of the earth, there are also great cultural differences, but this will not affect the integration of Chinese and Western cultures. The geographical location is physical, while the culture is spiritual. Only the integration of Chinese and Western cultures can promote the progress of the world.
@ivanho7268
@ivanho7268
2年前（修改過）
The success of a country is not about just about political systems such as democratic or communist or socialism. It is the leadership quality, competent leadership bring in lots of merits to the people and nation's needs, such as security, infrastructures, educations, housing, healthcare, social needs, rules of law, social cohesion, environment, economy, etc.
China's leaders are selected  based on meritocracy, whereas democratic system leaders are selected based on populism.
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@simonleung6104
@simonleung6104
2年前
Let’s imagine you are an employee in a company having 10,000 people and the heads of the 6 major departments and the CEO of the company are voted every 4 years by 1 employee 1 vote and there is no job or education qualification requirement for the candidates. What do you think the efficiency and competitiveness of that company? Why must it be the only model of any countries in the world?
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@gmansingh4916
@gmansingh4916
2年前
India is the largest democracy in this universe. How does that work for them ????
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@fredericdalmas9195
@fredericdalmas9195
1年前（修改過）
Very interesting livestream Cyrus, this help to think the world in its complexity, not in black and white and not only with a Western look.
@yitingzhao3997
@yitingzhao3997
2年前（修改過）
Another good video, Cyrus. I always play your videos as a background when I am working. Not only because good opinions of you, but also because you speak English clearly and loudly , that’s good for me to keep my English listening skills since I went back china, hahaha, thanks.
@reygus7
@reygus7
2年前
"Democracy" was imposed in most countries. It was not their choice. Also, why should we follow the western way?
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@truthseeker9958
@truthseeker9958
2年前（修改過）
America will be more democratic if we take the private money out of politics. We need publicly funded political campaign.
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@joannang1016
@joannang1016
2年前
You are really open minded and wise.  I learned something new from this video and your other videos.  Thanks for sharing your insights, knowledge and what some other countries are doing.  You fit into the Chinese saying, "讀萬卷書, 不如行萬厘路!".????????????.????
@Babyknite
@Babyknite
2年前
It would be hard for America to focus internally as their money comes from selling weapons and without war there is no money.  that is just how America is built supplying arms, creating war over throwing different government groups creating chaos.
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@tony37068
@tony37068
1個月前（修改過）
 US$20.00
Thanks! Let's support someone made such positive contribution to debunk some of the lies made by American politicians and the U.S. mainstream media. Sadly, our voice is still too small, we need more megaphones.
Cyrus Janssen
Cyrus Janssen
•
1 條
@frankm4349
@frankm4349
2年前
It will be a much better world if more Americans are as honest and brave as Cyrus.
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@relaxwhc
@relaxwhc
2年前
If you enjoyed this livestream, raise your hand to give Cyrus Janssen a Chinese pizza???? as your support ?????
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@mechannel7046
@mechannel7046
2年前（修改過）
Japan has basically been a one party state since the end of WWII, even though Japan is generally considered a democracy.
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@oreradovanovi5204
@oreradovanovi5204
2年前
Democracy is ideology, it needs philosophical approach...
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@maguire5302
@maguire5302
2年前
Keep this up Cyrus! Great talk. ????
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@zzzzzz6686
@zzzzzz6686
3周前
Hey Cyrus. Is it possible to get a decent IT job in China without the requirement of speaking Cantonese or Mandarin? If so, do you have any recommendations and/or resources? Thanks!
@nefertemur8951
@nefertemur8951
2個月前（修改過）
Greetings Cyrus, from my research, there isn’t true democracy on this planet, but rather a mixture of, fascism, kakistocracy, communism, plutocracy, and quasi-socialism.   The books tragedy, and hope and the evolution of civilizations by Carroll Quigley describes it best.  The Pledge of Allegiance says  “ To The Republic” Thanks for sharing .
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@octopuz1
@octopuz1
2年前
Let's us compare the 2 major countries, India, the largest democratic government, and China, an equally populous nation, a socialist-capitalistic meritocratic government (with Chinese characteristics). If you put an equally competent leader each in India and China, who do you think will perform better with results to show? The reality is obvious! 
Democracy allows partisan, personal and power politics to interfere in the performance of their leaders. The more populous the nation, the more chaotic it becomes! At the end of the day, due to the constant bickering nothing is achieved but it sure is a thriving democracy no doubt! LMAO! Just look at India today. Full of potential but nothing to show! 
The other beacon of democracy, the USA, is a total joke! It destroys democracy, freedom and human rights of other nations all over the world at its whims to rob them of their natural resources! The Americans, however, get to elect their leaders every 4 to 5 years. But because their democracy is based on popularity, the size of campaign budget and the ability to con and lie to the masses, rather than meritocracy, decide its leaders! And boy, they do get trashy leaders! Many were/are incapable of doing the hard work to repair the rotting America, so these incompetent leaders divert their brainwashed population's attention towards China! They had one who started his anti-China Pivot to Asia! Then another incompetent buffoon who demonised China with lies and weaponised trade, technology, finance, education, Covid-19, etc against China! Now it has a demented leader who believed he's not a buffoon but acted just like the Orange Buffoon 2.0! These incompetent leaders pay more attention to China than to Americans! LOL! Check and balance? Donald Trump. Need more be said? LMAO! On top of that, it is the elite 1% ruling over the US population for the benefit of its 1%! What did China do to deserve being demonised and made a scapegoat by US leaderships other than making them look incompetent and stupid? 
China might not call itself a democracy but it has characteristics of a democracy. Its citizens are free to travel freely in China and overseas, open businesses and practise capitalism, own properties, etc. 140 million Chinese tourists freely leave China every year and 140 million Chinese tourists return back to China! Oppression? Open your mind! It is much safer to be in China than in Wild West gun-toting USA! Isn't personal safety a human right?! Their leaders rise through the ranks, from the villages, elected by the villagers, all the way up to the national assembly, based on merits, and real results and achievements. China government is only doing its best to uplift its economy, development and the welfare and prosperity of its citizen, like any good government. It has brought 800 million Chinese out of poverty in 40 years without invading, plundering or mass killing others, unlike America and the Western imperialists! Why should China be a threat to America or any other nation unless they unilaterally want to make it a threat with the evil intention to destroy China?! They destroyed Iraq with lies about Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" to rob Iraqis of their lives, happiness and their natural resources! Are Americans that ignorant and morally blind? 
The China government has a 93% approval rating (Harvard study) among its citizens! The US government can only garner slightly over 50% approval at best. And it unashamedly and undeservingly calls itself a democracy of the people! Shouldn't China be the one?!
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@claytonyee6953
@claytonyee6953
2個月前
Country's pride is very important. That is why young people who went back and contribute to China to achieve many success stories. Like space achievements, growing tech advances, etc. If the West alliances continue to focus on attacking China, they will loose out on world's future and the vision of the entire world growth. Democracy is important only how it's people think of it.
@davidding3351
@davidding3351
2年前
Democracy is good. I don't think the United States is a democracy. It is more like an oligarchy.
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@margarethawinarto3931
@margarethawinarto3931
2年前
Even if China embraces western democracy, there is no guarantee that the west will stop treating China as their formidable enemy. All they want is to see a poor and backward China again. So, unless China is willing to be twisted round the former imperialists little finger, never expect the west to stop being hostile towards China. During G 7 meeting the world can see that they're all marching together to counter China. It will be harder for China in the years to come, so China needs to be more self-reliant, work harder, stay focused and most importantly stay united.
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@kamustakabymmedianista4712
@kamustakabymmedianista4712
2周前
Thanks for that great discussion that is enligthening to issues.
@jinxiangyu9249
@jinxiangyu9249
2年前（修改過）
Respect each other and tolerance are two of the most important things in the universe
@fellsmoke
@fellsmoke
2年前
I have thought for a good while not voting should have a penalty...I thought paying taxes at a higher rate ..but then again...we also have large and growing numbers of homeless people...for whom paying taxes... doesn't apply...and voting isn't generally possible...
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@jinxiangyu9249
@jinxiangyu9249
2年前
I live as a Chinese in Germany for more than 32 years and can follow your way of thinking very well. I think Germany is much more democratic than America
1
@fankefang
@fankefang
2年前
The U.S. has two parties that are strong political influence, China has one.  So it's not too much of difference, from the number of parties point of view.
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@luntingsin6819
@luntingsin6819
2年前（修改過）
Democracy is good, but it needs a strong power to protect it. But as you know, my dear US…
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@sunnykhaw5118
@sunnykhaw5118
8天前
Thank you for spreading the Truth about China.
@rchandrar
@rchandrar
2年前
Democracy is very important to any country, because it gives freedom to people and stops the party or a person being a dictator. People and media should be able to raise their voice when the party or president does a mistake, because these are also people not gods.
@nowthen3150
@nowthen3150
2年前
Another outstanding video by Cyrus!!  Thank you for sharing.
@lewissiusankwong
@lewissiusankwong
2年前
We demand our freedom of choice.  Every country should have the freedom to decide their tax system, not to be decided by America.  We demand our right of democracy.  Decision affecting the world should be decided by all countries under United Nations  , not decided by G7
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@andrescho4003
@andrescho4003
2年前
I wish someone like you would considered to run for the presidency in the US.
@dougm9759
@dougm9759
2年前（修改過）
The exuberance of democracy leads to undisciplined and disorderly conditions which are inimical to development.
China is a vast and a disparate country; there is no alternative to strong central power.
Lee kuan Yew
There is no inherent link between freedom and democracy, more often than not misunderstood. The failed democracy of India showed the mega flaws of the western ideology.
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@showbox6277
@showbox6277
1年前
Every African should listen to you. Wow, what an insight on democracy.
@jimmybush4754
@jimmybush4754
2年前
Thanks Cyrus for your non-bias view of China!
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@alantan9863
@alantan9863
2年前
I think even if China intends to have democracy, they need to delay the implementation for maybe 50 years due to China US conflicted etc.
@organizer14
@organizer14
2周前
Helpful presentation, thank you!
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@ausreir
@ausreir
2年前
Saying a form of government is better than another is about as dangerous as an investor who claims all listed companies are inherently superior.
1
@joyjoyoo
@joyjoyoo
2年前
One psychology why these students are so naively protesting is instant gratification. They seek instant pleasure, but when you sit down and consider many of the logics and logistics, you'd then realize that they've been duped. In a way, NED is playing that psychosis game with the rioters in HK, and right now in Cambodia and Peru. lol
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@adoreslaurel
@adoreslaurel
2年前
China and America both have one thing in common, If you sacrifice Freedom for Security, you deserve neither [I have forgotten the Author]
@MrGanbat84
@MrGanbat84
2年前（修改過）
I think you are one of just a few people who know about the truth of the world. And you can be a very successful journalist.
1
@AbsoluteZero6714
@AbsoluteZero6714
1年前（修改過）
I’m Chinese-Canadian who actually didn’t know much about Canada’s system until the last couple of years. Canada’s essentially like the UK and other parliamentary systems in Europe where you vote for a party rather than a candidate, and the leader of the party that wins the election usually ends up becoming the Prime Minister. I also want to point out that there is no fixed “term” for a PM in Canada. 
     I’m not a big fan of the Canadian government either, and not a fan of Trudeau. Canada faces many of the same issues as the US although it does better in some regards like social security and healthcare, but other than that it’s culturally and politically the closest to the US. 
    I grew up in Richmond (Chinese majority city in the Greater Vancouver area) and I believe Richmond’s representatives have the right to know Mandarin and / or Cantonese in place of French. The long-standing divide in Canada has always been Anglophone-Francophone, but in Vancouver the Asian (mostly Chinese) community I feel really adds a third dimension to at least Western Canadian political affairs and I still don’t feel as though we have enough representation.
     There have been attacks on Chinese people and non-Chinese Asians in Vancouver since Covid, but even before that I didn’t have the illusion that me being a Chinese-Canadian meant that I’d ever be truly accepted by “mainstream” society, and that despite Canada’s official policy of multiculturalism, it’s still a white, Anglo-Saxon Western country at heart. I sympathize with the plight of the indigenous peoples too, just go to parts of downtown, especially East Van and you’ll see many disenfranchised First Nations people struggling.
    I actually have moved back to China after college, currently not doing much due to Covid which has brought my life to a standstill, but I have no plans to return to Canada.
    The top person in Hong Kong is called the Chief Executive. 特首 or 行政長官
    Not a zealot but I consider myself Christian too. So God bless, Amen. I totally share your sentiment of not identifying with either the traditional left or the traditional right. Unfortunately no mainstream political movement even in democracies caters to people like me who are centrist to slightly conservative on some social issues (one-man, one-woman marriage, for example) but economically more to the left (social security and welfare, UBI).
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@schumannli5825
@schumannli5825
2年前
Cyrus, the Westerners need your fair comments on China. US is not doing a fair game for this world. Keep
It up. Thanks a lot.
@sunnykhaw5118
@sunnykhaw5118
8天前
I like your unbias comments and has very in-depth knowledge about China. What you have said about China is base on the Truth. I hope those Americans who don't know about China.... They should visit China to see for themselves .
@fankefang
@fankefang
2年前
You should show a world map to show how peoples life improved.  Democracy is NOT the means, it's a WAY to improve peoples life.
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@sickg6417
@sickg6417
1年前
your hometown friend episode that trump supporter will unfriend with a liberal reminded me of the old cultural revolution in China.
my mom had a big family growing up, six siblings, there were no one child policy implemented yet back in the old day ,
she told me that grandmother had to prepare twice for every meal during the period, since the red supporters refused to dine with the blue supporters, refused to sit at a same table, even refused to come face to face on anything. it was chaos and tragedy. 
thank god we got through those period. now I feel more strong about that a strong government is essential to bring social harmony.
Cyrus Janssen
Cyrus Janssen
•
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@garu24sa
@garu24sa
2周前
Well, having at least 'some politican experience' isn't a valid argument because, at some point, everyone starts at zero. In fact, having so much political experience is usually more dreadful than good because their tendency is making their lives from the people and not for the people. They have to know what feels to emmm... work. Here in Argentina, the mayority of politicians never ever got a job in the private sector, so they're out from the reality that the average citizen faces. I think that we have to start to show these characters that we don't really need them for our lives.
@NuestraPatriaGrande
@NuestraPatriaGrande
1年前
There have been many democracies in our world. Athenian democracy was the democracy of city males of property and wealth. Women, workers, slaves which constituted the overwhelming majority of residents were not able to vote. By our standards, Athens would be an oligarchy. The US is called a democracy because one person one vote is highly popularized. Yet in 1787 only white males could vote. Again the great majority was disenfranchised. Presently American democracy really means a capitalist oligarchy that has a two-party system to create a facade of democracy. The two party system serves billionaires. 
Democracy ideally defines a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Of The People Ideally means Everybody that is an adult. If in America an election were held 100 million people  would not be eligible because they are not citizens. About 50% of the people do not vote by choice. This means that even in the best of circumstances a minority actually votes. BY THE PEOPLE ideally means that our representatives represent our will. Most Americans would agree that our representatives vote in favor of corporate interests not the interest of those who elected them..
Of the three elements of Democracy, is FOR THE PEOPLE. The FOR THE PEOPLE part of democracy means that the education, health, and welfare of the people is uppermost in the minds of our government representatives. This metric runs into a brick wall when you examine the laws and appropriations made by our government. Our government benefits billionaires who pay very little in taxes and absorb most of the taxes paid by the rest of us. We are a corporate welfare state.
China has eliminated extreme poverty. We create poverty. China improves its health and sanitary systems every year. China has more educated people than the US. China has the largest middle class. By the third metric, FOR THE PEOPLE, CHINA is a great democracy. China has 95 million Communist party members who see themselves as servants of the people. By this metric, China is OF THE PEOPLE. You must take a test to qualify. China is THE BEST OF THE PEOPLE. The metric, BY THE PEOPLE, refers to representatives. In China, the most accomplished leaders have positions of responsibility. China has a government BY THE BEST OF THE PEOPLE.
CHINA HAS A GOVERNMENT OF THE BEST, BY THE BEST, AND FOR THE REST. This government is an ever-morphing SOCIAL MERITOCRATIC DEMOCRACY!!
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@ajajaj100
@ajajaj100
1年前
Can you imagin a hospital becomes democretic  which means the patients and staff there vote for the head of the hospital, negreting the qualification of the person involved?
@dranzacspartan8002
@dranzacspartan8002
2年前
Well done Cyrus. It worries me how far the USA is going to trash China. Why can't they just work together and become united rather than this divisive stance.
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@laogong52
@laogong52
2年前
2nd Amendment? Of course it can be changed. It's in the name "Amendment". Constitution was amended, it can be again.
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@lennyung6042
@lennyung6042
2年前
Great program I love ?? your shows support you thank ????????????????????????
@csong4809
@csong4809
1年前
Never assume that there will be one-size-fits-all system exist, life changes every single moment, there are very rare people who can keep observing and learning (like how Lao Tzu suggests in cosmic balance and the importance of flexibility). Unhealthy pride is positive in a way where you can often stand on your beliefs and not be shaken as much, but it can help make you see yourself in an inflated sense and not understand the relativity of things in a proper way.
@Cyberium
@Cyberium
2年前（修改過）
Democracy is not the answer to every nation, every culture, every people. It requires the right populace size,  right economic support, and right culture to make it work. China can have democratic policies, but a nation that big and diverse requires a unified voice, something counteracts the "democracy" as Western world knows it.
In fact, not even the U.S. is a good nation to utilize democracy either. The wealth gap is horrendous, culture of East/West/South is too differently, two party system created red/blue team mentality, and a lot of people have no concept of international politics, or even have respect for foreign cultures.
@inwan6645
@inwan6645
2年前
Thanks Cyrus, great content.
@ricardoluitam
@ricardoluitam
2年前
Very nice video. Support. Thanks for telling the truth
@angusliu66
@angusliu66
2年前
I get the same criticism from people when I support China.
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@fazlulkarim9123
@fazlulkarim9123
2年前
I think China is trying to improve the lifestyles of the Chinese people. They'll go for democracy after achieving certain level with respect to poverty reduction.
@optimalwin8327
@optimalwin8327
2年前
Cyrus, would you mind to make a video about health care system in China, Canada, and USA?
@banhualau
@banhualau
2年前
Looks around world politics, Democracy are easy be destabilize by the foreign funds and influences.
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@rebecca2950
@rebecca2950
1年前
I have a friend who was born and raised in United States his parents are from Vietnam. He told me this” Vietnam war is never there a war for best interest for Vietnamese . It’s an American war but it caused many Vernice become refugees than show the world how they saved refugees from Vietnam . You destroyed families caused them to lose parents or kids , you then moved them to your house . Why do you think that’s God’s decision for you to do His job ? When you see people go to church and when we see our dollar bill printed In God we trust “
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@tommyborsky8270
@tommyborsky8270
2年前
The US only have dream " Hegemony " maybe this will come down with screeching holt.Putin is right to say US and Russia will change places what use to be USSR that will come to the US.Its hard to say that but little democracy we have is fading away step by step.Yout presentation of this program is excellent. As far to see China is going places lot of countries will in proove there life style and prosperity.
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@relaxwhc
@relaxwhc
2年前
The Rock and any colorful cartoon character can run for presidential election. ????
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@CarpsterKing
@CarpsterKing
2年前
Democracy is the election of the vocal minority not the silent majority... in any democratic election 
only 70 % of the population are eligible to vote and only 80% voter turnouts...and the winner only win by a margin of 5% .. so in actual fact it is the vocal minority that won the election...whereas in China at least 90 % of the Chinese people approved the CCP as the representative of the Chinese people in China...
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@philwatts4229
@philwatts4229
3周前（修改過）
Everyone over 18 in China can register to vote. There are nine political parties but CPC is by far the largest with 96 million members. Registered voters elect their local politicians, the lowest level or two of government. Higher levels come ONLY from these people. At the highest level the NPC, (approx) 70% are CPC, 15% other parties and 15% independents. So, all at higher levels are very experienced and most are engineers and scientists, not lawyers. Xi Jinping is a Chemical Engineer and has risen through the ranks for 37 years. This is why China just gets things done! No-one can 'buy' themselves into government, advancement only happens with good performance and the support of your peers.
@kamustakabymmedianista4712
@kamustakabymmedianista4712
2周前
I great agree with how you explain it.
@NikhilChandra
@NikhilChandra
3天前
Man you should come to India...we have atleast 25 languages and 100s of dialects. Its awesome to have unity in diversity. US will never understand that.
@plexsoup9378
@plexsoup9378
2年前
Maybe it's time to push for "Liquid Democracy"
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@johnniewalker7628
@johnniewalker7628
2年前
China is not rich enough to be in a state of paralysis.
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@peacerespect120
@peacerespect120
2年前（修改過）
Proud of our CCP, Chinese residents are blessed, we don't like western style, we don't like drug, gun ....we respect others, we support our government, we love our culture and our system ?????????????????????????????????????????????
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@tanlaysoon
@tanlaysoon
2年前
CPC Government has approval rating by its people of over 93% in a survey conducted by the Ash Centre in Harvard University LS Tan from Malaysia
@MrPaullung
@MrPaullung
2年前
HK never had democracy under UK. That time liked a state of dictatorships. UK said so. No election.
Police were brutal. I was a child worker. Worked over 14  to 16 hours a day. 3 new years and two other statute holidays a year.
If you worked in the restaurant. My co worker grinded of all fingers.  Injury, no compensation. Who said that years is better
than today? Then they were government dogs.
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@optimalwin8327
@optimalwin8327
2年前
Cyrus, I like you mentioning some of Pierre Elliot Trudeau's wisdom quotes..  Pierre has been very mad at his disgraced son Justin from his grave for destroying what he had built for Canada.
@Sweettg4u
@Sweettg4u
1年前
I think in your chart the US actually has a 49% not 58% of respondents that believe "my country is democratic".
@relaxwhc
@relaxwhc
2年前
Greetings gentlemen
Welcome to China, the land of plenty
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@chingweilai1872
@chingweilai1872
2年前
Democracy is of the people, for the people and by the people. However most countries are of the rich, for the rich and by the rich. It is partically true for a country‘s rich, wealthy people pay much less income tax and let the rest of people carry the big portion of tax. Those are not democratc countries, they are capitalism, individualism, egocentism as a fact.
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@jaybleu888
@jaybleu888
2年前
Leaving a footprint, two thumbs up.
@alejandropflucker4857
@alejandropflucker4857
2年前
China is democracy in opportunities and hierarchy in base of meritocracy...in my opinion the best combination. At the end the comunist party have intense debate and interaction up and dawn before take decision...inside it there is a left , right and central wings.EEUU  have only two parties  almost the same....coca cola and Pepsi cola, and a lot lobbies than degradate the real democracy and meritocracy. At the end the word democracy is to big with different interpretation in history and countries with cultural baggage....Aristotle for example consider necessary for democracy no big economic disparities in the society....etc.The entire definition of modern democracy as the government of the people by the people for the people is the opposit to the actual oligarchy  in the majority of countries...so democracy is an ideal always to follow but plain of difficulties to achieve, always perfectible...