Transcript
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Fareed Zakaria (1:02)
This is GPS, the global public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Fareed Zakaria coming to you from New York. Today on the program, Xi, Putin and Kim, side by side in solidarity, united in their autocracy, have opposition to the West. It was a stunning image from Wednesday's celebration in Beijing marking 80 years since Japan's World War II surrender. What does this new world order look like? I'll give you my take and we'll talk to Ann Applebaum about it all. Also, as some European nations prepare to recognize a Palestinian state later this month, is Israel making such a state impossible? I'll discuss with experts with very different views on the subject. Finally, as school bells ring signaling the start of a new academ, students are looking forward to using the latest version of ChatGPT to write their essays and do their problem sets. What can be done to ensure this generation actually learns how to think and write? Derek Thompson has an answer, but first, here's my take look at the pictures that dominated this week's world news. They're vivid illustrations of the failure of Donald Trump's foreign policy. The images that captured most attention were of China's massive military parade and of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un striding together. Those were to be expected, a reminder that the west faces a determined set of adversaries who see it as their mission to destroy the Western led international order. What was surprising were the images from the days before when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization hosted leaders from India, Turkey, Vietnam, and Egypt, among others. All these regional powers were generally considered closer to Washington than Beijing. But a toxic combination of tariffs, hostile rhetoric and ideological demands is moving many of the world's pivotal states away from America and towards China. It may be the greatest own goal in modern foreign policy. Consider the brics, a grouping of countries originally meant to represent the big emerging markets of the future. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, with several other members now, too. At prior meetings, three of the core countries, Brazil, India and South Africa would generally resist the Russian and Chinese effort to turn the organization into an anti American grouping. For decades, Washington has been building ties with these three countries, each a leader in its region, to ensure that as they grew in size and stature, they would be favorably inclined towards the United States. But Donald Trump has treated these three pivotal states to some of his most vicious rhetoric and aggressive policies. He unleashed the highest tariff rate in the world against India. He punished Brazil with equally high tariffs and levied sanctions and visa bans against Brazilian officials. South Africa faces 30% tariffs, a total cutoff of foreign aid, and potential sanctions against government officials. The governments and people in these countries are outraged at their treatment. India used to be overwhelmingly pro American. Now it is rapidly shifting to a deep suspicion of Washington. In Brazil, President Lula's sagging poll numbers have risen as he stands up to Trump's bullying. In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa gained stature when he politely responded to Trump's Oval Office hectoring. It's worth remembering that other countries have nationalist sentiment, too. There's no strategic rationale for these policy reversals. Trump is punishing Brazil because that country's independent courts are holding accountable Trump's ideological soulmate, Jair Bolsonaro, for his efforts to reject the results of free and fair elections. South Africa faces Trump's ire because of a land reform law that is an attempt to address some of the vast disparities in landholding and wealth caused by decades and decades of apartheid. These reasons have nothing to do with restoring America's manufacturing base or reducing trade deficits. The US Actually runs a trade surplus with Brazil. While Washington has been alienating these countries, China has been courting them. It has outlined a plan with Brazil for a transformative railway network connecting its Atlantic coast to Peru's Pacific one. Xi managed to get Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China for the first time in seven years. China has courted South Africa with trade and aid, and public sentiment in that country has moved to be quite favorably inclined towards Beijing. We're often told not to worry, that Trump likes to talk tough just to get the best deal. But his policies now are producing real pain and misery on the ground. People losing their jobs, many being pushed back into poverty. That's why even if these deals are renegotiated and things settle on less brutal terms, the memories will linger. Countries will always know that Washington could treat them as it has, and they will want to hedge their bets and keep strong ties with China and Russia, just in case. American foreign policy these days is a collection of the random slights, insults and ideological obsessions of one man. In general, Trump likes smaller countries he can bully or ideological soulmates who cozy up to him. He doesn't enjoy dealing with large, messy democracies with their own internal dynamics, pride and nationalism. Thus, America under Donald Trump has befriended a strange collection of strongmen in El Salvador, Hungary, Pakistan and the Gulf monarchies. It is meanwhile at odds with the democracies of India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Canada and most of Europe. Does this make any sense? Watching this week's antics, an incensed Trump grumbled on social media that China, Russia and North Korea are were conspiring against the United States. But if you consider the effects of his policies, it might be more accurate to wonder why the president himself seems to be undermining U.S. interests and values over these past months. Go to CNN.com fareed for a link to my Washington Post column this week. And let's get I just gave you my take on this week's events in China. I wanted to bring in Anne Applebaum to hear hers. She's a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, a staff writer for the Atlantic, and she has been warning for years about this very alliance of autocracies and their growing diplomatic and financial ties. Her most recent book, Autocracy Inc. Has just been released in paperback. Ann, welcome. So as I say, you've been talking about this alliance. When you watched those pictures of Kim, of Xi and of Putin, what strikes you as what keeps them together? Because there is fundamentally the shared opposition to a Western led world and American power.
