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Speaker 1: Right now. Peter lewis Asia Business correspondent with US.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Peter, good evening header.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the US wants to now aggressively revoke does

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Speaker 1: it the visas of the Chinese students?

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Speaker 2: That's right. This is what Marco Rubio, the Secretary of

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Speaker 2: the State is saying. It affects a lot of people.

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Speaker 2: There's about two hundred and eighty thousand Chinese students in

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Speaker 2: the US in the last academic year, makes up about

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Speaker 2: a quarter of all foreign students there, and it's the

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Speaker 2: second leading country of origin after India. What is quite

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Speaker 2: extraordinary about this sort of memo that's come from the

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Speaker 2: State Department is that it's so blatantly anti China. I mean,

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Speaker 2: if the thing had been fairly neutral in the sense that, look,

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Speaker 2: you know, we want to not have so many students

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Speaker 2: for whatever reason coming into the US, that would have

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Speaker 2: been maybe fine. But it specifically singles out applications from

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Speaker 2: China and Hong Kong says it sees a lot of

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Speaker 2: these students as in for trading the US with bad ideas.

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Speaker 2: They could potentially be spies or national security risks. It

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Speaker 2: really is very focused on some very negative perceptions about China,

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Speaker 2: and it's going to have a big impact. I mean

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Speaker 2: this is you know, US universities are one of the

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Speaker 2: ways in which US projects its soft power around the world.

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Speaker 2: They're a big attraction for students all over the world,

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Speaker 2: help spread US ideas and policies around the world as well.

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Speaker 2: And it has economic impacts because many of these foreign

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Speaker 2: students that go to go to the US graduate, stay on,

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Speaker 2: they become entrepreneurs. They drive innovation and economic leadership, and

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Speaker 2: if the US was to lose that, I think it

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Speaker 2: would be detrimental to the US economy. I mean, look

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Speaker 2: at companies like alphabet for example, the owner of Google,

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Speaker 2: they have an Indian CEO. There are many companies that

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Speaker 2: are there set up and driven by some of these

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Speaker 2: students who eventually go on and become entrepreneurs.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of India, how is this going between India and

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Speaker 1: the US on the trade negotiations.

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Speaker 2: Well, it seems to be a little bit stored. I mean,

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Speaker 2: there's been all sorts of talk about neuendrum mody trying

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Speaker 2: to reduce tariffs to get some sort of agreement, but

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Speaker 2: there are certain areas that are very, very sensitive that

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Speaker 2: they just can't remove the levies from and these are

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Speaker 2: things like agricultural commodities like food grains, dairy products and

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Speaker 2: so on, and it would just be politically impossible for

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Speaker 2: Mody to lower the tariffs on them. So they want

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Speaker 2: to try and ring fence certain sectors and then try

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Speaker 2: and maybe reduce tariffs on other areas. Now I'm afraid

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Speaker 2: this is bad news for New Zealand because I know

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Speaker 2: you'd like to have a trade deal withind you as well.

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Speaker 2: But I think if they're not going to offer this

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Speaker 2: to the US, I can't see them offering it to

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Speaker 2: New Zealand either.

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Speaker 1: No, that's a really that is absolutely a fair point

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Speaker 1: I think that you make there. Now, look what is

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Speaker 1: going on. Is there something that's changing about the way

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Speaker 1: that China is approaching the Pacific Islands or is it

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Speaker 1: just ongoing support that they're offering here.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think they see an opportunity. They see the

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Speaker 2: US as stepping away from a leadership role in all

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Speaker 2: sorts of places around the world and also damaging its

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Speaker 2: reputation in all sorts of places around the world. Is

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Speaker 2: not being seen anymore as a reliable trade partner, for sure,

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Speaker 2: and it's not even being seen as reliable in various

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Speaker 2: security issues by countries all over the world, both big

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Speaker 2: and small. So China sees an opportunity here to really

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Speaker 2: sort of step into the breach and put itself forward

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Speaker 2: as being the reliable partner, the one that you can

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Speaker 2: come to to do trade without any you know, without

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Speaker 2: any sort of tags on it. I mean, one ye,

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Speaker 2: who's the Foreign Minister of China. We're saying with the

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Speaker 2: Pacific Island countries they're going to undertake one hundred small

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Speaker 2: but beautiful projects across the Pacific. These are things like

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Speaker 2: addressing climate change, providing money for infrastructure initiatives, clean energy, fisheries,

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Speaker 2: and so on. And I think they do see an

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Speaker 2: opportunity here. You remember a couple of years ago they

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Speaker 2: did try to get a security agreement with a couple

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Speaker 2: of the Pacific Island countries, but that sort of fell

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Speaker 2: apart at the last minute. So here they are again

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Speaker 2: looking to boost their influence with those nations and using

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Speaker 2: programs like the Belton Road Initiative to try and do that.

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Speaker 2: And I think the Pacific Islands countries are interested as

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Speaker 2: well in having a closer relationship with China.

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Speaker 1: You can see why. Hey, thank you very much, Peter

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. We'll talk to you again next week and

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Speaker 1: enjoy your weekend. That's Peter Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent.

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