Did China Really Build an EUV Machine? Inside Beijing’s Biggest Tech Claim

Hi everyone. Hi. Welcome to Lazro Talk. Well, merry Christmas and happy holidays. Is I'm wearing Christmas color green against my red background. So, all right. Well, um today's topic is about something very strange that has happened recently. Well, at least I find it strange. According to Reuters, China appears to have achieved a shocking technological breakthrough. So, what is it? Um, here's the Reuter Reuters article. I mean, yeah, here it is. Um well, Reuters reports that inside a highly secured laboratory in Shenzhen, Chinese scientists have built an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, also known as an EUV machine. Um and in chipm uh lithography machines, DUV and EUV. And EUV is absolutely essential for making today's most advanced chips. And this machine is precisely the one that the US and Europe have tried their hardest to block China from obtaining. So according to the report, this project is part of Beijing's highly secretive six-year chip independence plan, which began in 2019. Some people even called it China's version of the Manhattan project. Uh the secret US program during World War II that developed atomic bombs. Now if China has truly produced an EUV machine, that will mean one thing. The Western high-tech blockade against China has failed. So the key question today is simple. Has China really developed an EUV machine? or does this EUV truly exist? Now, I want to be very clear about one thing. I'm not trained in micro electronics. I'm not an engineer. I don't have professional expertise in uh lithography machines. So, I cannot judge this from a purely technical angle, but I can analyze it from a political and historical perspective. And there's another important uh important point. China itself has not officially acknowledged this breakthrough. The story comes from Reuters and frankly I don't believe Reuters can independently obtain information at this level of classification. So, it's very obvious that the information is intentionally leaked from Beijing because it would be perceived as more credible than Beijing's own formal announcement. In other words, the CCP deliberately gave Reuters this exclusive story. So, the real question is why? Why did Beijing choose to release this information and why through Reuters? So that question in my opinion deserves serious thought. Um now let's first talk about what Reuters actually reported. Well according to the report um thousands of scientists and highly specialized engineers worked inside a heavily secured laboratory in Shenzhen to build an EV EUV not EV EUV prototype. The machine was completed in early this year and is now undergoing testing. And this prototype prototype is enormous. It occupies nearly an entire floor of a factory. It's far larger than the EUV machines made by Asmo uh the Dutch company. Um and the the machines made by Asmo is roughly or are roughly the size of a school bus. So why is the Chinese machine so large? Well, because earlier efforts to replicate Asmos's size and precision failed. China cannot match the required performance or precision. So engineers adopted a workaround. The result is a crude oversized machine. And insiders say the machine has already been uh turned on and has successfully generated extreme ultraviolet light, but it has not produced usable chips. In other words, the light is on, but commercial scale production is is not happening yet. Um, and according to people familiar with the project, okay, this is from the Reuters, China believes it can mass produce chips uh between 2028 and 2030. If true, this would move up industry estimates of China's advanced chip capability by about 10 years. And that's why this claim matters. That's significant. So, how did China do this at all? Under such tight blockades by the US and its allies, how did the CCP managed to build an EUV machine at all? Well, the answer is very familiar to you. The CCP relied on its classic old playbook, reverse engineering. Um if you look back at China's economic growth during the reform and opening up period um technology advanced rapidly but original innovation was limited. A large portion of China's technological progress came from imitation. Chinese engineers are extremely skilled at reverse engineering. Put simply, this means buying machines, copying products, or even using secondhand equipment, then taking everything apart piece by piece, copying every component and reassembling the entire system. China has used this method many times before. the R they they've copied they've reverse engineered Russian fighter jets Japanese and German high-speed rail even Cisco router source code so now to un to understand how this kind of project becomes possible you have to understand what the CCP calls its whole of n uh whole of nation system so the CCP often boasts that this system gives it an advantage over democratic countries. And sadly and strictly speaking, that claim is not entirely wrong. Free and democratic countries have a clear strength. That's innovation. Freedom allows people to think, explore, and experiment. That's what drives real breakthroughs. But the CCP's whole of nation system has a different kind of advantage. It suffocates originality, but it excels at stealing your work halfway through at picking the fruit after others have done the hard work. Once someone else succeeds, the system mobilizes every possible resource to steal that success. This behavior is statebacked, systemat uh systematic and often planned many years in advance. So some Chinese talents are sent overseas when they're still very young uh 5 years later, 10 years later, even 20 years later. Once results appear, they're harvested in bulk and brought back to China. This is something normal societies simply cannot do, but the CCP does and does it on a massive scale. Um even so EUV machines are different uh because there's so many components China simply cannot manufacture on its own due to fundamental weaknesses in precision manufacturing and industrial capability. So how did the CCP deal with that? Well, it used three methods. Uh first, this is according to the Reuters report. First, reclaiming and reusing old components from asthma machines. Um, second, let me actually, yeah, show the logo. Second, it purchases parts on the secondary market using multiple layers of intermediaries, uh, what some people call gloves to hide the real buyer. Third, independently copying components that were less techn technically difficult. Now, so who actually helped Beijing build this prototype? Uh, two people familiar with the project told Reuters that it was built by a team of formal Asmo engineers. China's progress relied heavily on their experience. One recruited engineer said he received an unusually large signing bonus. When he entered the facility using an ID uh with a fake name, he realized many former colleagues were already there. It suggests China recruited these former Asmo employees and brought them back to China using false identities. Um, obviously this was done to maintain extreme secrecy. When people hear the name Shenzhen, okay, they immediately think of what do you think of? Well, you think of this company, right? Um, and yes, Huawei plays a role here as well. Some engineers involved in this project were recruited through Huawei linked headquarters. I mean, I'm sorry, what I what did I say headquarters? I was I was thinking Huawei's headquarters um or Huawei's overseas um operations. So, some of these engineers were recruited by Huawei's um head hunters that that are based overseas. Now let's talk about Huawei because it has it plays an a central part in this. Now Huawei is very good at acquiring other people's technology. I mean if there's one company that the CCP trusts or the CCP leader trusts that's very good at stealing or acquiring other people's technology, that is Huawei. And this is not an exaggeration. Well, take Huawei's flagship products. It's Harmony operating system and Kirin chips, right? Those two are Harmony operating the Harmony operating system is built on Android's open-source system. And even then, Huawei never truly made it work very well because there are a lot of complaints. But that's not the main issue. The real issue is this genuine original innovation is extremely difficult for a company like Huawei because it's run like a military. Huawei has made smartphones for years. Smartphones integrate many technologies, but compared to lithography machines, they're not even in the same universe. The gap is enormous. So Huawei's real strength has never been invention. Its strength lies in copying, absorbing and scaling technologies um developed by other people. And so this goes deeper than business. Um and also from the very beginning, Huawei was not a normal private company. It's it was founded with direct backing from the CCP's military and intelligence system. So Huawei essentially is um how how do you say is fundamentally different from companies like BU and Alibaba which started as private companies. They grew much larger and then eventually got the attention of the central government and got absorbed by the authorities. But Huawei was different from day one. It was founded by Jinjun Fi um who came directly from the military. So that's Huawei's origin. So that's why Huawei in essence is a party asset wearing the shell of a private company. So you have to understand that. Now the CCP specifically targeted. So these employees working um at Asmo or used to work at Asmo are heavily recruited by Huawei's overseas um personnel operations. Um and so after leaving after leaving Asmo they they faced very few restrictions. um their former employer did sign or you know more than likely sign confident confidentiality agreements but Europe's privacy laws make enforcement extremely difficult once someone leaves companies often simply lose sight of them um let me give you a concrete example so in 2019 asmo sued a former engineer named uh I actually have a picture of him. There he is. For stealing trade secrets, Asmo won the damages. It's a mindblowing $845 million. And this guy declared bankruptcy, returned to China, continued his career, and even received state support from Beijing. The lawsuit was won, but not a dollar was recovered and the secrets were gone. Um, and Reuters report even named one individual and his name is Ling Nan. This guy, former head of Assol's light source technology. So after leaving Asmo he joined the Shanghai Institute of Optics and fine mechanics under which is under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In just 18 months his team filed eight EUV related patents. So the technology moved from the west to China and was patented there. Um but here's the critical part people are missing. Even if China has turned the light on, EUV is not just a machine. It's an entire ecosystem. And that's where the real problems begin. Um, in in one sentence, Beijing might have stolen the recipe, but they still don't have the ingredients. So, they still can't make the dish. Right now, Beijing's EUV prototype has achieved initial success, but that does not mean China can solve the entire supply chain problem. So, one bottleneck is the optical system supplied by Germany's Zeiss, right? The company is called Zeiss. So it is the world's top optical lens manufacturer and optical lenses are one of the core subsystems of EUV um and relying almost entirely on Zeiss and the precision of Zeiss optics reached the atomic level. I just heard someone saying that uh the technician that makes the lens uh one out of like one they make 10 lens lenses but only one meets the standard. So when they um they have to clear their mind before they get to work. like if they had a fight with their wife or girlfriend that morning, they're probably not going to be able to make a good uh a good lens that day. So, it's I think um there was an article written by the Wire Wired magazine. There was a journalist who went to Taipei to interview the chief executive of um uh Taiwan Semiconductor Company. Um and then people at that level when you're making precision equipment or or uh chips at three nanometers it's you're reaching a spiritual level and that's why Chinese craftman or Chinese craftsmanship can never reach that level because the CCP has really killed people's um independent thinking, their spirituality. But anyways, yeah, it was very interesting uh talks about how the technicians at Z makes the the um the lenses. It's very interesting. They have to clear their mind, make sure that their mental state is in the right is in the right place. Anyways, okay, let's come back. All right, other than the optics, the optics lenses, and there's another well-known choke point, photo resist. Photo resist is absolutely essential for chipm and in the high-end market over 90% is controlled by Japanese companies. Chinese domestic photo resist is not only low-end but its market share is uh negligible. So this is exactly why we've said many times that CCP does not truly dare to confront Japan headon uh not in a full trade war. It's all rhetorics. Um so that that's why so it will be it uh photo resist will be a fatal pressure point for China if it really offends Japan. So objectively speaking, even if China has managed through theft and brute force to barely assemble an EUV prototype, and even if that machine gradually improves over time, building a complete stable and sustainable EUV supply chain would still require overcoming hundreds of choke points. And the idea that China can now completely break free from dependence on the US, European, the Europeans and the Japanese uh is in my view not realistic. Now this is not the first time China has announced a breakthrough that later turned out to be something very different. I want to tell you about a story and because this story has such striking similarity to the EUV story that we're hearing now. So let's revisit the biggest chip scandal from 25 years ago. Um you might remember the the Hing number one scandal back in June 2000. China State Council issued a document fully supporting uh chip research and production. That was 25 years ago. Long before people talked about 7 nanometer or 5 nanometer chips, China already treated chips as a national priority. So the idea that China only started caring about semiconductors because AI or recent US pressure is simply false. It has always cared about chips. in the past decades. Now, it was in this environment that a young man named Chenzing appeared. I actually have a picture of him. He is famous. Well, he studied in the United States and reportedly worked at Texas Instruments and then he returned to China. He entered Shanghai Jaoong University as a so-called top overseas talent and Shanghai Jaoong University is one of China's most elite schools or universities. And so this Chungqing was quickly given many powerful positions. He became a a doctor a a doctoral advisor, dean of the school of micro electronics and the head of the school affiliated uh Shanghai Henin technology development company which is a company that the university set up to um to develop chips. Then came the announcement. This Chenzing guy claimed that he had produced China's first domestically developed chip named Hening number one. That's where he held in his hand. This chip was certified and praised by experts from from uh top Chinese institutions and research uh labs. You have deans, you have top level authorities confirming or certifying the chip. Um and in February 2003, the Shanghai municipal government officially recognized it as a major scientific achievement and then subsequently they developed Hi number two and number five chips. At the time all of China cheered its chip industry was said to have achieved a stunning breakthrough. The whole world was shocked and also deeply confused because the real technological progress or uh real technological progresses require foundations. You don't build skyscrapers in midair and yet this develop this advanced chip uh came out of nowhere with no visible R&D path, right? no long process. So people wondered how did China suddenly leap this far? Then the truth came crashing crashing down. What happened was uh this chen guy had purchased Motorola chips in the United States. He brought them back to China. He hired a migrant worker to sand off the Motorola logo and then reprinted Hening number one on them. That was it. The scam was exposed in 2006. By then, Cheni had already obtained more than 100 million rembb in government research funding 20 years ago. That was an enormous amount of money. After the case broke, it was said the funds were reclaimed. But how much was recovered and how much was spent? Nobody know. Nobody knew. What matters is this. Chenzhin never received any legal punishment. Not only that, he continued to hold positions in research institutions and universities. Now think about it. Defraing the state for over a 100 million yan. In most systems, that would mean prison. Yet he walked away untouched. Why? Okay, that the answer is tied to the whole story of this EUB machine because punishing Chen would destroy the narratives because the narratives matter more to the CCP than than actual technological advancement. You have to keep that in mind. It defines logic, but it's true. This is where today's EUV story becomes meaningful. In my view, China's claim that it has produced an EUV lithography machine is very similar to the Heni number one scandal. China wants to send a signal to the world, especially to the United States and Europe. The message is simple. You can't choke me. I'm going to be able to make chips on my own in two to three years. That's right. Two to five years actually. um from 2028 to 2030 and Beijing wants to say you can't if you if you can't choke me then why keep trying? If you can't stop me then you should stop blocking me except that China has broken through. Now remember I I just want to give you another um background information. The White House recently said that China might refuse to purchase Amvidas H200 chips. So why wouldn't Beijing buy, you know, I mean after all these um struggles? I mean the White House eventually allowed Beijing to buy Avid's H uh 200 chips. Why? Well, if the chi if Chinese companies buy H200 chips, Amidia Amdia's products would capture market share in China and China wants u its own domestically produced chips to take that market share instead, right? I mean, that's the the obvious explanation. Um, so China chooses not to buy the the AMDA chips. But here's the key question. You need confidence to make that decision. So that's where the Reuters rapport comes into play. It's part of the entire narrative, the bluff, the bluffing. So this is the core political objective to make the United States and the Europeans to believe that it's a waste of their time to to blockade advanced ships to China. So will this bluff work? Obviously not because let's look at what happened when hing number one was announced. Um even though it was it was a joke, Western countries took it seriously. They didn't relax controls. Um they even though they were skeptical, they took it seriously. Um once the fraud was exposed, the restrictions didn't loosen, they hardened. Now, China announces through Reuters that it has built an EV EUV prototype. In my view, this follows the same pattern as Henshin's um debacle 20 years ago. Western restrictions will be worse. Now, even if the claim is eventually exposed or downgraded to the to Beijing, the political effect is what matters because China wants the world to believe. Don't try to stop us. You cannot stop us anyway. That's the narratives um that that Beijing wants to accomplish through that Reuters article. And that is also why Chening, the man you see on the on the screen, was never p punished because the effect mattered more than the truth. Even a lie, if it serves the strategic message, is useful. And that is the deeper context behind China's EUV claim today. By releasing the story to Reuters, Beijing wants to create doubts and even panic in the West using Western media to challenge their governments and policies. But I think Xiinping may end up being the person most deceived in this whole bluffing uh scheme. Why? Well, here's my reasons. Now, trip self reliance is one of Xiinping's highest priorities. Um, here's the scary part. The most frightening thing is when the top CCP leader says that something must be accomplished by a certain deadline. It becomes a political order or a political agenda that becomes an imperial edict, an unquestionable order that cannot be challenged or resisted. Once such a deadline is set, once it becomes a political goal, people below no longer act according to technological or technical reality or practical development schedule and that is the biggest problem in China and that is the reason why China is unable to develop anything sophisticated or technically sophisticated. Um, media reports say that in order to support the chip manufacturing industry, China is considering launching an incentive program worth as much as $70 billion US. And it's important to understand this clearly that $70 billion is an incentive or reward program. Most of the money will be used as signing bonuses to entice science top scientists from around the world. Uh it's not money used to directly fund the semiconductor development program. It's purely incentives that in my opinion will make the situation even worse. Now under such a warped system and with such an enormous incentive program, anyone who can convince their superiors, anyone who can convince chairman she that they have successfully built an euv machine before the deadline gets a share of that $70 billion. So here's the question. And how many people driven by that incentive would use false or exaggerated claims during the R&D process to meet their political objectives and also to obtain those rewards. I'm not saying from a cynical point of view that this always happens, but judging by everything that we've seen in China, I find it very hard to believe that it's not happening at all. In fact, I think it's happening on a large scale. So, my my conclusion is this. If you ask me um will the EUV machine uh add up like the the Hing one chip scandal um meaning that money spent narratives promoted but no real breakthrough. I think it's very likely um by releasing the story through Reuters, Beijing wants to create doubt and panic in the west um using western media to challenge their governments and eventually forcing the western government or policy makers to abandon restriction. Um but based on history um it suggests that the person most likely to be deceived in such systems is the CCP leader at the top. All right. So that's the deeper context behind China's EUV story. That's what I have for you. Okay. I have something uh I have a surprising uh gift for you. Actually, I have two I have a treat. I have a holiday treat for you. I'll announce that in a little bit. Um, I do want to talk about uh one of the problems, a serious problems that concern me here in in this story. I've always been thinking about the problem that Chinese Americans or Chinese Canadians or Chinese Australians who are top scientists or experts working at these high-tech companies being targeted and lured back to China. It's very difficult to as as much as we are aware of what's going on, it's very difficult for Western countries to resist the CCP because they're they've done homework for you and they're doing it oneonone. um it's very difficult for you to stop that from happening and and they're successful because they know what you want and what you like. They'll make you an offer that you can't resist. Recently, I've seen a number of top Chinese scientists return to China, including a top um vaccine expert working for a US pharma. So it cons really this this pattern has been going on for the past couple of years. Um and it concerns me for two reasons. One is um well obviously CCP steals more technologies and the second one is it really makes the environment for other ethnic Chinese working here more hostile at work. Right? their working environment is is going to be is becoming more hostile due to the lack of trust. Um, and what are we going to do about it? Um, I even heard that pharmaceutical companies have been working on programs designed to prevent their prop prep proprietary information uh from being leaked. and they they've been working on this for years, but what are they going to do? You know, they can't stop their Chinese employees from talking to other fellow Chinese who pose as a friend who want to offer you a job. You can't say that's illegal. So, it's very very difficult. So, we need a solution. I think Western nations need need a solution. Um and I think it has to be a gentle a gentle solution because you can't target people. It cannot be harsh. It can be political. Um so I think it has to be cultural. So I think um one of the most important thing we need to do is help the Chinese Americans especially the ones from mainland China. Um people like the Chinese Americans from Taiwan or other parts of the world um may not have this problem but the ones from China even though they've lived here for many years for decades they are still not aware of CCP's um bad intentions and behaviors. So I think there needs to be a cultural program to make them aware and I think there's no other program that at present that can do this better than the performing arts group uh called Shening and they just started their touring season 2026 season I believe a week ago and they're touring around the world um doing performances and if you for those of you who watch their their performances. I mean, they're very straightforward about the persecution in China. They tell you exactly the brutality of the of the regime in China. And on the other hand, they shows they show you the beautiful um culture in that land. So, it's a nice it's a nice mix of uh reality versus tradition. And I really think this is my I really think every Chinese from mainland China living outside China need to go see it to be reconnected with their cultural heritage. Um, and if you're com large companies like I don't know pharmaceutical pharmaceutical companies or high-tech companies trying to figure out what to do, maybe you need to buy tickets to encourage your Chinese employees to go see Shenming because it's really I think the the gentlest way to hold their hands uh and also tell them what's happening in China. That's that's what I come up with. uh because I've been thinking about this problem for a long time because it's it's a serious issue and it's very difficult to address. So um uh Nicole, one of my helpers who uh shares this view with me, um she actually I contacted them and obtained a a code that you can use when you order um when you buy Shenin tickets. I think it's uh what is it? I think it's LRT206. Lays Road Talk 2026. So if you use that code to buy Shenin tickets, I think you wave you don't have to pay the uh the facility charge the fee the fees that are usually associated with ticket orders. I think there's six to eight dollar per ticket fee that gets waved. Um, and that that code only works if you order the tickets from Shenin's own website. It doesn't work when you go to the theaters box office. Um, and their website is I think shamin.com or you you you search shenerforming arts.org. Yeah, either one. So, that's um that's a little talk on the on on the culture side. Now, I have a treat for you. After Saturday's live stream, I got a surprise gift from my cousin. Uh, living in Asia, not in China. I'm not going to say where she where she lives, but she she sent me a a song that she produced using AI, and it's so beautiful. And so she um she used a poem that every Chinese knows. It's called a river snow, right? It's the famous Chinese poem about um a lonely fisherman uh fishing on a snowy day. It's one of the coldest, loneliest, and yet most resilient poem in the history of Chinese poetry. And then she combined that with uh a Kazak musician and poet. His name is Abai Kunambe. I hope I'm pronouncing it right. He was not only a philosopher uh and a poet but also a prophet who awakened the soul of a nation through melody and verse. And she used the translation of a Chinese professor who translated that poem beautifully into English. and she used the AI to sing sing a song in both Chinese and English. Um, so here's the song produced by my my dear cousin uh Angela and here I just want to it's it's short but it's beautiful and and Chris did the uh the video and here we go. Okay, here we go. Let's start from the very beginning. And and the the AI voice will sing Chinese first and then English. Uh the lyrics is just a poem. The Chinese is the Chinese poem. The English is the translation. So she was first sing Chinese and then English. Um yeah. And the voice is AI. Shall Sh from hill to heal no burden flight from path to path no man in sight. A lonely fisher man made a float is fishing snow in lonely boat label. He's fishing snow in lonely boat. Okay. How do you like that? Um I I'm very touched um because she she said she was inspired by my work and also by the song that I produced and she wrote me this message. She said, "As we reflect on the cultural bridges we've built together on this channel, this song stands as a testament to spiritual perseverance. The lonely fisherman is not a figure of sadness but a symbol of the unshakable integrity we must all carry within. It reminds us that even when the landscape around us feels frozen or divided, there is a stillness we can choose to inhabit. By weaving together these ancient echoes, we find that the human quest for inner peace transcends borders and centuries. I hope this music stays with you, a gentle reminder that no matter how the world shifts, the strength of the spirit remains whole. May you find your own peace amidst the snow. All right. Well, that's so beautifully written. Thank you so much, Angela. I cannot thank you enough. I'll listen to that music um over and over. And we actually we did get snow today. So it's extremely fitting. Um I just want to share share with you. I mean I'm glad that I inspired people's um artistic creativity, you know. I I think it's wonderful thing. I hope people write more music. Uh even if even if it's AI, uh that's I think it's it doesn't matter if if it makes people feel meaningful. uh uh in in this I think she did a great job, you know, combining a a classic Chinese poem with a existing music. Anyways, that's um but oh yeah, but the the AI didn't sing Chinese very well. She sent Chinese with an accent. Some of the words weren't pronounced correctly. So Angela was saying, "Oh, I need to teach the AI to speak Chinese better." I think this is good enough. Uh as a as your first try. All right. So, let's see. Someone said, "I came in disguise as Santa." All right. Good. Good. Excellent. Let's see. Uh I want to acknowledge the people who gave me super stickers as always. Oh, here's one. Charles Wulmarmac, good to catch your live show. Always entertaining and insightful. Entertaining. Okay, good. Thank you. Um, many Kyla, what are most common and popular Christmas food among ethnic Chinese, for example, in Taiwan or Singapore or somewhere else? There's no no because the Chinese really don't celebrate Christmas. The Chinese I mean the Chinese Americans celebrate Thanksgiving more. And I could tell you the most common food for Chinese to uh for Chinese to eat on Thanksgiving is not um is hot pot. the food that you you share around the table when you cook at the table. But for Christmas, I don't know if I mean, we just go out to eat. Um, and I think Chinese kids, I know for Western parents, they try to um, you know, I I think Chinese kids probably ruin their American classmates expectation of Christmas because the Chinese kids are being told by their parents there's no Santa and they might have uh, destroyed their classmates uh, uh fantasy, childhood fantasy about Christmas and Santa, all of that because the Chinese parents are very I have not met a Chinese parents who work hard to really do the whole Christmas thing for their for their kids. Uh just so that they believe that there's Santa. Uh they're always very practical and just tell them, "Oh, it's it's all about just gift buying. There's no Santa." And that might and then the Chinese kid might have said that, you know, might have told that to their American friends. I don't know. But um but Christmas is not a really it's they're not celebrated by Chinese unless they are Christian. Christians. Yeah. Um my uncle I came from a Christian family. My uncle and my aunt uh are devout Christians, but we don't celebrate Christmas either. Um, my uncle I think go to church, goes to church on Christmas Eve, but but yeah, sometimes we'll buy gifts, but not we don't celebrate Christmas the way uh the way Americans do or Westerners do. All right. So, sorry I don't really have an answer for you. Okay, here's a All right. Uh, questions. No questions, comments. Okay, people love the song. Yeah, you you guys like the song. Good. Excellent. Oh, here's a question. I see my name. I saw my name. Oh, it went back. Oh, here we go. Mystic Sage Le, can you talk about the big slum near Teneaman Square? What do you mean? What do you mean the big slum near Teneaman Square? I'm not aware. Are you talking about the explosion near Beijing? There was a a huge gigantic explosion near um in the outskirts of Beijing in a tunnel. It was so devastating that people uh I mean the the the tunnel didn't collapse but it it got there was so much heat generated that people in the tunnels were were burned. It was very serious but the government covered it up. Um, some say it was uh it was a gas tank somehow exploded inside a t inside a tunnel. But there are other people saying that it was there was conspiracy theory saying that um Xiinping's bodyguards uh there was a platoon of his bodyguards inside the tunnel that got wiped out. So you know they act we don't know but but judging by the fact that nobody said anything there was no there was no media report no government uh acknowledgement anyone who tried to talk about it or shared information about that online uh was visited by local police. So you know it seems like it's a highly sensitive event. So, all right. Okay, I reached the bottom. How about we end it early tonight? Um, oh, here's a question from S. Polards. What's the point of painting that EUV picture by China when the US has already released the H200 chips for purchase? Well, the chi the Chinese are saying they're not buying the H200 chips, you know, but but that that's part of the whole game of the bluffing. The real intention for China is to uh make the Western policy makers to believe that China is catching up. they are able to produce their own chips um between 2028 and and 2030. The whole message or the the real intention is to make the west believe that China is ahead of their schedule by 10 years in producing advanced chips. So that the west just gave up on the whole idea of stopping China from from um from um you know just stop from not selling the EUV machines to China. it it's just a whole bluffing game. So, you're right that that's exactly why that's why they're saying that we're not buying H200. All right. Here's Jeff Ramos. It's a big carrot from CCP. Do you know about all those UK fighter jets pilots training the Chinese? Yeah, that was a number of years ago. That was the the the scam was exposed at least three years ago. I think that was stopped, right? But they're still working on western experts, scientists, uh, programmers. Remember we talked about the honeypot strategy targeting Silicon Valley programmers. Yeah. And even Elon Musk commented that if she's a 10, then you are a target. Remember that? Someone say, "Are you from Taiwan or mainland?" I'm from originally from Shanghai, but I have lived here for many, many years. All right, here's a question forwarded by Chris from Cap 79. Is it true that people in China are being locked out of being able to buy or sell based on the social credit score? Is it that bad in China? I'm not surprised if some regions do um do have that in place, but it may not be all of China. um some or it it also depends on the individual. Yeah. If you're outspoken and are given a bad credit score, they could um they could even freeze your bank uh bank account so that you can't really take out money. You can't buy train tickets. You cannot leave your home. So, it's all possible. All right. Oh, Brian Cobb. Oh, here's Brian. Excellent program. Well researched. We attend a Chinese Christian church. They celebrate Christmas with a twohour pre presentation, songs and stories. Very different from American churches. Yeah. Um actually there's a a large scale arrest in Wo, China. In W Jang right now. Wjo uh Jang is probably the place in China that has the most um Christians, but there's a massive um arrests going on there, arresting um churchgoers in WJO. It's it's happening as we speak and it's troubling. All right. Um that's all for tonight. Well, merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Um, oh, someone say conscious. Can I ask an off-topic question? Is it possible that not all Chinese generals were purged and some of them are actually hidden for a secret military maneuver that will affect everyone globally? It's I mean in theory it's possible but in actuality it's difficult to hide them for so long because they still have functional responsibilities they need to carry out. You you can't hide them for so long, right? And then the ones that we and then they confirmed their downfall like the ones that we suspect, the one that we have not seen, the nine generals, they were announced right before the fourth plan. They are out. Um so so it's I I don't in theory it's possible, but in actuality I don't think there's a chance. or there's anyone fitting that profile right now. All right, we'll end it here. Thank you very much. Good night and I'll see you in a few days. Bye.