Valerie Vu: Cú sốc thuế quan 46% của Việt Nam, sự sụp đổ của thương mại Hoa Kỳ và các động thái ngoại giao đa cực – E563
Jeremy Au speaks with Valerie Vu about Vietnam’s sudden shock from the 46% US tariff under Trump. What started as optimism turned into panic factories collapsed, partners pulled out, and even personal tragedies occurred. The government acted fast, but trust with the US was damaged. Vietnam is now shifting toward multipolar trade, owning more of its value chain, and exploring new diplomatic lanes with countries like China, Singapore, and the UAE. They also explore how digital platforms like TikTok are emerging as tools of modern diplomacy.
1. Vietnam was blindsided by the 46% tariff, causing financial losses, factory shutdowns, and even suicides from sudden business collapse.
2. The government responded immediately with emergency meetings and a direct call from the General Secretary to Trump.
3. The US refused to reverse tariffs without demanding currency reform, trade surplus reduction, and blocking Chinese transshipment.
4. Vietnam expanded trade talks with China, UAE, Australia, and others, while strengthening regional ties with Singapore and Indonesia.
5. Factory owners are now investing in branding, design, and IP to move up the value chain and reduce reliance on OEM contracts.
6. Cambodia and Malaysia are also recalibrating as China freezes infrastructure investments and US tariffs shake regional trade flows.
7. Singapore’s PM Lawrence Wong went viral in Vietnam through TikTok, showing how soft power now runs through short-form media.
(01:01) Jeremy Au: Hey Valerie. Good to see you. Last time we caught up was about a month before the tariffs, and at that time we were discussing about how confident Vietnam felt.
(01:10) It had promised to buy lots of planes from America. He had built a Trump golf course In Vietnam. It had also dropped its own internal tariffs on US goods. Preemptively.
(01:22) Valerie: Yeah.
(01:22) Jeremy Au: So they felt good before Liberation Day tariffs. Yeah. And unfortunately I think it came out with America having reciprocal tariff.
(01:31) 46%. Yeah. So yeah, it's even higher than I remember. And the way they had calculated it was like, Hey, Vietnam is, ripping us off by a lot more than that. Yeah. And so 46% is very fair because it was only half
(01:43) Valerie: Yeah.
(01:43) Jeremy Au: So I was just curious, like what was the reaction of the Vietnamese government and people
(01:47) Valerie: Yeah. First of all on the reaction of the people. We were all like shocking. And very overwhelming. It's a direct hit to a lot of business activity, daily life and business planning (02:00) were completely crash.
(02:01) There was some very rash decision. Some people actually even committed suicide. Because. The clients from the cut off their order last minute. And before that, they already for the suppliers and they already took out some very expensive debt. To pay for orders.
(02:20) And then last minute, partners in the us. saying, Hey, because of a tariff, we can no longer do business with you, the factory in Vietnam. So unfortunately, I heard horrible stories of people did not think rationally being, extremely scared and fear, and that's why they committed suicide.
(02:42) Of course all of us were shocked and, to take really fast. And that's also, show in our government action. So immediately that night, like around 10:00 PM 11:00 PM all of our government had a emergency meeting.
(02:56) And the general secretaries actually call (03:00) Donald Trump that night. And. Ask for negotiation. And he's willing to cut tariff down to zero for us to, make a deal here. But then after that the US was saying even if we reduce our tariff to zero, it's not enough.
(03:16) Because right now they don't have fair trade. we raise barriers to the us. We manipulate our currency. And we have to make this 20 million surplus, lower. Which is still very concerning for us. Because actually Vietnam foreign currency reserves, only 90 billion.
(03:33) So how do you balance that trade surplus? we already emergency committee delegations to navigate negotiation conversations. Also a delegation already flew into us to, initiate and start this negotiation conversation. So we had to take swift actions.
(03:52) We were all shocked. The VN index, lost 40 billion in three days.
(03:56) Yeah I think shocking is even an understatement.
(03:59) Jeremy Au: (04:00) Yeah. I think, all of us were shocked. Obviously for Singapore it was shocked because it's a free trade agreement. So by law, yeah, it'll be zero, zero on each.
(04:09) And then Singapore buys more from America than it sells to America. Yeah. America has a trade surplus and so we, Singapore still got hit by 10%. Yeah. So I think it's we were shocked, but of course 10% is like very painful, but you can close their eyes. But I think we were shocked that Southeast Asia as well got so much cambodia was like 49%. Yeah. Malaysian, Indonesia were like 20 plus percent. 30 plus percent.
(04:33) Valerie: Yeah.
(04:33) Jeremy Au: So I think that was really bad because for us as Southeast Asia as a whole, where Singapore is like a hub
(04:39) Valerie: Yeah.
(04:40) Jeremy Au: that. Yeah. Then it was also very negative for Singapore because it was like, okay, all the exports from Vietnam would go through Singapore to america, the financing would be arranged through Singapore. And so there's a lot of shock as well.
(04:52) I'm just curious because let's. Focus on maybe the people side. And then we'll talk about the government side. And then after that, obviously Trump has made some (05:00) updates to his moves over time.
(05:02) And also he's made some moves on China as well. Yeah. But I guess I think what's interesting about the people perspective was that in our last episode we talked about how people were actually pretty okay with Trump being the winner of the US elections because they felt that he was more anti-China.
(05:17) Valerie: Yeah.
(05:17) Jeremy Au: you share a little bit more? He must have been quite a. Swing of opinion for the people's perspective.
(05:21) Valerie: Yeah. I think he, I understand his intention Here in the Trump 2.0 era. He doesn't want to repeat the same mistake in the trade war that he has a loophole of Vietnam.
(05:32) Being the trans shipment hub. For a lot of Chinese manufacturing, to just dock it in Vietnam and ship to us and avoid the tariff. So I think this is his intention to not repeat the same mistake. But I think he did not think through this rationally because. We are starting to lose trust on the administration because, we were such good partners.
(05:55) We established comprehensive strategic partnership last year. We are (06:00) gonna buy so many more airplanes and maybe LNG from them and then suddenly we were hit with 46% and create a lot of chaotics and fears so also that come with starting to lose loss of trust as well.
(06:16) Jeremy Au: Yeah. I can imagine, because I think the big part was like there's the content of the tariff, which people are okay, we can get, and then there's also the process, right? Because there's no signaling.
(06:26) Valerie: Yeah.
(06:26) Jeremy Au: There's no moderation. And it basically breaks a lot of trust, I think, the way it's done.
(06:32) Valerie: Yeah.
(06:32) Jeremy Au: Which is actually important. Negotiation is not just about what you ask for. It's about how you ask for it. Otherwise people just get
(06:37) Valerie: Yeah.
(06:37) Jeremy Au: Pissed off. Yeah. And I think from a government perspective, there's emergency meeting.
(06:41) Do you feel they also feel like they. Have trust America less how does the government feel because they've been doing something moves in advance of this. Yeah. I'm just curious. Yeah.
(06:51) Valerie: Yeah. I definitely think our government also feels a bit more cautious now. The first message that the government sent to people, the Vietnamese (07:00) people that is that we have.
(07:01) As a Vietnamese, we have been through a lot of hardship in the history from wars and being sanctions and global financial crisis, and we survive it through it all by, being resilient and by partnering and trading with many multiple parties in country. And we don't rely on one particular country.
(07:23) So that's the main message. And after that, I'm seeing like the government is inviting Xi Jinping to visit Vietnam officially. And he's landing in Vietnam tomorrow. Yeah. And at the same time. I see more business organizations are sending their regulation to UAE, to Europe to other parts of the world, right?
(07:45) Like Australia to make sure we have some buffer, if, we lost a lot of business from and also the manufacturing. A lot of manufacturing and factories owner are saying like. Yeah. We now have to own their own designing (08:00) process and their own branding process to not relying on because traditionally these factories only do production.
(08:06) They don't own anything. They don't own brand, they don't own design, they don't own ip. And now the manufacturing owners are thinking differently and they start to think oh, we have to own end to end and we have to diversify our trading partners. Yeah. Even though. Those markets might be smaller than the US right now.
(08:24) But if we start early and take action early, It's safe. So much more. And it's yeah.
(08:29) Jeremy Au: Yeah. I think what's really interesting that comes out there is that it feels like. One outcome is whether the tariff happens or not. I think it's actually backfired in a way, because, America wants to be at the top of the value chain, obviously Muslim manufacturing back.
(08:45) But of course, the pushback now here is like you're saying, is that the Vietnamese factory owner wants to move up the value chain.
(08:50) Valerie: Yeah.
(08:50) Jeremy Au: Which is, like becoming independent of the American.
(08:53) Valerie: Yeah.
(08:53) Jeremy Au: Like top of the, pyramid, if that makes sense. And then also is pushing.
(08:57) The rest of the countries into the (09:00) multipolar world. America used to be the pole.
(09:01) Valerie: Yeah. And
(09:02) Jeremy Au: then now everyone's like Uhoh. Yeah. It become, the friendly relationship that we had doesn't work anymore. And so we have to be friends with everybody else. And then the rest of the polls are going like, go up.
(09:12) Yeah. Which is China.
(09:13) Valerie: Yeah.
(09:14) Jeremy Au: And Australia and India and so forth. Europe. Yeah, exactly.
(09:18) Valerie: Yeah. Middle East.
(09:19) Jeremy Au: So what's interesting is that you said that Vietnam invited Xi Jinping to visit, right? Yes. And by the time this podcast episode comes out, the whole visit's done.
(09:26) Officially, I think they say that there's gonna be about 40 over deals that'll be signed. Yeah. Of course. The last chunk of them are non-binding, but a lot of them has to do like real infrastructure so forth. Yeah. But let's talk about this because it's not just, USA and Vietnam, right?
(09:37) But also China also got hit with a large amount of tariffs. During the timeframe that we had, trump 1.0 had given some tariffs. Then Trump 2.0 gave some additional tariffs.
(09:47) Valerie: Yeah.
(09:47) Jeremy Au: And then during the last round he raised it even more.
(09:50) Yeah. And then America raised it some more, and then now China's raised it. And I think China's now and there's our is about 120 hundred 25%. Yeah.
(09:58) And the other one's (10:00) 150% I believe. And then I think China was like, okay, like no number be beyond this makes any sense because yeah, 125% tariff basically means nothing is gonna flow because nothing has a. Yeah. 50, 60%
(10:11) Valerie: Yeah. Profit
(10:12) Jeremy Au: margin. You need 60% profit margin to anyway.
(10:15) But the key thing was adding Trump China said effectively, I think Signal said it will stop retaliating on this dimension. But he would probably do other measures to retaliate if, Trump raises it. So it's gonna be interesting. Yeah. So how do the Vietnamese feel like about the.
(10:30) Trump and China tariff. Is it like, okay, 46% is bad, but at least it's not 150%.
(10:37) Valerie: Our ideal scenario is tariff is zero, but right now he's pausing. Yeah. For the pausing the tariff. Yeah. So it's. 10% right now. Yeah. But we want zero, right?
(10:48) Yeah. Yeah. That's the, we just became comprehensive strategic partnership. Yeah. So even 10% is quite outrageous. Yeah. Because a lot of foreign companies that invested a lot in (11:00) Vietnam, like Samsung or Nike or some more like furniture company from us, they are taught that, they reconsidering.
(11:07) Yeah. Yeah. The investments in Vietnam and the
(11:10) Jeremy Au: productivity.
(11:11) Valerie: Yeah.
(11:11) Jeremy Au: So where would they go? Because technically, that's like what the goal of the American tar policy is, right? Which is that, if Samsung reconsiders and says, I wanna build this in America.
(11:21) Valerie: I don't think they can just make that action.
(11:23) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(11:23) Valerie: Like it's a huge like CapEx investment. And that will take at least three to five more years if they want to move out of Vietnam.
(11:31) Yeah. And our government try our best to not let them do it.
(11:35) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(11:35) It's true. Like subsidies or tax credits or whatever it is to incentivize them to stay, obviously.
(11:40) Valerie: And to that point, yeah. We actually do more business with East Asian countries. And have more visitor from East Asian countries.
(11:47) Rather than us. Yeah. So do we sacrifice, like what do we sacrifice here?
(11:53) Like maybe we. Have more trading agreement with China, Korea, and Japan instead.
(11:59) Jeremy Au: Yeah. (12:00) So let's talk about that because you said that Vietnam invited Xi Jinping.
(12:04) Valerie: Yeah.
(12:04) Jeremy Au: So it wasn't like Xi Jinping inviting himself,
(12:06) Valerie: invited Xi Jinping
(12:08) Jeremy Au: and it was after the tariff. Yes.
(12:10) Valerie: Yeah.
(12:10) Jeremy Au: So it wasn't like a prearranged visit?
(12:12) Valerie: No. Oh yeah.
(12:13) Jeremy Au: Okay.
(12:13) Valerie: We invited him. like I say, we are taking action. Yeah.
(12:16) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(12:16) Valerie: message from the government is. We are resilient.
(12:20) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(12:20) Valerie: And we are more like dynamic. And we don't rely on one. Country. because that's what it took to be independent.
(12:28) As a smaller nation.
(12:29) Jeremy Au: Yeah. And so you talked previously about the bamboo strategy, which is, stay independent, but wind is blowing. So I guess Vietnam is bending towards where the wind is blowing, which is from the east, yeah.
(12:38) Valerie: geographically.
(12:39) Jeremy Au: So I guess it's not just a, obviously a way to do business with the Chinese, but also I guess it's signal to America. Of course. Yeah. If you keep having these high tariffs and, yeah. Even though I think the tariffs are paused, it's only 10% for the next 90 days.
(12:53) I think it's, a signaling to say. Hey, if we don't play ball
(12:56) then we have no choice but to Swing to China.
(12:59) Valerie: Yeah.
(12:59) Jeremy Au: (13:00) Is that right?
(13:00) Valerie: I think so, but at the same time, we are still trying to make a deal here. And that's why we have the entire delegation in the us. Like Vietnam, AI just signed half a billion deals with Citibank.
(13:13) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(13:14) Valerie: And Citibank will sponsor them to, Yeah. At the same time where that deal happened via Jet, which is another airline in Vietnam, also in a new deal to buy at least like 300 million worth mowing. So we are making actions for worst case scenario.
(13:30) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(13:31) Valerie: It we don't want to say we are going with East Asia country only. But we just want to prepare for the war.
(13:37) Jeremy Au: Yeah. Makes sense. I think one question in my head is what does that future look like? If you spin a clock, and we try to make a prediction of one year out
(13:48) Valerie: Yeah.
(13:48)
(13:48) Jeremy Au: think we're gonna land on it would be, there would be some tariffs still. Or USA or Vietnam. It probably is higher than 10%. Yeah. I don't know what, I don't know why you, okay. So
(13:59) Valerie: (14:00) my prediction best case scenario Yeah. Is 10%.
(14:03) And that but the condition here is we will not take any Chinese manufacturing that want to move to Vietnam.
(14:11) We have to say no. I think that's interesting. That's what Donald Trump is asking for. We cannot, hola. Cooperative too much with the Chinese. We cannot give them a deal here. If we want 10% tariff, we cannot let this loophole of Vietnam being a trans shipment.
(14:27) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(14:27) Valerie: Happen again, like tread war 1.0.
(14:30) Jeremy Au: Yeah. So I guess the deal would be no more China investment into Vietnamese, let's say factories, but can allow the Japanese, the Koreans. The Singapores still have capital of course. And of course the Americans as well.
(14:42) Valerie: Starlink, we just started project in Vietnam.
(14:45) Jeremy Au: Do you think the Vietnamese government will do that deal?
(14:47) Valerie: I think it makes sense for them to do that deal.
(14:49) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(14:49) Valerie: Because the, just talking about economy Economically talking,
(14:54) Jeremy Au: right?
(14:55) Valerie: Yeah. But in terms of politics, China, might
(14:59) Jeremy Au: you push (15:00) back, right?
(15:00) Because I know Yeah. China might
(15:01) Valerie: put push back. Yeah. The big brother might not let us. Take that deal.
(15:05) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(15:06) Valerie: So best case scenario, 10%.
(15:08) Jeremy Au: Yeah. But the saying is China will push back. For sure. I scenario where China's okay with that. And also no face. That's the deal is mean. I think my prediction is probably I don't know. It's hard to predict them like, but
(15:19) Valerie: even 20%, it's still better than 46%.
(15:21) Jeremy Au: exactly.
(15:22) Valerie: And we have to guarantee that all the big guys like Samsung, Nike, apple, Foxconn, restoration Hardware, they have to keep doing business in Vietnam.
(15:33) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(15:33) Valerie: We have to guarantee that.
(15:35) Jeremy Au: Yeah, makes sense.
(15:36) Valerie: it's 20% of our GDP.
(15:38) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(15:38) Valerie: Yeah, exactly.
(15:39) Jeremy Au: I think it's also interesting because now we're also talking about some of the other dynamics that are happening in the region, right? Ting will have visited by this time Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
(15:48) And I guess RIA are quite similar because they're also big exporters to the US
(15:53) Valerie: Yeah.
(15:53) Jeremy Au: Cambodia in the textiles and clothing industry. Yep. Which is also effectively about half of their (16:00) GP And textiles actually is a big chunk of it is Chinese owned. Factories. And then for Malaysia, obviously they're exporting a lot of electronics to America as well. So interesting choice, I think. Signaling, but I think obviously I don't know about Vietnam, but I think for Cambodia and Malaysia, I think especially Malaysia, I think Malaysia will try not to signal too much.
(16:21) Oh, we're very in favor of season thing. I think it'll just be like a, more of a neutral business. 'cause they don't wanna piss off Either side. The American administration if they're too friendly to Xi Jinping. So for Malaysia they're going to be focused on not signaling too much that they're in China's camp. I think again, it is about signal to America that they can work more with China if they need to.
(16:42) And so I think it works for everybody. And China's also a good signal for them to be like, we can work with Malaysia. As well. Lots of signaling happening as people try to negotiate for the next 90 days. When we think about this, what do you think about the dynamic because China is gonna be visiting Cambodia and Vietnam and (17:00) Malaysia.
(17:00) Cambodia, Vietnam and China have had a long history, Could you share a little bit more about what you're thinking?
(17:05) Valerie: Yeah. So I'm thinking this is the beginning of a new war order.
(17:08) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(17:09) Valerie: And further reiterating on the idea that you cannot rely on one party alone. You have to diversify.
(17:16) If you remember last year we talked about China investment to Cambodia's US Canal projects. This year, they actually pull down and slowing down the investments and yeah, the commitment has not been funded at all. And that's why the Cambodian government has to make an emergency trip to Vietnam.
(17:34) They actually drive to Vietnam. And usually the political meetings are taken place in Hanoi. Where our capital is. But our government actually made an exceptions and flew down to Ho Chi Min City to meet with the Cambodian delegations. So I don't know what exactly they are discussing and what's the deal here?
(17:54) I'm also curious, but it seems cambodia want to make peace with Vietnam and maybe (18:00) want us to invest in this kind of project in state because China has stepped down their commitment and it seems like there's no more investment from China.
(18:08) Jeremy Au: Yeah, so I think there's two parts, right? One is what does it mean for Cambodia?
(18:11) And the second part is. Obviously the signaling from China about why they're doing it. Yeah. But I think to recap the context here is that Cambodia is obviously smaller than Vietnam, obviously smaller than China. Yeah. And 50% of its economy is in textiles. Which a lot of it is Chinese owned, but I think they're pushing very hard to upgrade infrastructure, right?
(18:30) So I think there are two major infrastructure deals. One is the Canal project. Yeah. And it's supposed to help them. Become less reliant on the river that primarily goes through Vietnam. Yeah. And I think in a previous episode that we talked about how it helps them basically have more control over
(18:46) Sea right?
(18:47) So it's very important for them. It's a $1.7 billion investment, and we thought that was going through at point of time we recorded episode last year. Yeah. But it looks like China's frozen And then also they are working on upgrading the airport, right? Yeah.
(18:59) And the (19:00) capital city, and there's also a $1.1 billion investment. And apparently China's also frozen or suspended. That capital. So I think it's not just a canal, but it's also more broadly a freeze on investments flowing from China to Cambodia Yeah. So I think that's an interesting piece that is gonna be happening.
(19:16) Valerie: Yeah. I think China has its own internal issue to prioritize over investment to Cambodia right now.
(19:23) Jeremy Au: Yeah. That's exactly right. 'cause the timing of also all this happened after the November US election. So my perspective on it is very simple, is like they were like, okay, we started this Bell Road Initiative back when we were very strong and a lot of money.
(19:36) And now our domestic consumption through the property market is very weak.
(19:40) Valerie: Yeah.
(19:40) Jeremy Au: We need to stimulate our own economy and now that Trump has come to power We need even more to save our bazooka for our internal stimulus. So there's this okay, we need to pull this money together.
(19:51) I think it's less about Cambodia and more about China. Yeah. So it'll be interesting. Also like I think Hansen which is the last kind of leader of Cambodia now his (20:00) son has taken over.
(20:00) Valerie: Yeah.
(20:01) Jeremy Au: So this is the first time that he's gonna be meeting Xi Jingping, I believe in person.
(20:04) Yeah. Xi Jinping meeting him. So it'll be interesting to see what that
(20:07) Valerie: Yeah. Relationship's gonna be.
(20:08) Jeremy Au: And
(20:08) Valerie: the new generation might have some new ideas.
(20:11) Jeremy Au: Yeah. The thing is that his son was educated in the US right? Yeah. I know he's probably had McDonald's. So walked around Starbucks and Did a road trip in America. Yeah. It's actually, it's quite compelling, you do that, you like, wow, America's so nice and free and yeah.
(20:24) Yeah. But of course, Cambodia has been hit by 49%. Tariffs so understand it's also quite a huge problem for them as well.
(20:30) Valerie: Yeah.
(20:31) Vietnam and Cambodia are economy colonies of China.
(20:35) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(20:35) Valerie: that's why we were hit. With the highest tariff.
(20:39) Jeremy Au: Yeah. So I think it's gonna be tricky for them.
(20:40) Valerie: Yeah.
(20:41) Jeremy Au: I think, when I look at it, the questions that we have, and I was talking of a Swiss delegation that was just, in town.
(20:47) And, for me, I think the questions that came up were like three of them. And one was is this the change right of the. Economic order. Where America is number one, and everyone's working with them. Yeah. (21:00) Based on what they, we thought they wanted and so forth.
(21:02) And then number two is this going to be a change in the security architecture?
(21:05) Valerie: Yeah.
(21:06) Jeremy Au: Where America, because of it treating links and because he wants to preserve, freedom of navigation in the sea. Is it going to step back from his role as an offshore balancer? Yeah. To the security arrangement in the whole of Asia.
(21:18) And then the third question is what do the other countries do with one another? How would the countries say diversify or, create new multipolar
(21:26) Valerie: Yeah.
(21:26) Jeremy Au: Trade with each other.
(21:28) Valerie: Yeah. But one thing I know for sure is this is a.
(21:30) Kind of signaling the beginning of a new world. And we have to protect ourselves by diversifying our trading partners and friends. And that's why we established formal, comprehensive strategic partners with Singapore and Indonesia for the past two months. And yeah we saw official visit of, vietnam general Secretary to Singapore, and then reverse. Lawrence Wong also a visit to Vietnam. So we need to make the region internally stronger (22:00) and friendlier with each other.
(22:02) Jeremy Au: Yeah.
(22:02) Valerie: Yeah.
(22:02) Jeremy Au: I think last year I was like part of a delegation from Singapore to Vietnam.
(22:06) Yeah. Just to visit and work on the education tech space, which has a lot of Interest because Vietnam and Singapore both love education. And I think it was just so nice to be warmly received by, local folks. Just hanging out.
(22:19) Valerie: No, because you come with good intentions and yeah.
(22:22) Lawrence Wong also became viral in Vietnam.
(22:24) Jeremy Au: He became viral. how does he become viral? Did he do dance or what?
(22:27) Valerie: he's, he has a TikTok account and he has two TikTok short on Vietnam visit. And somehow he knows all the trendiest music in Vietnam and. Immediately, like three, four days after the song was launched, he used that song for his TikTok short.
(22:43) And the singer is really like famous and popular in Vietnam, so I'm like amazed. How did he know about this song? Was just. Launched three days ago. And the comments section on the TikTok of Lawrence Wong is full of Vietnamese, like just praising him like, oh, this is so (23:00) cool. We love Singapore, we love Lawrence Wong.
(23:02) This is so hot.
(23:04) Jeremy Au: Yeah, it's amazing. He's just a very, authentic guy. And I think that's why he was selected and that's how he's currently running for re-election, In Singapore. So he does have that, charisma.
(23:14) In authentic way. he plays the guitar. speaks pretty well. In fact, he also went viral in American media because he did a speech to Singaporean saying Hey, this tariff situation is really bad. And he explained the economics system of it. I don't think he intending this because, I message about one to two months on Twitter. Yeah. And then people, all Americans were wow. Prime Minister can speak so well about economics
(23:35) There was no music he was just a guy. It would be serious looking at a camera in his, office, which quite, utilitarian, But yeah, it's interesting because I think Singapore has actually been weirdly improving.
(23:45) Its pR initiative through short form video, which is, a crazy innovation. part of it was because, the government was very focused on newspapers and tv. Which old school, but then I it was identified in the past few elections.
(23:58) Valerie: Yeah.
(23:59) Jeremy Au: The government was not, (24:00) or the ruling party was not good at new media.
(24:03) So there's been like a weird push obviously to wind voters, young voters, and Gen Z voters. But it's also been interesting because now you know in Singapore you have like police stations, ministry of Defense, fire stations. The individual fire stations have their own TikTok accounts and Instagram accounts, and they're all competing to make.
(24:20) Public safety announcement. Yeah. Educational and entertainment, right? So edutainment. Yeah.
(24:25) Valerie: I think it's working.
(24:25) Jeremy Au: Yeah. Next time there was a time when the Shangri La Dialogues, the Ministry of Defense, they made TikTok.
(24:30) Valerie: Yeah.
(24:31) Jeremy Au: And they did the song, what's the song called? The Viral song, which was like looking for Man in Finance.
(24:35) Valerie: Yeah. Just Fun
(24:37) Jeremy Au: Blue Eye. Six five. Yeah. Something like that. And then this is made that version at the military version. So it's like showing all these like majors and generals and captains at the Shangla Dialogue, which is the annual Defense Summit between China, America, and all these other places, and so went viral. And so there's very cool, there's an army of like people just making tiktoks in Singapore. Very cool. It's crazy.
(24:59) Valerie: Very cool.
(24:59) Jeremy Au: (25:00) But on that note time flies and probably see you next month.
(25:03) Valerie: Thank you.