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First Move with Julia Chatterley

Beijing's Response To President Trump Signing Of A Bill Backing Hong Kong's Protesters; Chinese Social Media App, TikTok, Apologizes For Suspending A User Who Criticized The Government; The RealReal Luxury Consignment Platform Defends Itself Against Counterfeit Claims. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired November 28, 2019 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[09:00:09]

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need to know.

Bullying behavior. Beijing's response to President Trump signing of a bill backing Hong Kong's protesters.

Human Error. Chinese social media app Tik Tok apologizes for suspending a user who criticized the government.

And is it for reals? The RealReal luxury consignment platform defends itself against counterfeit claims.

It is Thursday, let's make a move.

Welcome once again to FIRST MOVE, and Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate today's U.S. holiday. Plenty to be grateful for on Wall

Street at least with all three major U.S. markets closing in record territory yesterday, rounding off a record topping November.

In fact, I have to say though, a far less festive feel over in Europe. I think trade war worries rather than the holiday spirit is the name of the

game there.

As you can see, we're under pressure by some three tenths of one percent across the board. I'll explain why shortly. But now, for context,

remember European stocks is still trading around those four-year highs and there are some reasons for cheer in the data today, too, which I wanted to

point out.

In France consumer confidence numbers for October coming in at the highest level since President Macron was elected back in June of 2017. So worth

noting that, I think, in light of recent protests.

In the U.K., too, the pound, getting a boost overnight thanks to a poll suggesting the Conservative Party may get a majority in the election on

December 12th. It's now back in the red, however, so we're reversing gears. It's just one poll and we will discuss that, too.

Now, is it the light at the end of the three-year Brexit tunnel of uncertainty? We shall be asking the question. For now, though, take a

look at the weakness that we've seen across the Asia session.

The real global sentiment driver overnight brings us back to the U.S.-China relations, and the decision by President Trump to sign legislation that

expresses support for the Hong Kong protesters over Beijing. This, as I mentioned, uncanny timing who of course, with U.S. stock market shut today.

Investors around the world asking of course what that means for the Phase 1 trade deal.

Let's get to the drivers because that's where we're starting. China threatening firm countermeasures after the United States passed a law

backing anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. In response, Beijing's foreign affairs ministry has issued a blistering statement accusing the

U.S. of bullying behavior.

Cristina Alesci joins us now from New York. Cristina, just talk us through the details of this and what the implications of this signature may mean

for Hong Kong? And of course, more broadly these trade talks.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN BUSINESS POLITICS AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Julia, President Trump, as you said, signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and

Democracy Act and that will complicate the Chinese trade war -- the U.S.- China trade war.

The new Act could lead to sanctions on Chinese officials for cracking down on protesters and it requires the U.S. to confirm Hong Kong's special

freedoms are being maintained by Beijing. Otherwise, the U.S. could withdraw the city special status, and that would be a massive blow to its

economy.

The Hong Kong's government blasted the bill as unnecessary and unwarranted. The Chinese have summoned the U.S. Ambassador to China, Terry Branstad to

protest the bill. Branstad is the former governor of Ohio.

So he is well aware of how people at home are feeling the effects of the trade war, and though, this definitely raises the tension between the U.S.

and China, it's really unclear how it impacts the talks at this point that the Chinese have threatened countermeasures, but they've threatened

countermeasures before without following through. And it's really hard for the Chinese to enact those countermeasures without hurting their economy as

well.

In addition to that, the U.S. government and the President in particular has a lot of leeway in the way that he executes this bill, how he enforces

this bill. And he sort of signaled to China that he is not going to take a hard stance with China, perhaps not enforcing the travel ban or the

sanctions on particular people.

So we're going to have to see how this plays out. But the two sides are still talking. The talks are ongoing. It doesn't seem -- it seems like

this bill is largely symbolic at this point.

CHATTERLEY: Yes. And this is such a great point, Cristina because we see bipartisan support for putting pressure on China over this particular

issue, never mind the trading relationship and the protections of things like intellectual property theft.

But the idea that he can sign this, and then not enforce it. Very, very important for us to realize here, and for many reasons and we've talked

this through time and time again, both sides here arguably on an economic basis, need to get some kind of agreement here to at least suspend tariffs,

if not remove them. And we have to bring it back to the economics here.

[09:05:19]

ALESCI: Absolutely. And I think that parts of the bill can be at the President's sort of whether the President wants to enforce them or not.

There are other parts of this, of course, that really upset the Chinese because it's symbolically telling the protesters, hey, we're on your side.

And as you know, if it comes down to sovereignty or economics, the Chinese will put sovereignty ahead of economics many times. We've seen them do

this over their history.

I think it's really important, though, to your point that Trump is sending a subtle signal to Xi Jinping that he wants these talks to continue and

they are moving forward towards a quote-unquote "Phase 1 trade deal," which everybody is still questioning what that really means -- Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Just another lever here, a pressure point. Cristina Alesci. Happy Thanksgiving. And thank you for joining us.

ALESCI: You, too. Thank you.

CHATTERLEY: All right, let's move on to our next driver. The Chinese social media app, TikTok has apologized for removing a viral video that

criticized China. The company says it's restored the user's account and blamed human error for the decision.

Hadas Gold joins us on this story. Hadas, I have to ask you to give us a bit of background here about what exactly happened? What this apparent

suspension of the account involved in why and where we are now today?

HADAS GOLD, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Julia, this has been a really interesting story, really interesting last 24 hours. What happened was a

17-year-old young American was filming what looked like any typical makeup tutorial video on TikTok, but as she was curling her eyelashes, she then

slyly told her viewers to pick up their phones and search the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in China.

Of course, there's the U.S. and other Western nations saying that these Uyghur Muslims are being sent to what are apparently internment camps.

China denies and says that they are voluntary training camps.

But this young woman says that then after that video posted, it was removed and she lost access to her account. Now yesterday, TikTok said that the

reason that this young girl lost access to her account was because of a previous video she had made on a different account had showed an image of

Osama bin Laden, which is they said against their policy of showing any sort of imagery related to terrorism.

Now, the young girl said that that short image of Osama bin Laden was part of a clear parody, clear satire, and that she thought that she lost access

to her account because of her commentary on the Uyghur Muslims and China of course, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is a Chinese company.

There's lots of fog of suspicion around this company and their connection to the Chinese government. U.S. lawmakers have asked for a national

security assessment into the company.

But yesterday TikTok was saying no, no, it wasn't connected to the Uyghur comments. This was connected to Osama bin Laden. But today, or actually

in the last few hours, TikTok has come forward with a new timeline, and they say that actually, yes, that specific video, the viral makeup tips

video turned into Chinese commentary was actually taken down for 50 minutes and they say it was due to human moderation era and they are also now

apologizing to this user.

I'll read part of this apology. They say, "We would like to apologize to the user for the error on our part this morning. Our moderation approach

of banning devices associated with a banned account is designed to protect against the spread of coordinated malicious behavior, and it's clear, this

is not the intent here."

Now, TikTok is better known for its funny memes, it's dance videos, lip sync videos. It's not known as the home for let's say, political

discussion, like we might see on Twitter and Facebook.

But it just goes to show you that all social media companies, especially a social media, or tech company connected to China is going to have a lot of

attention on it, a lot of eyes on it and how it deals with the sort of moderation policies.

Now one question that we don't have answered yet is what caused that human moderator to take down that post? We don't have that question answered

yet, but I'm sure we will be asking TikTok that as the days go by. And this is something that they say themselves, they are continuing to evolve

on how they moderate this type of discussion.

These days, I'm not sure that any sort of social media platform can ever only be just for fun and memes.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's such a great point, Hadas, and to be fair to TikTok, they did say, look, they've never been asked by the Chinese government to

censor content.

GOLD: Yes.

CHATTERLEY: And even if they were, they wouldn't do it.

GOLD: Yes, exactly --

CHATTERLEY: That could also have implications, too. Yes.

GOLD: Yes, head of TikTok recently actually sat down for a big "New York Times" interview, one of the first times that he did this -- Alex Zhu --

and he was adamant saying that if he was asked directly by Chinese leadership, whether he would take anything down or share data, he said he

would refuse and that he would not do so.

CHATTERLEY: Yes. Fascinating. Hadas Gold, thank you so much for that.

All right, next driver. The final fortnight now in the U.K. election campaign and it's a fight to the finish for Boris Johnson's Conservatives

with the main opposition coming from Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party.

[09:10:06]

CHATTERLEY: Well, a new YouGov forecast is saying that Conservatives look to have the election in the bag. Nina dos Santos joins us now with all the

details.

Nina, just explain to us what this forecast from YouGov told us because it suggested a majority of seats here going to the Conservative Party two

weeks out.

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR: That's right. Well, what they've done here, Julia, is that they've surveyed about a hundred thousand people

across the country over the last seven days, a feat that they plan to replicate next week again, and they've deduced that if the election were to

be held today, well, the Conservatives would come home with a majority of 68 seats in Parliament gaining 359 according to their predictions versus

211 from Labour, the SNP - Scottish National Party would get 43 and the Lib-Dems would get 13.

Now what's significant about this is that YouGov was the only poll really that managed to get it right in 2017 when Theresa May called that snap

election. She didn't really have to call it at the time, because at that time, the polls showed that she would come back with a thumping majority.

Obviously, that was a spectacular political miscalculation. She lost her majority, and that just hampered her Premiership ever since.

So Boris Johnson, probably looking like he is feeling quite comfortable with these kind of numbers coming in two weeks ahead of the general

election.

However, I should also point out that YouGov's figures do say that when it comes to 30 of these seats that they reckon are going to go Conservative,

the margin of error is about five percent and they say that if the conservatives were to lose their 11-point lead over their newest rival, the

Labour Party, and that would be narrowed down to about seven percent, then they wouldn't have majority in Parliament, and they could be back in the

same situation as we have today.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's still incredibly tight. Nina dos Santos, thank you so much for joining us on that story and we'll be talking about this more

later on in the show.

For now, these are the stories making headlines around the world.

North Korea reportedly fired two projectiles earlier on Thursday. That's according to the South Korean military. The South believes they were fired

from what is called a super large caliber multiple rocket launcher. U.S. and South Korean Intelligence are now analyzing that data.

Iraqi authorities meanwhile cracking down on anti-government demonstrations after protesters torched the Iranian Consulate in Najaf, Wednesday night.

At least 13 people were killed and scores wounded when security forces opened fire on protesters earlier today. Iran is demanding that the Iraqi

government respond firmly quote, "to the attack" on its Consulate.

The President of the European Central Bank, the ECB, reportedly wants to prioritize the fight against climate change in policymaking. "The

Financial Times" reports Christine Lagarde is pushing for the topic to be examined as part of a strategic review of the bank's purpose.

The head of Germany's Central Bank has warned he is against redirecting ECB monetary policy to tackle climate change.

All right, coming up on FIRST MOVE. It's the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but with some pretty windy weather. I can tell you here in New

York what kind of parade will we get? Find out next.

Plus, CNN's exclusive interview with the founder of Huawei a year after the company's CFO, his daughter, of course, was arrested.

That's coming up. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:35]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE with a look at what's going on for stock markets over in Europe. They're in the red today as investors eye

developments in U.S.-China relations. This after President Trump signed into law two bills backing the Hong Kong protesters against Mainland China

and of course, raising questions about what this perhaps means for those negotiations over trade.

Mike Bell, Global Market Strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management joins us now. Mike, great to have you with us on the show. Always a difficult

question here when we're talking about U.S.-China relations, but we can't separate the politics here. How do you keep your eye on the broader point

here? And do we believe that whatever happens, the economics, Trump's politics here, when we get some kind of Phase 1 deal in the not too distant

future?

MIKE BELL, GLOBAL MARKET STRATEGIST, JPMORGAN ASSET MANAGEMENT: I think as you say, unfortunately, at the moment, the politics and the economics are

fundamentally intertwined. So the way we're approaching that, though, is to focus on the economic data to see whether we get a turning point in the

data rather than listen to all the noise because it changes so much, the headlines around trade as we're seeing today relative to the relatively

optimistic market expectations that have been built in towards the trade deal so far this year.

So our focus is, for example, on the conference board's leading economic indicator, that's been decelerating for the last 14 months. Before we can

feel confident we're going to accelerate out of this slow down, we would want to see that pick up.

CHATTERLEY: Your big question that you're asking for 2020 is whether companies start to react to some of the pressures that we've seen whether

that's a tight labor market here in the United States and rising wages, or particularly the manufacturing sector, the pressures that the broader trade

concerns and that global slowdown has created, and ultimately decide, perhaps to cut jobs. Talk us through your thinking in this regard.

BELL: Yes, so I think the market is being very focused on the trade war. But I like to think what would the world look like if it wasn't for the

trade war? If the trade war had never happened?

I think this far into an economic expansion, there would still be some concerns around the outlook centered on the fact that wages are

accelerating now that we've got very low unemployment.

And so what you've seen is that sales growth has slowed as the fiscal stimulus faded, and that means that sales growth is running at only about

four percent rather than 10 percent. And wages are growing at about three and a half percent. And hence, profit growth has slowed to around zero.

And for mid and small cap companies, it is actually contracting.

So the key question now for 2020 is -- are companies going to respond to that pressure on profits by cutting jobs? And to get some insight into

that, we're looking, for example, at job openings and job vacancies. And what you see is that the year-on-year change in job vacancies in the U.S.,

Japan, Germany and the U.K. has started to contract.

So I think it's a bit early to say that we're definitely out of the woods for the economy here.

CHATTERLEY: You know, the counter to that, though, and it's been the case throughout this year, the strength of the consumer actually has been a

support to economies, it's been a support to markets, too.

And if you're talking about tight labor markets and price pressures, as far as wages are concerned, doesn't that also have a positive consumption

impact which counters the argument, too?

BELL: Yes. So that's the upside risk if we see that wage growth turning into pricing power for corporates, so that they feel that they can put

prices up to offset the costs that are rising because their wage bills are going up, and it helps boost sales, then that could help cause a

reacceleration in the economy, and we'd be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

[09:20:20]

BELL: But at the moment, what you see, when you look, for example at the NFIB Small Business Survey, is that companies are feeling that cost

pressure, that they don't feel they're able to pass price increases on to consumers yet despite high consumer confidence.

And what's interesting in the consumer confidence is that even though consumers are very confident at the moment, they aren't getting any more

confident than they were 12 months ago.

In fact, the year-on-year change in consumer confidence has started to decline. So that's a potential warning signal that we're monitoring

closely as well.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, that's such a great point, actually. What does this mean for investing as we head into 2020? Do you have to be slightly more

defensive because to your point, we have seen that reflected in the earnings? But investors have been kind of glass half full this year and

been far more optimistic perhaps. And we have a question now about valuations hereto given the fundamentals?

BELL: Yes, I think given the earnings growth has basically been flat, you've seen broadly zero earnings growth over the last 12 months, all of

the rally we've seen in equities has come from valuation expansion.

So I think that caps the degree of upside that you're likely to see on equities over the coming year. It doesn't mean that equities have to

struggle, it just means that the upside is somewhat capped.

And with that in mind, we think that until there's clearer sign of a reacceleration in the economic data so that we can say with more confidence

that this slowdown isn't going to become a stall for the economy, that it makes sense to have a bit more of a defensive equity allocation.

So for example, focusing on cheaper stocks over the more expensive growth stocks and on large cap stocks over the smaller companies because those

smaller companies are really feeling the margin pressure the most.

CHATTERLEY: Make sense. And earmuffs as far as political noise is concerned focused on the fundamentals. Mike Bell, Global Market Strategist

at JPMorgan Asset Management. Great to have you with us and have a great day ahead.

All right now it's time for our second annual turkey day feature stocks to be thankful for.

Now last year at Thanksgiving, things weren't tasting so well, not so good on Wall Street. Just take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHATTERLEY: The past few weeks on Wall Street have been like a particularly dry piece of turkey for investors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHATTERLEY: Yes, a juicier turkey this year, perhaps. What a difference a year makes. Stocks are trading at record highs here in the United States

and we have an entire plate of juicy returns to bring to you now.

Investors who have Apple in their portfolio should be in fine holiday spurt today. Apple is far and away the biggest Dow gainer of 2019. So far up a

stunning 69 percent.

Microsoft, though not far behind, up almost 50 percent since January.

What about Visa and United Technologies? Both up almost 40 percent, too.

Now if we look beyond the Dow, and you have even more delicious returns, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices up 113 percent year-to-date. Chip

equipment maker Applied Materials up almost 80 percent.

And guys, this is despite the trade tensions and the concerns focus that we've seen on this sector. Now, unlike last year, every sector in fact in

the S&P 500 is in positive territory year-to-date led by a stunning 42 percent rise in nothing other than the technology sector.

But what about old school industrials? Well, they're also doing well. Up 27 percent. Financial Services, real estate not far behind, too. In fact,

the big S&P laggard this year. Yes, you probably guessed it, energy and that's actually still up some three percent year-to-date. Wowsers. Well,

can we hold on to it? Because you remember this time last year, and then that December selloff that we saw, so fingers crossed -- center rally.

Now, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving here in the United States without the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to the streets of Manhattan, but on a windy

day, it was touch and go whether the famous balloons would fly.

Now things kicked off around 25 minutes ago. Miguel Marquez is down among the crowds for us. All right, Miguel, great to have you with us. I don't

see any balloons behind you, but I do believe they are flying today.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are flying. I just got mugged by a bunch of clowns, there's a thousand clowns here, so they come

by and confetti you, so I just got that.

This is one of the longest balloons, the Power Ranger coming down here and while they are pretty good when they are behind the buildings, when they

hit these intersections, we're at 72nd Street here, they really blow over the side. The one that just came by almost blew into the people on the

other side of the street there. So their handlers, you can see how the handlers are all the way on the left side of the balloons.

[09:25:08]

MARQUEZ: They are really trying to keep them from going into the trees and into the light poles on the other side of the street. They have people

actually carrying them from below because they're so low right now they can't get them up very high in the air.

All of that said, people are extraordinarily happy to be here. Happy Thanksgiving.

[CHEERING]

MARQUEZ: This is Bradford family. These guys are out here every -- how many years now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seven years.

MARQUEZ: Seven years dressed as turkeys, every one of them a turkey and this guy actually recycled confetti from New Year's Eve. So a real New

Yorker. Well done, you.

But tons of people here. They've been lining up since about four o'clock this morning. They actually have a Police Sergeant with every single one

of those 16 big balloons to test the wind as they come through intersections like this so they can see exactly what happens here.

Let's give -- watch this. This is -- this is the longest balloon that is out here today, and you can see as it enters the intersection here at 72nd

Street, the wind starts to blow over to the right of the streets and the handlers here having a tough time keeping track of it.

These guys are basically carrying it. Try to keep it -- Happy Thanksgiving. Good luck to you. I hope you guys make it all the way down

to 34th Street. This is going to be some serious work that these guys are going to put in.

Look at them struggling to keep these things in check. And I mean literally, the balloon is scraping along the ground. Good luck to you.

These guys are going to get a workout today like they have never seen, Julia. Last year, they were low. This year, they are scraping along the

road. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Happy Thanksgiving to them.

CHATTERLEY: Absolutely, and I have to say -- Happy Thanksgiving to you. Oh my goodness. You're right. They're definitely not going to need an arm

work out later on, quite frankly, I thought you were going to get taken out by a Power Rangers' fist there.

MARQUEZ: Yes, exactly.

CHATTERLEY: Wow.

MARQUEZ: The dangers of Thanksgiving.

CHATTERLEY: I know. Wow. You're in the midst of it there. Stay safe. Great to have you with us. Miguel Marquez there. Happy Thanksgiving to

you.

MARQUEZ: Happy Thanksgiving.

CHATTERLEY: All right, still to come on FIRST MOVE. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Huawei's founder and CEO discusses relations with the

United States and weighs in on the protests in Hong Kong and the implications. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:38]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Now this weekend marks one year since Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese tech

giant, Huawei.

U.S. prosecutors are accusing Meng, the daughter Huawei's founder and CEO of violating Washington's sanctions against Iran. Now, he sat down with

our Kristie Lu Stout for an exclusive interview and I'm grateful to say Kristie joins us live now from Hong Kong.

Great to have you with us on the show and incredible timing getting this interview at this moment. We forget it's been a year since this happened

amid the broader headlines with the trade negotiations. What did he have to say about it and where things stand right now?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well in regards to that, it was very interesting because before Donald Trump actually signed

into law that piece of legislation, the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, I asked the Huawei Chief Executive, what he would think

about that if that would somehow jeopardize his business, and he said well, because the fact that we are on the U.S. trade blacklist, we have no

business in the United States, it wouldn't affect us at all.

Now also making the headlines is this one-year anniversary that's coming up December 1, that is this Sunday, it will mark one year since the daughter

of Ren Zhengfei, the Huawei Chief, also the Huawei CFO was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States and thus becoming arguably the

face of the U.S.-China trade war and tech war.

She remains under house arrest in Vancouver. She is now awaiting a hearing that will take place in Vancouver to take place in January where she will

learn whether or not she will be extradited to the United States.

Both Meng Wanzhou as well as Huawei face some very serious charges in the United States including bank fraud, trade secret stuff as well as violating

U.S. sanctions on Iran. Both Meng Wanzhou and Huawei deny those charges.

But as this sensitive anniversary comes up, Huawei gave CNN exclusive access to Ren Zhengfei, Meng Wanzhou's father, again, the Chief Executive

and founder of Huawei, and I got a chance to ask him about the conditions that Meng Wanzhou is under and her life under house arrest and also what

kind of personal impact it has had on him as a father. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT (voice over): Huawei, founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei prefers to keep the focus on products. But we waded into politics at Huawei

headquarters in Shenzhen days before U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act into law, complicating the trade

war and the future of Huawei.

LU STOUT (on camera): Over the weekend, there was an overwhelming victory for pro-democracy parties in Hong Kong. How do you view that?

REN ZHENGFEI, FOUNDER AND CEO, HUAWEI (through translator): They shouldn't focus on a political terminology debating whether or not there is

democracy. How Hong Kong can prosper is the most important issue that its current and future leaders should consider. If all people can become rich

and prosperous, isn't that what we wish for?

LU STOUT: Do you feel some sympathy for Hong Kong protesters, for what they're fighting for?

ZHENGFEI (through translator): No, I don't because I strongly oppose violence. I wouldn't say whether I have sympathy towards them or not. I

simply have not looked into what they are demanding.

If we're talking about peaceful actions, those are permitted within the framework of one country, two systems. It doesn't matter how I feel about

it. But I think extreme actions like vandalism are unacceptable.

LU STOUT: Now U.S. lawmakers are fighting for Hong Kong. They're getting directly involved in this situation. That must be complicating the trade

war, the tech war, and also the future of Huawei in the United States. What's your thinking about that?

ZHENGFEI (through translator): I have noticed recent comments by Marco Rubio. China's Foreign Ministry has protested against the U.S.

interference in Hong Kong's internal affairs.

Rubio said that the U.S. legislations interference in Hong Kong is an internal affair for the U.S. I think this is a big joke. How can Rubio be

a senator?

LU STOUT: But if President Trump signs the Hong Kong Human Rights Democracy Act into law, surely that will affect the trade war and that will

affect Huawei's future, right?

ZHENGFEI (through translator): No, it won't because we would give up the U.S. market entirely. How would it affect us? We don't have plans to go

to the U.S. and serve the American people because the American people don't need us, right? Then we won't serve them.

[09:35:10]

LU STOUT: So has Huawei given up on the U.S. market entirely?

ZHENGFEI (through translator): Well, as of now, we can't say that we have completely given up on the U.S. market. We must still fight for our

rights, which have been promised by the U.S. Constitution.

However, the American people reject our services. For example, AT&T or Verizon, they don't purchase our products, then we have no choice but not

to serve the American people even though our intentions are amiable.

The U.S. is a society of freedom. It should uphold the spirit of openness and embrace all kinds of powers in the world. However, now that the U.S.

is betraying such principles, will it still be the leader of the world in the future?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Huawei Chief Executive and founder, Ren Zhengfei speaking to me earlier from Shenzhen.

And Julia, I have to say that unfortunately that was not the right clip that I was hoping to share with you just then. If our viewers are

interested in finding out his thoughts about the conditions on Meng Wanzhou's house arrest, about also the Huawei founder's thinking about the

two Canadians who are currently detained still in China, you can find that at cnnbusiness.com.

But back to the trade war, back to what we learned about Ren Zhengfei, as you know, Huawei is under immense pressure on multiple fronts from the

United States.

We also learned last week that the F.C.C. says, it calls Huawei a security threat that it made this move against it, barring rural carriers from

accessing funds to be able to buy networking equipment from Huawei, and when you ask Ren Zhengfei about it, he says, it's their loss.

You know, it's sad, he says that rural customers in the United States will have poor network coverage because of politics. Back to you.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's going to be interesting to see if there is a broader carve out for Huawei as part of a Phase 1 trade deal perhaps or beyond.

And to your point, whichever parts of the interview, both sections are really fantastic and we'll tweet them out later as well for our viewers.

So thank you so much for joining us on that and great interview. Kristie Lu Stout there.

LU STOUT: Thanks, Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Thank you. All right, to one of my favorite stories of the day, a legendary payer of the strategy game Go says it has been forced into

early retirement by artificial intelligence.

South Korean Go master, Lee Se-dol is quitting at age 36 saying AI is quote, "unbeatable." This comes three years after he lost a closely

watched series against Google's Alpha Go. Down with the robots. A disaster.

Now coming up on FIRST MOVE, an early Christmas present for the U.K.'s Conservative Party perhaps as new predictions say they'll have the best

election results in decades. But can we trust it? We will have all the details, next.

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[09:40:58]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. T-minus two weeks until the U.K. goes to the polls as the election campaign enters the final strait.

A new forecast is saying the Conservative Party is on course to win. YouGov predicting that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's party will have a 68

seat majority in Parliament. Now, this isn't certain, but YouGov did get it right back in 2017 when they predicted a hung Parliament.

Let's bring in now Chris Curtis. He's the Political Research Manager at YouGov and he joins us from London. Chris, great to have you with us.

Just talk us through your survey here and what the margin of error is as well as we sit two weeks out.

CHRIS CURTIS, POLITICAL RESEARCH MANAGER, YOUGOV: I can't hear any sound.

CHATTERLEY: Oh, Chris, can you hear me? Chris, can you hear me?

CURTIS: Sorry, I can't hear you at all.

CHATTERLEY: Oh dear. I think we are having some sound issues. We shall work on that. For now though, Brexit is just one of the major issues for

businesses that trade across Europe. Joe Kaeser is the CEO of German engineering giant, Siemens. And he met with CNN's Eleni Giokos to discuss

the likely impact of Brexit, as well as trade wars, and the importance of Africa. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE KAESER, CEO, SIEMENS: We are very convinced that we need to be committed and actionable to give the African continent a chance. It is not

just that because of value or because of, you know, believing that everybody on the globe should have some positive impact.

Now, look, it's also about interest. And the interest is, we need to give the African continent a perspective for the future. Otherwise everybody

wants to move to someplace else. So we can actually tackle the refugee topic and the migration topic at its roots, first.

Secondly, if you look at what happens today, that is the U.S.-Chinese what we call trade war has high value, but likely that trade or is nothing but a

power struggle on who is becoming number one and number two in the world.

So you see more and more bilateral agreements between like the United States and China, or others. And if you look at Africa, that's the only

one remaining continent which has not yet taken sides.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN BUSINESS AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: How has the global trade war impacted Siemens?

KAESER: There are no winners of a trade war. Because all of the economies are either slowing down or actually, you know, going close to a recession

with Europe being affected the most because they're in a middle of the two big systems.

So that's -- that's a cumbersome matter that people are not able to talk to each other more and talk too much about each other.

However, as far as Siemens is concerned, we've been localizing long time ago, so we have 60,000 people in the United States; 45,000 in China, so we

are actually a local player.

And it helps us today to get out of the crossfire, so to speak between the two systems. But I do hope that those two great nations come to terms and

provide a fair and level playing field.

GIOKOS: Have you also completely priced in the consequences of Brexit?

KAESER: I believe honestly, in the meantime, I believe the debate about the Brexit in terms of economic terms is very overrated.

Companies for a long time have been looking into their resource allocation. They have been slowing down the allocation to the U.K. So everybody is

prepared to see what the final outcome will be.

You know, it's a great country, but the world is bigger than one country somewhere in Europe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHATTERLEY: All right, let's continue this discussion. Chris Curtis, Political Research Manager at YouGov, joins us from London. Chris, I'm

just going to check that you can hear me this time.

CURTIS: I can hear you perfectly.

CHATTERLEY: Hurray. We have success. Okay, fantastic. Talk me through your predictions because we were just mentioning or I was mentioning before

then that it does seem like the Conservative Party are heading towards a significant lead here in the election in two weeks' time. Talk us through

your results and what the margin of error is hereto?

CURTIS: Well, the first thing to note is that it is not really a prediction. We've not got a crystal ball here. We're not doing anything

magic. What we're doing is taking the best data that we have available on where the public currently stands.

We're plugging that into our MRP model, the model which accurately forecast the result of the last election, and trying to get the best picture we can

of where things currently stand.

Now, the reason I emphasize that point, of course, is because we still have two weeks left of this campaign. The model is currently saying that yes,

very, very likely, we will get a Conservative majority. It's likely will get quite a large Conservative majority.

But if things change over the next two weeks, of course, you know, we could be heading to a hung Parliament instead.

CHATTERLEY: And that's the key because I think a lot of people will look at this and go, yes, hang on a second. If we look back at Theresa May's

election and the shift that we saw and the loss of the lead that she had, particularly in the last two weeks heading into the election, then to your

point, everything could change. The volatility and the switching that we're seeing right now for the British public is important hereto.

CURTIS: Yes, I mean, it's no -- you know, it's worth emphasizing, this is still pretty bad news for the Labour Party. And as things currently

stands, the most likely outcome is this large Conservative majority.

But there is still time for Labour to turn this around. And we say this point because they did such a good job at doing that in 2017. They went

into the election campaign 24 points behind and they finished it pretty much catching up with the Tory Party.

Now as things currently stands, they are 11 points behind in the polls there. You know, there's a big Conservative 68-seat majority on current

model, but there's 30 seats in that model where the Conservative lead over the Labour Party is less than five percent.

Now, if everything starts to tighten over these remaining weeks, if Labour can start to close the gap, get that 11 points down to maybe six or seven,

actually, this turns from a race, which currently looks like a comfortable win into a hung Parliament.

We're just going to have to continue tracking this over the coming weeks to see if that is the case, and we're also going to be rerunning this model

later in the campaign to see if anything has changed.

CHATTERLEY: Where are the Conservatives pulling votes from here? Do you see a symmetric risk in that it's tougher to see where the Conservatives

garner more votes from here and perhaps easier to your point of Labour pulling them from somewhere because there's a double counting issue here

for everyone that the Conservatives lose perhaps to the Labour Party, it narrows that lead that they have right now by two effectively, one lost,

one gain to Labour?

CURTIS: Yes, I mean, when we look at the vote shares in particular, the Conservative Party vote share is actually pretty much where it was in 2017.

But the Labour Party vote share is down quite considerably, and down particularly in their leave seats across the North and the Midlands, what

we call the red wall of Labour seats in fairly leave areas. That's where they're losing a lot of the seats to the Tories.

And yes, the Labour Party is losing votes in all directions in those seats. They're down from around 40 percent of the vote last election, just over 40

percent to 32 percent now and that that means that the Conservatives in those seats are coming through the Midland and gaining places.

Some seats they've never won before, some seats Labour have held consistently since 1922, and they're now losing to the Tories.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, and the undecided here are going to be important. Chris, great to have you on and we'll get you back. Chris Curtis, Political

Research Manager at YouGov. Thank you for joining us on that.

All right, coming up after the break. It's in the name, what you buy from luxury reseller the RealReal should be well, real. So when doubts emerged,

we paid a warehouse a visit in search of the real deal. Stay with us. That's coming up.

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[09:50:59]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. The online reseller platform the RealReal says it offers secondhand luxury items like Chanel and Gucci at

affordable prices.

It was also one of the hot IPOs of the year although the stock has cooled since then. I believe it's underwater. Now, the company fighting back on

claims counterfeits are ending up on the site.

Clare Sebastian has the inside scoop. She has been inside the company and met with the CEO. Talk us through the operation to root out those fakes,

Clare.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Julia. We have seen this operation behind the scenes. It's pretty big. It looks pretty thorough

from the outside. But as you say, this is a company that was one of the hottest IPO's of the year capitalizing on the fact that particularly as we

head into the busiest shopping days of the year, people aren't just looking for new items.

Luxury in particular is an area where resale is booming. It's growing much faster than the overall market and the RealReal has really become one of

the biggest players in this. It's a one and a half billion dollar business now publicly listed, but they have now been facing claims recently, several

investigations have shown that their authentication process is not foolproof. So we got behind the scenes and we checked out exactly how

they're doing this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): When you're selling luxury, one thing matters more than was hot this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Luxury items from Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All authenticated by our experts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): Julie Wainwright turned that promise of genuine luxury a discount into a one and a half billion dollar now publicly listed

business, capitalizing on growing demand for more sustainable fashion and a huge untapped supply in people's closets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIE WAINWRIGHT, CEO, THE REALREAL: There's something like $200 billion trapped in people's homes in the U.S.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): Unlike a platform like eBay, The RealReal brings all the items into its warehouses, photographs them, writes the listings,

and most importantly, checks they are real.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (on camera): There is an expert behind every item.

WAINWRIGHT: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): Now, recent investigations and complaints from fashion experts on social media, casting doubt on that central premise.

Shoe designer, Amina Muaddi told us her team found this listing on The RealReal a couple of months ago for a shoe she says is markedly different

from one she designed.

She told us since she only has three collections to date, she feels The RealReal could have easily discovered this wasn't genuine.

The RealReal told us they took down the listing and now use it as a training opportunity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAINWRIGHT: Our processes are awesome. They're at -- we authenticate every item. When you're coming into a brand that we are like with The

RealReal, and you're coming in as an entry level authenticator, your first step is 30 hours of training.

But there's math, there's -- you know, high risk and master authenticators all around you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN NGO, SENIOR MANAGER, AUTHENTICATION AND BRAND COMPLIANCE, THE REALREAL: This is an Hermes, 25-centimeter Birkin and Togo leather.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): Kevin Ngo is one of those high risk authenticators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGO: Something I personally know about the Hermes font is that the P and the R should be exactly identical.

SEBASTIAN (on camera): You learned all of this from study of these bags for a number of years.

NGO: Exactly. Exactly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): The RealReal doesn't typically involve the brands themselves in the authentication process. Hermes declined to comment for

this story.

One brand though did take a stand. Last year Chanel sued The RealReal claiming at least seven fake Chanel bags had turned up on the site. The

complaint reads, "Only Chanel itself can know what is genuine Chanel." The case is still ongoing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAINWRIGHT: I will say that Chanel has been consistently telling us prior to the lawsuit, they wanted us to go away. They said to my face I was

their worst nightmare. They don't believe in reselling goods.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): Chanel told us it would like to reassure its clients about the fact that they are of course completely free to resell,

give, or offer any item they've purchased at Chanel's.

In a world where e-commerce provides ever more opportunities for counterfeiters, The RealReal says they are constantly updating their

practices, both with staff training and AI tools.

They now admit it is never foolproof.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN (on camera): But do you admit that there's still a possibility that something could turn up --

WAINWRIGHT: Well, we're still humans, but I mean, you're asking me to say do we have a 0.001 percent? Of course. I mean, our job is to keep this as

the safest place to transact, and we are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[09:55:16]

SEBASTIAN: So Julia, this company went public on June 28th. It's fair to say that these questions on their processes, as far as they say they are

costing them a bit of market value.

The stock is now down some 12 percent from its $20.00 IPO price, so they are trying to rebuild that trust by showing us inside the operation.

But look, as we're going into this holiday shopping season, it is not just luxury resale, e-commerce in general is always vulnerable to counterfeiters

and I think the message to consumers is when you're shopping online, be vigilant. Take a look at all the details and know what you're buying.

CHATTERLEY: I couldn't agree more. Good thing I didn't get that job, Clare. I don't think I would ever have left. It's like heavenly.

Clare Sebastian, great job. Thank you so much for that and Happy Thanksgiving.

That just about wraps up the show. I'm Julia Chatterley. You've been watching FIRST MOVE. Time to go make yours. We'll see you tomorrow.

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