Why did the Soviet Union collapse? Which lessons from Cold War history are relevant for China’s future? To discuss the successes, failures, and strategies of Soviet leaders, ChinaTalk interviewed Yakov Feygin. Feygin is the author of Building a Ruin: The Cold War Politics of Soviet Economic Reform, which examines how various Soviet leaders, institutions, and economists attempted to boost Soviet growth and national power.  Co-hosting today is Jon Sine, writer of the Cogitations substack. We discuss: The strengths and limitations of the Stalinist economic model, Khrushchev’s shift to “peaceful competition” with capitalism, Alternative policy paths that could have saved the Soviet Union, How technological optimism shaped Soviet reform efforts, inspiring the CCP in the process, Parallels between the institutions of the Soviet Union and those of contemporary China, The battle between political scientists and historians when analyzing the political economy of authoritarian states. Outro music: Building a Ruin - Skyclad (Youtube link) Links to all the books and papers referenced in this show are available on the ChinaTalk substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

林宏文是《晶片島上的光芒》一書的作者,這本書深入探討了台積電的歷史、管理方法和國際角色。作為台灣最資深的半導體記者之一、林宏文以其三十多年的行業經驗,為讀者呈現了一個全面而生動的台灣半導體產業發展故事。 訪談中、主要討論了以下幾個關鍵話題: 台積電的創立背景及其在全球半導體產業中的獨特定位 台灣政府在推動半導體產業發展中的角色,特別是工研院和科學園區的貢獻 台積電的管理模式,包括研發與製造部門的平衡以及人才培養策略 台灣半導體產業的國際競爭力,尤其是與三星等競爭對手的比較 台積電在全球地緣政治中的角色,以及"矽盾"這一概念的由來和影響 AI時代對半導體產業的影響,特別是對記憶體和邏輯晶片整合的需求 台灣與美國在看待國際關係上的差異,以及這種差異對台灣國際戰略的影響 Special thanks to the host of this interview, Arrian Ebrahimi of the Chip Capitols substack. Cohosted by ChinaTalk editors Nicholas Welch and Lily Ottinger.  Outtro music: Right Here Waiting, by Richard Marx. Youtube Link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to part two of our interview with Yasheng Huang 黄亚生, the author of The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline. We cover a lot of ground in this two-hour installment. During the first hour, we discuss… The aspects of imperial China’s governance Mao chose to embrace, and those he chose to abandon, The factors enabling Mao’s radical policies compared to imperial rulers, Why China was able to grow so much faster than India, despite the setbacks of the Cultural Revolution, Statistical approaches for evaluating the effectiveness of autocratic development models, China’s economic reforms and rural development policies in the 1980s, How the events of 1989 permanently altered China’s trajectory, Whether the rise of Xi Jinping was inevitable, In the second hour, we discuss... The Steelman case for why China needed a leader like Xi Jinping, What sets Xi apart from his predecessors, Succession challenges and the importance of term limits in authoritarian states, Why engagement with China failed to produce political liberalization, How the US could have better leveraged economic relations with China, Creative approaches to human rights advocacy in China. Outro music: Nothing to My Name (一无所有) by Cui Jian (崔健) (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yasheng Huang 黄亚生 is the author of one of the decade’s greatest books about China — The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline. It’s a rich book, a product of a career of reflections, with each page delivering something novel and provocative. In this first half of our two-part interview, we discuss… How the imperial examination system (known as keju) shaped Chinese governance, culture, and society, Why autocratic Chinese dynasties benefitted from a meritocratic bureaucracy, Statistical methods for analyzing social mobility in imperial China, How the keju system survived the Mongol conquest, What the tradeoffs in the imperial exam system can teach us about the future economic prospects of China and Taiwan. Co-hosting today is Ilari Mäkelä, host of the On Humans podcast.  NOTES (Courtesy of Ilari) A Rough Timeline of Chinese history: Pre–221 BCE: Disunity (e.g. Warring States)  221 BCE – 220: Unity (Qin & Han dynasties) 220 – 581: Disunity (“Han-Sui Interregnum”) 581 – 1911: Unity (Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties) Historical figures Emperor Wanli 萬曆帝 | Shen Kuo 沈括 (polymath) | Zhu Xi 朱熹 (classical philosopher) | Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全 (leader of the Taiping Rebellion) | Yuan Shikai 袁世凯 (military leader) | Chiang Kai-shek 蔣介石 (military leader and statesman) Modern scholars Ping-ti Ho 何炳棣 (historian) | Clair Yang (economist) | Joseph Needham (scientist and historian) | Daron Acemoglu | James Robinson Historical terms Keju civil service exams | Taiping Rebellion REFERENCES A lot of the original data discussed in the episode is original from Huang’s book. As an exception, Huang references his co-authored article on civil service exams and imperial stability, written with Clair Yang. Outtro music: 等着你回来 by 白光, a 1930s Shanghai starlet https://open.spotify.com/track/0aHMT9dIdPDz094fc37Xq0?si=d1591ff2339d421c Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To discuss America’s comparative advantages in national competition and the structural forces that drive (and limit) innovation, ChinaTalk interviewed Kumar Garg.  Formerly an Obama official in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Kumar spent several years at Schmidt Futures focusing on science and technology philanthropy. He has been a mentor and cheerleader for ChinaTalk over the years, and he is the president of the newly established Renaissance Philanthropy. We discuss: The inspiration behind Renaissance Philanthropy and its focus on mid-scale, field-transforming ideas Strategies for identifying underexplored, high-impact projects — including weather forecasting, carbon sequestration, and datasets on neurocognition Structural challenges for R&D funding at the level of government and universities The role of focused research organizations like OpenAI in accelerating progress and understanding long-term drivers of productivity A wide angle-view of US-China competition and strategic innovation The underresearched importance of alliance management. Outtro music: Song 1 - If ye love me - Thomas Tallis and the Cambridge Singers (Youtube Link) Song 2 - Recercare (I) - Francesco Spinacino and Robert Meunier (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Collins is the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council (NIC). He has spent 28 years in the intelligence community, starting as a career analyst in the CIA focused on East Asia before moving into leadership roles. He served as chief of staff for the CIA deputy director and worked on modernization efforts in the agency. We discuss… How the intelligence community informs high-level policymaking, Why different institutional approaches are needed to collect intelligence on non-state actors vs nation-state adversaries, Challenges in assessing China’s technological and military capabilities, “Narrative Intelligence” and areas where intelligence agencies have a unique edge, Strategies for improving long-term forecasting and avoiding groupthink. Outro music: Scorpions - Wind Of Change (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To discuss the post-election future of US competition policy, ChinaTalk interviewed Peter Harrell and Nazak Nikakhtar. Nazak served in the Trump administration after a long career as a civil servant, where she was instrumental in shaping the Commerce Department’s work on China, first at the International Trade Administration and later leading the Bureau of Industry and Security. Peter worked in the Biden administration on the National Economic Council and National Security Council, focusing on international economics, export controls, and investment restrictions. We discuss… The role of the executive in setting the industrial policy agenda Leadership shortcomings in the Biden and Trump administrations Competition with China — bipartisan consensus, bureaucratic inertia, and strategies to stop wasting time. Advice for America’s next president, from export controls to pharmaceutical decoupling and alliance management Creative approaches to supply chain resilience This is 2023 CSET report Jordan referenced (See the “Understanding the Intangibles section) Outtro Music: Jun Mayuzumi - Black Room (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeffrey Ding is a professor at George Washington University, leading US scholar on China’s AI, and the creator of the ChinAI Substack. In honor of the publication of his new book, Technology and the Rise of Great Powers, enjoy this interview with Jeff from the ChinaTalk archives. Jeff Ding argues in a 2023 paper that great powers must harness general-purpose technologies if they want to achieve global dominance. That is, diffusion capacity (not just innovation capacity) is critical to economic growth — and China actually fares much worse in diffusion capacity than mainstream narratives imply. In this show, we discuss the historical underpinnings of that argument and apply it to AI today — drawing out policymaking lessons spanning centuries of technologically driven great power transitions. We also get into: Why long-term productivity growth is driven by the diffusion of general-purpose technology, and what makes this so crucial for great power competition; Historical lessons from the UK, Soviet Union, US, and Germany illustrating the cultural and policy roadblocks to tech diffusion; The importance of decentralized systems, and how this helped America win the Cold War Why China’s diffusion capacity lags behind its innovation capacity, and how America should avoid getting locked into any one technological trajectory. Co-hosting is Teddy Collins, formerly of DeepMind and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Outro music: 分享那奇沃夫/Prodby玉的单曲《亚克西》(Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to The Innovation Alliance for sponsoring this episode. The Innovation Alliance is a coalition of research and development-based technology companies representing innovators, patent owners, and stakeholders who believe in the critical importance of maintaining a strong patent system that supports innovative enterprises of all sizes. To discuss the domestic and international implications of patent policy, ChinaTalk interviewed Brian Pomper. Brian was the Chief International Trade Counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, and he is now a partner at Akin Gump. We discuss: The history of America’s innovation hegemony, from the signing of the Constitution to patent trolls and Elon Musk Why big tech companies spent decades systematically attacking the foundations of the US patent system The thermonuclear patent war of Apple vs Samsung The evolution of Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) as a battleground for emerging tech competition Why China’s approach to patent litigation is causing controversy in Europe The intersection of patent policy and international trade agreements. Outtro music: Minitel Rose - Magic Powder (Youtube Link) Here's the 2-hour show on global tech standards from the ChinaTalk archives: Global Standards: What's the Deal? Spotify link, Apple Podcasts Link Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here at ChinaTalk, we break the ice on all things international relations, and today we are diving into a topic that is snow joke — icebreakers!  We interviewed William Henagan and Robert Obayda, both directors of the NSC. We discuss: How Canada, Finland, and the United States are leveling up their cooperation in the Arctic through the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE Pact);  The mechanics of industrial policy in the US government; Why cranes matter for national security, and the benefits of using carrots vs sticks; What icebreakers are for, and how Finland is punching above its weight in the NATO alliance. Co-hosting today is former ChinaTalk intern Alexander Boyd, who is currently at the China Digital Times.  Outtro music: Arctic Monkeys — A Certain Romance (link) and Mardy Bum (link) Pictured: the Russian icebreaker Yamal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[The outtro music came in early for some platforms. Issue fixed in this reupload.] Chris Kirchhoff was a founding member of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and previously worked in the Obama NSC. He recently published a book called Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War. He wrote: “To the extent present military and civilian leadership is articulating its strategy, it is one built, for the most part, on a continuation of previous programmatic and budgetary trendlines. If there is a strategy for losing a future war in China, this is it.” Unit X traces the evolution of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a group of Pentagon insurgents who are fighting to change how the DoD relates to emerging technologies. We discuss: The origin story of DIU and its early struggles to break Pentagon bureaucracy; How DIU leveraged “waiver authority” to circumvent red tape under Defense Secretary Ash Carter; Why the defense industrial base is ill-equipped to keep pace with technological change; The case for shifting more DoD spending to non-traditional tech companies; Lessons from commercial spaceflight for future AI governance, including potential issues with a “Manhattan project for AI.” Outtro music: 告五人 Accusefive - 愛人錯過 Somewhere in Time (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After decades of neoliberalism, how much can America’s bureaucrats crank the dial on effective industrial policy? Will the CHIPS Act succeed at reshoring high-tech manufacturing? Next week is the Chips Act’s second anniversary. To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Ben Schwartz, the former director for national security at the CHIPS Program Office, which manages a $39 billion grant program appropriated by the CHIPS and Science Act. We get into:  The methods and obstacles for American semiconductor policy; How CHIPS Act guardrails aim to balance economic growth and national security;  The negotiation process for companies interested in receiving CHIPS Act funding; Reshoring vs friend-shoring and the challenge of Chinese dominance in legacy chip manufacturing; Staffing and organizational structure of the CHIPS Program Office, plus the role of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo; The challenge of collecting data on secretive semiconductor supply chains. Outtro Music: The Rolling Stones - You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is NOT a show about Biden dropping out. This is a show about globalization, fashion design, and the future of manufacturing-based economic growth. To distract you from the election chaos, ChinaTalk interviewed Will Lasry, Montreal-based designer, manufacturing specialist, and founder of Glass Factory. Will and his team are on a mission to make manufacturing transparent. They fly all around the world making documentaries on clothing factories and playing matchmaker between designers and producers. Check out his Youtube channel here.  We discuss:  How clothes are made, including the complicated processes behind distressed denim and other trends;  What makes a country an ideal destination for manufacturing clothing, and whether rising labor costs will drive the industry out of China entirely; Xinjiang cotton, environmental destruction, and other unethical practices hanging over the fashion industry; Why Gucci and other high-end designers are betting that “Made in India” will soon be even more chic than “Made in Italy.”  Co-hosting today is longtime ChinaTalk editor Irene Zhang. Outtro music: Vinida Weng - WAIYA! (Youtube Link) Thumbnail image: Link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does JD think about currency, tariffs, and industrial policy? Also: how has the Strategic Patroleum Reserve evolved into new relevance with some fun new powers over the past few years, and how can America take lessons from this success and apply them to addressing critical minerals? To discuss we have on Arnab Datta of Employ America and Matt Klein of The Overshoot podcast. Plus we get some parent corner! Outtro music: Melody by Ash Island (matched my mood of wanting to scream things I don't understand) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWWGm0nxYk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is Congress on AI? How will a second Trump term impact US innovation? Does Congress have what it takes to step up and legislate in a world without Chevron? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Senator Todd Young of Indiana (R). He’s a rare breed on Capitol Hill these days: an actual legislator. Sen. Young drafted the Chips and Science Act with Sen. Schumer and is the co-author of my personal favorite bill this Congress which aims to establish an Office of Global Competition Analysis. He announced earlier this year that he would not be endorsing Trump’s candidacy this cycle. We get into… Biden’s woes The case for an office of tech net assessment The future of tech legislation post-Chevron The Senate’s AI Policy Roadmap and where the GOP is on AI regulation Chinese espionage and high-skill immigration policy Outtro music: AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can Shakespeare help explain the dynamics we're seeing around Biden today? We get into King Lear, Richard II, Macbeth and Coriolanus to illustrate themes on conniving courtiers, political marriages, and politicians facing the end. Joining us today: Eliot Cohen, author of The Hollow Crown, two dramaturgs Drew Lichtenberg and Kate Pitt, as well as actor Phil Schneider. Kate's substack: https://shakespearenews.substack.com/ Phil's still looking for an agent! Reach out to me [email protected] to connect with him! Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqnXNsAFL8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What will it take for the US to remain competitive in 21st-century technologies? Is high state capacity a thing of the past? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed David Lin, Abigail Kukura, and Venkat Somala from the Special Competitive Studies Project. SCSP’s new report outlines exactly how America should compete in the tech-powered future of geopolitics.  We get into… The role of public-private research partnerships and SCSP’s relationship with the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence; A strategy for upgrading US institutions with the help of emerging technologies like AI; The historical decline of government-backed research in the US; China’s industrial espionage and the potential for stolen innovations to consolidate authoritarianism across the globe; Bureaucratic moonshots and techniques for communicating urgency to the slow-moving American polity. Our past episode on tech net assessment: Crafting A National Tech Strategy and Reviving Net Tech Assesment (Spotify Link) (Apple Podcasts Link) Our past episode on bureaucratic moonshots: Peter Harrell on Bureaucratic Barriers to Competition (Spotify Link) (Apple Podcasts Link) Outtro music: SadSvit - Касета (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How could AI change the global balance of power? What could the US and allies do to preserve national moats? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed the CEO of Scale AI, Alex Wang. In a blog post announcing Scale’s $1 billion fundraising success, Alex wrote that Scale is aiming to grow into the world's data foundry for AI. Alex grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, with two physicist parents who worked in the national labs, and he started Scale in college. I am particularly excited to have Alex on the show because he is perhaps the only private-sector AI leader working with the DoD and thinking seriously about the national security implications of AI. We discuss: The three key factors limiting rapid AGI takeoff, and how quickly these barriers will be overcome; China’s strengths and weaknesses in the race for AGI; National security implications for winning (or losing) the AI race; Prospects for AI net assessment and the case for a Manhattan project for data; Methods to prevent AI espionage without kneecapping innovation or profiling immigrants. Outtro music: Zach Bryan - Pink Skies (Youtube Link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Cold War II upon us? What should America do to prevent it from becoming a hot war?  To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Dmitri Alperovitch. Dmitri emigrated from Russia in 1994 at age 13. He co-founded the leading cybersecurity startup Crowdstrike, and has spent the past four years running his new think tank, the Silverado Policy Accelerator.  He's also the author of the new book World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century.  We discuss: Lessons from Cold War crises that almost went nuclear; Underappreciated parallels between the Soviet Union and China today; Groupthink in Washington as well as in Silicon Valley; What a productive economic relationship with China would look like given national security concerns; Some bold military and diplomatic recommendations for Taiwan; … and more! Work with Matt at Open Philanthropy: Clickable link, URL: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/openphilanthropy/f33460e1-e092-46ae-918a-85338ffad9a3 Kennedy's speech to the American people regarding the Berlin Wall: JFK Library. Outtro music: Leningradskie mosty from 1957 USSR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Newby is the author of Concrete Avalanche, a free newsletter about music from China. Today, he's here to play you some of his favorite tracks from 2024 thus far — including everything from psychedelic rock to rare Uyghur folk, and from Beijing kawaii core to Tibetan Buddhist chants mixed with footwork. 00:00:00 'Narcissus' Death' — Backspace (read more) 00:05:38 '红喷泉' — Pepper Heart (read more) 00:09:35 'Mail from the River' (live) — Wang Wen (read more) 00:15:30 '她的力量来自海洋' — Yang Haisong & Wang Xiaofeng (read more) 00:22:32 'Ollie' — 西红、CNdY (read more) 00:26:43 'Lost in Bamboos' — Cola Ren (read more) 00:30:38 'Southern Shanghai' — Voision Xi (read more) 00:34:20 'Liquid' — Duck Fight Goose (read more) 00:36:54 '玉林敬酒歌‘ — Run Run Run (read more) 00:40:35 'Mountains in Yukashima' — Birdstriking (read more) 00:45:38 'SonicBaby' — XIAOWANG (read more) 00:48:25 'My Vagina' — Fakeorgasm (read more) 00:50:25 'Mantra of Vajra Armour' — Howie Lee (read more) 00:54:08 'Bash Bayawan Muqam' — Mekit Dolan Muqam Group (read more) 00:59:13 'Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεὰ παραμαινομένη ἐμοῦ...' — Ὁπλίτης (read more) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are politicians and actors two sides of the same coin? Can you become a better public speaker by studying soliloquies? What can Shakespeare teach us about the nature of power? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Eliot Cohen: SAIS professor, military historian, and counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He is also the author of The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall.  Co-hosting is Jordan’s little brother, actor Phil Schneider. He recently graduated from Yale where he starred in a production of Hamlet. He’s played Romeo, Octavius Valentine, Richard II, and Leontes. Also, he’s looking for a new agent — reach out at [email protected]! They discuss:  Royal/executive power — what getting it does to you, and why relinquishing it is so hard; Court intrigues of yore (and today); Timeless techniques for exhorting and manipulating the masses; What makes a great speech; What it really means to be an effective leader, and how great leaders know when it's time to quit. Nixon's Farewell speech: Youtube link. Outtro audio: Orson Welles Recounts Crossing Paths With Hitler And Churchill. Youtube link. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One does not simply invade Taiwan — but George Marshall once thought long and hard about it. In 1944, in the middle of the island-hopping campaign, American war planners set their sights on Japanese-controlled Formosa. What did the American invasion plan look like? Why did Marshall decide to go another route? What lessons do this and other amphibious invasions hold for Taiwan’s current force posture? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed US Army Field Artillery Lieutenant Colonel J. Kevin McKittrick, currently at the Air War College in Alabama and a veteran of multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Co-hosting today is our resident Taiwan consultant Nicholas Welch. We discuss: The US military’s aborted plan to invade Taiwan during WWII; Why bigger is better when it comes to amphibious assaults; What the US got right and the CCP gets wrong about civil-military relations; Taiwan’s defense concept, and the opportunities presented by “operational pause”; The awful, unending relevance of traditional artillery in modern war; And why the US doesn’t need its own “rocket force” … yet. Outtro music: 被動 (Passive) by 伍佰 Wu Bai&China Blue. Youtube Link. Photo: White House, July 29, 1942. Left to right: Admiral Ernest King, Admiral William Leahy, and General George Marshall. | Wikimedia Commons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taiwan’s government agencies are battered by 5 million cyberattacks every day. China is holding invasion drills at a replica of Taiwan’s presidential palace in Inner Mongolia. Last week, the PLA openly rehearsed an encirclement of Taiwan in so-called “punishment drills.” What happened to deterrence in the Taiwan Strait? Can the status quo be saved? To discuss strategies for avoiding WWIII, ChinaTalk interviewed Jared McKinney of the Air War College and Peter Harris of Colorado State University, who recently co-authored a monograph entitled, “Deterrence Gap: Avoiding War in the Taiwan Strait.” Co-hosting today is ChinaTalk’s resident Taiwan consultant, Nicholas Welch. We discuss… Evidence of deterrence decay in the status quo; The difference between constraints and restraints, and how they fit together to form a lattice of successful deterrence; Whether symbolic solidarity with Taiwan does more harm than good; The values and costs of strategic ambiguity; How Taiwan can optimize its deterrence posture; Lessons from the dance of death between Iran and Israel; Objective factors for measuring invasion risk, and whether the world should be scared about 2027; How to analyze decision trees for fundamentally irrational decisions; ... and more! Outtro music: MJ116, 辣台妹 (HOT CHICK) - Official music video: MJ116【辣台妹 HOT CHICK】- (youtube link) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Good AI is good and bad AI is bad, but how do lawmakers tell the difference? Will AI bring the world together or balkanize the internet beyond repair? Why do governments even need cloud computing anyway? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Pablo Chavez, a fellow at CNAS and former Vice President of Google Cloud's Public Policy division, as well as the inestimable investing tycoon Kevin Xu. Xu, formerly of GitHub, is the founder of Interconnected, a bilingual newsletter on the intersections of tech, business, investing, geopolitics, and US-Asia relations. In this interview, we discuss: The digital sovereignty movement and the lessons we can learn from China's Great Firewall; The value and risks of open source architecture in the future of AI governance; Meta’s long history of open source and how Llama fits into that strategy; The geopolitical and cultural forces driving nations to pursue their own AI strategies; The viability of sovereign AI initiatives in the face of global tech giants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nathan Lambert of the Interconnects substack and Allen Institute joins for a roundup where we get into: What DC should understand about the Bay Area AI engineer psyche What GPT4o and Google's AI Dev Day mean for the future of AI OpenAI's model spec, and exit, voice, and loyalty in the leading labs Outtro music: Scarlett Johansson's The Moon Song Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking one out of the archives! Douglas Irwin is a Dartmouth professor and the author of Clashing Over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy. On this episode, Irwin provides an overview to the history of U.S. trade policy from the 18th century to the modern day, highlighting significant legislation as well as the formation of important intergovernmental organizations that have sprung up along the way. Outro Music: Janis Joplin, Mercedes Benz 19:53: On the flawed logic behind the Tariff Act of 1930, and the parallels with similarly problematic thinking in the modern day: “There’s absolutely a parallel there because some Democrats in Congress said, ‘You know, we ought to really think about this carefully, and not just our domestic interest but also our export interests, and other countries might retaliate.’ And basically, the reaction of most members of Congress was, Republicans at the time, ‘No, we don’t have to worry about that. This is a domestic piece of legislation, it doesn’t really concern other countries. They’re not going to retaliate.’ And, of course, they did.” 39:40: Doug discusses the tips and tricks behind one example of “tariff engineering”: “The tariffs applied to motorcycles with piston displacements of 700cc and above. What Honda started doing is producing a 699cc version. Now the difference [between the two] is imperceptible, but just by changing that one cubic centimeter, it changed the whole tariff treatment and you avoided a 45 percent tariff and were assessed at a much, much lower rate.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Setser of CFR talks Biden's new tariffs! Earlier podcast deep dive on Chinese EV policy: ChinaTalk: Why Chinese EVs Will Take Over the World on Apple Podcasts Brad's paper: Power and Financial Interdependence (ifri.org) Outtro Music: Golden Earring's Radar Love Here's a fun playlist on the best car songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6l0sSAdFwyCH1yzQX2IrKQ?si=fb3b8fdd29644631 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Clancy is the CTO of MITRE, an American not-for-profit organization managing federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) supporting various US government agencies in defense, healthcare, national security, and cybersecurity fields, among others. In this interview, we discuss: What is MITRE and how does it support national science & technology strategy How China threatens America’s infrastructure and university R&D The cyber workforce gap and how AI could fill it Finding mission-driven work for highly skilled technologists How the ecosystem of S&T and R&D funding evolved through the 20th century to today Outtro music: Yung Bae, Magic Yung Bae - Magic (youtube.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TSMC is taking on Arizona. How's it going? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Viola Zhou, journalist at Rest of World. She has published pieces on Foxconn's quest to make iPhones in India and most recently, a gripping feature about the cultural challenges that TSMC is facing trying to manufacture semiconductors in the USA. Throughout her story, we get a peek into a world of rigid hierarchies, American workers who are slow on the uptake, and culture clash over pornographic desktop flair.  Today’s interview discusses: Sleuthing techniques for independent journalism; The challenges faced by Taiwanese semiconductor engineers relocating to Arizona; TSMC’s management style and the complaints raised by new American employees; The similarities and differences between TSMC’s expansion to the USA and Foxconn’s expansion to India; Whether adapting to American work culture will tank the prospects of the new Phoenix Fab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

India’s elections are underway! What does the future hold for the world’s largest democracy? Will the election results impact India-China relations? What about India-US relations? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Dr. Raja Mohan, Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. Co-hosting today is James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj. We get into: What the border disputes between China and India can tell us about the political economy of the two nations; The anti-imperial history that frames India-China relations; Modi’s election prospects and India’s spirit of democracy; What score Biden’s diplomatic team has earned in Southeast Asia; Criticisms of Modi and accusations of democratic backsliding; Opportinities for friction in the US-India relationship, including Trump tariffs, immigration, and Russia; Whether the US is making a “bad bet” on India, and how India is prepared to involve itself during an invasion of Taiwan. Outtro Music: Jhoome Jo Pathaan Vishal-Shekhar, Arijit Singh, Sukriti Kakar, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani, Kumaar https://open.spotify.com/track/6FAYpZ4jve8vpvTwUvjK6H?si=66c7c984fd52497cs 12 Bande 12 Bande - song and lyrics by Varinder Brar | Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The DOJ is now charged with protecting American data from foreign adversaries. This new proposed rule they recently issued is, according to one observer, “one of the most ambitious and sweeping new initiatives in national security law over the past few years.” To discuss, we interviewed Devin DeBacker and Lee Licata of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division. We get into: How adversaries plan to weaponize obscure data types — including geolocation data, DNA sequencing, and undersea cable transmissions; How China managed to purchase genomic data on millions of Americans through healthcare investments; Why black box data brokers keep records of who goes to casinos; How the DOJ plans to protect your data, and whether their plans can be thwarted by gridlock in Congress. I’m excited to introduce a partnership with Policyware to bring affordable, expert-driven policy education to my audience. Starting May 14, Samm Sacks will be teaching a deep dive into China’s Digital Governance and its Global Implications. Samm is an old friend of mine and a Senior Fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. She is a leading expert on China’s cybersecurity legal system, the U.S.-China technology relationship, and the geopolitics of data privacy and cross-border data flows. Check out below a show I did with Samm on ChinaTalk discussing China’s digital governance. You’ll learn over several weeks as Samm delivers live classes, with options to listen on your own time. Policyware Deep Dives are designed to be attended alongside your job, and they will help you organize with your employer for cost sharing. Check out the show we did together on data issues late last year. Help support ChinaTalk by registering for the deep dive here and thank you to Policyware for sponsoring today’s episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan Takeshita is the Chief Global Editor at PIVOT, a new media outlet in Japan focused on the emerging startup scene. We get into: A stroll through recent economic history leading to today's 'boom times' Why more people are looking to leave traditional occupations for insurgent firms Challenges around demographics and immigration Outtro Music: Idol by Yaosobi https://open.spotify.com/track/1hAloWiinXLPQUJxrJReb1?si=36552bdc34cb4a73 Matsuri No Genzo by Hideo Shiraki and 3 Koto Girls https://open.spotify.com/track/6eTteH1zyZeQKZ2Mu7VC5d?si=230b3d1739d5417e Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To learn about Japan’s new economic national security policy, export controls, chip policy, lessons from history, and even space policy, we interviewed Kazuto Suzuki. Suzuki-san is a professor at the University of Tokyo. He serves as an advisor to Japan’s Ministry of the Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) as well as advising Japan’s space program. He served on the UN Security Council's Iran Sanctions Panel, and he also recently established the Institute of Geoeconomics at the International House of Japan.  We get into… What Japan’s new economic national security law does, and what it means for global semiconductor supply chains; The state of multilateral export controls; Nippon steel, the US election, and cooperation between East Asian democracies; Historical examples of economic coercion, from the Qing Dynasty to FDR vs imperial Japan to the Senkaku islands; Japan’s goals for space commercialization; … and more! Co-hosting today is Arrian Ebrahimi, student at Yenching academy and author of the Chip Capitols Substack. Outtro Music: Every Breath You Take/Theme from Peter Gunn as featured on the Sopranos The Sopranos - Every Breath You Take (youtube.com) Cover photo: Toyohara Kuniteru III | Illustration of the Imperial Diet House of Commons with a Listing of all Members | Japan | Meiji period (1868–1912) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just minutes after the Taiwan earthquake yesterday, Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis, Doug O'Laughlin of Fabricated Knowledge, Jon of Asianometry and yours truly had a brief hang where we got into: Intel's process progress and rocky financial road ahead Reflections out of GTC Jensen's galaxy brain Photo of the woman who saved Intel, Dr. Ann Kelleher, General Manager of Foundry Technology Development. Outtro music: YELLOW黃宣 & 9m88 - 怪天氣 Strange Weather https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n_i0JupwRA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Straight from Tokyo, Japan: an exclusive with Amb. Rahm Emanuel. Before his current posting as US ambassador to Japan, Rahm served as a senior advisor to Bill Clinton, multiple terms in the US House of Representatives, Obama’s first chief of staff, and the mayor of Chicago. If nothing else, you can count on his gloves-off, no-holds-barred approach to politics — and he’s been no different when it comes to China. Notwithstanding reports that even officials in Biden’s NSC have told him to stop “taunting” China, Rahm has been consistently, uniquely willing to say out loud what virtually every other high-ranking US official doesn’t. Of course, the ambassador — or, as his desk placard during his chief-of-staff days read, “Undersecretary for Go Fuck Yourself” — may take issue with that framing. His comments aren’t “critical,” Rahm says, but “truthful.” This interview covers a ton of ground. On China: How the Biden administration is closing the chapter on “hub and spokes,” what tomorrow’s “latticework” architecture will look like, and what Asia-Pacific alliances might look like under a second Trump administration; The future of Japan-Korea, and a peek behind the curtain on how the historic Camp David summit materialized; Rahm’s “3 Cs” for China — calm, conflict, charm — and how US foreign-policy leaders should reckon the mutual inconsistencies among those three; And roads not taken by Xi: why Rahm thinks China’s entrepreneurial culture has taken a nosedive, and what China’s government today is most scared of. And on politics and life: Why “diplomacy” and “politics” are the same thing — and why that’s a good thing; Whether the State Department suffers from a personality deficit, and what makes for a good ambassador; How to heal America’s body politic — post-Trump, post-Recession, post-GWOT; Why Rahm thinks “quality time” with kids is “BS,” and thoughts on raising kids as a time-crunched politician; And what Rahm thinks the biggest emerging threat to the world is. I really enjoyed my trip to Japan, and I’d love a financial excuse to continue recording shows on the country. If you work at JETRO, METI, The Japan Foundation, Mitsubishi, Rakuten, etc. and are interested in seeing more deep coverage of Japan and US-China-Japan relations on this podcast, do reach out! Outtro music: Tadao Hayashi Japanese Harp Trio's 1977 take on I Could Have Danced All Night Tadao Hayashi Harp Trio – The Impossible Dream 1977 (youtube.com) Also from 1977, Tokai by Kaeko Onuki Tokai (youtube.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Biotech. What is it? Why should you care? Does biotech really matter for national security? What are China’s biotech ambitions? To find out, ChinaTalk interviewed Jason Kelly, the Chair and Vice Chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology. Jason is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, a publicly traded firm that provides a horizontal platform for cell programming. Michelle Rozo is currently Vice President of Technical Capabilities at In-Q-Tel, and she previously held positions in Biden’s NSC, the Department of Defense, and on the Hill. Co-hosting today is Chris “CRISPR” Miller, author of Chip War. We get into: The powerful science behind genetic engineering ; How the US government turned biotechnology into a $1 trillion industry over the course of the last fifty years; Why generative AI is destined to revolutionize synthetic biology; And whether China’s national biotech champions can leapfrog the US.  Outtro music: Suite Bergamasque: Clair de Lune, No. 3 (youtube.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Congress for real this time? To discuss the US domestic politics of the dramatic rollout and broader social, national, and geopolitical implications of the House's passage of a bill that would force Bytedance to divest from TikTok US, Ben Smith of Semafor joins the podcast. Outtro music: Olivia Rodrigo - Deja Vu 【Sped Up & reverb】 (youtube.com) The Platters - Only You - Lyrics - YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you stand up an effective national AI project? Is the world prepared for the Reformation-level societal change AI could bring? Matt Clifford, according to Politico Britain’s most powerful tech adviser, joins ChinaTalk to discuss! He served as Prime Minister Sunak's sherpa for the UK AI Summit, chairs ARIA, the UK's answer to DARPA, and co-founded Entrepreneur First, a startup incubator with a strong presence throughout Europe and Southeast Asia.  We get into: Tech Diplomacy & the UK AI Safety Summit: How countries are waking up to the watershed moment at the advent of powerful new AI, and the surprising commonalities in China’s perspectives on AI safety.  Organizational Design at ARIA: What are the challenges creating a world-class science project in government? How can you attract the best people and create the right organizational culture for success? Open Source AI and the Global AI Race — How should we evaluate the approaches to AI across different countries and private actors? What’s the verdict on open source models? Preparing for monumental changes — and why history cautions against expecting business as usual, and how fiction can open our mind to the possibilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chinese Doomscroll, which faithfully records happenings from the wild west that is Weibo (China’s Twitter/X equivalent), won the ChinaTalk award for best China-focussed Substack on 2023. Today we have on the brain behind the newsletter: Molly, who’s been doomscrolling for us since early 2023. We discuss: Why Weibo keeps Molly up at night; Chinese elementary school kids’ academic prowess; How social issues gain attention on the trending list; Terrible bots; And what makes microblogging uniquely compelling. Outtro music is 演员 by Joker Xue 薛之谦: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKuL5xaKZHM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can AI change diplomacy? To discuss the State Department’s options for AI integration, we interviewed the State Department's Deputy Chief Data and AI Officer, Garrett Berntsen. He served as an officer during two tours in Afghanistan and recently rotated off the NSC. He's optimistic diplomacy can be more effective with comprehensive, timely, and accurate data-driven analysis, and that AI will be part of achieving that mission. We get into: How AI can streamline bureaucratic busy work The value of data-driven negotiation prep in diplomatic contexts The benefits of transparency in a democratic society What level of risk is appropriate for the civil service How close he is to getting ChatGPT into State The balance between transparency and secrecy in the age of big data How the Snowden leaks changed the State Department’s relationship with technology What the State Department can and can't import from the private sector Thanks to the Hudson Institute and Andrew Marshall Foundation for supporting this podcast. Outtro music: 國蛋 GorDoN - White Noise ft. 蛋堡 Soft Lipa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ZM440owzw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why can India design chips with the best of them but has completely failed to develop fabs, much less a broader electronics industry? To discuss, I have on Pranay Kotasthane, former chip designer at TI and Qualcomm who now works at the Takshashila Institution and is the author of the new book When the Chips are Down. Chris Miller of Chip War cohosts. We get into: How the political economy of technology in India led to world class software and services but underwhelming manufacturing Why India was slower to the uptake than China that socialism really sucks at getting your country rich What it takes to design a chip. Outtro music: Ye Jo Des Hai Tera https://youtu.be/4tiVPuLbbHg?feature=shared Image: spectacular Mughal painting of an elephant currently on at the Met. that I prompted with semiconductor alot https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/825607?pkgids=906 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it take to train a frontier model? What's the know-how, the secret sauce that makes firms lets OpenAI and Deepmind push the limits of what's possible? How much are Chinese firms benefitting from western open source, and in the long term is it possible for western labs to maintain an edge? The hosts of the excellent Latent Space podcast, Alessio Fanelli of Decibel VC and Shawn Wang of Smol AI, come on to discuss. We get into: How the secret sauce used to push the frontier of AI diffuses out of the top labs and into substacks How labs are managing the culture change from quasi-academic outfits to places that have to ship How open source raises the global AI standard, but why there's likely to always be a gap between closed and open source China as a "GPU Poor" nation Three key algorithmic innovations that could reshape the balance of power between the GPU rich and GPU poor Outtro music: CHEKI https://open.spotify.com/track/1zKL2bOEkMDGuIjLhG34YA?si=9a713a88aa3d4f71 Cover photo: "Inkstand with A Madman Distilling His Brains" 1600s Urbino. Kind of like training a model! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/188899 The met description: In this whimsical maiolica sculpture, a well-dressed man leans forward in his seat with his head in a covered pot set above a fiery hearth. The vessel beside the hearth almost certainly held ink. The man’s actions are explained by an inscription on the chair: "I distill my brain and am totally happy." Thus the task of the writer is equated with distillation—the process through which a liquid is purified by heating and cooling, extracting its essence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Pottinger reported for years out of China, served as a US Marine Corps intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, and held several senior roles on Trump's NSC , concluding his time in the White House as the Deputy National Security Advisor. Today, Matt chairs the China Program at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. In this interview, we discuss: How Matt expects a second Trump administration’s China policy might develop. Why Trump is leaning more into strategic ambiguity than Biden, what that means for deterrence, and how that impacts the likelihood of him standing by were the PRC to invade Taiwan. Why bipartisan support for the US-China trade war will continue to shape the contours of great-power conflict. Matt’s look at the origins and political fallout of COVID-19. Plus, reflections on Mike Flynn and how Trump ran his NSC.  SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Outtro music: Miles Davis, So What https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXk1LBvIqU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heart attacks, prostate cancer, Jake Sullivan awake for a home invasion attempt at 4 AM because he was just up working on a random Tuesday night? Is the national security bureaucracy in America unwell? To discuss, I have on today John Gans, a former Pentagon speechwriter, who’s had many, many other jobs in Washington. He is also the author of the fantastic “White House Warriors,” a history of the National Security Council.   We get into: Why the organizational design of the NSC leads to such crushing burdens for midlevel and senior staffers The kinds of high-flyers that are drawn to the national security complex and what keeps them there How POTUS’s time constraints impact decision-making Why NSC’s historically are excellent at spotting problems but often overeager when crafting solutions The NSC’s role in America’s “forever wars.” Roosevelt, Kennedy, Nixon, and Trump’s “maverick model” of running the NSC compared to the Eisenhower vision of “regular order” How seemingly prosaic technological innovations like track changes and video conferencing have dramatically changed national security policymaking How reading Shakespeare can improve the quality of our policy-making What a better model could look like Illustration from the New Yorker's recent feature on Sullivan. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/16/trial-by-combat Outtro audio from Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kharis Templeman, research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, returns to ChinaTalk to break down the recent Taiwan elections, held on January 13. We discuss: The lack of surprises in the election results, the subdued vibes during the campaign, and contrasts between local perspectives and foreign media narratives. Why the KMT failed to win the presidency, notwithstanding voter dissatisfaction with the DPP. China’s surprisingly muted response to the election, and how it may reassess its cross-Strait policies given a third DPP president. The new composition of the Legislative Yuan, and the strategic position of the Taiwan People’s Party as gatekeeper. Observations from Kharis’s time in Taiwan during the election season, and the gift of Taiwan’s democratic process. Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epwlWDCCevY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did the US Navy evolve over the first half of the 20th century from a bunch of unschooled violent sailors who couldn't shoot straight to the world's largest and most technologically advanced fighting force? What lessons around organizational design can we learn from this transformation? Trent Hone, author of Learning War and Mastering the Art of Command, joins to discuss. Outtro Music: A selection from Brahms' 3rd Symphony, apparently Adm. Nimitz's favorite https://open.spotify.com/track/3T9xcTbS2E3epbncsMwkNC?si=296e316488c841d5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did Lai win, what does China think, and what’s at stake for the DPP? ChinaTalk editor Nicholas Welch reads his latest recap of the 2024 Taiwan elections: https://www.chinatalk.media/p/taiwan-election-results-how-lai-won Subscribe to the newsletter! https://www.chinatalk.media Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JV9ayVWYr8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should AI be more open or closed? What does it mean to be open, anyway? And can France overtake China in AI?? Today I'm running a crossover episode with the Retort AI, hosted by AI Ethicist Tom Gilbert and Nathan Lambert who writes the fantastic https://www.interconnects.ai/ newsletter covering technological advancements in machine learning. Outtro Music: Bela Fleck et al, Bahar https://open.spotify.com/track/4D1ne3QFCBtUU2xFnoTir4?si=aeef1aefc6e047c6 Cover photo is a Midjourney a riff off of this very cool Derian portrait showing in the MET till Jan 21 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/846896?pkgids=884 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New year, new PilotTalk! Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Semafor, joins Jordan and editor Irene to watch Chinese and Taiwanese TV shows. Ben’s favorite genre is crime and police dramas, and we cover the following new-ish releases: A Date With The Future 照亮你 (2023, mainland): Romance where a firefighter falls in love with a journalist! **Ordinary Greatness** 警察荣誉 (2022, mainland): Sitcom about a local police station. The World Between Us 我們與惡的距離 (2019, Taiwan): Acclaimed miniseries set in the aftermath of a mass shooting, addressing media sensationalism, treatment of the mentally ill, and the death penalty. Outtro music: Kiss Me by Taiwanese artist Karencici https://open.spotify.com/track/7HZmJLWtISxYnoBqwx04bw?si=896165f1b52a4aa0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margaret Palmieri is the Deputy Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Officer. I had her on to dicusss: Innovation vs diffusion in the DoD context Data issues making her life difficult How CDAO sources and tests ideas for implementing AI into different corners of the kill chain Thanks to the Andrew Marshall Foundation and the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology for bringing you this episode. Outtro music: SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS Andre 3k, Killer Mike, Future, Erykah Badu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU0SmxKucCw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Newby of the substack Concrete Avalanche with an end of year ChinaTalk takeover! Here's his accompanying year in review post https://jakenewby.substack.com/p/2023-in-review?utm_source=activity_item Tracklist: Intro: 'Lost in China' (excerpt) – Tation 天声 (self-released) This 'postmodernist rock band from Tibet' produced some of their best work to date on the remarkable Illusions of the New Era EP. ‘Wen’s Woozy Wrap’ – Pu Poo Platter (fRUITYSHOP) Key cut from Brooklyn-formed Chinese funk group’s debut LP. ‘Greedysleeper’ – A Wordless Orange 沉默橙 (Taihe) Young Wuhan group deliver soulful pop-rock on one of the year’s best albums. ‘Watch the Crown’ – BoomHan 包涵 (Seafood Market Records) A sample of the 17-year-old Changsha rap prodigy’s impressive flow, from his debut album Gravediggaz. ‘Umbrella’ (featuring J-Fever) – PO8 (Tildawn Music) Not a Rihanna cover. Chengdu rapper toys with Shanghai jazz sounds. ‘Rap’ – ZhiYu Xia 夏之禹 (Mintone Records) Sichuan-born rapper, dubbed ‘the Jia Zhangke of hip hop’, dissects how he fell in love with the genre. ‘Where’s Tommy?’ – Hualun 花伦 (bié Records) intriguing change of direction from the ambient soundtrack masters. ‘Specter’ – The Fallacy 疯医 (Modern Sky) Brilliant return to form from Henan post-punks enlivened by new recruit Li Zenghui, who also played sax with Black Midi earlier this year ‘Cliff’ – The river, Orchestration, Walkman! 河边走 (self-released) Short sharp burst of bewildering brassy brilliance from one of the best new bands to emerge in 2023. ‘Vanished Instant’ – A Fishy Tale 有话 (Qiii Snacks Records) Another young band with a psychedelic sound; recorded during a trip to a Zhejiang mountain village. ‘East Yunnan Hallucinations’ – Instinkto Industrio 本能事业 (Maybe Mars) Folksy rhythms mix with techno-dystopian lyrics on one of 2023’s most characterful records.  ‘Standing in the Wind’ – Zhaoze 沼泽 (self-released) Guangdong guqin-driven post-rock outfit’s new album is one of their best. ‘Station 2020’ – Wu Zhuoling 吴卓玲 (self-released) The leading lady of alternative Chengdu music serves up an immersive ambient tune. ‘The Little Assassin Who Lives Beside the Sea Becomes and Environmentalist’ – Li Daiguo 李带菓 (Beihesan) The Dali-based artist had a productive year; this beautiful number was among the highlights. ‘Daididau’ (excerpt) – Mamer (Old Heaven Books) A too-short taste of a 7-minute long improvised piece on traditional Kazakh instrument the sherter from musical genius Mamer. ‘Four Seasons’ – Hugjiltu (self-released) An emotive folk number from an album featuring ‘collaborations’ with tapes of the Mongolian musician’s late father. ‘Harbour for Bias’ – Louzhang 楼长 (Jyugam) An alt-ambient highlight from a strong year for this offbeat Guangdong electronic label. ‘Snoring in the Valley’ – Howie Lee (self-released) Quirky electronic music from the renowned producer, quietly slipped out at the start of the year. ‘Solaris’ – Zhang Weiwei 张玮玮 (self-released) Chinese folk grandee swaps his accordion for a synth to interesting effect on his first album in over a decade. ‘I Want An Earth’ – Yu Su (pinchy&friends) Title track from the celebrated producer’s impressive EP of clever, beguiling electronic sounds. ‘Holes of Time’ – 33EMYBW (SVBKVLT) A typically idiosyncratic slice of avant club music from one of China’s leading producers. ‘The Forest That Hears’ – Laughing Ears (self-released) A welcome return from one of the country’s most interesting electronic music artists. ‘W.C.’ (Liars remix) – otay:onii (No Gold) Acclaimed artist Angus Andrew adds a new dimension to otay:onii’s weirdness after bié Records released her third LP in March. ‘Ἀντὶ θεῶν’ – Ὁπλίτης (self-released) Incredible one-man-band creating blistering metal tunes examining Chinese social issues. In Greek, obviously. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

80 episodes and 145 newsletters later, we've made it through my first year working on ChinaTalk full time. Editor Ryan Hauser hosts a review episode where we reflect on the past year, get into my production function, what I think the point of all of this is, and how I expect to evolve ChinaTalk in 2024. Please get in touch! I'm at [email protected] Here's my cause exploration essay: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/E2BghQq9pwPgtHgiH/war-between-the-us-and-china-a-case-study-for-epistemic Outtro music: Gurrumul, Bayini https://open.spotify.com/track/1XZ9HxC4MiMUUNQ7WKFucM?si=a40c4dfdd71c428e Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Setser, fellow at CFR who spent a year during the Biden Administration in USTR, joins ChinaTalk to discuss: China's long term growth trajectory and implications for national power Zambia debt negotiations and Argentina's dollarization When strategic trade policy can make sense Panda export controls Sign up here for international intrigue! https://www.internationalintrigue.io/?utm_source=chinatalk&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=1223 Kyla Scanlon of the https://kyla.substack.com/ newsletter cohosts. Outtro music: I Hear a Rhapsody, Bill Evans and Jim Hall https://open.spotify.com/track/2oEvw0AfrT2fPNpEnBwVml?si=cc9f1add64034de7 Midjourney image: a panda bald eagle combined mystical animal in the style of a traditional chinese painting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Xu of https://interconnect.substack.com/ and I run down our top five stories of the year in US-China tech. We get into: The eternal chip war The battle for AI model supremacy EV competition Venture investing in China PDD and Temu's rise TikTok's impressive resilience Here's ChinaTalk's attempt to benchmark Chinese models https://www.chinatalk.media/p/putting-chinas-top-llms-to-the-test Outtro music: two songs from my spotify wrapped which are kind of ancillary to crappy US-China relations? 2gether, Mura Masa and Gretel Ganlyn: https://open.spotify.com/track/1Wqd0R1X1tuVK9FySVyLpt?si=48a61ddf3f094b57 No Talk, Lowell: https://open.spotify.com/track/0ToOqwERQswtN1O7AveCU9?si=9424183956b74960 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Taiwanese populace will head to the polls to choose their next president on January 13, 2024 — and the three-party slate is set! To discuss, we brought on Lu Yeh-chung 盧業中 — a professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University 國立政治大學 — and Lin Fei-fan 林飛帆, previously the Deputy-Secretary of the DPP and well-known for leading the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014. Our conversation gets into: What a three-party race means in a first-past-the-post electoral system, and how the pan-blue and pan-green camps are feeling; Why the KMT-TPP alliance broke down, and what the pan-blue side needs to do to mobilize its electorate; The KMT’s and DPP’s views on whether Taiwanese and mainland Chinese are part of the same family 兩岸一家人; What the 1992 Consensus means to the KMT and DPP, and the tensions and synergies between idealism and functionalism in Taiwanese politics; How the CCP views the upcoming election, and to what extent it really fears pro-independence activists in Taiwan; What demarcates the KMT and DPP outside of cross-Strait politics, and which domestic issues are most compelling for the average Taiwanese voter; And how the KMT and DPP balance government spending on hard military assets versus subsidizing critical technologies like semiconductors. DPP ticket: president: William Lai Ching-te 賴清德 vice president: Hsiao Bi-khim 蕭美琴 KMT ticket: president: Hou Yu-ih 侯友宜 vice president: Jaw Shaw-kong 趙少康 TPP ticket: president: Ko Wen-je 柯文哲 vice president: Cynthia Wu Hsin-ying 吳欣盈 Outro music: 回春丹- 鲜花 https://open.spotify.com/track/35XxW360SO3puJQDfuaY4r Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was a good episode. Mike Gallagher, Chair of the Select Committee on China, has some thoughtful thoughts! We get into: How he would fix Congress Why the early Cold War is still relevant today What he took away from his time in Iraq and the Eisenhower Archives Why all you should really do to understand China is listen to ChinaTalk and read our substack (at https://www.chinatalk.media/) My book rec: https://www.amazon.com/Men-Machines-Modern-Times-Press/dp/0262529319 Outtro music, Ella Fitzgerald, My Cousin in Milwaukee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWy9XjHt324 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rohit Krishnan of Strange Loop Canon and I kibbitz about this weekend's OpenAI drama as well as the safety and US-China regulatory dynamics likely raised in the discussions with the board. Some content we discussed: Jade Leung PhD thesis: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ea3c7cb8-2464-45f1-a47c-c7b568f27665 Jeff Ding and Jenny Xiao's piece: https://www.governance.ai/research-paper/recent-trends-chinas-llm-landscape The Foreign Affairs piece: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/illusion-chinas-ai-prowess-regulation Image made by my mother on DALLE to represent Altman getting fired for the family groupchat. Outtro music: Happy Survival https://open.spotify.com/track/5txZKim1ruceUUhDlU84yc?si=b0d183344163418d It'l All Be Over: https://open.spotify.com/track/1KFtR58Hn1nQ9fR0DRnC9n?si=512636c8caf24610 Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Turpin, China NSC Director in the Trump administration currently at Hoover and Palantir, comes on to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of US-China relations coming out of APEC. We get into: Realistic expectations for bilateral US-China diplomacy What are the necessary ingredients for coherent and effective policymaking What Matt expects and worries about from a second Trump administration Why foundations and corporations should sponsor ChinaTalk! Outtro music: Time/Breathe Reprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw1bJrFdCjY Virtual insanity: https://open.spotify.com/track/24SUWisv2lYQiB3bVpE1sn?si=cf1cf18c0bc94ef7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Harrell, who served as Biden's Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness on the NSC and NEC, comes on to discuss: Why things do or don't happen in the executive branch What reforms we might need to accelerate and amplify decision-making Lessons from the sanctions response to the war in Ukraine for China Check out our newsletter at https://www.chinatalk.media. James Brown--Bewildered https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iXlDeqSTRA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zvi Mowshowitz of Don't Worry about The Vase and Nathan Labenz of the Cognitive Revolution podcast come on for a quick recap of the past week's AI news! We get into: What AI diplomacy is looking like post-Bletchley Park What new applications OpenAI's latest announcements mean for future AI applications Outtro: Bizarrap with Milo J https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGWa-GO8mKg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview was so good. Jason Matheny, Biden's former top tech + national security advisor, has recently reached one year as CEO of RAND. We had a truly classic ChinaTalk-style conversation, hitting on: How to design a world-class research organization The right and wrong lessons to learn from RAND's heyday in the 1950s Existential risks around AI and bio Government's capacity to grok and implement technology strategy What national security professionals can learn from art and architecture And a ton more. Thanks to Check out the Hudson Institute's defense research center here: https://www.hudson.org/policycenters/center-defense-concepts-technology Some 1950s vibes for our outtro music: Julie London: https://open.spotify.com/track/6crfO56bDm0RjpctUuGs5X?si=5a434079b24b4d03 Doris Day: https://open.spotify.com/track/20G1XJaTwIm2IuwA3Pjg1d?si=22095e2f9aa842cc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Redownload for better audio! Jason Matheny, Biden's former top tech + national security advisor, has recently reached one year as CEO of RAND. We had a truly classic ChinaTalk-style conversation, hitting on: How to design a world-class research organization The right and wrong lessons to learn from RAND's heyday in the 1950s Existential risks around AI and bio Government's capacity to grok and implement technology strategy What national security professionals can learn from art and architecture And a ton more. Thanks to Check out the Hudson Institute's defense research center here: https://www.hudson.org/policycenters/center-defense-concepts-technology Some 1950s vibes for our outtro music: Julie London: https://open.spotify.com/track/6crfO56bDm0RjpctUuGs5X?si=5a434079b24b4d03 Doris Day: https://open.spotify.com/track/20G1XJaTwIm2IuwA3Pjg1d?si=22095e2f9aa842cc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Biden just dropped a 50 page executive order that's going to make the world safe for AI, hopefully? To discuss the sprawling EO we've brought on three CNAS analysts, Vivek Chilukuri, Bill Drexel and Tim Fist. We touch on: Immigration and federal hiring If AI + bio can ever be a safe thing What's going to happen to cloud access What are the hoops you'll need to jump through to train GPT5 and whether they're enough What to do about open source Why Jordan just wants to be an AI czar Outro music (yea I was not going to impose Devo on you all): The B Tune by Bela Fleck https://open.spotify.com/track/6h6vvG1t4xtfP9lkOKzBTv?si=6ec3f32629bd46a2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Jordan Schneider interviews Markus Anderling and Anton Korinek, two of the coauthors of the paper 'Frontier AI Regulation: Managing Emerging Risks to Public Safety'. They discuss the need for regulation and oversight of advanced AI models, known as frontier models, that have the potential to pose significant risks to public safety and national security. Jordan came in as a skeptic. Will he be convinced? Here's the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.03718 Here's Markus' song choice: - -- ・ -・・ ・ ・-・・ ・- https://open.spotify.com/album/1NogWso5ElfJe4n8qKSdy9?si=mD9j5WB3TWuFGVkJRBI_Jg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Defense Minister Li Shangfu just got officially purged. To discuss, we brought on Joel Wuthnow, a fellow at NDU. His research areas include Chinese foreign and security policy, Chinese military affairs, US-China relations, and strategic developments in East Asia. He joined ChinaTalk to discuss Xi Jinping’s recent purges of high-ranking members of the People’s Liberation Army, Xi’s larger vision for the PLA, and what all this internal turmoil might mean for China’s longer-term designs on Taiwan. This was recorded earlier in October. Key insights: Over ten years after coming to power, Xi is still purging corruption from the military, reflecting his continued lack of trust in the PLA; Corruption is historically endemic in the PLA in part because of its incentive structure, which makes graft a prerequisite for rising through the ranks; Xi’s efforts to break up the PLA’s supervisory apparatus have only been partially successful (they’re still the same people even if they’re in a different department); Amid the anti-corruption shakeup, China’s Rocket Force has been successfully developing hypersonic missiles, technology viewed as critical to countering US intervention in a regional conflict over Taiwan; Despite Xi’s apparent distrust of his inner circle of military advisors, an echo chamber–induced invasion of Taiwan is still a live possibility. Joel Wuthnow is a senior research fellow with the National Defense University. Nicholas Welch cohosts. Outtro Music: The Weeknd's take on Drake's Trust Issues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVCV6hyv7ac Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Furman was Obama's CEA chair and a Harvard econ professor, while Kyla is the my favorite economics influencer. We get into: What the deal is with inflation How policymaking is broken and what we need to fix it How Homer would tackle SBF Why goodreads is such a trash website Outtro music: Chocolate Snow, Inflation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9E6F8xMjoA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two rabbis on ChinaTalk? What am I even doing? Zohar Atkins of the wonderful Meditations with Zohar podcast alongside Ari Lamm of Bnai Zion come to discuss and process the aftermath of the Oct 7th attack. Outtro music: Ishay Ribo - Seder Ha'Avoda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECy3CMxShIQ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BIS just released its revision to the Oct 7 2022 restrictions. Jon of Asianometry, Dylan of Semianalysis, and Doug of Fabricated Knowledge join the pod to discuss why NVIDIA got screwed, why ASML may not have, and what these regs mean for the future of China and AI. Outtro music: Warren G Regulate remix https://soundcloud.com/dj-eric-rhodes/warren-wallen-mashup-final-edit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israel is a country dear to my heart and I wanted to provide the ChinaTalk audience with one more perspective on the events of this past weekend before returning to our regularly scheduled program. To that end, I'm running a guest episode from the Promised Podcast, a show from TLV1 which is "an inside view of how Israel can warm your heart and make your blood boil. It’s a show by a journalist, a professor and an NGO professional who live in and love Israel even though it drives them crazy, and who each week discuss the latest in Israeli politics, culture, and society." Thanks for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We discuss their experience of the past few days, China's response, its broader policy and aspirations in the Middle East, and what comes next. Our first guest is Carice Witte who is the founder and director of the SIGNAL Group. Second in the episode is Ofir Dayan, a researcher at the Israel-China Policy Center at INSS. Outtro music: World Champion, sung by family members and victims of terrorism https://youtu.be/yofkk5Vaif8?si=JskMFXK3-srR5z8L Lyrics translation: I'm a world champion in repressing Anything that scares me, anything stressful, I put on mute I'm a world champion in loving Firstly myself, then at the stage and the street The hardest is to give it to someone close I'm a world champion in not being In not solving your problems Even the pictures on the walls I wasn't the one who hanged them I'm only in charge of the melodies   I'm a world champion in falling And getting back up like a champ You'll see, like a phoenix I'm burning, but choosing every day to live on I'm a world champion in wanting At least trying You'll see, how in the end After the losses, the victory is so much sweeter I'm a world champion   I'm a world champion in justifying Weaknesses and desires The urge is an old acquaintance I know every old trick it keeps in its bag But look, someday I'll be righteous Deep down what I have is not enough, at all I'm a little rat and life is a pipe1 Falling down the hole because I can't distinguish Between good and evil, and where does it all lead to You're being all usual But soon we'll run out of fuse   I'm a world champion in falling And getting back up like a champ You'll see, like a phoenix I'm burning, but choosing every day to live on I'm a world champion in wanting At least trying You'll see, how in the end After the losses, the victory is so much sweeter I'm a world champion   I'm a world champion in compensating Apologizing and pleasing Sinning, cleansing myself Exposing, covering up Say, how can one write songs with a thousand expectations Millions of views   I'm a world champion in falling And getting back up like a champ You'll see, like a phoenix I'm burning, but choosing every day to live on I'm a world champion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kurt Campbell is the Deputy Assistant to the President and the White House Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs. ChinaTalk recently joined Campbell in Washington to discuss US-China relations and mark the podcast’s 300th episode. We discuss: The nature of national power today; If China is peaking; How ideology impacts Beijing’s foreign policy; Campbell’s hopes and fears for the Biden administration’s Asia policy; Whether the US is still aiming to “maintain as large of a lead as possible” on chips and AI; How to think about the risk of and effectively deter military escalation; And the dark shadow of Tiananmen and its lasting impact on Chinese politics and US foreign policy. Outtro music: Brahms: Sonata in E flat major for Viola and Piano, Op. 120, No. 2 I. Allegro amabile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrC4rx5VrA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Wang, partner at Creative Ventures, joins to discuss: Huawei breakthrough implications and why NVIDIA's CUDA will make it particularly difficult to create a useful domestic AI chip Why China's AI companies have been underperforming my expectations How semiconductor industry dynamics parallel the challenges facing AI startups How pizza machines explain AI's future impact on the labor market Challenges and opportunities in investing in deep tech, including the eager but raw founder talent pool as well as the importance of market structure and distinguishing between R&D and engineering risk This show was brought to you by Creative Ventures. Creatives Ventures is at https://creativeventures.vc/ James writes at https://weightythoughts.com/ and tweets at @AJamesWang Outtro Music: the legendary Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah Smith of https://www.noahpinion.blog/ and Matt Klein of https://theovershoot.co/ join ChinaTalk to discuss: We get into: What's really happening with China's economy and why it matters strategically How China's potential peak parallels Japan's Why the world should and shouldn't be scared of China's progress in semis and EVs What another Trump Administration could do for US-China relations How Noah actually does his substack This was a fun one, I hope you enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Huawei’s breakthrough Kirin 9000s: what is it, why is it a big deal, and what if anything should the US do about it? Joining me, I have on two fantastic semiconductor analysis, Doug O'Laughlin of Fabricated Knowledge and Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis. We get into: How this chip illustrates Chinese engineering excellence and the porous nature of the current export control regime Why we can expect AI chips on par with the A100 coming out of China in the next two years What steps the US government could take to tighten export controls and set back the Chinese semiconductor ecosystem How China has come to dominate both the lagging edge and the EV space Here's my piece on the topic: https://www.chinatalk.media/p/huaweis-breakthrough-the-strategic And here's Dylan's: https://www.semianalysis.com/p/china-ai-and-semiconductors-rise Outtro music: 潮州土狗 - 50元的檳榔 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjl2qabfSNs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of China Talk explores the past, present, and future of Congress with AEI's Philip Wallach. We get into: Origins of representative government trace back to medieval England, when the king consulted regional advisors – leading to development of Parliament Founders inspired by this model when establishing Congress, wanting representation for diverse parts of young U.S. But competing visions emerged for how Congress should work: Madison's view: embrace factional conflict and compromise Wilson's view: stronger centralized leadership These tensions played out through different eras of Congress: Early years: backlash against Hamilton’s Treasury power leads to first political party New Deal/WWII: Congress oversees executive branch while enabling key programs Civil rights era: Senate leaders allow extended filibuster, focus national attention, build enduring coalition 1970s reforms decentralize Congress but decrease cooperation between members over time Under 1994 Gingrich revolution, partisan centralization becomes norm – embraced by both parties Potential futures discussed, including a fever dream of Philip's where an immigration crisis actually prompts real lawmaking. Outtro music: Nixon's 1972 campaign song Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does the public, corporations, academia and civil society end up directly influencing some of China's most important regulations? What's the trajectory of China's approach to AI? Matt Sheehan of CIEP returns to discuss the AI regulatory policy process in China! Matt's paper: https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/07/10/china-s-ai-regulations-and-how-they-get-made-pub-90117 Outtro music: 曾涵江Cup ：天选 CHOSEN ONE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB607_3sDYQ Image: I took an image from Dunhuang and prompted it with "artificial intelligence" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Benson (CSIS) and Martin Chorzempa (PIIE) come on to discuss the new executive order and Treasury's ANRPM (advanced notice of proposed rulemaking) on novel outbound investment screening rules on AI, quantum and semis. Treasury document: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/206/Treasury-ANPRM.pdf Outtro music: 水碾河南三街 LSGCsikoriot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wzz1Deafh8 Midjourney: used this 18th century Japanese woodprint and prompted it with "quantum semiconductor" https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/55371 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Culture month continues with some traditional Chinese painting coverage! What was it like to paint in premodern China? How did a husband-wife and master-mentee team up to produce some remarkable art? Why is it okay to say Chinese art is "good" or "bad" while those who critique western art have so much heartburn over saying their opinion? Cohosting is Joseph Scheier-Dolberg, Chinese paintings curator at the MET. This episode is better experienced on YouTube. Check out the video on ChinaTalk's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/Rxr6xOj29A8 Here's the link to the exhibit: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/learning-to-paint/exhibition-objects Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should democracies band together to protect themselves from Chinese economic coercion? What can deterrence theory teach us about geoeconomic strategy? To discuss these questions, I brought on Matt Goodman and Matt Reynolds of CSIS along with Matt Klein of The Overshoot and David Talbot of the Milken Institute. We discuss: –Why China uses economic coercion, especially against smaller states. –How democracies might join together to deter and respond to this aggression. –Why reslience beats retaliation when it comes to economic conflict. Outro music: "(You're The) Devil in Disguise," Elvis Presley. Check out our newsletter! chinatalk.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This August, ChinaTalk is going to take a bit of a break from our usual routine of tech and politics coverage to spend some time with Chinese culture! Starting us off is Jake Newby of the Concrete Avalanche substack who will be taking us through a radio hour of some of the most interesting independent music coming out of China. Here's the playlist: Intro music: Voision Xi - 'Too Late to Complain' from Five Loops in Her Way. More on that EP here; listen to Voision's jazz record Lost For Words here. 1. Voision Xi - 'Catch the Train' from Eating Music's Running With Friends. More on that compilation here. 2. Vii M - 'Man O' War (Cocoonics remix)' from The Other Side of Sublunary (The Remixes). More on Vii M and Sublunary here. 3. Lygort Trio - '藏身之处' from Lygort Trio. More on them here. 4. Hualun - 'Cities of the Red Night' from Tempus. More on Tempus here. 5. Zhou Shijue - '幸福来的这么自然‘ from 应运而生. More on his record with J-Fever and Eddie Beatz here. 6. 33EMYBW - 'The Unheard Southern Mountains' from Long May the Water Flow. More on that compilation here. 7. Li Daiguo - '小精灵幼儿园放学' from 吥哔呢未来音:奇幻童年. 8. Zhaoze - 'Stand in Wind' from No Answer Blowin' in the Wind. More on that album here. 9. Ὁπλίτης - 'Ὁ τῶν τραυμάτων ἄγγελος' from Τρωθησομένη. More on Hoplites here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How is the DoD thinking about deploying AI? What are the challenges and opportunities involved in building out AI assurance? To discuss, I brought on Dr. Jane Pinelis, Chief AI Engineer The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She was previously the Chief of the Test, Evaluation, and Assessment branch at the Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). Prior to joining the JAIC, Dr. Pinelis served as the Director of Test and Evaluation for USDI’s Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, better known as Project Maven. Cohosting is Karson Elmgren of CSET. Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwLmgM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Until yesterday, Qin Gang 秦刚 was serving as China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. But on Monday, July 24, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee announced an emergency meeting for the next day, July 25, during which Qin was “removed” 免职 (albeit not “dismissed” 撤职) from his position as China’s #2 diplomat. To dissect the rumors and make sense of it all, we have on Matt Brazil — a senior China analyst at BluePath Labs, writer for SpyTalk, fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, and longtime friend ChinaTalk. (Check out our January 2021 show with Matt!) We discuss: Precisely what we know and don’t know about l’affaire Qin; How journalist Fu Xiaotian 傅晓田 is wrapped up in all of this — and how those with CCP connections somehow end up with private jets and buy-ins to elite universities; Qin’s possible connections to the Ministry of State Security — and why that might rub his subordinates the wrong way; How the CCP has dispensed with previous political elites, and whether Qin’s treatment resembles theirs; and Why it is that sometimes even the heads of CCP security don’t even know what’s going on! Outro music: 我要你的愛, by 葛蘭; “Saving All My Love For You,” by Whitney Houston Check out our newsletter! https://www.chinatalk.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ChinaTalk welcomes Taiwan expert and Hoover research fellow Kharis Templeman. This episode is all things 2024 Taiwan elections — slated for January 13, 2024. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Kharis is the program manager of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific, and previously was the program manager of the Taiwan Democracy and Security Project. In this show, we discuss: The frontrunners’ profiles — Lai Ching-te 賴清德, Hou Yu-ih 侯友宜, and Ke Wen-je 柯文哲 — and what makes this three-way race different from previous elections; Why the KMT’s nomination process was somewhat quirky this time around; The importance of party unity, and why some Taiwanese political parties have failed to unify in past election cycles; What’s on Taiwanese voters’ minds — beyond national-security concerns; The CCP’s preferred winner — plus if and how any PRC-based interference may manifest over the coming months; Why Taiwan’s election system is “unhackable”; What to make of the spread of disinformation and hyper-partisanship in Taiwan’s domestic media; And some pro tips on escaping the DC bubble and understanding the Taiwanese populace. Outro music: Bubble Tea, by Mango Street Papa 芒果街老爸 Check out our newsletter, too! https://www.chinatalk.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• How did the Chinese EV industry become so dominant? • What institutional and cultural factors shape China’s auto market? • What can Western democracies learn from Chinese industrial policy? To discuss these questions, I brought on GWU professor John Helveston, an expert in tech and innovation policy and Chinese electric vehicles. Outro music:  https://open.spotify.com/track/4QQEzkxcONBthDLfzqIh9S?si=2af235017c8c4449 Photo: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What companies beyond OpenAI matter to the future of AI? What is the relationship between closed and open source source? When will researchers lose the reins to government on AI's trajectory? To discuss, this week I brought on Matt Lynley of the fantastic Supervised News substack as well as Lux Capital's Danny Crichton. Jade Leung's thesis: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ea3c7cb8-2464-45f1-a47c-c7b568f27665 Outtro music: https://open.spotify.com/track/2opgXfgG4tdM2fuHiamoaG?si=e1eabaf135d846d3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Foreign aid is dominated by just a few huge players that receive the bulk of grants from the US government. But is bigger better? And are local players with innovative solutions to global issues missing out? Unlock Aid wants to see smaller stakeholders get access to more funding and seats at the table. The group’s executive director, Walter Kerr and COO Amanda Arch explain why. We also discuss: How much the US spends on foreign aid each year and who gets that money. How to make the distribution of foreign aid more efficient. Why Unlock Aid wants to break down the barriers to accessing public funding. How AI could be used in foreign aid. China’s latest attempts to restrict data access to international researchers. Outro music: 好了啦 (Piss Off) by 鼓鼓呂思緯 (GBOYSWAG) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D-ixUMcTPY Check out the Substack at ChinaTalk.media! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Huang, Taiwan military expert and research fellow at the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, returns to ChinaTalk! Today he gives us an update on Taiwan’s military readiness, the PLA’s expansion, and whether Xi Jinping would really send it. If you missed his episode back in 2020, give it a listen, too. And check out his recent thoughts posted on NBR, as well as his long-form special report, “Threats to Taiwan’s Security from China’s Military Modernization.” In this episode, we cover: The status quo of Taiwan’s reservist forces and command-and-control capabilities — and how Western countries perceive that status quo; How the PLA’s military capabilities stack up against Russia’s performance in the Ukraine war thus far; What insights we can glean from PLA-facing propaganda; Why Ukrainian forces have been successful in repelling the Russian military thus far, and why Xi Jinping would loathe a protracted war over Taiwan; Paul’s take on the PLA’s recent military maneuvers against US and Canadian assets in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea; What the Taiwanese populace believes about PLA military action, US military support for Taiwan — and why these trends have changed over time; China’s robust satellite expansion program, and how it plays a role in its aircraft carrier “kill chain”; Likely and unlikely PLA invasion scenarios — and the corresponding discussions that would occur in the White House; What Taiwan military officials — like Admiral Lee Hsi-ming (Ret.) 李喜明 — think about Taiwan’s military readiness for an invasion. If you liked the podcast, make sure to hop on our newsletter, too! https://www.chinatalk.media Outro music: 逆光 - Kimberley Chen 陳芳語 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDw1B_hWwbw This interview was taped on June 16, 2023, in Taipei. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happened over the past few days in Russia? What does this mean for the future of Putin and the war in Ukraine? To discuss, I recorded today a show with Kamil Galeev, a PKU classmate of mine formerly of the Wilson Center. Outtro music: Repo Man, Coup d'etat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJjuVzZQj0U Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blinken went to China to meet with Qin Gang, Wang Yi, and Xi himself! What happened, why does it matter, and does this make it any less likely we'll be in WWIII anytime soon? Do discuss, I bought on Dali Yang, political science professor at UChicago, and Nathaniel Sher of Carnegie. Subscribe to ChinaTalk at https://chinatalk.substack.com/! Outtro music (a two-parter!): Selena Gomez: Lose You to Love Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlJDTxahav0 Beyonce: Start Over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJAXC1lz65I Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're talking Chinese TV this week on ChinaTalk! Hollywood writer Trey Kollmer and ChinaTalk editor Irene Zhang discuss farming reality tv, a dongbei murder, and some super creative animated content out of Bilibili. Farmer show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fklN-OnYuGc Dongbei show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs0OJVemJz4 Animated show: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0gnw1pNh6C1yA3EUU-aQrOjI3hvBC7oQ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doug O'Laughlin of the Fabricated Knowledge substack and I discuss: NVIDIA's corporate history and how it arrived at such a dominant position today What makes it so irreplacable in the coming AI revolution The national competitiveness implications of NVIDIA in a US-China context Outtro music: 邓典果DDG/李尔新 -《帅到没朋友》 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CqvpDd1xK0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under Obama, CNAS founder, and co-founder of WestExec Advisors, returns to ChinaTalk to discuss: How the Biden Administration is trying to re-engage with China Reflections on innovation in defense, AI, and the war in Ukraine ChinaTalk meetup in NYC this Friday! https://partiful.com/e/taNb35oaCKjglbHHdEA1 Reuters reporting: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/why-us-delayed-china-sanctions-after-shooting-down-spy-balloon-2023-05-11/ New Yorker piece: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/two-weeks-at-the-front-in-ukraine Socila history of the machine gun: https://www.amazon.com/Social-History-Machine-Gun/dp/0801833582 Outtro music: the great Tina Turner with Marvin Gaye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTsy-uPvQoY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pentagon has a new tech strategy! What does it say, what impact will it have, and what do its authors think about technological change and warfare? Dr. Nina Kollars, advisor to Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) Heidi Shyu, and R&E’s Chief Data Officer Cyrus Jabbari join us to discuss in a wide ranging and at times philosophical conversation about the challenges of peacetime innovation critical technology lists lessons from the origins of the machine gun and development of modern fighter jets What Cezanne and Picasso can teach us about military innovation (from this piece https://warontherocks.com/2017/03/when-clausewitz-meets-cezanne-mastery-and-the-art-of-future-war/) Here's the strategy: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3389118/dod-releases-national-defense-science-and-technology-strategy/ R&E’s Chief Data Offcer yrHerus Jabbari Music: a guy banging on pots and pans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQEedhz9ERs Midjourney is a prompt of an F16 with this late 19th century Japanese calligraphy https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/55820 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Faggella, who for ten years has interviewed business leaders about the challenges of implementing AI, joins ChinaTalk to discuss about just how hard it is to get AI to diffuse across an economy. We also get into: Why the past ten years of AI hasn't lived up to its promise The technological, bureaucratic, and cultural challenges of corporate AI diffusion Which sectors are most and least likely to adopt quickly Music: Uyghur drill, Ahh? Ohh! by Athree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdfgc2yr9Co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Ding is the leading US scholar on China and AI and author of one of the earliest China-focused Substacks, ChinAI. He recently published a fire paper called, “The diffusion deficit in scientific and technological power: re-assessing China’s rise.” It makes the argument that diffusion capacity (not just innovation capacity) is critical to economic growth — and China actually fares much worse in diffusion capacity than mainstream narratives imply. In particular, “In cases when the emerging power has a strong innovation capacity but weak diffusion capacity (diffusion deficit), it is less likely to sustain its rise than innovation-centric assessments depict. Conversely, when the emerging power possesses a strong diffusion capacity but weak innovation capacity (diffusion surplus), it is more likely to sustain its rise than innovation-centric assessments portray.” Mainstream narratives, meanwhile, “only compare the U.S. and China’s ability to produce new innovations, neglecting their ability to effectively use and adopt emerging technologies. By revealing the gap between China’s innovation capacity and diffusion capacity, this paper argues that innovation-centric assessments mistakenly inflate China’s S&T power.” We discuss lessons from past industrial revolutions, what Cohosting is Teddy Collins, formerly of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and DeepMind. Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Y7-gm8STI midjourney prompt: "frank quietly industrial revolution" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

PJ Maykish, Abigail Kukura, and Will Moreland from the Future Technologies platform team of the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) join the conversation to discuss critical technologies and the development of a national technology strategy. The guests provide insights into how the United States can create a comprehensive technology strategy that prioritizes the development of critical technologies to compete with China. They also discuss the importance of international collaboration in the development of emerging technologies and the challenges faced in building consensus among different stakeholders. This is the paper we primarily discuss: Platforms-Panel-IPR.pdf (scsp.ai) Vishnu Kannan of Carnegie cohosts. Midjourney art: the prompt is "A Bauhaus poster for a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Featuring a young man looking out from a turret on a castle out towards the sea" but I thought it has a bit of a tech forecasting vibe! Music by the great Cab Calloway: Hi De Ho Man - YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, May 1, I interviewed Virgina Senator Mark Warner. We get into the RESTRICT Act, state capacity to analyze emerging technologies, the future of industrial policy, the nature and limits to bipartisanship around China, as well as the government’s role in regulating artificial intelligence. Check out the ChinaTalk newsletter for a full transcript! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Art via midjourney prompt: corporate America’s naïveté vis-à-vis China Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

J. Edgar Hoover was a controversial figure who served as the director of the FBI for nearly five decades. In this episode, we explore his life and legacy with Beverly Gage, a professor of 20th-century U.S. history and author of the Bancroft Prize-winning biography "G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century." We discuss The context in which Hoover developed his anti-communist worldview, and how this shaped his approach to law enforcement. The deportation of anarchists to Bolshevik Russia. Similarities between Hoover and Xi Jinping. The role of FBI informants, including one who met with Mao Zedong. Outro music: G-Man Hoover by Van Dyke Parks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E566LbON5QA Check out ChinaTalk.media for transcripts, analysis and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did Xi Jinping’s formative years influence how he views the world today? Veteran China scholar Orville Schell, the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations, looks back at decades of writing and working on China, weathering the cycles of the country opening up and shutting down and gives his two cents on what’s going on in Xi’s head. We also discuss —  Why Mao Zedong is a better read than Xi — China’s reciprocity problem on the international stage — How US officials reacted to Tiananmen in a secret meeting with Deng Xiaoping — A history of accessing China for academics, businesspeople and journalists — Xi and victim culture Outro Music: Glenn Gould performing Contrapunctus, I, IV from Bach’s amazing Art of the Fugue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqDCieiDWAE Check out the newsletter at ChinaTalk.media! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Roach is a Yale professor with extensive experience in China. He also taught the first China class I ever took, so it may be fair to say he's partially to blame for the entire ChinaTalk enterprise. In our conversation (taped on February 23), we discuss: The nexus between US-China relations and the DSM-5 (we need some relationship therapy!); How false narratives strangle effective diplomatic development; What Stephen thinks about the odds of a hot conflict over Taiwan; Practical proposals to improve the bilateral relationship, including what a “US-China Secretariat” (based in neutral Tahiti, obviously) would look like; Is it the US or China — or both — who fundamentally has no interest in engagement? Apologies for my audio quality in the second half of the show. Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRM70Jw7F4M You all should check out the ChinaTalk newsletter! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Scharre, Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS, joins ChinaTalk to discuss AI, military, strategy, and US-China geopolitics. Listen in for a discussion on: How AI will impact the tactical, operational and strategic levels of war How and why AI operates — whether in chess, Dota 2, or aerial dogfighting — in fundamentally different ways than humans; Why AI called for a “protective response from the bureaucracy” The significance of the US’s comparative advantage over China in talent and compute — two of Scharre’s “Four Battlegrounds”; The dictator’s dilemma, and how advances in AI will challenge the CCP in the coming years; When in China, how to interview like a pro! Outro music: a missy elliot + spice girls mix from Arthi, a UK-based DJ who's also an economics correspondent for the times of london! https://youtu.be/iHkfmwy1-OI?t=252 Paul’s latest bestseller: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Battlegrounds-Power-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/0393866866 The cover image is Midjourney on “Dota 2–inspired F-35 dogfight” You should all subscribe to the ChinaTalk newsletter! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What actually is foreign influence, and how might Canada handle China’s interference in its domestic affairs? Akshay Singh is a research associate at the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa. We discuss: How to roll out a foreign agent registry; The role of the US-Canada relationship; Whether foreign influence is a diaspora problem; And performance reviews for the United Front’s Canada desk. Akshay on how democracies should respond to foreign influence: https://www.cigionline.org/articles/faced-with-foreign-interference-how-should-democracies-respond/ Outtro music: 公公偏頭痛 by Jay Chou https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y Please consider supporting ChinaTalk on Patreon at www.patreon.com/chinatalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chips Avengers assemble once again! Reva Goujon of the Rhodium Group, JP Kleinhans of the European think tank SNV, Jay Goldberg of Digits and Dollars, and Dylan Patel, who writes SemiAnalysis. In this episode of ChinaTalk, we all: Deep dive into the CHIPS Act's recent Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO); Discuss the potentially existential impact of AI on global power dynamics; Consider the true intentions of the October 2022 export controls — from military constraining China to crippling manufacturing in the broader economy; Muse about the potential for a "splinternet" to emerge as countries around the world — in particular, the US, China, EU members states — adopt different standards and regulations for their tech industries; And more! Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1_Amc4Ysv0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Xu, Obama-era White House official and creator of https://interconnect.substack.com/ comes on ChinaTalk to discuss: Our impressions of the House's TikTok hearing Continued cross-border reliances around batteries and cloud computing The missed opportunity of Zhang Yiming's generation of founders GPT4's remarkable translation capabilities Outtro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQiOA7euaYA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Kotkin is a legendary historian, currently at Hoover, previously at Princeton. Best known for his Stalin biographies, his other works include Uncivil Society, Magnetic Mountain, and Armageddon Averted. Our discussion on China is far-ranging yet in-depth — we manage to pack in: The two dominant subjects taught at the CCP’s Central Party School; Kotkin’s assessment of the main threat to Communism — what “Communism with a human face” means, and why Gorbachev’s reforms ultimately destroyed Communism in the USSR; Why the CCP fears color revolutions more than, say, NATO expansion — and why Xi snapped on Hong Kong in 2020; The twin components of Marxism-Leninism: anti-capitalism + anti-imperialism; And an understanding of Lenin’s “commanding heights,” and what China’s commanding heights are today; The case for optimism about US-China relations, despite — or because of — the recent ratcheting up of tensions; Why Kotkin believes a US-China Cold War is both good and necessary; How the US can get on the diplomatic “front foot”; Making sense of Reagan’s foreign policy — how he was both a “movement conservative” and a “dealmaking conservative.” Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4GLAKEjU4w. Check out the newsletter and other ChinaTalk content at https://www.chinatalk.media/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How will GPT4 change the world? What implications does it have for policy, economics, and society? How will US-China 'racing dynamics' play out and what are the implications for AI safety? To discuss, I've brought together the AI Justice League: Zvi of 'Don't Worry About the Vase', Nathan Labenz of Waymark, and Matthew Mittelsteadt of Mercatus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dennis Wilder returns to ChinaTalk — this time with some broader thoughts on how the US intelligence community can rise to the occasion vis-à-vis China. In particular, we discuss: The importance of government hiring those with experience living in China; Contributions that the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS) has made to China intelligence, and why it should be reinstated; A serious request to make an ChatGPT as good as Alice Miller is at analyzing CCP documents; https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/clm57-am-final.pdf Why the State Department has established China House and the CIA has established the China Mission Center; What we can learn from Richard Danzig’s Driving in the Dark; https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/driving-in-the-dark-ten-propositions-about-prediction-and-national-security%C2%A0 How to maintain robust intelligence capabilities in the long-run; Raymond P. Ludden and the “Dixie Mission” — and why the US needs more Luddens today. https://uschinadialogue.georgetown.edu/essays/we-need-more-luddens Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6vqPUM_FE Check out the newsletter and other ChinaTalk content at https://www.chinatalk.media/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the second part of my conversation with Nick Mulder and Lars Schönander. Picking the narrative up in 1935, get real in this episode: Why the Great Depression, counterintuitively, made importing commodities cheaper, and how that affected Germany’s and Japan’s protectionism; The difference between autarky and autarchy; Whether Kim Jong-un’s North Korea could survive a full-on fuel embargo today by using Nazi-era technology; Nick’s definition of “temporal claustrophobia,” and what it has to do with Japan ultimately siding with the Axis; Parallels between the “ABCD circle” (America, Britain, China, Dutch East Indies) and the semiconductor export controls today; Why having an empire was a liability for Britain; What sanctions had to do with the Czechoslovaks — even with a larger army — falling to the Nazis; How the blockades of WWI differed from WWII; And what lessons pro-decouplers should learn from this history of sanctions. Nick’s book recommendations: https://www.amazon.com/Athene-Palace-Rosie-G-Waldeck/dp/1592110088 https://www.amazon.com/World-Late-Antiquity-150-750-Civilization/dp/0393958035 https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Years-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590171462 https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Maisky-Diaries-Volumes-Communism/dp/0300117825 Nick’s excellent book: https://www.amazon.com/Economic-Weapon-Rise-Sanctions-Modern/dp/0300259360 Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mdvyIqrs4 Check out the newsletter and other ChinaTalk content at https://www.chinatalk.media/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re releasing part one of our a two-part conversation with Nick Mulder, a history professor at Cornell and author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War — a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2022. With cohost Lars, Schönander, we discuss: The recent advent of the use of sanctions (for example, in the Crimean War, Britain continued to fulfill payments to Russia, the nation it was fighting right then!) Why Europeans were reluctant to employ blockades and sanctions in the early twentieth century, and how their thinking evolved through two world wars How Wilson’s notion of “moral sanctions” and decision to keep blockades in place after the war were important to the development of sanctions, especially during the interwar period The League of Nations’ efforts to establish a “positive sanctions” fund, and why the concept never took off Nick’s take on why Hoover is underrated When and why Italy almost fought a war against Germany over Austria Stay tuned for part two, when we connect this sanctions history to implications to US-China relations today! Nick’s excellent book: https://www.amazon.com/Economic-Weapon-Rise-Sanctions-Modern/dp/0300259360 Outro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzd4VtkNjmc Check out the newsletter and other ChinaTalk content at chinatalk.media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Data scientist Bryan Cheong breaks down how AI actually works, creating video using AI and how the technology is being used beyond image and language models. Also, I've got a meetup March 7th in Palo Alto! https://partiful.com/e/dVY7k51xQX4WhNr6AUcH Joined by Zheng, we also discuss: The farmers in India using AI for marketing Denoising and weights, the tech behind AI image generation tools What's next for developments in AI Singapore's tech scene Outro music: 我說所有的酒都不如你 by 房東的貓 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2zj74iK1MI Check out the newsletter and other ChinaTalk content at chinatalk.media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re going to do a show about the scariest US-China news story I’ve seen in years, that “The US has intelligence that the Chinese government is considering providing Russia with drones and ammunition for use in the war in Ukraine.” Would China really arm Russia, and if so what will that mean for the world if the US and China end up on opposite sides of a proxy war? To discuss this I have on today Georgetown’s, Dennis Wilder, a longtime CIA veteran who served as an NSC director on the China desk under the bush administration and spent six years under Obama editing the presidential daily brief before concluding his career in government as the CIA’s deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific. Outtro Music: Ukranian rap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgDXAAh-cXw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With AI on the verge of transforming the world, how are regulators across the globe approaching the challenges the technology might pose? Also, what does US-China AI collaboration look like today, and will it get caught up in broader tensions in the relationship? Matt Sheehan and Hadrien Pouget, who are both at Carnegie, come on to discuss. Matt's paper on US-China collaboration: https://www.brookings.edu/research/can-democracies-cooperate-with-china-on-ai-research/ Matt's work on Chinese algorithmic regulation: https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/12/09/what-china-s-algorithm-registry-reveals-about-ai-governance-pub-88606 Hadrien's article about the EU: https://www.lawfareblog.com/eus-ai-act-barreling-toward-ai-standards-do-not-exist Outtro Music: Monkey Bee: A Short Film by Jamie Hewlett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y90ONojCc6Q Subscribe to the newsletter! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William 'Balloon Guy' Kim returns for a roundup of the past few days of news around the Chinese spy balloon and unidentified object shooting. We share our favorite theories of what on earth is going on and what this all means for US-China relations. Subscribe to the ChinaTalk newsletter! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Outtro Music: Sammy Davis Jr's Up Up and Away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hYNMZtxJoU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey ChinaTalk listeners, this year we’re going to do something new—occasional episodes in Mandarin! While getting mainland guests to talk about more conventional topics like US-China relations and export controls has been nearly impossible, I think doing more slice of life/business stories about odd corners of China in the pale imitation of Gushi FM is both fun and enriching to our coverage. In this episode, you’ll hear from the founder of mechanical keyboard manufacturer Meletrix, Simba Hua, about why people like to make their own keyboards, the challenges and wonders of working with the Chinese keyboard supply chain, and customer preferences between East Asian and western keyboard fans. Cohosting with me is Irene Zhang, one of ChinaTalk’s editors. You can find more of her writing, and more ChinaTalk in general, on our newsletter at https://www.chinatalk.media/. And if you can’t understand Chinese, not to worry, we’ll be running a translated transcript later this month on the newsletter! Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlp8XD0R5qo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does one organization turn expert knowledge into real policy change? Dan Correa, CEO of the Federation of American Scientists and Founder of the Day One Project, discusses the power of policy entrepreneurship and shares examples of the ideas his nonprofit helped turn into legislation.  We'll delve into the nitty-gritty of policymaking and explore topics such as: How to make meetings with government officials more productive.  The importance of pre-work in preparing good ideas and the role experts can play in shaping policy.  Why it's sometimes better to focus on practical solutions rather than comprehensive strategies.  Why think tanks always feel the need to create comprehensive, hundred-page strategies. Article about the creation of the development finance corporation: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/how-might-think-tanks-make-real-things-happen-lessons-creation-dfc Check out the Substack at ChinaTalk.media. Cover art is midjourney taking a rothko that I then prompted with "innovation" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do we talk about when we talk about tech policy? What are the weird corners of the chips and science bill? How is talent policy broken and what can anyone do about it? And broadly, if you want to change the world through better regulatory and executive action, how do you go about this? To discuss all that we have Divyansh Kaushik, a newly minted PhD from Carnegie Mellon currently at the Federation for American Scientists focusing on emerging tech policy. He was also closely involved with the chips and science bill negotiations.  We talk about - How to talk to lawmakers and share your thoughts on legislation - The complex visa system for foreign workers in the US - The thousands of green cards that never get used.  Outro music: When the Levee Breaks  By Led Zepplin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwiTs60VoTM Midjourney art prompted with 'innovation' from this painting https://www.moma.org/collection/works/180114?sov_referrer=art_term&art_term_slug=painting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chinese balloons over Wyoming!! To discuss, we have on today William 'Balloon Guy' Kim of the Marathon Initiative, Eric Lofgren of AcquisitionTalk, and Gerard Dipippo of CSIS. Intro Music: Up Up and Away, The 5th Fifth Dimension https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5akEgsZSfhg Outro Music: NENA | 99 Luftballons [1983] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Love it or hate it, AI capabilities continue to advance. As futurists imagine how this technology may one day be used, how it develops and who will be able to access AI tools will also depend on who funds AI projects and what hardware will be needed to get it to work. Lennart Heim is a researcher at the Center for the Governance of AI and the author of a fantastic AI compute syllabus primer, which I have just spent the past few weeks obsessed with. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DF31DIkwS9GONzmy1W3nuI9HRAwSKy8JcIbzKYXg-ic/edit?usp=sharing Joining as co-host is Chris Miller, author of the FT business book of the year Chip War - The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. We discuss: How much does it cost to develop an AI system? The competition for access to specialized AI chips. Whether investing heavily in large AI models is financially viable. Chip smuggling versus cocaine smuggling. Outro music: 年度专辑 by AR刘夫阳 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifkVhOQYnO0 Check out the Substack at chinatalk.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China v Taiwan: who would win? Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow and director of research at Brookings. He specializes in U.S. defense strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. We discuss The limits of scenarios that predict the outcome of a China-Taiwan conflict. What are intercontinental rail guns? How sports teams that play each other in the same year can have different outcomes - and what this says about predictability. Given all this, what’s the point of modelling exercises? Mike's paper: https://www.brookings.edu/research/can-china-take-taiwan-why-no-one-really-knows/ My paper: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/E2BghQq9pwPgtHgiH/war-between-the-us-and-china-a-case-study-for-epistemic Outro music: Battle Cry of Freedom by George Root https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW4ZwyYJYbQ Check out the Substack at ChinaTalk.media! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is sponsored by Policyware. Check out Samm's class at https://www.policyware.org/chinatalk How do Chinese cyber laws and regulations affect multinational companies, and US-China relations? Samm Sacks of Yale Law School walks us through the latest developments in this arena — we discuss: Why Chinese data policy has been on front-page news in the past few years; What China is hoping to gain from its new laws and regulations; The status of TikTok negotiations, and the prospects of a deal given today’s political climate; How the US and China can — yet sometimes don’t — leverage their data policy infrastructure against one another. Outtro music: 回答 - YOUNG 建坤 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Obr1iXFCs Midjourney is me prompting a Duchamp painting "data privacy" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Say China wins a war for Taiwan. What happens next? To discuss the political and economic consequences of a PRC takeover of Taiwan, I have on today Jude Blanchette and Gerard Dipippo, both fellows at CSIS. Our conversation builds off their paper https://www.chinatalk.media/p/war-for-taiwan-what-happens-after. We recorded this episode in mid-December. Outtro Music: 水哥 ft. 蛋堡 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHU9kEYiAQw&list=PLegPxPQebljkJOhscK3tLUXfZ9n1lgkwC&index=31 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2023, ChinaTalk is going to Congress! First up in our series is Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat who represents Silicon Valley. We get into: What he hopes the China Committee can accomplish Why ChatGPT let him down What an effective industrial policy looks like Also, I'm hosting a ChinaTalk meetup in DC next week! RSVP here: https://partiful.com/e/Zni1rBY3PFhy6WYFm2VK? Outtro music: Bruce Springsteen, My Hometown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gKSp8WoRg Cover Art: I gave midjourney a Miro and told it "US capitol supply chain" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can $52bn for semiconductors actually accomplish? To discuss the tensions and tradeoffs underlying the decisions that the US government is about to make on how to spend this money, I have on today Jacob Feldgoise, an analyst at CSET and Vishnu Kannan, who works at the Carnegie Endowment. We'll be discussing their fantastic paper entitled: "The Limits of Reshoring and Next Steps for U.S. Semiconductor Policy." Jacob and Vishnu's paper: https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/11/22/after-chips-act-limits-of-reshoring-and-next-steps-for-u.s.-semiconductor-policy-pub-88439 Subscribe to the ChinaTalk Newsletter!!!!: https://www.chinatalk.media/ Outtro Music: federal funding by Cake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phHe6aNcocQ Cover art: I fed midjourney a picasso portrait and told it 'semiconductor supply chain' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, we consider the question of whether there are limits to what computers can know and how this compares to human understanding. Joining me on this episode is Sam Hammond, the director of social policy at the Niskanen Center, and Zohar Atkins, a rabbi and host of the podcast "Meditations with Zohar." We discuss The impact of AI on creativity and human thought. Fears around AI and the centralization of power. The potential for AI to have an egalitarian effect on closing innate and environmental differences such as education and access to information. Whether the creative class will be automated out of their jobs. Outro music: Genesis by Daniela Adrade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SJ6KNhA9QY Check out the substack at chinatalk.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution makes his ChinaTalk debut! We get into: How AI is going to change art, education, politics and human relationships Why Tyler tried to write a book to explain America to the PRC How babies born in 2023 will see their educations changed by AI; Playing chess against the computer and creativity in the AI era; Religion, American antisemitism, and the movie Her; Writing a book about America for Chinese people; Why China is one of the hardest countries to predict. Outtro Music: Beethoven X, an AI-assisted version of Beethoven's unfinished 10th symphony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvj3Oblscqw For more context: smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-artificial-intelligence-completed-beethovens-unfinished-10th-symphony-180978753/ Image by midjourney seeded with a photo of Tyler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before we get back to the interviews, I read from the newsletter I run which you should subscribe to at https://www.chinatalk.media/ If you're interested in advertising on ChinaTalk, reach out at [email protected]! Here's my year in review: https://www.chinatalk.media/p/chinatalks-year-in-review Favorite books: https://www.chinatalk.media/p/a-year-in-books Favorite everything else: https://www.chinatalk.media/p/2022-media-diet-tv-movies-chess-elden Outtro music 忏悔录 by KKECHO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePC-FQwLnts The song apparently is her riffing off seeing the 50 Cent biopic Image: I asked chatgpt to summarize my year in review post visually and it gave me the following prompt that I then fed into midjourney: "An abstract representation of the author's journey as a China analyst, such as a journey through a landscape. This painting could be done in a more impressionistic style, using loose brushstrokes and a muted palette of colors to convey a sense of movement and change.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe to the ChinaTalk newsletter! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Outtro music: Fred Again's Frank Ocean remix https://soundcloud.com/joseph-ibrahim/chanel-vs-a-new-error-frank-ocean-moderat-fred-again-mix Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe to my newsletter! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Doug O'Laughlin of Fabricated Knowledge and Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis go through our most important semis stories of 2022. We get into: Samsung and Intel's stumbles Arm taking on Qualcomm Risc-V's rise The politicization of semiconductors Outtro music: ChatGPT + PG One https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDvFGLSIU2c Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today US Department of Energy Secretary Granholm announced a nuclear fusion breakthrough at Livermore Labs. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to be getting commercially viable fusion reactors anytime soon. Economist Eli Dourado wrote in a piece today: “Nuclear fusion has long been hailed as the next great energy source, capable of providing nearly limitless power without the harmful emissions and waste associated with other forms of energy generation. This week, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that it had achieved “ignition,” which occurs when the energy output from plasma in a fusion reactor exceeds the energy put into the plasma. With continued investment from government and the private sector, we are likely to see many such scientific milestones reached in the next few years.   it is important to be wary. Many of these milestones have little bearing on the commercial viability of nuclear fusion. Despite the press releases, the National Ignition Facility conducts weapons tests, not clean-energy research. There is no realistic path from the kind of fusion being celebrated this week to any sort of commercial project. To a lesser extent, that may also be true of progress that we’re seeing in other fusion projects, even commercial ones.” In the 1970s, many thought we were only a few years away from fusion, but here we are today still burning oil, gas and coal. To explore why, I wanted to repost a fantastic episode of a podcast from a friend of the show. Ben Reinhardt is the host of the Idea Machines podcast, a show that explores innovation systems from history and today. In this episode, Ben interviews Stephen Dean, who was present at the creation of America’s investment in fusion in the mid-70s and has been working in the space ever since. It’s a fascinating exploration of how government-funded science can fail us. Ben Reinhardt is also the creator of PARPA, a private sector DARPA aiming to “unlock robust technology to open new frontiers” which you can check out at parpa.org. This show was recorded in 2021. Here's the link to the plan discussed in the podcast: https://fire.pppl.gov/us_fusion_plan_1976.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you get into chips? Doug O'Laughlin of Fabricated Knowledge and Jon Y of Asianometry run us through how to they came to We also discuss Why starting with something's history can help you understand how it works. Who they talk to and what they read to understand their niches. Following your passion and making a whole video on Taiwanese 7-Elevens. Keeping the YouTube algorithm happy. SIA job posting: https://www.semiconductors.org/sia-jobs/ Outro music: Still Alive by Johnathan Coulton, performed by Ellen McLain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI Check out the substack: https://www.chinatalk.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ling Li, lecturer at the University of Vienna, comes on the pod to discuss: The origins and evolution of Covid Zero Different paths the CCP could take to cracking down What the protests tell us about modern China Intro sounds: https://twitter.com/renminwansui5/status/1597064778543157250 Outtro sounds: https://twitter.com/whyyoutouzhele/status/1597225385728827392 Subscribe to ChinaTalk for an ad-free feed: https://chinatalk.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I talk about where I think these protests are heading and what they mean for Covid Zero and the international situation. First voice memo is from @wstv_lizzi and the second is from @lichtspektrum. The outtro singing is protesters in Shanghai singing the Internationale. Here's my essay on the topic in written form: https://www.chinatalk.media/p/chinas-protests-harbinger-or-passing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can the US and China play nicely enough with each other to not ruin the planet in the coming century? In particular, what prospects are there for cooperation around global challenges and biotech? For this episode, I'm joined by Scott Moore, Penn's director of China programs and strategic initiatives and perhaps the nicest person on China Twitter. We discuss Medical cooperation between China and the US during the Ebola outbreak. Whether shared global challenges can be combatted without China. Leapfrogging as a means of developing technologically versus innovation. The scariest things that could happen as a result of biotech research. I have ChinaTalk newsletter which you should all sign up to read! Outro music: 杨和苏KeyNG - “王位” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2FsnXOKTZ8 Episode cover art made using Midjourney with the prompt "US China reluctant cooperation in the style of john singer sargent" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do export controls work? And will they work for AI? Meet Emily Weinstein and Tim Hwang. They're research fellows at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) and have written a paper on the goals of export controls and whether what the US government is trying to achieve with them is clear. We discuss Did the US inadvertently help China make better missiles? How export controls have hurt some US industries' international competitiveness. What export controls can - and can't - do to prevent technology from being developed abroad. Important questions about the management of bowling alleys and churches. Here's the paper we discussed: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/decoupling-in-strategic-technologies/ Annotated bibliography: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/from-cold-war-sanctions-to-weaponized-interdependence/ Trade Journal Collective: https://www.tradejournalcooperative.com/ I have a newsletter which you should all sign up to read! Outro music: Noodles and Butter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlP-J5rssa0 Episode cover art made using Midjourney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What will the Biden administration's new export controls mean for the US and Chinese semiconductor industries as well as the future of the US-China relationship? To discuss, I assembled the Chips Avengers, consisting of Reva Goujon (Rhodium Group), Jay Goldberg (Digits to Dollars), Doug O'Laughlin (Fabricated Knowledge), and Martin Chorzempa (PIIE). We got into The second-order implications of the Biden Administration's moves for industry What it would take for China to circumvent these controls How Beijing might strike back How the regulations could impact the risk of war Outtro music by Chinese rapper and pop star 婁峻碩 called Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGl-s-FzsFI Image courtesy of midjourney from the prompt: "US China chip war EUV" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The AI revolution in art is coming, not in decades but months and years. What does this mean for creativity and how will it change the way artists work? Meet Campfire creative director Steve Coulson. He recently produced an entire comic book using images created by the midjourney AI art generator. Together with my brother Phil Schneider cohosting, we discuss: Whether using tech to generate art is taking money from already struggling artists How AI will end the stock photography industry Why Xi Jinping is banned on midjourney How young artists can get a leg up by learning to use AI The challenge of using AI generator tools when you don't speak English Check out Steve's comic Summer Island here: https://campfirenyc.com/summer-island/ Outro music: Antonio Vivaldi "Vedro con mio diletto" from Il Giustino by Jakub Józef Orliński (counter-tenor) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF4YXv6ZIuE I HAVE CHINATALK NEWSLETTER WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL SIGN UP TO READ! I even bought a new URL for you: chinatalk.media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What was life actually like for people in rural China over the last seventy years? Brew up a nice cup of tea and find a comfy armchair, it's time for another special edition of ChinaTalk. In this episode, Stanford University graduate student Vivian Zhong tells the story of her grandfather's life, from his childhood in the early days of the People's Republic to today pieced together from conversations they've shared over the years. She talks about: What it was like being a student in provincial China Days long trips down the Yangtze Why you shouldn't date in college How her grandfather came to hate sweet potatoes Outro music: Pengyou 朋友 by Emil Chau 周华健 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaA94HGo9A I HAVE CHINATALK NEWSLETTER WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL SIGN UP TO READ! I even bought a new url for you: chinatalk.media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kamil Galeev comes on the show to talk about the current situation in the war in Ukraine and what it means for: prospects of nuclear war Elite Russian politics and Putin's future viability State stability Moscow's grip on the regions This show was recorded on October 6th. Outtro music is a tatar folk song with the google-translated title "Look at your eyelashes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY-axn5sk70 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The US Commerce Department just dropped 100+ pages of new export control regulations that have the potential to reshape the future of the global semiconductor industry. But will these regs stop China from getting below 14nm? Is that a goal even worth pursuing? Are they really enforceable? And what are the tradeoffs baked into taking a unilateral vs multilateral approach? To discuss, I have on today Kevin Wolf, partner at the law firm Akin Gump and former BIS official with thirty years' experience in the field, to explain what it all means. We recorded this show Sunday October 9th. Cover art was created by midjourney with the prompt: "cyberpunk bureaucrat managing an export control regime" I could not find any good supercomputer music so this week's outtro music is a puerto rican banger by Mora and Jhay Cortez, perhaps reflecting the emotions MIIT employees are feeling at the moment? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgyn7_e9ReQ The views I express in this show do not reflect those of my employer the Rhodium Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How advanced is China's AI ecosystem and how much of it has military applicability? For a Department of Defense perspective, former DOD staffer and current CSIS fellow Greg Allen talks us through AI technology in China. Co-hosting is Eric Lofgren of the podcast AcquisitionTalk. We discuss AI usage in the war in Ukraine China's strategy for AI up to 2030 The military applications of AI technology How China's mixing of commercial and military tech makes international cooperation difficult Outro music: 谢帝 by 阿达娃 Adawa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcoIny3TD80 I HAVE CHINATALK NEWSLETTER WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL SIGN UP TO READ! I even bought a new url for you: chinatalk.media Click here to listen to ChinaTalk in your favorite podcast app. ChinaTalk substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com ChinaTalk Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jugurtha656 Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why aren't elderly people in China getting vaccinated? To talk all things vaccine from the early days of the PRC to Covid-19, this episode's guest is Cambridge University associate professor in global studies of science, technology and medicine Mary Brazelton (@brazelton_hps). She is also the author of the 2019 book Mass Vaccination: Citizens' Bodies and State Power in Modern China. Co-hosting is Henry Li (@AliusHenricus), policy lead at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. We discuss Covid-19 vaccinations and why some citizens need incentives to get vaxxed Unit 731 and the history of biological warfare in China What China learned from SARS The role of Traditional Chinese Medicine in modern health Outro music: Love Will Prevail by Various Artists including Jackie Chan and Wang Leehom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt2-5NrWQbU I HAVE CHINATALK NEWSLETTER WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL SIGN UP TO READ! I even bought a new url for you: chinatalk.media Click here to listen to ChinaTalk in your favorite podcast app. ChinaTalk substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com ChinaTalk Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jugurtha656 Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prepare a nice cup of tea and put your feet up for a special episode of stories and anecdotes about the late American historian and Sinologist Jonathan Spence, as told by his friend and colleague Paul Kennedy. He takes us through Why the worst thing about being stationed in Germany was the drunk British soldiers Conversations about Chinese history with Henry Kissinger How archaeological digs win you contracts with provincial governments Spence's approach to research and scholarship Outro Music: 'This Map' from the opera The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (!!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71cJopakfAw Here's a video recording of the whole opera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_susz11wE9Q PLUS I HAVE A NEWSLETTER! Check it out! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI safety is having a moment. To discuss why AI safety matters for national security, today I have on Paul Scharre (@Paul_scharre). He’s the Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS. He previously served in OSD Policy and as a US Army Ranger. We discuss What the future of war looks like as militaries around the world adopt AI technologies Why using AI in warfare isn't as easy as people think How supply chains can be used as a form of arms control Historical weapons so horrible people simply didn't use them How to get a job at CNAS (they're hiring at cnas.org/careers) Outro music: A.I. 爱 by 王力宏 Wang Leehom, a very much cancelled Taiwanese pop star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4DuqEL0ChQ. I HAVE CHINATALK NEWSLETTER WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL SIGN UP TO READ! I even bought a new url for you: chinatalk.media Click here to listen to ChinaTalk in your favorite podcast app. ChinaTalk substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com ChinaTalk Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jugurtha656 Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does America need an industrial policy to compete in biotech? Today I'm joined by two guests, Ryan Fedasiuk (@RyanFedasiuk) and Gigi Gronvall (@ggronvall). Ryan is a fellow currently on leave from Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Gigi is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. We discuss: The growing uses of biotechnology Biotech security in China and the US How biotech students can be better supported Whether Dwight Schrute was right about the value of beets all along Outro music: 发现美的耳朵 by 马思唯 and 也是福 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaJHDriJGPE I HAVE A NEWSLETTER! Check it out! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wouldn't it be nice to have a world where important policy decisions were decided based on evidence and data rather than narratives and turf battles? Dan Spokojny thought so too, and that's why he's the founder of fp21, a think tank dedicated to changing the processes and institutions of US foreign policy. Along with Jon Bateman, a senior fellow in the technology and international affairs program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in this episode we talk about some of the failings of contemporary foreign policy decision making processes and what can be done to fix them, including: How to bring more rigor to making policy decisions Why the current system loves a good storyteller What sort of training future foreign policy makers should be getting - but aren't Outro music: Good Bayesian by Baba Brinkman, MC Lars and Mega Ran https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV6Wc_f1Cgo&t=195s I HAVE CHINATALK NEWSLETTER WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL SIGN UP TO READ! I even bought a new url for you: chinatalk.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Aug 9th Biden signed the Chips + Science Act into law. What’s it gunna do for science? Joining us today is  Tim Clancy, founder of Arch Street consulting and former COngressional staffer and NSF official. Toby Smith, Senior VP for Science Policy at the Association of American Universites Cohosting with me is Jacob Feldgoise, Who recently wrote a column on the Act on the CHINATALK NEWSLETTER WHICH YOU SHOULD ALL SIGN UP TO READ! I even bought a new url for you: chinatalk.media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I HAVE A NEWSLETTER! Subscribe to it at https://www.chinatalk.media/ A few weeks back, Congress actually did something, passing the Chips and Science Act. Most of you have probably heard of the billions going toward subsidizing domestic manufacturing, but a far less-heralded part of the bill may end up matting more in the long run. The Act created the ‘National Semiconductor Technology Center.’ What is it and why does it matter? To discuss, Eric Breckenfeld of the Semiconductor Industry Association and Hassan Khan, who holds a PhD in engineering and public policy, join the show. Outtro music: 发现美的耳朵 by 马思唯 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaJHDriJGPE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I HAVE A NEWSLETTER! Subscribe to it at https://www.chinatalk.media/ To discuss, Eric Breckenfeld of the Semiconductor Industry Association and Hassan Khan, who holds a PhD in engineering and public policy, Outtro Music: Leo王 - 陪妳過假日 feat. 9m88 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS89Vb07C-U Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year marks ten years since Wang Lijun's fateful flight to the US Embassy in Chengdu, a decision which set in motion a chain of events that ultimately brought down one of China's most powerful politicians, Xi's most credible rival for power in 2012, Bo Xilai. The former mayor of Chongqing remains in prison to this day for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of office, along with his wife Gu Kailai, who is serving life imprisonment for the murder of a British businessman. But a decade later, how much of an impact does Bo's story have in the halls of power? New York Times reporter Chris Buckley joins the show this episode to discuss Bo's legacy and share anecdotes about his encounters with him prior to his arrest, along with formerly Chongqing-based author Xujun Eberlein. Former ChinaTalk producer Alex Boyd co-hosts. We discuss Bo's rise to power in Dalian and his move to Chongqing How Chongqing's man-on-the-street viewed Bo during his tenure - and after The similarities and differences between Bo and Xi Jinping Where is Bo now? I HAVE A NEWSLETTER! Check it out! https://www.chinatalk.media/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I HAVE A NEWSLETTER! Check it out! Joseph Torigian’s “Prestige, Manipulation and Coercion, Elite Power Struggles in The Soviet Union and China After Stalin and Mao” is in pole position for my best China book of 2022. Books that deeply engage with both Soviet and CCP primary sources around elite politics basically never come out nowadays. I for one am deeply grateful that Joe, one of the few folks on the planet with the training, language skills, and motivation to this sort of work, was able to produce this book. Joe puts forward convincing revisionist interpretations of Khrushchev’s triumph after Stalin’s death, had me reconsider my conception of the Gang of 4 after Mao’s death, and made me feel for Hua Guofeng getting done dirty by Deng. His new model of how power transitions really work in authoritarian countries with weak institutions left me more scared than hopeful for whatever happens once Xi exits stage left. Cohosting with me is Lizzi, a video journalist at Wall Street TV, a New York-based independent Chinese language media outlet focusing on Chinese politics and economics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Churchill announced in 1946 that an iron curtain had descended over Europe, the US government only employed two dozen experts on the Soviet Union. Two years later, with the cold war well underway, the CIA only had 12 Russian speakers. Over the following decades, philanthropists and the US government started an intellectual mobilization that had profound effects on the course of the cold war. To talk about this, David Engerman, author of Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America's Soviet Experts, joins the show along with cohosts Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts, and Sam George, who just finished a masters in East Asian studies at Stanford. We discuss: How America created a cadre of Sovietologists. What their impact was on US policy. Why the experiment ultimately failed. What lessons the story has for contemporary area studies and China studies in particular. Outro music: We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g Check out David's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Know-Your-Enemy-Americas-Experts/dp/0199832471 ChinaTalk substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com ChinaTalk Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jugurtha656 Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of Abe's assassination, I thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on the man and his legacy. Last year I recorded an episode discussing Abe Shinzo, second only to Xi as the most consequential East Asian politician of the 21st century. Tobias Harris of the Center for American Progress joined to discuss his new biography of Abe, The Iconoclast. Tobias and I discussed His dramatic rise, fall, and rise again to power How he reshaped governance in Japan through bureaucratic reform How he managed relations with the US and China How tasty his wife's Izakaya is Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  Outtro Music: あそびたりない by Pop Art Town https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icqfJx_0_W0&list=PL0Lwt5eNBHLmL8zP03KbqekrRbje8FCbu&index=92 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm off getting married/honeymooning for the next couple of weeks so in my absence please enjoy this fine ChinaTalk vintage. How can China be so corrupt and yet grow so fast? What's the relationship between corruption and competent governance? How does 'access money' at the higher levels differ from the "profit-sharing" you see lower down in the bureaucracy? How does China in the 21st century compare with America's gilded age? And why won't anyone give me dinosaur eggs? To discuss, Prof. Yuen Yuen Ang joins the show to talk about her fantastic new book, China's Gilded Age. The incredible propaganda rap song feat. Xi Jinping here. ChinaTalk substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com ChinaTalk Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jugurtha656 Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mister Softee, the famed northeastern American ice cream brand, in Suzhou, China? Yes, that was a thing. Turner Sparks, rising from humble beginnings as just another English teacher making his way in the world, achieved fame and fortune thanks to a catchy jingle and some tasty mango-flavored soft serve. Yet his vision of China-wide ice cream domination dissolved amid a deluge of backstabbing regulators, slashed tires, and stolen cones. Listen here to learn about the circumstances that finally melted Turner’s ice cream dream. ChinaTalk substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com ChinaTalk Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jugurtha656 Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From then-PM David Cameron knocking back pints with Xi at the local pub to the Chinese ambassador being banned from Parliament: how has China's relationship with the UK changed since the so-called Golden Era? This week we have on Sam Hogg (@BeijingToBrit), the recently unmasked writer behind the Substack Beijing to Britain. Co-hosted by ChinaTalk's editor and crypto journalist Callan Quinn (@Quinnishvili). We discuss The decline of the UK-China relationship UK attitudes and policy towards Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan The building up of Chinese expertise within Parliament and the government Confucius Institutes, higher education and Liu Xiaoming's foot fetish Outro music: Shook Ones Part 2 by Mobb Deep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKpYJ80OVQ Check out Beijing to Britain here: https://beijingtobritain.substack.com ChinaTalk substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com ChinaTalk Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jugurtha656 Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where should US-China tech relations go? What should “Competitive when it should be. Collaborative when it can be. Adversarial when it must be” actually mean in practice? To discuss, on this episode we have John Bateman, a newly minted senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and my Rhodium colleague Charlie Vest as co-host. We get into - Analyzing the China tech threat and current tech policy - US public strategy on China and tech and why it’s not very clear. - How LCD panels made it onto the list of critical tech in mid-nineties but mobile phones didn’t.  - Why it’s so difficult for intelligence analysts to assess and predict the behavior of a foreign leader.  John's report: https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/04/25/u.s.-china-technological-decoupling-strategy-and-policy-framework-pub-86897 What American policymakers read: https://scholars-stage.org/american-policy-makers-do-not-read-books/ Outro music: Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues by Bob Dylan, live at Carnegie Hall 1963 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Xn9YOKPcQ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act will come into force in the US on June, 21, 2022. On this episode, John Foote, a partner and the head of the customs practice at Kelley Drye & Warren, discusses the ins and out of what it will mean for companies importing to the US. We also get into: - The legal history of preventing goods produced by forced labor from being imported to the US. - How companies could run into supply chain issues if any of their raw materials for goods come from Xinjiang. - What it means for Chinese entities. - The difficult appeals process for disputing customs seizures.  Outro music: Alenurkhan performed by Ayshemgul Memet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvVJrSXiwOI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China is now the largest market for movies globally, and there have long been whispers about exactly how this impacts Hollywood decisions when it comes to scripts and casting. This episode I’m joined by Erich Schwartzel, author of Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, for a deep dive into the world of Chinese cinema, Chinese movies abroad and China in Hollywood. Along with co-host Irene Liu, a research analyst at Rhodium Group, we get into: Why the director of Seven Years in Tibet apologized to China 15 years after its release Which tech giant has a minority stake in Steven Spielberg’s production company Whether Richard Gere is unhireable Why the Kenyan official responsible for importing films loves Chinese ones The American movies makers involved in Wolf Warriors Irina Nistor, the Romanian translator of Rambo: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/opinion/vhs-vs-communism.html. Chuck Norris vs Communism was a fantastic movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znp1dNaPp3k Outro music: My New Swag (我的新衣) by VAVA feat. Ty. and Nina Wang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aknkofx2bHg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hal Brands (@HalBrands), professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, is the author of The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today. Along with co-host Emily Jin @ew_jin) of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), we discuss: How the US capitalized on Soviet heavy-handedness in the developing world How technology impacted the broader trajectory of the Cold War The US’s never-ending cycles of self-confidence and self-doubt Today’s Sinologists versus Cold War Sovietologists Why the only person who can stop the war in Ukraine is the one who started it Outro music: Nancy by Ak Benjamin ft. Marz23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agIvGYMA7Cw CHECK OUT THE CHINATALK SUBSTACK! https://chinatalk.substack.com Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did Chinese painting, arguably the elitist of arts, fare during the Cultural Revolution? To discuss ink paintings, socialist realism, oil paintings and the political upheavals that formed their backdrop, I’m joined by artist Arnold Chang and Curator of Chinese Paintings at the MET in NY, Joe Scheier-Dawlberg. We discuss: Whether chaotic periods produce the best art The role of escapism in the creation of Chinese paintings Painting, the CCP and the four olds Why so many Chinese paintings have writing on them Which university exhibited a 12 by 20 foot oil painting of yours truly without prior permission Check out the newsletter at https://chinatalk.substack.com/ James Cahill lecture series: https://ieas.berkeley.edu/publications/ieas-publications/james-cahill-video-lectures/pure-and-remote-view-all-lectures Cover art is the random giant painting of me. Check out my teacher's paintings here! https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KnvizfUxkr6TDlZk6sf6_Q Outtro music: 良宵引, a Ming dynasty banger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s99gDVECTro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Standards. Who has them? From shipping containers to screws to tech gadgets, how is it that something made in China can have certain attributes identical to another product made by another company half a world away? And why does it matter? MIT professor and business history JoAnne Yates and Wellesley professor of political science Craig Murphy are the authors of Engineering Rules: Global Standard Setting since 1880. Together with co-host Jacob Feldgoise, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, we talk about how international standards were established at the impact this had on China’s development. We also discuss How standardized shipping containers made China’s rise possible Why Tim Berners Lee is a benevolent overlord Who has the most influence in setting international standards Why Europe might be more annoying than China from a US standards perspective Outro music: Gonna Be An Engineer by Peggy Seeger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IGVxBb5uYk CHECK OUT THE CHINATALK SUBSTACK! https://chinatalk.substack.com Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1991, a young Chinese academic published America against America, a look at the contradictions and paradoxes he observed while traveling there. His book was largely forgotten until last year when it went viral for its observations on US cultural decline, becoming a hot topic on Chinese-language forums.   It was no less fascinating for who its author was. Wang Huning is today one of the top leaders in the CCP and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Freelance journalist Chang Che (@Changxche) sat down to talk with me about the book and what it tells us about Chinese interpretations of US - and Western - culture. We also discuss The Shanghai lockdown Why the teaching of Western classical civilization took off in China... ...But also makes very little mention of religion The CCP take on the US culture wars and rewriting curriculums CHECK OUT THE CHINATALK SUBSTACK! https://chinatalk.substack.com Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Chang’s Wang Huning Article: https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/how-a-book-about-americas-history-foretold-chinas-future Chang’s western classics education article: https://supchina.com/2022/01/13/china-looks-to-the-western-classics/ Outro Music: 锦上添花 FREESTYLE by 盛宇 Damnshine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRaoDr1Cbbg Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is a nuclear arms race inevitable? China has been building up its nuclear arsenal over the past few years. While it remains significantly smaller than the US and Russia’s, what does this mean for geopolitics against the backdrop of US-China tensions and the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Tong Zhao (@zhaot2005) is a fellow at the Carnegie Center in Beijing who focuses on China’s nuclear program. Co-hosting is Schwarzmann Scholar Raven Witherspoon. We also discuss Why China sees NATO as the aggressor and Russia as the victim Why policy experts’ lack of technical literacy is a big problem How China understands nuclear deterrence China’s argument for Putin being a rational actor Whether there is any hope Outro music: 七里香 Remix (original version by Jay Chou) by MACOVASEAS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVvpgNG0giM ChinaTalk is on Substack! See, share, subscribe: https://chinatalk.substack.com Also now on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXOtILmQEo3pL_1bJfUOFWw And please consider supporting ChinaTalk on Patreon so we can eat more Haidilao before the world ends: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CSIS' Bonny Lin joins to discuss how Beijing is responding to the war in Ukraine, potential future paths for Chinese policy, whether the IC could pull the same intelligence coups in Beijing as they did in Moscow, how the PLA may adapt to lessons from in theater, and what Biden should do if Putin drops a tactical nuclear weapon. This show was recorded on March 31st. Bonny's testimony on Beijing and the war in Ukraine https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20220330/114573/HHRG-117-FA05-Wstate-LinB-20220330.pdf Check out Bonny's piece on military blunders https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR768.html Subscribe to the ChinaTalk feed! https://chinatalk.substack.com/ And consider supporting the show at https://patreon.com/chinatalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taipei-based DJ and New Bloom editor Brian Hioe (@brianhioe) takes us on a tour of the local indie music scene and explains what some of last year’s top tunes can tell us about Taiwanese politics and culture, from the influence of indigenous communities to attitudes towards China. We also discuss Earning a living making music in Taiwan v China Brian’s twitter fights with tankie rappers Taiwan’s indie music dating app How Wang Leehom’s divorce drama overshadowed a national referendum Song links" 拍謝少年 Sorry Youth - 歹勢中年 Sorry No Youth TALACOWA - Collage ABAO阿爆（阿仍仍)【tjakudain 無奈】 feat. 李英宏 aka Dj Didilong Sonia Calico - Mukbang Roller 無妄合作社 No-nonsense Collective - 平靜的告別 Quiet Farewell 鍾翔宇 Xiangyu - 流言蜚語 Rumors and Slanders Rainbow Chan - Stanley Outro Music: The Moon Represents My Heart by Teresa Teng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk3VQoAKMUI CHECK OUT THE CHINATALK SUBSTACK! https://chinatalk.substack.com Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 2010s, US Navy officers took cash, prostitutes and more from a Malaysian defense contractor known as Fat Leonard. To tell a story that bears more than a hint of resemblance to the Jho Low 1MDB scandal, award-winning journalist Tom Wright (@tomwrightasia) joins me to discuss Fat Leonard’s relationship with the military and how it all came crashing down. Tom is the host of the podcast series FAT LEONARD, and previously wrote a New York Times bestseller on Jho Low titled Billion Dollar Whale. We discuss How Fat Leonard managed to earn millions through US Navy contracts The fate of the Navy officers who got mixed up with him The secret orgy recordings now in China’s possession Which Chinese historical events deserve the Death of Stalin treatment Support ChinaTalk on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Check out the Substack: https://chinatalk.substack.com/ Outtro music: V - Swizz Beats by Lil Jon feat. Jho Low (unreleased) Bonus: The song Tom mentions about Jho Low and Leonardo DiCaprio is Check My Steezo by Blind Scuba Divers, from the 22 Jump Street official soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcnMvZC6pb0 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will Germany’s policy changes towards Russia have a knock-on effect on its attitude towards China? To get the view from Germany, I’m joined by Berlin-based Noah Barkin (@noahbarkin), the managing editor of Rhodium Group’s China practice. We discuss Whether Europe is pushing China to exercise its influence over Russia How Ukraine has changed Germany’s attitude towards the military Why the Polish president had to give new Chancellor Olaf Scholz a shake The new “democracies versus authoritarians” paradigm Consider applying to intern at Rhodium! https://rhg.com/job/research-interns-china-practice/ Outro music: 99 Luftballons by Nena https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Head of Riga Stradins University China Studies Centre, Head of the Asia program at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, and a member of the European Think tank Network on China, joins to discuss. Outtro music: Stefania (Kalush Orchestra) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nRQWc4YKGU Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matej Šimalčík, Executive Director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, joins from Bratislava to discuss: The reception of BRI in Eastern and Central Europe 10 years on How the war will accelerate changes in opinion towards China Jordan and Matej reminiscing about Pohoda, the greatest music festival on the planet (my writeup from 2015 https://medium.com/@jordanschneider/pohoda-the-world-s-greatest-music-festival-675f3da2ae24) This conversation was recorded Feb 27th. Outtro music (a slovak banger): gleb - Zešlach Crunk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMxLdOQns_o Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Tooze and Matt Klein return to ChinaTalk to discuss the war in Ukraine. We get into Why Adam is as scared as he's ever been What caused the EU to rally together 'NATO for Trade' for sanctions What this means for Taiwan Recorded on Sunday Feb 27th at 4pm est. Please consider making a donation to https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/faq/#menu Outtro Music: As Chumaks Rode to Crimea for Salt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1j9t7Bd_fg Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ivana Karásková, China Research Fellow and a Project Coordinator at the Association for International Affairs (AMO), shares her view from Central Europe. We discuss Why so many Europeans came out in the streets today The German political about-face in favor of supporting Ukraine What this means for the future of the EU What Xi thinks about all of this My half-baked sleep-deprived Biden hottakes This podcast was recorded midday US time on Sunday the 27th. Please consider making a donation to https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/faq/#menu Outtro music: DakhaBrakha - Sho z-pod duba - ДахаБраха - Шо з-под дуба https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2VihbgWGF8 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Miller of Tufts joins to discuss Why Putin invaded Why he humiliated his security council If Putin is on drugs US public opinion and the politics of sanctions Sanctions' impact on the Russian economy Russia/China tech trade in the context of global sanctions The far-reaching implications of Ukrainian heroism This show was recorded on Feb 26. Please consider making a donation to https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/faq/#menu Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Sherman of the Atlantic Council joins to discuss Putin's history of cyber operations How he sees the current state of play What is Putin thinking about as he considers escalating in the cyber domain The tradeoffs of various policy choices facing American and Europeans leaders thinking about more aggressive offensive cyber operations Please consider making a donation at https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/faq/#menu Outtro music: KALUSH - Не маринуй https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqG2pkbRgr8&list=PLQCynOki8DRB9hWY1WiAV03bXcjrV3Txd Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s the point of NASA? Will Starlink end up funding Elon’s Mars dreams? To discuss the US space ecosystem in both the private and public sector, I am joined by Casey Handmer (@CJHandmer), former NASA Jet Propulsion Lab system architect and founder of Terraform Industries. We also talk about The potential for Starlink to improve internet access in developing countries Whether the US immigration system is hurting its ability to attract the best scientists Making electricity from air How much it would cost to send me into space Check out Casey’s blog here: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com Outtro music: To The Moon by Jnr Choi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzrbpG6UI7c Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you know your breaking porcelain from your eating human-blood-soaked steam buns? Slow Chinese author Andrew Methven (@AndrewMethven) joins me to talk about some of the newest and most interesting Chinese internet slang from the previous year and their origin stories. We discuss new words and phrases inspired by Haidilao cockroach scams, misbehaving tech companies and 996 culture, as well as: Which slang phrases have been co-opted into party talk Luckin Coffee founder Charles Lu’s latest venture Whether idioms are fortelling the fates of Chinese celebrities The best sites Chinese-language sites and accounts for Chinese news See Andrew’s full list here: https://newsletter.slowchinese.net/p/china-in-2021-in-21-words Outro Music: Hip Hop No Party MC (嘻哈沒有派對) HotDog (熱狗) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzfMegHg2tY Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author of China's Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Peter Martin (@PeterMartin_PCM) and Schwarzman scholar Jason Zhou return to take us from the young diplomats venturing out of China in the eighties to today’s Wolf Warriors and the adoption of more nationalist rhetoric. We also discuss Chinese diplomats’ and Canadian retirement homes Xi Jinping’s father-in-law and his admiration for Thatcher Tiananmen and rebuilding China back from diplomatic isolation Why Chinese right-wingers send the foreign ministry calcium pills Whether Wang Yi can handle Maotai Check out Peter's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Civilian-Army-Warrior-Diplomacy/dp/0197513700 Outro music: I Am the Wife of Mao Tse-tung from Nixon in China by John Adams, performed by Kathleen Kim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mtMI_huRtY Public notice: ChinaTalk's editor Callan is currently in London and planning an informal meetup up on February 24th. Details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/china-nerds-meetup-tickets-261114549647 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why has China and its foreign ministry struggled to communicate with the world? In his book, China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, Peter Martin (@PeterMartin_PCM) traces the history of China’s post-1949 diplomatic corps, from the impact of Zhou Enlai’s experiences in Paris to reluctant guerrilla-generals-turned-ambassadors trying to get to grips with manning embassies half a world away from Cultural Revolution China. Along with Schwarzman scholar Jason Zhou, we dissect the international diplomacy up to Kissinger’s visit to China. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://patreon.com/chinatalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can US-China relations learn from US-Japan relations in the leadup to WWII? To discuss, I’m joined by Stony Brook University’s Michael Barnhart, author of the 1987 Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919–1941 and the more recent Can You Beat Churchill?: Teaching History through Simulations (https://www.amazon.com/Can-You-Beat-Churchill-Simulations/dp/1501755641), with Scholar’s Stage essayist Tanner Greer (@Scholars_Stage) cohosting. We discuss What motivated Japan to invade China Why FDR was particularly worried about a Japanese invasion of the USSR Why Japan and the Nazis thought the West would be on their side The benefits of paying attention to mid level bureaucrats For an ad-free feed, please consider supporting ChinaTalk on Patreon or Substack! Outro music: Bei Mir Bist Du Shein by The Andrew Sisters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2UXccid40 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See here for the Year in Review in text form with lots of links: https://chinatalk.substack.com/p/2021-year-in-review-future-plans Support ChinaTalk on Patreon at https://patreon.com/chinatalk Fill out this form to help my 'market research' on how to construct the CCP course! https://forms.gle/dXKjzfXWyxyi2ixg9 Wanna cohost a ChinaTalk episode? Fill out this form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0DIG0PlM3PxRZVoBs6BZYiTgQr8945Y44llRazzqQVzwwjw/viewform Here's how to record a voice memo. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/15/496888150/nprs-guide-to-sending-audio Outtro music: 弹壳 Danko - 《ANYWAY》https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLcEXu4cSUA Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NYT bestselling YA author Xiran Jay Zhao (@XiranJayZhao) joins me to talk about her new book, Iron Widow, a Pacific Rim meets Handmaiden's tale sci-fi retelling of the story of Wu Zetian. Co-hosting is ChinaTalk's editor Callan Quinn (@quinnishvili). We discuss: Chinese history Easter eggs in Iron Widow Going viral and Youtube China content How censorship is stifling creativity in C-dramas Why Xiran thinks Confucius was an arsehole Link to Iron Widow: https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Widow-Xiran-Jay-Zhao/dp/0735269939 Rhodium' careers site: https://rhg.com/careers/ Outtro Music: Lexie Liu's Manta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvUnPl5_BA Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's it like to live across the US-China scientific divide? Yale Law School postdoc, particle physicist and essayist Yangyang Cheng (@yangyang_cheng) joins me alongside undergrad Alex Liang to talk about understanding the other, how the personal can be lost in the noise of geopolitical tension and science across borders. We also discuss Power hierarchies and identities The “new red scare” and scrutiny on Chinese scientists The Large Hadron Collider as a Language as an instrument of state power "Brain drain" and other phrases Yangyang doesn't like Please consider supporting ChinaTalk on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Links to Yangyang’s articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-china-US.html https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/05/west-china-threat-real-place-domestic-agendas https://thebulletin.org/premium/2020-12/the-edge-of-our-existence-a-particle-physicist-examines-the-architecture-of-society/ Outro music: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free by Nina Simone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inNBpizpZkE Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dewey Murdick, director of CSET, discusses how the organization has brought a new level of rigor to hot topics ranging from chips to immigration and AI safety policy. We also discuss: CSET's Map of Science and the fate of Google Scholar Being beholden to the checkbooks of funders Topics that make policymakers' eyes roll - but shouldn't The optimal employment conditions for growing temperate, nice, low-ego, tasty fruit Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk for an ad-free feed. Outtro music that Dewey eventually got around to sending me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk Daisy Bell - the first computer to sing Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can eating your sons be morally justified? Stratagems of the Warring States is a collection of stories compiled during the Han dynasty about the many states that fought for control of all under heaven in the Warring States Period between the fifth and third centuries BC. Featuring tales of hostages, statecraft, assassinations and throwing shade on princelings, in this special episode of ChinaTalk, voice actors Jacob Guenther and Chara Lin perform excerpts of Jennifer Dodgson's translation into English, while Dodgson herself discusses each piece. Check out Jennifer's website hosting her translations here. Performances include Qin recruits troops and advances on Zhou to demand the nine cauldrons East Zhou wishes to grow rice Gong Ta defects from West Zhou Zhang Yi runs out of money in Chu An attack on Zhongshan The Queen Dowager of Zhao takes over the running of state affairs Outtro music: Prince Qin Breaking Through the Enemy Array, traditional Tang-era music performed by Hubei Chime Bells Orchestra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvTul5_js_A&list=RDadcGeuTMmBA&index=8 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does the 6th Plenum communique tell us about where Xi wants to take China? What can you learn by reading the People’s Daily daily and writing a substack on it? And how would you design a course to learn how to read the CCP? To discuss, Manoj Kewalramani (@theChinaDude) of the https://trackingpeoplesdaily.substack.com/ and https://manojkewalramani.substack.com/ newsletters, joins to discuss. For an ad-free feed, please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m1Uf1hbrxU Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Winner of the inaugural Rhodium and China Talk essay contest, recent college grad Maggie Baughman discusses her essay on how the Chinese government uses Western social media to promote their desired image of China internationally with myself and co-host Jeff Kao, a computational journalist at ProPublica. We discuss: The companies offering Chinese entities access and marketing on western social media How China's approach to western social media differs to that in Russia and Iran Foreign influencers on Weibo Why tourism bureaus love pandas, sunsets and happy workers Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at patreon.com/chinatalk Outtro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reYOZ8BrVeg Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Red Roulette, Desmond Shum’s memoir of a fast life, deep in the bowels of Chinese politics, is the bombshell China book of 2021. It tells the story of his rise from an impoverished childhood in cultural revolution-era Shanghai and Hong Kong to his marriage to his social climbing wife with ties to the premier of China, and ultimate downfall as Xi’s anti-corruption push caught up with him.  New York Times reporter Mike Forsythe (@PekingMike) and Lizzi C Lee (@wstv_lizzi), a journalist at the independent Chinese outlet Wall St TV, join me to discuss. We get into: Corruption crackdowns under Xi Jinping Western reporters reporting on China The not-so-well-hidden fortunes of Politburo members The dietary habits of traveling Chinese officials For an ad-free feed, please consider supporting ChinaTalk on Patreon at https://patreon.com/chinatalk Outtro music: The Reform Group is Two Years Old by CCTV feat. Xi Jinping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhU8C5RCbBs&t=3s Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China's energy problems are back in the news. Joining me to discuss them is Yan Qin, lead analyst at Refinitiv, with my Rhodium colleague Irina Liu as co-host. We discuss Whether China is serious about its climate pledge Why Chinese industry is moving westwards How "carbon neutral" became a hot topic The importance of global cooperation on climate change For an ad-free feed, please consider supporting ChinaTalk on Patreon here https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/1959352 check out masterworks.io/chinatalk to buy some art! Outtro music: 020 by Tizzy T https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKqjZMA-F88 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lisa Porter joins me with Eric Lofgren from AcquisitionTalk as cohost to reflect on how R&D works and doesn't work `in the Pentagon. Lisa served as was deputy director of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the DoD, founding director of IARPA, and executive vice president of In-Q-Tel. We touch on: How the error correction of free markets is absent in DoD A round of overrated/underrated on critical S&T areas How successful government organizations empower their staff Why the US lost its dominance in space launch Please consider supporting ChinaTalk on Patreon here! https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/1959352 Outtro Music: 甜甜圈🍩 - KKLUV/WOLF GANG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sj0_J1KnbM Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts of the Dongfang Hour (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3UXwB0UbUIg4z4vssUHPBw), a podcast focusing on the Chinese aerospace industry, Blain Curcio and Jean Deville join me in another ChinaTalk space episode to talk about launches in China and public enthusiasm for space projects. We discuss The Belt and Road in space The differences between the Starlink and Guowang networks Europe’s dilemma on selling to the US and China China’s ambitious space projects in the 2020s Why the vibe in the Chinese private space industry is “smiley and optimistic” Check out https://www.masterworks.io/chinatalk Please consider supporting the show at https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Outtro Music: Young Thug ft Elton Jon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqIyH_9uaOQ Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group returns to the pod to discuss Evergrande's implosion, how we got here, and what this week means for China's economy. Read Credit and Credibility! https://www.csis.org/analysis/credit-and-credibility-risks-chinas-economic-resilience If you only have time for one section, start with section 6. Check out Jon's substack here https://jonathonpsine.substack.com/ Come work for Rhodium! https://rhg.com/careers/ My email is jorschneider @ gmail or on twitter at https://twitter.com/jordanschnyc Outtro music: 朱添澤 - 想 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfRvjlcMuoY Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Lovell, author of Maoism: A Global History and The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China, discusses translating Journey to the West (https://www.amazon.com/Monkey-King-Journey-Classics-Hardcover/dp/0143107186), for English audiences. Joined by translator Brendan O'Kane as co-host, on this episode we discuss: The origins of Journey to the West and the exploits of its primate protagonist Sun Wukong. Mao's relationship to the novel and how he saw himself in the Monkey King. Why performances of the story in the Mao era cut out more than 90% of the story Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvA78U8sWn0 Great Sage Equal to Heaven by Hua Chenyu Want to meet up in the bay Oct 5-10th? Hit me up on twitter or at jorschneider @ gmail Outtro music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvA78U8sWn0 Great Sage Equal to Heaven by Hua Chenyu Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did Russian imperial ambitions and expansionism eastward change over time? Joining me on this episode is Chris Miller, author of We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin. Chris is a history professor at the Fletcher School and Eurasia Director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Cohosting is independent researcher, journalist and fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute Kamil Galeev. Reach out to him on twitter if you have a place for him to live in DC! We also look at: How the fur trade spurred Russian interest in Alaska, California and Hawaii Russia, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party Why Xinjiang didn’t end up like Mongolia Chairman Mao’s new shoes Outtro music: Kamil's suggestion of what he tells me was a Soviet anti-Japanese war song (it slaps) Три танкиста (three tank men) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp22_BHJDJk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was a guest on the Compounding Curiosity podcast, a new show founded by a ChinaTalk fan that focuses on ASEAN, and we had a halfway decent conversation! Hope you enjoy. Mentioned Content: After Xi: Future Scenarios for Leadership Succession in Post-xi Jinping Era China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed by Andrew G. Walder Outtro Music: 功夫胖KUNGFU-PEN -《阿修罗》https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRAO-f6LxUI Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How much credit can the CCP claim post-1949 for the higher level of human development relative to the level of visible capital in China? To discuss, historian Adam Tooze and Matt Klein of the Overshoot come for their third ChinaTalk appearance. We go back to the oft-forgotten hyperinflation of the 1940s to why in the 80s the World Bank believed a little bit of policy tinkering would lead China’s economy to skyrocket. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://patreon.com/chinatalk for an ad-free feed! For a transcript and links to the stuff we talked about, check out the newsletter at https://chinatalk.substack.com/ Wanna cohost a ChinaTalk episode? Submit ideas for shows here! Outtro music: Capper - "牧羊少年/Ἐνδυμίων" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRQoE6dRGSo Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did SpaceX revolutionize the global space industry? To discuss SpaceX's origin story and secret sauce, guest Eric Berger, author of Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX, joins the show. Cory Fitz, author of the TaikoNautica newsletter on China's space industry (http://taikonautica.substack.com), cohosts and shares his perspective on the Chinese launch ecosystem. We discuss: How SpaceX almost didn't succeed The role of government in the commercial space industry 996 culture vs SpaceX engineers Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://www.patreon.com/ChinaTalk Outro music: Space Oddity by David Bowie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

@BadChinaTake, an anonymous twitter account that combined vicious takedowns of, well, bad china takes with a blog https://wokeglobaltimes.com/ that does deep dives into everything from tankie subcultures to China’s xinjiang policy, is one of the best things to hit China twitter. BadChinaTake was recently unmasked as Jake Eberts, a young DC-based China analyst. He joins us today to talk about his journey to twitter infamy. We get into Whether the CIA, Chinese government, or George Soros fund him Crisis, danger and opportunity Whether you should argue with children online The DC think tank complex and China Twitter’s redeemable qualities Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outro music: 不再是少年 by 猛虎巧克力 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0wuSbUl2gM Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2019, Thomas Colvin, Irina Liu and Shirley Han at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (https://www.ida.org/ida-ffrdcs/science-and-technology-policy-institute) were part of a team of researchers that published what is to date the most comprehensive English-language overview (https://www.ida.org/research-and-publications/publications/all/e/ev/evaluation-of-chinas-commercial-space-sector) of China’s growing space industry. We discuss Why Chinese space startups say business acumen is one of their biggest weaknesses How ITAR actually helped China’s space industry grow The space market in the developing world The state of my internet cables Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  Outro Music: Mi fai impassire by BLANCO ft. Sfera Ebbasta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJNOkLCIg5Y Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do Roombas illustrate the promise and peril of translational research? Which valley of death is really the worst valley of death? And how can woolly mammoths save the planet from climate change?   To discuss, I have on: Andrew Sosanya, Policy Analyst for the Day One Project Adam Marblestone of Schmidt Futures (his policy proposal: https://www.dayoneproject.org/post/focused-research-organizations-to-accelerate-science-technology-and-medicine, his blog https://longitudinal.blog/, geo-engineering https://longitudinal.blog/co2-series-part-3-other-interventions/) Orin Hoffman at The Engine (his policy proposal: https://www.engine.xyz/news-item/a-unified-government-vc-approach-to-crossing-the-valleys-of-death/) Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIh4GFUKaSE  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Miller of Tufts and I discuss our report Labs over Fabs, our case for the US to be spending money more broadly than currently conceived by the CHIPS act. (https://chinatalk.substack.com/p/labs-over-fabs-risc-vs-promise)   Please consider supporting ChinaTalk! https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  JP Kleinhans (@JPKleinhans) joins to cohost and discuss his April 2021 report that argues it's dumb for Europe to drop billions on some shiny new fabs. https://www.stiftung-nv.de/sites/default/files/eu-semiconductor-manufacturing.april_.2021.pdf The BIS filings we were talking about: https://www.regulations.gov/document/BIS-2021-0011-0001/comment  Outtro music: Masiwei of Higher Brothers' Dark Horse sessions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qymY1YezhTY    Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does Xi govern like he's running out of time? Rhodium's Dan Rosen and CSIS' Jude Blanchette discuss their recent Foreign Affairs pieces recapping the past years of Xi's rule from an economic and political perspective. We get into failed financial liberalization, anti-corruption, the prospects for war over Taiwan, lessons from Sputnik, and vertical farming.   Dan's FA piece: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-06-22/chinas-economic-reckoning Jude's FA Piece: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-06-22/xis-gamble Outtro music (for my money the best propaganda song ever rapped!) PG One 破晓 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5JKHP0DtNc  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did Chinese firms come to dominate the global solar industry? Now that the Biden administration has banned imports for some key components of solar panels made in Xinjiang, how will global solar buyers adapt? Andy Klump, CEO of Clean Energy Associates, a firm tasked with monitoring Chinese solar supply chains, joins the podcast to discuss.   Outtro Music:  星球坠落（FALLING）by 艾热, a rapper from Xinjiang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN8lxL1gvOE&list=OLAK5uy_mxe6tOdJnF3FcOOYFaBPPW2wKbrE7mKwU&index=2 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is China different? Does secular stagnation apply?  How have Chinese economic policymakers changed over time? Should industrial policy be a thing? What should American academia navigate its relationship with China? To discuss, ChinaTalk welcomes its first former cabinet secretary to the show! Larry Summers is a professor at Harvard, who previously served as Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury and Obama’s NEC Director. Cohosting with me is Logan Wright, Director for China Markets Research at Rhodium. Outtro Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FNtQth4yX4 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Xi Jinping will not rule China forever. What have CCP leadership transitions looked like in the past, and what can we expect when Xi exits stage left? To discuss we have today Richard McGregor, an Aussie journalist with decades of experience in East Asia and author of three absolutely mandatory China books The Party, Asia’s Reckoning, and Xi: The Backlash, and Peter Vanderslice, a recent college grad who just wrote a fantastic thesis on CCP leadership transitions. I'm hiring a new editor for ChinaTalk! Please apply at: https://forms.gle/NNmY2vpm1fXibGYP7  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ so I can pay said editor! Richard's report on Xi transition: https://www.csis.org/analysis/after-xi-future-scenarios-leadership-succession-post-xi-jinping-era Peter's favorite Liu Shoaqi speeches: https://file.io/ODncJdbhCC7d Outtro Songs: Whitesnake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyF8RHM1OCg Moody Blues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2L3UzM_FfE Rosemary Clooney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGeMWB41maM  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dave Aitel, who started his career at NSA and spent the past twenty years in offensive cybersecurity,  comes on ChinaTalk to discuss What he's learned in his quest to read every cyber policy paper What blindspots remain in the field How China ranks in offensive and defensive cyber ceapabilities relative to the US and what we can all learn from the Tianfu Cup (http://www.tianfucup.com/) Why Cyberpunk 2077 is a masterpiece Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  Apply to be an intern at Rhodium! https://rhg.com/careers/  Graded China Policy Papers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D88loPVPBgGYj53lroS05rB1LJ2kA5DnbfRJIXghST0/edit?usp=sharing Graded Cyber Policy Papers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pnISykZe1nn1wwWBJRiaxYaqDoj4ADeBtsoUL41Hw2Y/edit?usp=sharing  Outtro Music: ICE-PROUD 🏴󠁩󠁳󠀱󠁿 🏴󠁩󠁳󠀱󠁿 🏴󠁩󠁳󠀱󠁿 CAPITALIST-ZIBENJIA feat. 李尔新- & FendigheeRicch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NFP2r6TcMU  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Reinhardt, an independent researcher and robotics PhD, discusses Why DARPA has so many hits to its name Why NASA wasted the past two decades What needs to be subtracted from the US research ecosystem Sci-fi book recommendations Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Intro Music: Mura Masa, Messy Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwXuBAd7Hh4 Outtro Music: 贝贝 / Melo - backbone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26EDDCQcPEQ Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Yan Zheng, senior technical staff specializing in microelectronics at In-Q-Tel, discusses What it's like to invest in startups for the CIA and the rest of the US intelligence community What's broken in the early stage chip ecosystem and how to fix it Why the US government should consider expanding its direct investments in hard tech companies How the US needs to counterbalance CFIUS with carrots How anti-Asian violence has influenced the research community  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk! https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro music: ICE - 随便玩玩 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RIS09dQjSQ Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bell Labs is dead, long live Bell Labs! This week's guest, Ilan Gur, the CEO of Activate.org, has a plan to improve America's R&D apparatus: fund start-ups that allow entrepreneurial researchers to pursue the practical applications of their world-class basic research. We discuss why we're lucky to have Moderna and BioNTech (beyond the obvious reasons), the impact of research moving from corporations to universities, the Endless Frontier Act, why patents don't equal innovation, and more. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at glow.fm/chinatalk Outtro Music: עטר מיינר - זמן לדיכאון : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwSj4egHxvE (god that violin) Peled - Sababa 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Pe0Gxbx5c  טדי נגוסה ויסמין מועלם - Teddy Neguse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajN_M2k_STM&t=98s  Photo of Bell Labs, abandoned.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Endless Frontier Act, the most important piece of legislation no one's heard of, got blown to bits in committee this week. Sam Hammond of the Niskanen Center joins to discuss.  My recent coverage in the ChinaTalk newsletter https://chinatalk.substack.com/p/endless-frontier-the-most-important  Sam's coverage: https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-congress-ruined-the-endless-frontier-act/  Outtro Music: Live As You Like by (my new favorite artist) Takayan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85NA-prJZJE Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why hasn’t North Korea emulated Deng’s Opening & Reform? Are China’s wealthy, educated, urbane youth liberals? Could the PLA cooperate with the U.S. military in the event of Korean reunification? Dr. Sungmin Cho of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies joins ChinaTalk for a discussion of the Korean Peninsula as viewed by Beijing. This episode is a companion to this week’s ChinaTalk with Odd Arne Westad. Ainikki Riikonen, a research assistant at Center for a New American Security, joins as today’s co-host. Thanks to CNAS for sponsoring this episode.  Read Dr. Cho’s recent article on the joint recovery of fallen soldiers on the Korean Peninsula as a “guardrail to prevent the worsening of” any potential military crisis in the region: https://apcss.org/nexus_articles/the-joint-recovery-of-fallen-soldiers-from-the-korean-war-one-way-for-american-chinese-north-and-south-korean-soldiers-to-cooperate-and-reconcile/ Outtro Music: Dean - D (Half Moon) ft. Gaeko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eelfrHtmk68 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Odd Arne Westad joins ChinaTalk to discuss his latest book Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations. Westad’s work is a diplomat’s handbook that connects the sweeping currents of history to the geopolitics of today. Co-hosting today is Danny Crichton of Techcrunch. We explore how Korea, past and present, navigates its relationship with the powerful empires on its doorstep. Korea’s unique Confucianism serves as a launching point into a discussion on empire and nation-state that takes us from the Joseon Dynasty’s navigation of the Ming Dynasty’s collapse all the way up to the present day (with snippets on espionage in Qing China, Korea’s own version of the Taiping Rebellion, and Japanese imperialism). We end on K-drama’s popularity in Zhongnanhai and how the flow of South Korean pop culture into China might complicate Chinese leaders’ decision to intervene on behalf of the DPRK in a conflict on the peninsula. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro music (which really is fire this time, stick around for three Korean bangers):  Ash Island, Melody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8L2OLu6JZo Sooljalee (술자리) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJAKYX8A_WM NO:EL _ 00 (DOUBLE O) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sALhYkA-ij4   Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Part Three of ChinaTalk's industrial policy series, we are joined by two leading lights of the American left: Saikat Chakrabarti, AOC's former Chief of Staff, and Zack Exley of the 2016 Bernie campaign. (Don't forget to check out Part One with Rob Atkinson and Part Two with José Fernandez.) Co-hosting is Vishnu Kannan, a junior fellow in Carnegie's Technology and International Affairs Program. Saikat and Zack take us inside the creation of the Green New Deal, lay out how bold leadership can change a nation's economic trajectory, lament Democrats' lukewarm appetite for industrial policy, and offer up their vision for an American developmental program that harnesses the full potential of its people and capital. We discuss everything from how Harvard teaches economics wrong to what CIA Director Bill Burn's declassified Iraq War cables have to do with the classic film Casablanca. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro music: https://youtu.be/DuVJeJcMod0  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Xu of the fantastic Interconnected newsletter, and formerly of Commerce and the Obama White House, ran through a grab bag of some of the hottest topics in US-China tech. We got into the politics of Tesla in China, what Morris Chang of TSMC thinks about the future of the semiconductor industry, how open source is key to the future of American industrial policy, why the Endless Frontier Act (which I wrote about in the most recent edition of the ChinaTalk newsletter) is the most important bill you've never heard of, and why Bytedance's Zhang Yiming deserves his own biopic.  Student Research Symposium: https://forms.gle/FYoSeHS7t3ZLLwEh9 Work with me! https://rhg.com/job/research-assistant-china-technology-and-industry-research/ Outtro Music: Soft Lipa - An Epic | Warrior OST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAOTdpEeZ6s Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Student Research Symposium: https://forms.gle/FYoSeHS7t3ZLLwEh9 Work with me! https://rhg.com/job/research-assistant-china-technology-and-industry-research/ Thomas Shugart joined me and Eric Lofgren on another cross-over episode of ChinaAcquisitionTalk. Thomas spent 25 years in the US Navy and is currently an adjunct senior fellow at CNAS. This possibility is made more dangerous considering the rise of China’s military, particularly in long-range missiles, bombers, and navy. The expansion of the PLA Navy over the last five years as been nearly identical to the legendary 1980s Reagan build-up. “For all the talk of them being next generation swarming and unmanned,” Thomas said, “they sure are bending a lot of iron building ships.” You can find some of Tom's writing on his CNAS page, including his War on the Rocks article, All about EVE: What virtual forever wars can teach us about the future of combat. His statement to the US-China economic and security review commission is here. He's on Twitter at tshugart3. Intro Music: PLA Rocket Force theme song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG1J8R3kweU Outtro Music: 当地人— Ansrj 李尔新Lilshin 孟子 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqFgUFwxHiY Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fascinated (or stunned) by China’s recent anti-monopoly moves against tech giants Ant and Meituan? Want to get inside the head of Chinese regulators as they plan their moves against the globe’s largest corporations? ChinaTalk has you covered. This week I’m joined by Dr. Angela Zhang, a professor at The University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law, to discuss her new book “Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How The Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation”. Yvonne Yu, my colleague at Rhodium, cohosts. Together we dig deep into the past, present, and future of the Chinese regulatory state. Dr. Zhang tweets at @AngelaZhangHK and you can read her work in Nikkei Asia as well: https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/China-s-Alibaba-probe-is-not-all-bad-news Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro Music: 艾志恒Asen - 错意 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1aEYpeteM Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Enzo Chen, author of the Substack 推播助栏The Podcast Pick, and Caiwei Chen, the host of 定向跳转 The Redirect Podcast and the superb newsletter Chaoyang Trap, discuss all things podcasting in China and Taiwan. We get into the best Chinese-language shows, what makes China's leading podcast app so special, the demographics of podcast listeners, censors efforts to control the newly popular medium, and Jordan's auditory forays into classic Chinese literature. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro music: PGONE X H3R3 都是你 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLe3ksDaX1k Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What as the rise of streaming, idols, and increased censorship done to Chinese TV?   Co-hosting is Ina Yang, one of the founders of the Chinese-language podcast Loud Murmurs. We discuss Chinese dramas with AvenueX, the intrepid YouTuber who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Chinese TV scene. AvenueX explains how the internet changed Chinese dramas (and not always for the better), why China’s censorship system leads to stilted plots (it’s not quite what you’d think), and why Zi Jinchen is the luckiest novelist in China (it’s not his books that made him famous) We also discuss our favorite shows of the past year, and our recommendations for those looking to get started in the world of C-dramas. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Links:  The bad kids eng sub: https://www.iq.com/play/2ffkwrzp4tg The Long Night eng subs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqODiKTH8a4 Minning Town eng subs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8dv_IepPWg   Outtro Music: Mercy, 'Wubba lubba dub dub' a Rick and Morty-inspired rap song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjvTke77240 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is Huarong and why do its struggles explain the central contradictions of China's financial system? To discuss, Logan Wright of Rhodium joins the show. In the first ten minutes, Logan catches us up on the news of the week. Then in the following hour, I rerun an episode we recorded together in late 2018 discussing his report Credit and Credibility, which explains why the big one hasn't hit yet.  Want to get in touch? We can be reached at [email protected] Outtro music: Miraie & Milkoi 『 ミユキ 』https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e66NfKGjRY Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What was the Chongqing Model and why does it still matter? Yueran Zhang, a PhD student in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses. We talk about how Bo Xilai utilized mass mobilization against his enemies in the central government and China’s labor movements, and the significance of the 2018 Jasic protests. Zhang’s two recent articles for Made In China journal, “The Chongqing Model One Decade On” and “Leninists in a Chinese Factory: Reflections on the Jasic Labour Organizing Strategy,” serve as the basis for today’s episode. Outtro music: some pro-Bo Xilai song written in 2009 to commemorate him taking on gangs (full story here: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%96%84%E7%86%99%E6%9D%A5%E4%B9%8B%E6%AD%8C) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND6fOAR4MWA  While this song is hilarious, I couldn't find a good recording and didn't want to you have to listen to the whole thing. Also thought it would be funny to pair this with folks who idolize gangsters... Outtro music #2: GOSH Music 2020 cypher (the biggest Chongqing hip hop collective) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0axMxBSWg The views expressed in this podcast do not reflect those of the Rhodium Group. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott Rozelle (legend, Stanford professor, co-director of the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions) joins ChinaTalk to discuss his recent book Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise, co-authored with Natalie Hell. We discuss how China’s 900 million-strong low-income population will decide China’s future development path. Is China is the next Mexico? Why is it easy to solve poverty but not low income? Why don’t local governments spend enough on rural education and health? How has the relationship between academia and government changed from the Hu Jintao-era to the Xi Jinping-era? The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not represent those of the Rhodium Group. Outtro music: 刘思鉴 x 李佳隆 JELLORIO - "纸上谈兵" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44nfbyjzkMg Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To discuss, ChinaTalk assembled two of my favorite Japanese think-tankers, Yuka Koshino, a Research Fellow at the UK think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and Akira Igata, the Executive Director at the Tama University-affiliated Center for Rule-making Strategy (CRS). Joshua Fitt of The Center for a New American Security cohosts. Thanks to CNAS for making this show possible.  Outtro songs: Takayan, What’s the meaning of living: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGDQQnBVUsk  Hideyoshi, Majinahanashi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a3sPzbG68I You heard it here first, Takayan's gonna be huge. And if for whatever reason you want to get depressed listening to AR's propaganda rap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmAkYGQXv5Q Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek Sandhaus is the author of Drunk in China: Baijiu and the World's Oldest Drinking Culture and part of the team behind Ming River Baijiu, the first (good) Baijiu created especially for the international market. We discuss AA in china, Baijiu's origins, different varieties of Baijiu, the drink's evolving role in modern China, as well as the challenge of bringing such a polarizing drink to Europe and the US.  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro music: Hiperson, Spring Breeze https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHe1OrbuW5g&list=PL0Lwt5eNBHLmL8zP03KbqekrRbje8FCbu&index=48 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are the US and China in ideological competition? How does one go about answering that question? Dan Tobin of the US Intelligence Community's National Intelligence University and Ryan Manuel of Official China have a dangerous amount of fun debating guiding ideologies and what they mean for geopolitics. Dan's 2020 congressional testimony on CCP ideology: https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/testimonies/SFR%20for%20USCC%20TobinD%2020200313.pdf Ryan's PhD thesis on CCP bureaucracy (which really is fantastic, chapter 3 is an absolute must-read): https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:84ec884b-9bd7-46d7-a395-f6bf9ba501e0/download_file?safe_filename=RManuel%2BDPhil%2BFINAL.pdf&file_format=application%2Fpdf&type_of_work=Thesis  This episode was recorded in late 2020. Dan's views are his own and do not reflect those of the US Government or the NIU. The only way I can hope to keep up this two-show/week pace is to pay my fantastic editors to clean up these episodes for you all. Please consider supporting the show at glow.fm/chinatalk. Outtro Music: 我的祖国 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB3abtW9qrc Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Verwey of the Substack “Semi-Literate" (and formerly of Commerce’s BIS, USITC, and USTR) talks the history and future of China's chip industry. We get into government guidance funds, the CHIPS Act, “Fabs not Labs,” export controls, and more.  John's substack: https://semiliterate.substack.com/ Outtro Music: Justice‘s Genesis (Live Version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdsEaSx7u90 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michèle Flournoy joined AcquisitionTalk's Eric Lofgren and me for another crossover episode of China-AcquisitionTalk. Flournoy is a former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, co-founder and new board chair of CNAS (where I'm a fellow), and currently the founder and managing partner of WestExec Advisors. I dove deep into the archive, digging up copies of Flournoy's undergraduate and master's theses to discuss "psycho-social approaches to international relations" and 1980s nuclear policy. We also covered: China’s approach to systems destruction warfare How to make a compelling case for technologists to join DoD Nuclear policy and affecting the strategic calculus Whether “legacy” weapons need divestment A “Manhattan Project” for AI/ML Please consider supporting ChinaTalk https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro music: O.WEN《官方回答》 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXT3zITsydQ  The views expressed in this podcast do not reflect those of the Rhodium Group. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her years as a Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent in Hong Kong and Beijing, Te-Ping Chen came across a lifetime of remarkable characters and events. Most of these didn’t make her newspaper articles, so she began collecting them in short stories, which were collected in a book published just last month, Land of Big Numbers. Mara Hvistendahl guest hosts an interview with Te-Ping, where we discuss her writing process, journalism versus fiction writing, and some of the stories behind the stories.  Outtro Music: Pocketful of Stars - Shanghai Rainbow Chambers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui3z7-1rUYI&t=1s "For those people sometimes cannot be understood well by others but still have strong willingness to be understood. Surely, we can also regard that the song is written for everyone. We truly believe that we all have our own zone where we place our little secrets and childlike thoughts and we wish all the goodliness in hearts can sparkle permanently like twinkling stars in the sky."   Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at glow.fm/chinatalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Rosen is the founding partner of the Rhodium Group and leads the China team. He is also my boss! We talk about our plans for China tech coverage, lessons from thirty years of China-watching, how he thinks about decoupling, China's debt situation. We also play underrated/overrated on whether track two dialogues are a waste of time, PDF length, and talking to government officials.  Want to work with me? Please get in touch at [email protected].  Outtro Music: YTH Chopie ft YOUNG13DBABY -《Best Friend》 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwDu2VScBW0 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at Australia National University discusses his new book 'Indo-Pacific Empire.' We talk 15th-century Korean maps, the promise of the 1947 Asian Relations Conference, Australia and India's shifting conceptions of their place in the region, the origins of the Quad, China-Australia relations, and advice Rory has for the Quad countries as they try to figure out what this 'minilateral' should amount to.  Megan Lamberth of CNAS cohosts. Also discussed is Martijn Rasser's report on Tech, Australia and the Quad (https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/networked-techno-democratic-statecraft-for-australia-and-the-quad).  Thanks to CNAS for sponsoring this episode.  Outtro music, perhaps the most beautiful song featured on ChinaTalk, comes to us via Rory's suggestion. His intro: "Bayini, by Australian indigenous singer Gurrumul (who sadly is no longer with us). Gurrumul performed in New Delhi in 2012 alongside Anoushka Shankar in a concert to celebrate Australia-India relations. Bayini is a song in an indigenous Australian language, about mythological spirits visiting Northern Australia from across the sea, and is believed to reflect folklore about contact with fishermen from the Indonesian archipelago in pre-colonial times.  So it has a certain Indo-Pacific character to it, of friendship and connection."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoGt1bH20fM Alternate outtro music I was going to put on before Rory pitched this one....two Indian rappers and a Chinese-Australian pop star (Wengie & Shalmali - Thing You Want ft. Ikka) https://rollingstoneindia.com/k-pop-meets-bollywood-wengie-collabs-with-shalmali-and-ikka/ Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Tooze (now on Substack!) and Matt Klein, author of Trade Wars Are Class Wars, return to ChinaTalk and pick up right where they left off in September.  We discuss whether Ricardo’s theories of comparative advantage actually work in a globalized age, why Stalin’s embrace of “socialism in one country” was a response to the hegemonic power of British (and American) capital, whether a Bolshevik Revolution is the best way to solve global inequality, how intra-elite conflict drives sovereignty-limiting engagement in international organizations, vaccines, Europe’s carbon markets, Keynes' "bancor", the Strategic Shiraz Reserve, and a whole lot more.  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro: 大傻 Damnshine【天才病】https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu-RNICSIec Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shen Lu of Protocol discusses the magical world of Mandarin language Clubhouse before diving into the feminist movement in China. We cover the Xianzi case, Bilibili's misogynist content, and the challenges that women face working in China's highest-flying tech firms. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at glow.fm/chinatalk Outtro Music: 賽文&GOD - 努力工作吧 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYSncvx4txE We mentioned https://www.freshgogo.com/ and https://www.yamibuy.com/en as Chinese grocery delivery options in the show. https://www.hungrypanda.co/ is the 'seamless' for Asian food, which also in 10 different countries! They really should sponsor me... Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aizhe, 故事FM's founder, runs the leading Chinese language podcast. His show gives a platform for everyday Chinese to tell their stories. We talked about his show and the state of journalism in modern China. Aizhe is a personal hero of mine and I'm so grateful I had this opportunity to record this episode.  Aizhe would love to get in touch with American podcast producers, so if you are one, please don't be shy. Reach out to me and I'll put you in touch! Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk Outtro music: Haze by OBO3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abjvaYqMUw4 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four contributors to the recent book China's Quest for Foreign Technology: Beyond Espionage discuss China’s foreign technology acquisition. Is it nefarious, or just typical behavior of an upwardly mobile nation? Is the myth of a stateless global society dead? And why does such a pressing issue seem invisible in the West?  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk Outtro music: AR [for my money the hottest lyricist in the game] - ABC (feat Buzzy, Cee) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_polATUel0 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I have a newsletter! If you listen to this podcast I can say with high confidence you'll enjoy it! Do subscribe at https://chinatalk.substack.com/. Jose Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente, an independent researcher who runs the blog nintil.com, complicates our previous week's ChinaTalk on US industrial policy with Rob Atkinson. We discuss whether the state invented the iPhone, if the trends of history are pointing Taiwan’s direction, why the way we fund science is broken, what mass conversions to Mormonism would mean for the American economy, and, if you stick around to the end, how to live forever.  This episode was brought to you by the Korea Foundation, which has sponsored a series of ChinaTalk episodes supplementing my forthcoming paper coming out next month entitled ‘Labs not Fabs: How the U.S. Should Invest in the Future of Semiconductors’. This research was hosted by the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Outtro music: AR - ABC (feat Buzzy, Cee) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_polATUel0 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chinese Cooking Demystified is my favorite English language Youtube cooking channel. I chat with creators Chris and Steph about how they create their recipes, who watches their videos, whether Chinese food is soft power, bilibili vs youtube cooking channels, and why everyone in China wants to learn to bake.   Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ 春节快乐！ Outtro music, Doubanjiang by Masiwei https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HxkMKb_EQs Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard Fontaine, CEO of CNAS, discusses what it's like to run what very well may be the hottest think tank in the Asia policy game (full disclosure: I'm a CNAS adjunct).  We get into Biden and Asia and how the new president's foreign policy team will prioritize what they want to get out of the US-China relationship. We also touch on the biggest argument Richard's had with current senior DoD official and former CNAS VP Ely Ratner, what he's learned from looking at China questions with Silicon Valley luminaries, why he'd like to do more faith-centered studies of foreign policy, what fiction he's reading...and if you stick around until the end of the show we get into export controls! Subscribe to https://www.thewirechina.com/ and use the code ChinaTalk21 for 25% off. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk Ad music: Oddissee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx4FrSkuPsE Outtro music (after all the complaints about Bruce Springsteen  you get two tracks this week...) 爆音BOOM《变》https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKjmqMAlmhk PG One 不可说 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kw0cnP4fbo Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maggie Lewis (Seton Hall) and Lev Nachman (UC Irvine) talk Biden's Taiwan policy, pork trade politics, the future of the KMT, third parties, academic freedom, gay marriage, and asylum from Hong Kong. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk Outtro Music: ABAO阿爆（阿仍仍)【Kinakaian 母親的舌頭】feat. 林宜瑾, 丁立芬 共創 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsh4lMH1fA8) Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I have a newsletter! If you listen to this podcast I can say with high confidence you'll enjoy it! Do subscribe at https://chinatalk.substack.com/.  Rob Atkinson is the president of ITIF, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a non-partisan DC-based think tank. We’re going to discuss US industrial policy grand strategy in light of China’s rise, what the US can expect from its allies on tech policy, as well as the “power trader” paradigm and how Albert Hirschmann’s analysis of 20th century Kaiser and Nazi trade policy helps explain China today. This episode was brought to you by the Korea Foundation, which has sponsored a series of ChinaTalk episodes supplementing my forthcoming paper coming out next month entitled ‘Labs not Fabs: How the U.S. Should Invest in the Future of Semiconductors’. This research was hosted by the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Outtro Music: My Hometown by Bruce Springsteen Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rana Mitter, professor of Chinese history at Oxford University, discusses his book from earlier this year, China’s Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism. Now seventy-five years after China’s victory over Japan, China is rethinking how it grapples with the legacy of WWII (see, for example, The Eight Hundred, the highest-grossing film of 2020, discussed towards the end of the show).  Mitter argues that this growing emphasis on World War II is evidence of a subtle rewriting of history, where 1945 takes on a significance comparable to 1949, and the CCP adopts historical victories of the Kuomintang. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk   Intro music: 赴戰, 'To Battle,‘ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB9TmKdo0qU&feature=youtu.be Outtro music: 大刀进行曲, or "Sword March," written in honor of the poorly armed Chinese fighters at the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. See here for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_March. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Brazil discusses his new book co-written with Peter Mattis, 'Chinese Communist Espionage, An Intelligence Primer.'  We talk about the role spies played in the creation and evolution of the CCP, run through some Zhou Enlai conspiracy theories, and discuss the role of espionage in today's China.  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  Intro Music: Wong Chia Chi's theme from Lust, Caution Outtro Music: Player's Ball by Outkast (Thank you Georgia!) Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the second joint episode of Acquisition Talk and ChinaTalk, Richard Danzig, a Secretary of the Navy under Clinton, discusses US-China relations and military innovation. Richard is a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins APL, a former Secretary of the Navy, and a fiction guy. We traverse a number of subjects, including: How the risk of war with China is reflected in trade policy The problems regulators face in high-tech industries Views on growing the US Navy to 500 ships How US prime contracts differ from state-owned enterprises Whether the Chinese are more risk-tolerant than the US His book recs include: Woman of the Dunes The Door The Lonely Polygamist Outtro music "LL Cool J" by Ansr J  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kicking off a series on US-China defense-related issues with Eric Lofgren of the podcast AcquisitionTalk, we host Defense Innovation Unit head Michael Brown. We touch on a number of topics, including: Industrial espionage and foreign investment The debate over basic vs. applied research China starting to determine technical standards Coordinating with allies on semiconductors Transitioning tech in the DoD Before taking the helm of DIU in 2018, Michael co-authored a study with Pravneet Singh showing how Chinese participation in the US venture/tech ecosystem had surged from $300 million in 2010 to $11.52 billion in 2015. Chinese capital comprised 16 percent of all deals in 2016. That work launched the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) which strengthened the government's ability to block Chinese investments. Do note we recorded this episode in early Nov before the election. Outtro music by Higher Brothers, 'Empire' Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is KFC so big in China? What is the “Toilet Revolution” and why does it matter? How does Chinese propaganda work? How have bicycles’ role in Chinese society evolved over time? Neil Thomas of MacroPolo takes on this grab bag.  Note this is a rebroadcast from November 2018.    Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at glow.fm/chinatalk. Outtro music is a KFC vs McDonalds rap battle. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Duoduodiliao walks us through his favorite Chinese rap songs of 2020, taking us everywhere from soul rap and R&B to drill and Caribbean-inspired beats. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at www.glow.fm/chinatalk Songs in order played in the show, all available on YouTube PO8 - 霓虹 李爾新 lil shin《CN DRILL》官方微博完整版 慕斯塔法 / JELLORIO 李佳隆 - Falling  八口8uck/KnowKnow -《Map》 Lexie Liu 刘柏辛 - 佳人 "站着亲吻子弹"艾热派克特组淘汰Athree后，发作品《Punch》发表感想《说唱听我的》 艾福杰尼 - 葡萄架下的篝火 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Harrell and Liz Rosenberg, both CNAS fellows, joined ChinaTalk in May to talk about their report authored with Ashley Fung, 'A New Arsenal for Competition: Coercive Economic Measures in the U.S.-China Relationship.' We discuss how the Trump administration has refined the use of these policy tools since Liz and Peter served under Obama, do a round overrated/underrated for international economic policy tools, and hear their best tv pilot pitches with sanctions themes. Please consider contributing to ChinaTalk at glow.fm/chinatalk. Your support makes this show possible.  Music is some pro-Putin, anti-US sanctions song that has an awful ratio on youtube.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wendy Culter, who served 28 years in the Office of the US Trade Representative, discusses how Biden should address Beijing on trade. We talk about how he could leverage allies' frustration with Chinese behavior and speculate about the future of the WTO. We also debate the merits of a number of my hair-brained trade ideas including the Strategic Shiraz Reserve and a Mutual Trade Defense Pact.    If ChinaTalk is worth $1 an episode to you, please consider becoming a supporter of ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ I spelled out my trade policy ideas in more detail in my newsletter here. https://chinatalk.substack.com/p/a-strategic-shiraz-reserve-to-help  Music by Indigo Jam Unit and the 1896 William Jennings Bryan campaign! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Xiaowei Wang discusses her new book. She explores Taobao villages where Snow White Halloween costumes get made, how one police station is sputtering towards digitization, parallels between Silicon Valley and Chinese tech culture, and pearl farming #distrupt.   Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk Pick up a Smart Air Filter for the holidays (https://smartairfilters.com/) and be sure to use the promo code 'ChinaTalk' for a 5% discount.  Music by Collage and Mondo Grosso Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Weinstein of CSET talks open source China research. We also sort truth from fact and fiction on Chinese talent programs and MCF. Buy an air filter at https://smartairfilters.com/ and use the code 'ChinaTalk' for a discount! Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/.  Music by Nujabes and 珂拉琪 Collage Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yun Jiang walks step by step through the past three years of deteriorating Australia-China relations.  I haven't sold an ad this calendar year. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk financially: https://glow.fm/chinatalk Music by Taiwanese-Australian artist Kim Yang, song entitled Garden of Eden is about the brushfires. For more, check out her website at www.kimyangmusic.com Photo of Xi in 2014 in Tasmania receiving a lavender bear.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I chatted this week with Rasheed Griffith of the China in the Caribbean Podcast. I highly recommend you check out his channel! We discuss: The possible future of US-China tech competition under the incoming Biden Administration The nature of China's Twitter influence campaigns and what we can learn about making viral memes from Russian disinformation operators. See here for my deep dive.  Why open-source software should be the basis for a new US industrial policy and why China is looking to push that same strategy What we can learn from good Chinese tv shows Why we should all be listening to Chinese rap Recommendations: Jordan American Mandarin Society 'China Syllabi Project' 隐秘的角落 (Chinese TV show about the drama that ensues after a group of young kids accidentally film a murder.) 令人心动的offer (Chinese reality show about legal interns. Season 2 is particularly recommended.) 棋魂 (Chinese TV drama about a Fairy godfather who guides a kid in the ways of Weiqi/Go) Rasheed 猎狐 (Chinese police drama about the anti-corruption campaign in China around 2014-2015 to prosecute financial criminals. The official Chinese campaign was called "Operation Fox Hunting".) 中国新说唱 (Chinese rap/hip content competition show) Caribbean Soca Music Twitter links Jordan @jordanschnyc Rasheed @rasheedguo Intro Music: Chronixx - Here Comes Trouble Outro Music: Farmer Nappy - Big People Party Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President-Elect Joe Biden just tapped Jake Sullivan to serve as his first National Security Advisor, the most important foreign policy role in the White House. In light of this announcement, I'm rerunning an episode we recorded in late 2019. Jake Sullivan previously served in the Obama administration as National Security Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. Check out my newsletter at https://chinatalk.substack.com/. In the most recent edition, I do a deep dive comparing the HR McMaster and Sullivan interviews. Do consider supporting this show at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ if you're enjoying the two episode/week pace I'm currently keeping up.  Outtro music by Kafe.Hu Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HR McMaster was Trump's National Security Advisor and, it seems, a ChinaTalk superfan. We talk about his time in government, what the US missed about China and what to do about it, and which Seinfeld character would make the best NSA. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Sign up for the weekly ChinaTalk newsletter at https://chinatalk.substack.com/  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What will a Biden administration foreign policy look like? What’s going to happen on tech and trade? How will debates within the democratic party on what to do about china shake out? Where will congress be on the issue? How will Biden the man impact foreign policy? To discuss, we have on the person who has taught me most about American politics, David F. Gordon, currently a senior advisor at IISS. Previously, he was my boss at the Eurasia Group, served as the director of policy planning under Condoleezza Rice at the State Department, acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council, among many other positions in a multi-decade career in the IC. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chinese economy is perhaps the world's only economic bright spot. So that means we can stop worrying about a financial crisis, right? Think again, according to Lauren Gloudeman and Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group, who join to discuss their new paper mapping out the weak points in China's financial system. That this report is a follow-up to Logan's 2018 paper entitled Credit and Credibility. Our past show on the topic you can find here on Apple Podcasts and here on Spotify.  Cohosting is Byrne Hobart of the diff newsletter.  If you appreciate the fact that I've been doing two shows a week this month, please consider supporting ChinaTalk financially at https://glow.fm/chinatalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Feng talks Chinese trains and subways. We get into the history and evolution of China's trains, the impact of industrial policy, and the role of foreign technology.  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A thank you to everyone out there who helped make yesterday possible. "With full hearts and steady hands, with faith in America and in each other, with a love of country — and a thirst for justice — let us be the nation that we know we can be. A nation united. A nation strengthened. A nation healed." From Atlanta: Ray Charles, Ludacris, Killer Mike, Andre 3000, Quavo, Childish Gambino  From Philly: Beanie Sigel, Lil Uzi Vert (Tried to fit in Dreams and Nightmares but the lyrics are just too offensive...) From Detroit: Eminem, Dej Loaf From Minnesota: Justin Vernon Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How should the US respond to the human rights crisis in Xinjiang? I was a guest on the Lawfare podcast this week, discussing my recent essay outlining how the U.S. can respond and push back on the Chinese government's abuses in the region. For the first fifteen minutes, I interviewed Sheena Greitens, an associate professor at UT Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs, on the origins of the camps and Xi's motivation for the current policy. In the second half, Lawfare editor Jacob Schulz and I discuss what the US government should do from legislative, executive and diplomatic angles.   Google calendar invite to Saturday 5 pm EST zoom phonebanking.  Google calendar invite to Sunday 5 pm EST zoom phonebanking. My email is [email protected] or I'm on twitter here if those links don't work for you. Thanks. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Xi wants China to reach peak emissions by 2030 and go carbon neutral by 2060. Why now? Can he do it? Lauri Myllyvirta comes on to discuss.  RSVP for live Xinjiang discussion at 2:30pm est here. See here for my Xinjiang policy proposal. Google calendar invite to Saturday 5 pm EST zoom phonebanking.  Google calendar invite to Sunday 5 pm EST zoom phonebanking. My email is [email protected] or I'm on twitter here if those links don't work for you. Thanks. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

'Everywhere Yet Nowhere in Particular' is the title of Devin Stewart's latest report. We discuss China's tactics in trying to influence Japanese politics and society as well as what makes Japan uniquely resistant to the CCP's charms. Refer 10 friends to get yourself a ChinaTalk mug! I made a 20-minute megamix of Japanese city pop and trap for you all at the end! If you want the tracklist in the form of a top-secret ChinaTalk YouTube playlist, just start supporting ChinaTalk! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Refer your friends ChinaTalk! If you get 10 people to sign up using your referral link, you'll get a free ChinaTalk mug! Mara Hvistendahl is a staff writer at The Intercept. In this bitesize edition of ChinaTalk, we discuss pieces of hers on the US Ambassador to China's son and ZTE (The Intercept) and AI voice recognition giant iFlyTek (Wired). Intro and outtro music liner notes available exclusively to ChinaTalk supporters. Become one here. And more importantly, vote.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why, aside from Yao, have Chinese players had no success in the NBA? Post-NBA, what has Yao done to reform and professionalize the Chinese Basketball Association? One year on, how does the NBA's response to Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey's tweet look in retrospect, and why has the Chinese government responded so differently to NBA and Premier League stars making noise about Xinjiang? Hunter Shi of the podcast 翻转体育 and Nate Duncan of the Dunk'd On Podcast join to discuss. Please refer your friends to ChinaTalk to win a ChinaTalk mug or hand-drawn postcard of your favorite Chinese politician! Click here to get a referral code and then text your friends the show. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk.  I'm at [email protected] and twitter if you want to reach out.  Outtro Music: I've got good news and other news. Now each ChinaTalk episode will have two outtro songs (!!), but I'll be paywalling the tracklist. If you subscribe to ChinaTalk, I'll invite you to a private YouTube playlist which will feature all the music ever heard on the podcast.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does the Chinese government's S&T spending differ fundamentally from America's and what does that tell us about the nature of their industrial policy? What is China Standards 2035 and what implications could it have? Will China pull the rare earth card? And is there any chance that America doesn't overcorrect? Emily de La Bruyere of Horizon Advisory joins ChinaTalk to discuss.  Do reach out to me on twitter or at [email protected].  I have a newsletter!  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk.  Outtro Music: 0-100Records: NINEONE乃万, ICE, 刘炫廷, 新秀, Doooboi- “新人王” OFFICAL MUSIC VIDEO "THAT‘S HOW WE PLAY" Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his memoir The World as It Is, Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s closest national security aide, confides that, on the day Obama left the White House, the worry that haunted him most was: ‘What if we were wrong?’ That is, what if liberals had misinterpreted the nature of the post-Cold War period? ‘What if we were wrong?’ is the question Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes set out to explain in their recent The Light That Failed: A Reckoning, which takes Eastern Europe as exhibit A. The book meditates on how liberalism lost its appeal and its themes have clear echoes in East Asia.  Guest hosting today is Eddie Fishman. Do reach out to me on twitter or at [email protected].  I have a newsletter!  Please consider supporting ChinaTalk.  Intro Music: HAYA乐团《迁徙》 全员战士风尝试突破 Outtro Music (thanks Stephen for the suggestion, very thematic!): Basement Tapes: Kansas City. Marcus Mumford on vocals and Johnny Depp (!) playing guitar.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been a wild few weeks with President Trump threatening to shut WeChat and TikTok out of the U.S. market and rip them out of the app stores. There have been lawsuits, a preliminary injunction—and a sudden deal to purchase TikTok and moot the issue out. To chew it all over, Benjamin Wittes hosted a discussion with Lawfare co-founder Bobby Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, and me, Jordan, the voice behind ChinaTalk. We talked about how we got here, whether the threat from these companies is real or whether this is more Trump nonsense, and whether the deal to save TikTok will actually work. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk.  Outtro Music: 淡 水 鱼 - Yowaii & 徐奇 Feat. 袁子安 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why would Xi invade and is the Taiwanese military up to the challenge? Paul Huang, freelance journalist, Fletcher School grad and fellow at the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation joins to discuss. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk and/or offering me gainful employment! If you want to get in touch, just email at [email protected] or message me on twitter.  Intro Music: 【青春不留白】莒光園地 (Taiwanese military broadcast music) Outtro Music: 陳嫺靜 - 輕輕 (Taiwanese R&B artist) Check out some more here: https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/the-next-wave-of-taiwanese-hip-hop-artists Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Tooze is my favorite economic historian. After writing a handful of books on the 1920s and Nazi economics, he's now turned his eye to the present day, taking on the financial crisis and US-China relations. In this conversation, we get into What we can learn from the diplomatic and economic modes of 1920s and 30s Why Nazi legal theory resonates so well in China today How modes of understanding Nazi Germany can help illustrate China How Xinjiang camps echo the logic of Soviet gulags Whether the US in fact lost the Cold War Adam's dream bureaucracies to work it Matt Klein, author of the recent Trade Wars are Class Wars, guest hosts.  Intro and outtro music are both hit songs from 1928, the year of the Kellogg-Briand Pact which tried to outlaw war. Intro music: Pine Top's Boogie Woogie Outtro music: Blind Willie McTell, Statesboro Blues Please consider supporting ChinaTalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turning a beloved movie of female empowerment into a dull endorsement of the patriarchy, autocracy and mass forced labor is no easy feat, but Disney Magic is one hell of a drug. Think tanker Rui Zhong and novelist/meme goddess Xiran Jay Zhao join to discuss. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk Intro music: Reflections by Christina Aguilera (Tojou Remix) Outtro music: I'd be impressed if you made it to the end of this podcast and didn't know this song, but here's the link  If you're looking for more Disney remixes, this one of the Lion King's Circle of Life is perfect.   Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mister Softee, the famed northeastern American ice cream brand, in Suzhou, China? Yes, that was a thing. Turner Sparks, rising from humble beginnings as just another English teacher making his way in the world, achieved fame and fortune thanks to a catchy jingle and some tasty mango-flavored soft serve. Yet his vision of China-wide ice cream domination dissolved amid a deluge of backstabbing regulators, slashed tires, and stolen cones. Listen here to learn about the circumstances that finally melted Turner’s ice cream dream. Please Consider Supporting ChinaTalk Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1927, Mao wrote that "In a very short time...several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back." During the 40s and 50s, he was able to realize this vision to disastrous effect. On this show, Tulane Professor Brian DeMare joins the show to discuss the history and legacy of the land reform movement, including forays into the role of Xi's father and William Hinton's Fanshen.   Please consider supporting ChinaTalk.    Also, do reach out if you're interested in running ads on the show!  Intro Music: 没有共产党没有新中国 Outtro Music: 听妈妈讲过去的故事 (hip hop felt out of place this week...not to worry we'll be back with more in the next episode) Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tanner Greer of the blog Scholarstage joins the show in a wide-ranging discussion touching on Xi's ideology, incentives in western China-watching, Mormons in China, why it's worth studying classical Chinese history, and AI-assisted writing.  ChinaTalk has hit its 100th episode! That's two and a half full workweeks of informed, respectful, and hopefully entertaining conversation on everything China. As the media industry has cratered, spaces for intelligent and open discussion on China that live outside of paywalls basically don't exist anymore. Since COVID has locked me out of China and forced me to move to the US, my living expenses have gone up, and spending dozens of hours on this podcast is looking increasingly unsustainable. Right now, I make less than $5 an hour producing this show. If you'd like to see ChinaTalk continue to come out weekly, Please consider supporting me at glow.fm/chinatalk I'm also thinking about launching some member rewards, like live zoom, tapings of episodes where audience members can ask questions as well as a book club. Thanks so much! Outtro music: 功夫胖 KUNGFUPEN 🔥🔥🔥 热得冒烟 Jordan Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you even go about answering that question? Is there a consensus in Washington on how to confront China and does that consensus make any sense? Ali Wyne and Jessica Chen Weiss come on to discuss.  Currently, I make $4/hr from donations adding up all the time it takes to prep, record, and edit the show. This is the 99th episode of ChinaTalk. If you'd like to see the show continue production at the same frequency of one episode per week, please consider donating to support ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk. Intro music: Oddisee - Skipping Rocks Outtro music, what mumble rap sounds like in Mandarin in 2020: JelloRio 李佳隆 ：还没离开 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lingling Wei and Bob Davis of the WSJ discuss their new book Superpower Showdown. We dive deep into the personal dynamics within the Xi and Trump administrations as well as what the twists and turns over the past few years reveal about the US-China relationship. Please consider supporting ChinaTalk. This show took me 10 hours of reading, 2 hours of script-writing, an hour of recording, and four hours of editing. Right now, I receive $50 in donations per episode, meaning my work on this podcast earns me $3/hr. I'm coming up on my 100th episode and of late have been reflecting on how much time I'm spending on something that brings in so little financially. If you have the means and would like to put ChinaTalk on more stable footing, do consider showing your support.  Donate at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Intro music: Madlib, Distant Land Outtro music: Senior PRC official Liao Min recording back in the early 1990s during his days as a PKU grad student, 流动的青春 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should the US ban TikTok? What role does open source play in the tech ecosystem and the Chinese government's plans for self-reliance? Why does tech occupy such a unique role in the US-China tech cold war? And what can Kanye teach us about foreign policy? Today's guest is Kevin Xu, author of the interconnected newsletter. Click this link to support ChinaTalk.  Intro Music: Kanye's Runaway.  Exit Music: 2019 New Blood DBC Cypher.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eddie Fishman, who worked in Obama's State Department's Policy Planning Staff, joins to discuss his recent articles on sanctions and the world order.  If you know of any job opportunities (or just wanna say hi!) do reach out. I'm at [email protected] or @jordanschnyc on twitter. And as always, the newsletter and Patreon!  Intro music: 一丢丢 by AR Outtro music: selection from the 说唱听我的 cypher Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can China be so corrupt and yet grow so fast? What's the relationship between corruption and competent governance? How does 'access money' at the higher levels differ from the 'profit-sharing' you see lower down in the bureaucracy? How does China in the 21st century compare with America's gilded age? And why won't anyone give me dinosaur eggs? To discuss, Prof. Yuen Yuen Ang joins the show to talk about her fantastic new book, China's Gilded Age. Please subscribe to my Patreon! Or better yet, a full-time job offer as your humble host is very much unemployed! Patreon will suffice though. The incredible propaganda rap song feat. Xi Jinping here.  And the best Chinese tv show of the decade. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Trump banned valid H1B holders from entering the country. What are the broader implications for America's technological ecosystem and national security? To discuss, Tina Huang and Remco Zwetsloot from CSET talk about their recent research on tech and immigration. We discuss the potential lasting impacts of the, for now, temporary ban, how the US immigration process compares to other nations' policies, what China is doing to bolster their homegrown talent as well as the threat of corporate espionage.  Please consider donating to the ChinaTalk Patreon.  Here is the paper I mentioned on corporate espionage. See here for the CSET research discussed. Intro Music: 胜利就在前方了 by KaKa. Outtro Music: Hamilton Mixtape, Immigrants, We Get the Job Done Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 15th, dozens of soldiers died in clashes on the China-India border. What exactly happened up in the Himalayas? What's the historical background? What does this mean for the trajectory of China-India and US-India relations?  We also get into development policy, water rights, and some improv featuring terrible Trump and Modi accents (I didn't even try when doing Xi).  Thanks to Akhil Bery and Sasha Riser Kositsky for coming on the show. Please consider donating to the ChinaTalk Patreon.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s ChinaTalk featured Antony Dapiran going deep with me on the origin, meaning, and legacy of the 2019 Hong Kong protests. We drew parallels and contrasts throughout between HK and Black Lives Matter. If you'd like to help keep the show going, please consider subscribing to my Patreon.   An excerpt: What continues to be most tragic for Hong Kong is that the government really has demonized and made enemies of the people who support the protesters and the protesters themselves. Indeed, Carrie Lam, herself has described them as enemies of the people just yesterday. And so the government has made an enemy of an entire generation of its youth and also the engine of its service-led economy, the professional middle class. It’s obviously against the economic self-interest of Hong Kong, but also it's just a tragedy for a government, to divide its own community in that way and to treat the best and brightest of the community as enemies, effectively forcing them either to leave or condemning them to a lifetime of being marginalized and feeling, undervalued and, and, and not, not an accepted part of their own society. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evan Osnos is a correspondent for the New Yorker. We discussed his pieces on the protests in DC and coverage of US-China.  See here for video of the MLK speech. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do you get when you take a Chinese national, a rental car, rural Iowa, and a $52 billion seed business hanging in the balance? Said one review, "not since Alfred Hitchcock's in North by Northwest has a cornfield produced so much excitement." Mara Hvistendahl's recent book, "The Scientist and the Spy," delivers a compelling narrative diving deep into the nature of Chinese industrial espionage and America's response. Do consider donating to the ChinaTalk Patreon.  I also write a weekly newsletter translating and analyzing Chinese new media. This past week's edition focused on how US anti-Huawei measures are leading to calls to invade Taiwan and take TSMC.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who's spending big? Does it matter? Zach Arnold and Ashwin Acharya join the show to discuss their reports on Chinese public sector AI R&D spending and strengthening America's AI workforce. Do note this episode was recorded in late February.  Exit music Tricky Tricky by NINEONE / CREAM D / Yoken_Official / YYKBZ / WR/OC Patreon here.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Grover joins the show to discuss his recent piece on how Chinese tech firms have handled coronavirus, I read from a recent ChinaTalk newsletter on how some mainland commentators fear that QR Health Codes will create a 'digital leviathan,' and Ravish Bhatia of the Use Case podcast shares his coronastory from India. Please consider donating to ChinaTalk's patreon.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The legendary Yangyang Cheng discusses how Coronavirus played out in cross-continent conversations with her mother. We'll also hear from Asmod in Nepal and Lambert in Singapore. In case you haven't heard, I write a newsletter.  Recent posts are on US-China and AI chips. Please consider donating to my Patreon.  The closing song was from James Brown's legendary Live at the Apollo Theater, 1962. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America has allies with solid tech. But can the US leverage these relationships to help preserve its technological edge over China? In this conversation, building off a recent CNAS report, Dan Kliman, Kristine Lee and Joshua Hitt dive deep into international defense innovation, Japan-China relations, and China's international tech ambitions.  Please consider donating to my Patreon and absolutely subscribe to my newsletter. I just published a two-part series on China's health QR codes and have a great piece on US-China relations coming out next week. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're continuing our Coronastories series this week with personal reflections and analysis from friends of ChinaTalk on the current situations in the Philippines, Russia, and Taiwan.  Oh and by the way I have a patreon and newsletter. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I'm trying something different. I've been interviewing my friends across China about their Coronavirus experiences, 故事FM style. We start off with Dev from Shanghai who lived through the entire lockdown and has interesting reflections on the lasting effects of social distancing on interpersonal relationships.  Next, I talked with Jen about how Hong Kong has navigated the crisis. Finally, Tianyu, who flew back mid-March to Beijing, discusses mandatory self-quarantine and the process of navigating the bureaucratic mess of QR health codes. I'm planning on potentially doing a few more of these so do reach out if you feel you have a story you'd like to share, not just about China but Asia more generally. I'm JordanSchneider on wechat, [email protected] or on twitter. Do consider donating to ChinaTalk's Patreon.  Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Ni and Yun Jiang are two former Australian government officials who together write Neican(内参), a fantastic new newsletter on Chinese policy and China-Australia relations.  We talk about how the CCP is trying to convince its population that post-coronavirus all is still well on the mainland. We also go into the main flashpoints from an Aussie perspective, focusing in particular on influence campaigns.  I've got a newsletter too!  Please consider contributing to ChinaTalk's Patreon, or better yet, a COVID-19 charity. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the CCP's international propaganda goals? How is it faring in the battle to define COVID-19's winners and losers? Matt Schrader of the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy brings the mirth in these dark times. We also go into tech and discrimination, stories from time working at China Daily and SmartAir, as well as Matt's favorite Overwatch characters. The audio gets better in the second half I promise. ChinaTalk fans now have a Discord! Please consider donating to my Patreon. And yes, I'm still cranking out issues of the ChinaTalk newsletter. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Bishop, author of the Sinocism newsletter, comes on the show to discuss the new low in US-China relations. We start off talking about what China's response to coronavirus has taught us about the CCP and then go into the deeper forces behind why the Chinese government has started to blame America for creating the virus. We also touch on China-Taiwan relations, the role Sinocim plays in agenda-setting, as well as binge-able Chinese tv.   Please consider donating to my show's Patreon.   TV shows discussed: Da Jiang Da He: ENG SUB | Like A Flowing River - EP 01 [Wang Kai, Yang Shuo，Dong Zi Jian] The Longest Day in Chang An: 【ENG SUB】《长安十二时辰》第1集（易烊千玺 / 雷佳音 / 周一围）| 加入Caravan中文剧场会员，抢先独享全季内容！ Xiao Huan Xi: 小歡喜 01 | A Little Reunion 01（黃磊、海清、陶虹等主演） Story of Yanxi Palace 延禧攻略 01 | Story of Yanxi Palace 01（秦岚、聂远、佘诗曼、吴谨言等主演） Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How has the distinct nature of local-central relations in the Chinese system impacted its response to coronavirus? To discuss, we have on Ryan Manuel, managing director of Official China, a consultancy that goes deep into CCP regulations and policy. Ryan previously taught at KHU and ANU as well as worked for the Australian government. Our wide-ranging conversation filled with dashes of dark Aussie humor starts with COVID-19 and SARS and then broadens out into how the history of rural healthcare in China explains dynamics that impeded the initial Chinese response. Next, we focus on how Hu Jintao created a model of managing local central relations that Xi studied and took to the next level by scrapping collective responsibility and working through Party as opposed to government channels. Also, we're on the Lawfare Network now! Thanks to everyone at SupChina who has contributed to this show over the past years. SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER! Patreon here. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tony Lin is a producer at Quartz for the web series Because China and an avid observer of Chinese online communities, such as Weibo. After the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Tony noticed commentary being widely shared that, in other times, would have been censored immediately.  In this episode, Jordan and Tony create a timeline of the coronavirus, analyze the strikingly candid nature of online discussion in the early days of the outbreak, and explore broader themes of censorship and the role of media in Chinese society. If you’d like to support ChinaEconTalk, please consider donating to Jordan’s Patreon here.  You can also subscribe to his newsletter at chinaecontalk.substack.com. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gordon Orr is a senior adviser at McKinsey & Company and a non-executive board member at both Lenovo and Meituan-Dianping. In this week’s episode of China EconTalk, he and Jordan examine collateral economic damages as a result of the trade war, take a look at the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and how it could change in an era of increasing U.S.-China tensions, and forecast Tesla’s future in China, which could be tied to Huawei telecommunications infrastructure in Germany. 4:16: The economic consequences of the trade war 16:42: Industrial policy in China 24:08: Hong Kong financial markets 29:02: Electronic vehicles and Tesla’s Chinese dream 37:26: Chinese consumers don’t want to buy houses Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does a bookish Beijing teenager, who found himself stuck for six years planting potatoes in the Gobi Desert, grow up to study with former chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen, teach at Wharton, and now lead one of Asia's most successful investment firms? In this episode, Shàn Wěijiàn 单伟建, the chairman and CEO of investment firm PAG Group, and the author of Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America, tells his personal story of exile during the Cultural Revolution and provides his view on China’s economic transformation. 7:53: Looking back at the Cultural Revolution  23:53: The government’s role in China’s economic development 25:22: Challenges that state-run companies face 42:11: What to make of the protests in Hong Kong In addition, you can subscribe to the ChinaEconTalk newsletter at chinaecontalk.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Segal, director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), joins Jordan to talk about technology competition between the United States and China. In this episode, they discuss a recent report by CFR titled Innovation and National Security: Keeping Our Edge, which examines the increasingly vexed technology ties between the two countries and the implications of tech nationalism worldwide. 11:44: Undue pressure on Chinese scientists 16:39: Does it matter who invests in research and development? 21:26: Would antitrust regulation impact industry research and development? 30:21: The civil-military divide and Silicon Valley culture Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jane Li, a Chongqing native and a technology reporter for Quartz, talks through some of the differences between Twitter and its Chinese equivalent, Weibo. She also discusses the website Douban, the lively and open discussion among its young users, and the threat that looming censorship poses to it. In addition, she provides details on why some Chinese internet users have turned their backs on Huawei in the wake of an extended jail term served by one of its employees.  4:10: Twitter vs. Weibo — what’s the difference? 6:52: The “China Twitter” maelstrom  11:06: Online discourse regarding the Hong Kong protests 14:23: What is “251” and how does it relate to Huawei? 20:04: The Douban online ecosystem Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can one street tell China’s story? Jonathan Chatwin, author of Long Peace Street: A Walk in Modern China, takes listeners on a tour of Chang’an Avenue, a major artery for traffic in central Beijing, which was also the scene of several critical moments in China’s modern history. Jordan and Jonathan discuss the symbolism of national buildings and monuments along it, and the role of the street as a place of protest and a part of China’s revolutionary history.  11:05: Baobaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery   20:22: The Beijing Museum 32:26: The Forbidden City 44:51: Chang’an Avenue, the sterile highway Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Triolo, practice head of geotechnology at the Eurasia Group, sat down with Jordan to address some of the questions at the center of the U.S.-China tech relationship: the future of 5G research and innovation, persecutions of researchers and scientists from China based in the U.S., security concerns surrounding Huawei and Chinese-funded communications infrastructure, and more.  6:38: Current blind spots in Chinese tech policy 18:30: What does a “good” tech policy look like? 32:09: Is change possible under Xi Jinping? 42:16: What makes Huawei competitive? The Eurasia Group has no clients in the People's Republic of China. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeremiah Jenne, history teacher, writer, and the man behind Beijing by Foot, is in the guest seat this week. He speaks with Jordan about the changes — both tangible and intangible — that Beijing has undergone in the last few decades. They chat about how Chinese history is reinterpreted through the lenses of different regimes, the ways in which this new history is presented to the world, and Beijing’s modernizing cityscape and the varied reactions it is met with. 10:57: Out with the old, in with the new 15:17: What to make of the Qing dynasty, with help from the CCP  27:40: An age of censorship 29:37: History is different in Beijing and Taipei Use promo code ChinaEconTalk for 20% off at https://www.outlier-linguistics.com/ Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Puzzled by rising drug deaths at raves in the United States, author and investigative journalist Ben Westhoff set out to find answers. A Google search for “Buy fentanyl in China” took him down a rabbit hole that led to a face-to-face meeting with the CEO of a company selling fentanyl on Skype “all day long” and a drug lab in Shanghai. Ben tells Jordan the remarkable story. 5:06: The digital rabbit hole 9:20: Want to make fentanyl? Just Google it. 13:57: Between Heisenberg and Pfizer 22:17: How suppliers dodge U.S. Customs Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bloomberg technology reporter Lulu Chen gives the scoop on the tech world in China: what’s to come for Alibaba under newly minted CEO Daniel Zhang, the long-standing grudge Meituan CEO Wang Xing holds against Jack Ma, the Communist Party’s growing presence within technology companies, and her own views on reporting on tech in China.  2:07: Hong Kong protests 24:03: Daniel Zhang’s new venture 28:11: Meituan drama 36:22: International expansion of Chinese tech Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Sullivan served in the Obama administration as National Security Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. He currently teaches at Yale Law School. In this episode, Sullivan discusses his perspectives on the current U.S.-China relationship, his experiences working in the Obama administration and on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton campaign, and the ways our relationships with other governments around the world are changing under Trump.  What to listen for on this week's ChinaEconTalk: 5:05: Reflections on the Obama years 19:03: A case for internationalism 27:46: Doing more to achieve less with China 45:20: The direction of U.S. foreign policy Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, provides an overview of the history of U.S. foreign policy from Washington’s farewell address to the modern day. She also discusses the implications of a rising China for the future of U.S. alliances. 3:20: The costs of going it alone  10:41: Cold War “Great Power” competition 36:32: The Taiwan Strait crisis 41:47: Trump and the future of U.S. alliances Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ChinaEconTalk is live from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., with Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow in the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. Host Jordan Schneider sits down with Martijn to discuss a few of the more contentious topics surrounding the ongoing friction between the United States and China, including rare earths, the strategic implications of 5G, concerns about Huawei software and security, and global ICT standard setting. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Douglas Irwin is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and the author of Clashing Over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy. On this episode, Irwin provides an overview to the history of U.S. trade policy from the 18th century to the modern day, highlighting significant legislation as well as the formation of important intergovernmental organizations that have sprung up along the way. 19:53: On the flawed logic behind the Tariff Act of 1930, and the parallels with similarly problematic thinking in the modern day: “There’s absolutely a parallel there because some Democrats in Congress said, ‘You know, we ought to really think about this carefully, and not just our domestic interest but also our export interests, and other countries might retaliate.’ And basically, the reaction of most members of Congress was, Republicans at the time, ‘No, we don’t have to worry about that. This is a domestic piece of legislation, it doesn’t really concern other countries. They’re not going to retaliate.’ And, of course, they did.” 39:40: Doug discusses the tips and tricks behind one example of “tariff engineering”: “The tariffs applied to motorcycles with piston displacements of 700cc and above. What Honda started doing is producing a 699cc version. Now the difference [between the two] is imperceptible, but just by changing that one cubic centimeter, it changed the whole tariff treatment and you avoided a 45 percent tariff and were assessed at a much, much lower rate.” Jordan will be hosting his first-ever live recording of ChinaEconTalk at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, D.C., at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 19. Be sure to drop by Mission Dupont afterward for dinner or drinks! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Douglas Fuller is an associate professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong and the author of Paper Tiger, Hidden Dragons: Firms and the Political Economy of China’s Technological Development. In his book, Fuller explores a question that has hounded heads of state around the world for decades: How can a developing country get ahead in the tech sector? Drawing on the results of 499 interviews from experts over the course of 15 years, Fuller discusses China’s answer to this question in the context of its attempts to dominate the global semiconductor industry. Fuller and Jordan also touch on the transformative impact of the trade war and the concept of technology transfer and their implications for the immediate future of the Chinese tech sector.  Jordan’s newsletter is now available for sign-ups: chinaecontalk.substack.com. In the past few weeks, he’s translated articles on topics like the troubled future of VPNs in China, the role of “operations” in Chinese internet companies, and the rise of a cheese tea Starbucks slayer.  What to listen for in this week’s ChinaEconTalk: 27:38: Chinese tech companies are often portrayed as monolithic, but in reality, the financial decisions that brought companies like ZTE and Huawei to the international stage are significantly different: “[Huawei CEO and founder] Ren Zhengfei — there was a method to his madness. He decided to forgo what were these rational incentive structures to just embrace state procurement and instead took a very high risk strategy of very early on looking abroad for contracts, for markets because he really wanted to hone Huawei’s capabilities by competing against the best… In contrast, a firm like ZTE was more than happy to be much more reliant on the Chinese marketplace when it went abroad. It sort of very much followed this [path of taking] China Development Bank subsidized loans to sell equipment in African countries where the leading foreign firms were not interested because the price points were so low.” 41:16: What should U.S. policy look like in regards to Chinese tech policy? In considering this question, Fuller notes: “Investment binges [by China] have wrecked certain markets… Now the United States is extrapolating forward. What if they do this in memory chips or other semiconductor products? Those two areas are of high concern, particularly when thinking about, ‘Well, are these natural outcomes, or not?’ And I would say the investment binges and the levels of subsidization of a lot of industrial investment in China, this obviously didn’t just happen because the market dictated it.” Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danit Gal is a former Yenching Scholar and coauthor of a recent paper, “Perspectives and Approaches to AI Ethics: East Asia.” On this episode, Gal discusses how Japanese, South Korean, and Chinese experts are forging new paths in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), exploring societal applications — and the unexpected drawbacks of “female” virtual assistants. Gal also explains the tech connections between China and Israel, and the possible impact of the U.S.-China trade war on this relationship. What to listen for on this week’s ChinaEconTalk: 15:56: Gal on her trip to Longquan Monastery in Beijing: “They basically have a Chinese robot monk, named Xian’er. I spoke to him and he gives you all these responses and talks to you about the deep meaning of Buddhist ceremonies… And then I asked him, ‘Who is your master?’ And then he answered to me very clearly, ‘The data is my master.’ And the monks freaked out — they [said] ‘No, no, no. We give him the data. We are the data. We feed him the ceremonies, and everything he has to say!’”  42:15: In a recent piece, Gal wrote that trade and technology tensions between the U.S. and China present both challenges and opportunities for Israel: “One clear way is that it’s really disrupting supply chains in that you would have to choose your alliances in order to get certain components at a good price and time. We’re getting to the point where a lot of companies are not allowed to trade directly and that significantly adds costs and uncertainty… An upside to that is actually that because American companies are not allowed to directly trade with China, they go through technical middlemen.”  Jordan will be in New York and Washington, D.C., this September and October, so reach out if you want to meet up! Email him at [email protected] or connect on WeChat using his WeChat ID, jordanschneider. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to chinaecontalk.substack.com! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of ChinaEconTalk, Jordan interviews Lauren Teixeira, a freelance reporter based in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. After what has been a jam-packed few months of China news, Lauren discusses a wide range of topics, from engaging with mainlanders about the anti-Extradition Bill protests in Hong Kong to the downsides of Chinese superblock urban planning. Lauren finishes the interview with a wide-ranging introduction to contemporary pop culture artists in China whose innovation and creativity are helping people to stay inspired at a challenging time.  What to listen for on this week’s ChinaEconTalk: 6:59: Lauren recalls Ian Johnson’s comments to her during their conversation on engaging in political discussions in China: “He said to me, ‘There’s a ceiling for your rhetoric because at some point you can’t tell someone to “look it up” because they can’t look it up.’ Epistemologically you’re not on even ground. And so, if you want to really get into a real discussion with someone,  you basically have to redpill them.” 14:41: On K-pop and geopolitics, as China tries to develop its own pop music industry: “It’s half import substitution and half, I think, just a concerted effort to build your own idol industry that you can better control. For example, there would be all these geopolitical conflicts. If something happened in the South China Sea, the Chinese idols would have to go on Korean television and be like, ‘F*** this, I’m a patriot.’ There was once a Taiwanese idol who waved a Taiwanese flag on a Korean reality show and she had to absolutely bend the knee to get back into the good graces of China, which was putting pressure on her agency.”  Jordan will be in New York and Washington, D.C. this September and October so reach out if you want to meet up! Email him at [email protected] or connect on WeChat using his WeChat ID, jordanschneider. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to chinaecontalk.substack.com! You've all signed up already, haven't you? Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on ChinaEconTalk, Jordan interviews Chris Miller, associate professor of international history at Tufts University and a specialist on Russian politics, economics, and foreign policy. Drawing on some of his recent publications, Miller discusses topics ranging from Sino-Soviet collaboration and competition to their respective economic and political reform programs in the 1970s and 80s. Miller concludes by exploring the significance of the collapse of the USSR in terms of the impression it made on Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping, and what this may suggest about the future of Chinese politics and the ongoing Sino-Russian relationship. As Xi himself is reported to have said during a closed-door meeting in 2012: “Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse? … Finally, all it took was one quiet word from Gorbachev to declare the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party, and a great party was gone. In the end nobody was a real man, nobody came out to resist.” What to listen for on this week’s ChinaEconTalk:  34:17: On the Soviet origins of Deng’s Reform and Opening strategy: “There was a period of learning [by China] from the Soviet Union in the 1950s right after the revolution...Deng picked that back up to a certain extent in the late 1970s...the goal was to give space to private enterprises in the countryside and to give space to farmers to operate without central Party control...Deng saw this and said, ‘I wonder if we can try something like this at home in China, and we can use Lenin to justify it.’” 52:15: “The CCP interpretation, which is also the interpretation of many in Russia today, is that it’s plausible to have had a strong man reform the economy but keep the party and the state as they were, and in my research that just seems extraordinarily implausible…in some ways the Xi Jinping view is the ‘have your cake and eat it too’ version, and the reality is the history doesn’t support that counterfactual.” Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on ChinaEconTalk, Jordan speaks with Dongwoo Kim, a postgraduate research fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada who specializes in AI. Dongwoo discusses his research on the progress of AI development in Japan, Korea, and China, including the challenges faced by Chinese AI researchers overseas, and the need for greater tech literacy in general. What to listen for on this week’s ChinaEconTalk: 4:49: Misconceptions abound when it comes to AI, as do references to “Skynet” from the Terminator movies. “Strictly speaking, that’s not what we’re talking about,” Dongwoo says. “People have such a misunderstanding about this, and also the way in which we’re using AI now, it’s kind of subtle, right? It’s used by Google, it’s used by Facebook. If you don’t have the tech literacy, you’re not always going to be aware of it. So I think there’s a potential that if we don’t educate people about what AI really is and why this matters, we might get to a situation where people don’t really have a clear conception of what this AI thing is when it will be affecting so many aspects of their lives.”   32:36: On Chinese AI researchers in Canada: “[Problems are] not as overt as in the U.S. I think, if anything, the concerns that have materialized are if there’s funding within a Canadian postsecondary institution that is tied to an American partner, that may compromise their ability to continue working on that research project for a researcher of Chinese ethnicity. But there has been no concrete move to do that in Canada.” Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Jordan speaks with Graham Webster, a China digital economy fellow and coordinating editor of the DigiChina project at New America. He was previously a senior fellow and lecturer at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. The two talked about Graham’s work at DigiChina, artificial intelligence in China and its complex legal infrastructure, the facts (and fiction) behind China’s controversial social credit system, and the potential for a new cold war between the U.S. and China. What to listen for on this week’s ChinaEconTalk: 10:23: “If the Chinese government wants to step on Huawei or somebody to get access to data, they’re not going to need this particular provision of law to do it. I think it’s a similar case with VPNs and these cross-border data rules. The pretty clear intent behind these rules is to expand on an increasingly detailed regime for protecting Chinese peoples’ data from abuse by companies or cyber criminals or just breaches due to bad security practices. It could be read in a way that would make VPNs problematic, but there are already other sets of regulations that make VPNs kind of problematic under Chinese law… From my perspective, this would be a very strange way for the Chinese government to try to cut down on VPNs, when they could just go at it directly and say it’s a violation of the principle of cybersovereignty.”  32:59: “In the end, we’re having this global discussion and people around the world are realizing how unaccountable various institutions and businesses are when they use automation. And there’s both real things going on in China, especially in Xinjiang, and a bunch of maybe slightly exaggerated or imagined things going on that capture people's imaginations about what could go wrong… I really would like it for people to be better informed about the realities of, for example, social credit because — my [former] colleague Jeremy Daum likes to say sometimes: ‘There are plenty of actual Chinese government offenses against human rights and against the dignity and well-being of Chinese citizens; we don’t need to invent other ones. We should focus on what’s actually happening.’” Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, in part 2 of a special two-part edition of ChinaEconTalk, Jordan interviews Professor Julia Lovell, author of the recently published book on Mao’s international legacy entitled Maoism: A Global History. In this episode, Lovell recounts the ways in which Maoism truly started going global in the 1950s and 1960s. With some prompting courtesy of the Chinese government’s propaganda machine, self-described Maoist groups sprang up in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Western Europe, and even the U.S. Lovell explains how groups around the world interpreted the works and words of Mao in various ways and with varying results — from Black Panthers hosting study sessions of Mao’s Little Red Book in the U.S. to members of the Shining Path who espoused a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology as they committed acts of guerilla warfare in Peru. Sign up here for the ChinaEconTalk newsletter.  Learn more about CLI here and use the promo code 'jordan' for $100 off any program. Quotes to listen for on this week’s episode: 21:19: Lovell describes the “counterculture craze” of the 1960s in Western Europe and the U.S., and the appeal of Maoism to such groups. “Student protestors, for example, who were dissatisfied with their universities and with their governments identified — or misidentified — Mao’s Cultural Revolution as a youth protest, and adopted its slogans such as ‘To rebel is justified’ (造反有理 zàofǎn yǒulǐ) or ‘Bombard the headquarters’ (炮打司令部 pàodǎ sīlìngbù) in their own revolts and demonstrations… Many Western radicals felt solidarity with Mao’s China, which was America’s number one detractor through this time. And this really followed the logic of ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend.’” 34:13: Lovell tells the story of one of Mao Zedong’s generals, operating under the pseudonym of Mafaxian, who was sent to Zambia in an effort to recruit and indoctrinate lieutenants loyal to the political and militaristic precepts of Maoism. His mission was ultimately a failure, with Mafaxian feeling “embittered” toward the end of his years-long tenure. Lovell explains how this oral history is a “perfect grassroots example of how limited the possibilities of China’s ability to export its model were, despite the huge amounts of generosity and largesse.” Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, in part 1 of a special two-part edition of ChinaEconTalk, Jordan interviews Professor Julia Lovell, author of the recently published book on Mao’s international legacy entitled Maoism: A Global History. In this episode, Lovell introduces the core tenets of Maoist thought and its complex impact on both the Chinese Communist Party and other, offshoot devotees around the world. She outlines the key events in Mao’s life, the events that helped shaped his ideology, his idea of “violent, tumultuous world revolution,” and the friction during the Cold War that eventually culminated in the Sino-Soviet split. Sign up here for the ChinaEconTalk newsletter.  Learn more about CLI here and use the promo code 'jordan' for $100 off any program. Quotes to listen for in this episode: 15:10: “Maoism, although it has this singular name, it doesn’t actually correspond to a single, unitary phenomenon...it’s a set of ideas and practices that is living and breathing that has been translated and mistranslated across different decades and across many different regions. And above all, it’s a set of often very contradictory ideas. And this is no coincidence because Mao himself was a great admirer of the idea of contradiction. He saw contradictions as possessing a kind of primal energy. He saw them as something that drove history on. So when there were contradictions in his own ideas or when he perceived them around him, he tended to embrace them. Inconsistency didn’t bother him.” 43:48: “The intellectual, political nub of it is that Mao feels that after Stalin’s death, Khrushchev is losing the Soviet Union, losing their revolutionary bite. They’re making nice with the United States and they’re turning their backs on the idea of a violent, tumultuous world revolution.” 46:03: “Throughout his career and particularly toward the end of his life, he consistently saw himself as a rebel, as an outlier, as someone who made trouble. You see this very strongly in the Cultural Revolution, but you also see this in the way he tries and often succeeds to provoke the Soviets.” Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While it may be a pipe dream for ChinaEconTalk to ever merit a billion-dollar price tag, in China, podcast “unicorns” are everywhere. Companies like Ximalaya and Yudao have multibillion-dollar valuations, but feature startlingly different content from what consumers expect in the West. What drives these differences, and what does the future hold for spoken audio in China? To answer these questions, Yi Yang, a young podcast host and founder of the Mandarin-language podcast startup JustPod 播客一下, joins Jordan to explain how, after the advent of podcasts in China, people are finally “learning to listen.” Yi Yang's original podcast is called LeftRight 忽左忽右. His two branded podcasts are Startup Insider 创业内幕 and Bessie’s Notes 贝望录. ChinaEconTalk's newsletter is dope. Sign up here at www.chinaecontalk.substack.com. The latest issues include an analysis of why Amazon lost in China and learn about the bane of China’s automobile industry. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on ChinaEconTalk, Jordan speaks with Donald Clarke, a specialist in Chinese law and the David Weaver Research Professor at George Washington University. Following a thorough introduction to the structure of the Chinese legal system starting from the Qing dynasty, Clarke discusses a provocative article he recently co-authored, Who owns Huawei?, which discusses in detail the legal ownership of Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. Clarke also deconstructs Huawei’s own legal arguments regarding whether its products (and, by extension, customers’ data) is subject to the Cybersecurity Law of the PRC and the National Intelligence Law of the PRC. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, in the second installment of the series “The Future of U.S.-China Relations” on ChinaEconTalk, Jordan speaks with Professor Hal Brands of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Zack Cooper, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In addition to offering some prescriptions for relieving some of the tension points in the U.S.-China relationship more generally, the pair discuss the major takeaways from their co-published paper in the Texas National Security Review, “After Responsible Stakeholder, What? Debating America’s China Policy.” Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on ChinaEconTalk, Jordan speaks with veteran journalist Peter Hessler. Peter spent seven years in China as a correspondent for The New Yorker, followed by five years in Egypt. In this episode, Peter discusses his long and prolific career reporting on the society, politics, and culture of these two dynamic nations; he also considers the similarities and differences in the ways the Chinese and Egyptian people make sense of their respective places in the world based on their rich historical and cultural legacies. In addition, Peter reflects on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and contrasts it with the 2013 mass protests and eventual coup d'état in Cairo. Check out the ChinaEconTalk newsletter here, and please leave us a review on iTunes! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did Shenzhen, a backwater fishing village, spawn the likes of industry leaders ZTE, Huawei, and Lenovo, while Suzhou, which previously scored massive investments from top “dragon head” foreign firms like Samsung and Philips, failed to spawn domestic innovation? What role did FDI and the local bureaucrats in charge of economic development play? And what lessons does this story hold for today's Chinese industrial policy as well as development and innovation economics more broadly? For answers, we turn to Ling Chen, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the author of the recent book Manipulating Globalization: The Influence of Bureaucrats on Business in China. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, ChinaEconTalk launches its “Future of U.S.-China Economic Relations” miniseries with an interview featuring Melanie Hart, a senior fellow and the director of China Policy at the Center for American Progress. At the Center, Melanie specializes in U.S.-China foreign policy and explores new opportunities for bilateral cooperation on topics such as energy, climate change, and cross-border investment. In this episode, she discusses the central arguments in two of her recent articles, "Mapping China's global governance ambitions" and "Limit, leverage, and compete: A new strategy on China,” and lays out her vision for what progressive U.S. policy making in response to new political trends in China might look like. Check out the ChinaEconTalk newsletter here, and please leave us a review on iTunes! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over 100 million Chinese adults have used the Liulishuo (流利说 liúlì shuō) app to learn English through AI-powered tutoring. This week on ChinaEconTalk, host Jordan Schneider interviews Liulishuo co-founder and CTO Ben Hu about the company’s journey from its early days to its recent listing on NASDAQ. Along the way, they discuss the current state of development of Liulishuo’s speech-recognition capabilities, general strategies for Chinese companies seeking to succeed abroad, and the motivational stories of some of the app’s users.   Please take a moment to review ChinaEconTalk on iTunes. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Huawei unfairly maligned or rightly feared? Are the tech supply chains running through China a marvel of 21st-century globalization, or dangerous oversight on the part of U.S. tech firms and the federal government? Today’s guest on ChinaEconTalk — Nick Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute and a lecturer at UC Berkeley — provides some clarity. Huawei and other Chinese tech titans have found themselves on the defensive, pushing back against allegations of system backdoors and Chinese government influence. In layman’s terms, Nick explains some of the technical aspects behind the fears that have arisen around China’s role in tech supply chains and information technology infrastructure around the world. Please take a moment to review ChinaEconTalk on iTunes! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on ChinaEconTalk, host Jordan Schneider discusses China’s aviation industry with Neil Thomas, Research Associate at the Paulson Institute’s in-house think tank, MacroPolo. Focusing on Boeing’s long history in China, they explore how the company’s interactions with the state have actually proven to be a microcosm of the larger U.S.-China relationship — from early involvement navigating business in the Mao era to the more recent period of strategic competition. Jordan and Neil reflect on this remarkable evolution, and debate whether China’s dependence on U.S. aviation technology is sustainable or even desirable from a Chinese perspective. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of ChinaEconTalk, host Jordan Schneider interviews Professor Christopher Marquis, professor at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business. Christopher discusses a few of his recent publications, which focus primarily on how Chinese communist ideology impacts thinking within private sector firms and policy implementation by Chinese politicians. Recommended reading: Also by Christopher Marquis: Waking from Mao’s Dream: Communist Ideological Imprinting and the Internationalization of Entrepreneurial Ventures in China Defending Mao’s Dream: How Politicians’ Ideological Imprinting Affects Firms’ Political Appointment in China. You can subscribe to the ChinaEconTalk newsletter here: chinaecontalk.substack.com. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s episode is a crossover with the China Tech Investor podcast. Join Jordan in conversation with China Tech Investor co-hosts James Hull and Elliot Zaagman as they discuss their perspectives on Chinese ecommerce, live streaming, fashion, the lessons Facebook is learning from WeChat, and emerging investment opportunities. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of ChinaEconTalk features a discussion with two of the people behind recent, high-profile efforts to mobilize Chinese programmers against labor exploitation via GitHub, the world’s leading software development platform: Suji Yan, CEO of Dimension, and Katt Gu, J.D., Advisor at Asian-Pacific Blockchain Development Association and PhD candidate in informatics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Suji and Katt are on the front lines of a growing movement of thousands protesting working conditions for Chinese tech workers, which are characterized by outrageously long working hours — a practice widely referred to as “996,” shorthand for shops that require staff to work “from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.” In response, Suji and Katt developed and published the “Anti-996 License,” which allows developers to prohibit the use of their code by entities that do not adhere to basic labor standards. The license has been adopted by over 2,000 software projects to date and “liked” over 200,000 times. In addition to discussion their advocacy efforts, in this episode Suji and Katt share their views on the ever-evolving Chinese tech sector, including the history of Linux and the ongoing importance of open-source software development tools. You can subscribe the ChinaEconTalk newsletter at: chinaecontalk.substack.com. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on ChinaEconTalk, host Jordan Schneider speaks with James Griffiths, senior producer for CNN International, to discuss his new book, The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet. Together, they trace the history of the internet in China, from the early, heady days of relative freedom through the slow but steady tightening of government controls, and discuss China’s recent efforts to export its comprehensive model of internet censorship. Along the way, they consider questions on a range of issues including the impact of Google and the tireless efforts of netizens to work around online restrictions. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One hour, Two Sessions China’s Two Sessions, the national annual gathering of the leadership of the People’s Republic of China, will soon be coming to a close. This week on ChinaEconTalk, Jordan sat down with Chris Beddor, a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews, to discuss highlights from this year’s gathering, including state-owned enterprise reform, implications for Made in China 2025, the evolving role of Li Keqiang, and more. Subscribe to the ChinaEconTalk newsletter here. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's guest is Russ Roberts. He's a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and the host of the EconTalk podcast, a weekly interview-based show that’s vaguely about economics but that has, over time, evolved into an extended meditation on the human condition. Its diverse topics in the last few weeks have included Solzhenitsyn, the 2008 financial crisis, and gratitude. Even though this conversation will have little or nothing to do with China, seeing as Russ served as the inspiration for the ChinaEconTalk podcast, I hope you all find it interesting. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The champagne days are over,” writes Dan Harris, reflecting on how the tone of his China Law Blog has evolved since its creation in 2006. As the founder of Harris Bricken, an international law firm with a major China presence, Dan has a unique window into how macro changes in China’s economy and trade relations play out within a law firm. In this conversation, Jordan and Dan discuss common misconceptions about the law in China; memorable Chinese legal scams; joint ventures in China; day-to-day operations of an international law firm in the country; intellectual property cases and enforcement within the Chinese legal system on the mainland. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week’s guest on ChinaEconTalk is Ryan Hass, a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy program, who is jointly appointed to the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. From 2013 to 2017, he served as the director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the National Security Council (NSC) during President Obama’s second term. Ryan offers reflections on his time at the NSC; the diplomatic strategies and objectives regarding U.S.-China relations during his time in the White House; elaboration on an article he co-authored at Brookings titled “Assessing U.S.-China relations 2 years into the Trump presidency”; and thoughts on the trajectory of the bilateral relationship under the current administration. Check out our newsletter at www.chinaecontalk.substack.com. Also, join the fan club and rate ChinaEconTalk on iTunes! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, nearly half of the top 100 apps in India's Google Play store are made by Chinese companies. After past failures to enter the Indian tech market, what's driving China tech's sudden success on the subcontinent? How have new Chinese companies like Bytedance and Xiaomi been able to localize more successfully than the likes of Tencent in the early 2010s? And just how seriously do Chinese firms take issues like child porn and fake news in India? To explore these topics, we spoke with Shadma Shaikh, a writer at Factor Daily. She and Jordan examine the multiple different aspects of China’s growing presence in India’s technology space. They also discuss the successes and failures of Chinese tech companies in India, the strategies that helped those companies find success, and the unique features of Indian culture (such as multiple languages), which have created difficulties for Western and Chinese tech companies that are eager to gain access to the Indian tech market.   ChinaEconTalk is open for sponsorships! Reach out on Twitter or LinkedIn for opportunities to connect with over 2,000 listeners who are passionate about China’s economy. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did the U.S.-China economic relationship evolve during the Obama administration? Are the economic tensions we see today between the two countries a product of inevitable forces, or more contingent on the choices of the Trump and Xi administrations? To discuss these topics and more, we have on today’s show Caroline Atkinson, who served as President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser for international economics. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does autocratic repression impact societies? Can the legacy of political repression ripple out across centuries, creating a vicious autocratic cycle? Today, on ChinaEconTalk, we're going back to the Qing dynasty — the time of the Qianlong Emperor, and before — to find out. Our guest is Melanie Meng Xue, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Economics and the Center for Economic History at Northwestern University, whose recent paper on the topic can be found here. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The U.S.-China equilibrium of the past 20 years has gone,” declares Gordon Orr in his recent piece on what to expect in China in 2019. So what will replace it? What impact will the increasingly activist Chinese government have on the broader economy? And what broader reflections does a 30-year China veteran have about recent changes in China? Orr is currently a director emeritus at McKinsey, having previously helped open the firm’s Beijing office and led its Greater China practice. He is also a board member of Lenovo and Meituan Dianping. Check out the new ChinaEconTalk newsletter here. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China’s video game market is the world’s largest. Over 600 million people play video games in China, and collectively, they spend over $40 billion a year on games. This episode, featuring Abacus reporter Josh Ye and localization expert Frankie Huang, explores the market as well as gaming culture in China. Check out our newsletter exploring the best long-form Chinese reporting on tech and business at chinaecontalk.substack.com. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chinese politics is boring and confusing. Or is it? This week Jordan speaks with Andrew Polk and Trey McArver, economics and politics specialists at Trivium China. The three discuss the size of the Chinese bureaucracy, how policy is formed and implemented, and the Chinese economy.  Check out the Trivium China's daily tip sheet for "a cheeky dose of China analysis" each morning.  Sign up to the recently launched ChinaEconTalk newsletter, a weekly look into Chinese-language sources on business, tech, and the broader economy. Feel free to out to Jordan directly on Twitter, LinkedIn, or on wechat at jordanschneider.  And lastly, scan here to join the ChinaEconTalk wechat group: Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Foreign investors have lost billions expecting a Chinese financial crisis that hasn't come yet. So what gives? According to the Rhodium Group's Logan Wright, it's not China's domestic savings rate or RMB-denominated debt that’s keeping the economy afloat, but rather the government's credibility. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, the executive editor of Foreign Affairs, is the author of the recent book The China Mission: George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945–1947. George Marshall, World War II hero and creator of the Marshall Plan, spent 1945-47 drinking baijiu with Mao and playing croquet with Chiang Kai-shek, fighting to stave off a civil war. Was the “loss of China” to the CCP inevitable? Did Marshall, with his strategy of forcing reconciliation on the Nationalists and Communists, in any way contribute to it? And what can we learn from Marshall's expedition to China about the limits of American influence abroad? If you have a professional opportunity you think Jordan might be a good fit for, please reach out to him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorschneider/, [email protected], or JordanSchneider on WeChat. Thanks so much! Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China's government aims to create a $500 billion sports industry by 2020. But how are those ambitions playing out on the ground in the Chinese basketball and soccer leagues? There's more to sports in China than the well-known problems of exorbitant transfer fees and match fixing, but with the government apparently unable to resist interfering in private leagues, does China have much hope for ever developing world-class teams? SupChina columnist and longtime China sports watcher Mark Dreyer gives his take. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is Bytedance and how does it make its money? How do politics and culture get in the way of Chinese firms' internationalization efforts? What can Chinese phones in Africa and electric buses in LA teach us about localization challenges? Elliott Zaagman, co-host of TechNode's China Tech Investor podcast, takes on these issues for the latest episode of ChinaEconTalk. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is KFC so big in China? What is the “Toilet Revolution” and why does it matter? How does Chinese propaganda work? How have bicycles’ role in Chinese society evolved over time? Neil Thomas of MacroPolo takes on all this in ChinaEconTalk’s latest show. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the history of Google in China? Does the company have any hope of bringing its search engine back into the Chinese market? How does China’s development of artificial intelligence stack up against the rest of the world’s? To answer these questions, Matt Sheehan of MacroPolo makes his triumphant return to ChinaEconTalk. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it came to trade wars, the British didn't mess around. Four steam-powered battleships sent by the English to force China to change its trade policy in the mid-19th century changed the course of history. But how did they end up fighting the Chinese in the first place, and what are the contemporary echoes of this historical trade fight? Stephen Platt, the author of the recent Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age, answers these questions and more on the latest episode of ChinaEconTalk. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Brennan, professional speaker and co-host of China Tech Talk, comes on the show to discuss the history and evolution of China's most popular app, WeChat, as well as threats on the horizon for the company that created it, Tencent. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Dollar is a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. He has previously served as the U.S. Treasury Department emissary to Beijing during the Obama Administration, and the World Bank's country director for China and Mongolia. He discusses his storied career and the recent history of U.S.-China financial relations, including the current trade war's origins in the 2008 financial crisis. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rhodes Scholar Jeff Ding breaks down how China stacks up to the rest of the world in the race to develop AI. He delves into the connections between Chinese tech companies and government AI targets, AI’s military implications, as well as the ethical considerations of AI applications in China’s police state. We discuss his recent paper “Deciphering China’s AI Dream” as well as recent articles on AI he has translated from Chinese media on his ChinAI newsletter. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chad Bown is a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC and cohost of the excellent Trade Talks, a weekly podcast on the economics of international trade policy. In this episode, we discuss the competing grand strategies of US and China as well as their different tactics for executing their trade war policies. We touch on potential internal inconsistencies in Trump's trade outlook, the implications for the USD and RMB, as well as potential endgames. Outtro music by VaVa Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest Samm Sacks Senior Fellow, Technology Policy, Center for Strategic and International Studies @CSIS Samm Sacks | Center for Strategic and International Studies Samm Sacks (@SammSacks) | Twitter Samm Sacks, Senior Fellow at CSIS, is perhaps America's leading expert on Chinese data privacy policy. Yes, you heard that right, the world's most advanced surveillance state has a corporate data privacy policy even more stringent than what's currently on America's books. In this episode, we compare China's new law to the GDPR, what privacy policy means for Chinese tech firms with international ambitions, and the implications of the latest Facebook scandal involving Huawei. ChinaEconTalk is proud to announce that it has recently joined Sinica Podcast Network! For more information, visit SupChina.com Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ma Tianjie, founder of the long-running blog Chublicopinion is perhaps the leading English-language chronicler of Chinese public opinion. In this episode, he discusses the official and popular responses to the trade war, ranging from hard right nationalists calling for a return to Maoist autarchy to liberals thanking Trump for pushing China to open its markets. In his day job, he works for ChinaDialogue, a site that covers Chinese environmental issues. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(The audio stops beeping after 1 minute I promise!) Chris Balding as a Bloomberg Views contributor and professor based in Shenzhen. In this interview, we discuss two recent posts on his blog Baldingsworld which both make the case for America's hard line stance toward China's economic policies as well as decry Trump's lack of skill in tactical execution. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lorand Laskai is a researcher at a prominent American think tank who recently wrote a piece on the Trump administration's animosity to Xi's Made in China 2025 program. In this episode, we discuss what exactly ticks American policymakers off about the initiative, why Chinese unicorn CEOs related to content have had to issue apologies, what moral calculations foreigners make when deciding to work for firms caught up in these sorts of issues, and the Chinese debate scene. Athena Cao, a Beijing-based industry analyst, also joined us to guest host. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest henry gao henry gao (@henrysgao) | Twitter Prof. Henry Gao is Associate Professor of law (tenured) at Singapore Management University and Dongfang Scholar Chair Professor at Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. And co-author alongside Gregory Schaffer of the recent paper China's Rise: How It Took on the U.S. at the WTO. As evidenced by China’s behavior in the recent trade scuffles with the US, it’s clear that Chinese lawyers are far from rubes when it comes to trade. In this interview, we discuss what it took for the PRC to learn to speak the language of international legal trade law and the implications this develompent had both domestically and internationally, particularly in the context of the current US-China trade war. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest Charlie Moseley Washingtonian in Asia. Predisposed to wanderlust. Charlie Moseley's Personal Website charlie (@justcharlie) | Twitter China's over 600 million gamers contribute to a gaming market that generated $30 billion in 2017. ChinaEconTalk discusses this part of the Chinese economy and society with Charlie Moseley, an independent game developer and longtime resident of Chengdu, and Chang Jung-Erh (Polly), a past intern at Netease Games. Topics include the evolution of the Chinese gaming market, the impact of gaming giants Tencent and Netease, female gamers in China, and Chengdu hip hop. Mentioned in the episode: DJI university robot contest Robomasters and Chengdu-based rapper Kafe-Hu Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest Martin Chorzempa Research Fellow, @PIIE. China Econ/Finance, FinTech, Financial Development Martin Chorzempa | PIIE Martin Chorzempa (@ChorzempaMartin) | Twitter Martin Chorzempa of the Peterson Institute is over traditional finance. Instead, spends his time analyzing the wild west of innovative consumer finance in China, a space full of unicorns, ponzi schemes, and overworked regulators desperately trying to stay up with the times. We discuss the promise and peril of social credit scores like Alibaba's Sesame Credit and the boom of Chinese peer to peer lending. Martin also explains how a digital gaming currency created by Tencent in the 2000s that developed a secondary market set the pattern that you can today see with its handling of bitcoin. Outtro song: "We are all Bitcoins" Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest Nick Consonery Director of China Macroeconomic & Policy research @rhodium_group Rhodium Group Nick Consonery (@nconsonery) | Twitter Nick Consonery of the Rhodium Group with support from the Asia Society recently published The China Dashboard. This piece of research provides a quarterly update on the key fields of economic policy reform, including topics like the environment, fiscal policy, and innovation. In this podcast, we review the dashboard's latest disappointing findings, and discuss why some policy aims may be at cross-purposes. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China's northeast, a region that in the 1970s comprised over 10% of national GDP, now only makes up 3%. In this interview, Song Houze walks listeners through the policy challenges facing the rustbest. He also provides some context behind two developments that recently made international news: a famous entrepeneur berating a local official for squeezing his ski resort and provincial-level GDP revisions.. For more research, see his recent series up on Macropolo on the province of Liaoning. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests Oona Hathaway Professor @YaleLawSch, Director @YaleLawGLC, Editor @just_security, fmr Special Counsel @DeptofDefense, co-author of The Internationalists Oona A. Hathaway - Yale Law School Oona Hathaway (@oonahathaway) on Twitter Scott Shapiro Prof @YaleLawSch + Philosophy @Yale. Visiting Quain Prof @UCLLaws. Editor, Legal Theory and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. #Internationalists THE INTERNATIONALISTS Scott Shapiro (@scottjshapiro) on Twitter Given how Xi today struts on the world stage with ambitions to use today's "historic opportunity" to reshape the international order, its useful to look back in history to the last time the world faced a revolution in legal norms. Yale Law Professors Scott Shapiro and Oona Hathaway recently published The Internationalists, an intellectual history of how international legal norms have evolved since the days of Grotius. In particular, they focus on the movement to outlaw war peaking in the early 20th century with the Kellogg Briand Pact fundamentally reframed interstate relations and created many aspects of the modern international system China is navigating today. This discussion ranges from how Japan adopted to the western legal reality in the late 19th and early 20th century, to origins of sanctions, the South China Sea and even wars started by claims of wife-stealing. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science at Berkeley (not to mention one of my favorite authors of accessible yet profound global economics books) recently published his How Global Currencies Work: Past, Present, and Future. We talk about the rise of the US Dollar and how its transition to global leader was slower and more gradual than many have thought. We then turn to the Yuan and the challenges it faces as the government pushes the currency's internationalization. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Max Zhou 周喆吾 is an Uber alum who until November of 2017 was the head of Mobile at Mobike. He is currently working as the co-founder of Meta App. Max talks about his story coming to the US for an advanced degree, his experience at Uber, why Travis Kalanick is really a Chinese entrepreneur at heart, and his take on China's 'Uber Mafia.' He then turns to Mobike and Ofo, speaking to the potential monetization pathways for the firms, their global expansion plans, their strategic investors' competing goals and merger prospects. He even shares his own crackpot theory of how the initial investors in Ofo and Mobike may be the ones leaking negative stories about Ofo spending deposit money and senior leadership living lavish lifestyles. We close by talking about his new project, MetaApp, which aims to allow users access to an app's full feature-set without having to download it. Max also recently appeared on 非诚勿扰, China's leading dating show. His segment starts about twenty minutes in. Chinese words used: 道德=ethics, morality 线下流量=offline visits 阴谋=conspiracy Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keller Easterling, architect and professor at Yale, discusses her research on free zones (aka Special Economic Zones). We start by discussing the history of free zones and whether the Chinese success stories of SEZs such as Shenzhen drove their proliferation around the world. We also discuss a few more next-generation free zone proposals such as the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia and Refugee Cities. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Lorentzen, professor of economics at the University of San Francisco, talks protests and provincial politics. We start by discussing 'Designing Contentious Politics in Post-1989 China,' which uses game theory to analyze and explain how the CCP responds to on-the-ground protests. Next, we take on his 'Racing to the Bottom or to the Top? Decentralization, Revenue Pressures, and Governance Reform in China' and explore what actually drives municipal responses to orders from on high. Music this week by 阴三儿, 北京晚报 and 没钱没朋友. Do note that after this episode was recorded, some protests against "low-end population" removal broke out. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Sheehan is a fellow at the Paulson Institute and writes his own newsletter, "Chinafornia". We discussed the evolving relationship between China and Silicon Valley, their cultural differences and commonalities and, of course, the state of Chinese rap music. Stay tuned until the end of the episode to hear Matt's favorite Chinese rap song in full. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Jonathan Woetzel, Mckinsey Global Institute Director and Senior Partner in the Shanghai office, recently co-authored a report entitled China's Digital Economy. In this podcast, he discusses the impact of BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) on the broader startup ecosystem, the role of the government in fostering these firms, and China's potential for continued economic creativity. He also astutely recommends that you read all of Jonathan Spence. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julian Gewirtz is currently a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of Unlikely Partners: Chinese Reformers, Western Economists, and the Making of Global China. In it, he argues that "western economists played a crucial role in shaping the ideas and strategies of key CCP economists and policymakers. Without their participation, China would not have reformed as quickly, innovatively, and successfully." In this discussion, we focus on the critical 1985 Bashan Conference and the echoes of the Unlikely Partners narrative you can see even today in Chinese policymaking. Julian's book recommendations included 9 Continents and Everything Under the Heavens. Follow Julian on twitter at @JulianGewirtz. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Zhang Yingyu’s work from the late Ming Dynasty, you’ll encounter swindling concubines, clever commoners, and even eunuch cannibals trying to regrow their members. “We live in an age of deception. Words and appearances mislead. Con artists prey on the unwary. In this world of swindlers, one must rely on one’s wits to survive. How, then, to guard against the duplicity that lurks behind every smiling face? Look to your kin, keep your possessions close, and trust no one. But first, read The Book of Swindles.” Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk, both associate professors of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia, have recently published The Book of Swindles’ first English translation. In this interview, they discuss the work's historical and cultural context as well as walk through some of the most shocking, revealing, and prurient stories The Book of Swindles has to offer. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China’s massive labor surplus has been vital to its rapid economic development. For decades, China’s rural population has been migrating to take up low-wage jobs in the coastal regions, often in dire conditions. The exploitation of cheap labor has helped China become the world’s factory. However, as China’s labor surplus is running out, the position of workers is changing. In A New Deal for China’s Workers, New York University’s Cynthia Estlund examines the evolution of workers’ rights and protests in China. Drawing a comparison with the struggle of workers to attain more rights in the US, Estlund asks whether China’s workers will succeed in securing a New Deal with Chinese characteristics. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Polk on the 19th Party Congress by Jordan Schneider Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott Kennedy on Innovation in China by Jordan Schneider Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices