Sinica Podcast

This week on Sinica, I welcome back Finbarr Bermingham, the Brussels-based Europe correspondent for the South China Morning Post, about the Nexperia dispute — one of the most revealing episodes in the global contest over semiconductor supply chains. Nexperia, a Dutch-headquartered chipmaker owned by Shanghai-listed Wingtech, became the subject of extraordinary government intervention when the Netherlands invoked a Cold War-era emergency law to seize temporary control of the company and suspend its Chinese CEO. Finbarr's reporting, drawing on Dutch court documents and expert sources, has illuminated the tangled threads of this story: preexisting concerns about governance and technology transfer, mounting U.S. pressure on The Hague to remove Chinese management, and the timing of the Dutch action on the very day the U.S. rolled out its affiliate rule. We discuss China's retaliatory export controls on chips packaged at Nexperia's Dongguan facilities, the role of the Trump-Xi meeting in Busan in unlocking a temporary thaw, and what this case reveals about Europe's agonizing position between American pressure and Chinese integration in global production networks. 4:34 – Why the "Europe cracks down on Chinese acquisition" framing was too simple 6:17 – The Dutch court's extraordinary tick-tock of events and U.S. lobbying 9:04 – The June pressure from Washington: divestment or the affiliate list 10:13 – Dutch fears of production know-how relocating to China 12:35 – The impossible position: damned if they did, damned if they didn't 14:46 – The obscure Cold War-era Goods Availability Act 17:11 – CEO Zhang Xuezheng and the question of who stopped cooperating first 19:26 – Was China's export control a state policy or a corporate move? 22:16 – Europe's de-risking framework and the lessons from Nexperia 25:39 – The fragmented European response: Germany, France, Hungary, and the Baltics 30:31 – Did Germany shape the response behind the scenes? 33:06 – The Trump-Xi meeting in Busan and the resolution of the crisis 37:01 – Will the Nexperia case deter future European interventions? 40:28 – Is Europe still an attractive market for Chinese investment? 41:59 – The Europe China Forum: unusually polite in a time of tenterhooks Paying it forward: Dewey Sim (SCMP diplomacy desk, Beijing); Coco Feng (SCMP technology, Guangdong); Khushboo Razdan (SCMP North America); Sense Hofstede (Chinese Bossen newsletter) Recommendations: Finbarr: Chokepoints by Edward Fishman; Underground Empire by Henry Farrell and Abe Newman; "What China Wants from Europe" by John Delury (Engelsberg Ideas) Kaiser: The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and Milady (2023 French film adaptation) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I welcome back Jeremy Goldkorn, co-founder of the show and my longtime co-host, to revisit the "vibe shift" we first discussed back in February. Seven months on, what we sensed then has fully borne out — there's been a measurable softening in American attitudes toward China, reflected not just in polling data but in media coverage, podcast discussions, and public discourse. We dig into what's driving this shift: the chaos of American politics making China look competent by comparison, the end of Wolf Warrior diplomacy, the gutting of China hawks in the Trump administration, Trump's own transactional G2 enthusiasm, and the generational divide in how younger Americans encounter China through TikTok rather than legacy media. We also discuss the limits of this shift, the dangers of overcorrection, and what it feels like to watch the fever break after years of panic and absolutism in U.S.-China discourse. 5:29 – The [beep] show in America as the biggest factor 8:38 – China hawks deflated: from Pompeo to Navarro's pivot to India 11:21 – Ben Smith's piece on the end of a decade of China hawkism 13:30 – Eric Schmidt and Selina Xu's Atlantic piece on tech decoupling 17:17 – Long-form China podcasts: Dwarkesh Patel with Arthur Kroeber, Lex Fridman with Keyu Jin 19:35 – Jeremy's personal vibe shift: distance from The China Project and renewed perspective 23:33 – The world turning to predictability and stability 26:05 – The Chicago Council poll: dramatic shift away from containment 29:09 – The generational shift: TikTok, infrastructure porn, and Gen Z's globalized worldview 31:15 – The end of Wolf Warrior diplomacy and why it mattered 37:03 – Kaiser's "Great Reckoning" essay and why it didn't get the usual hate 39:00 – The destruction of Twitter and the vicious China discourse culture 41:10 – The pendulum swinging too far: China fanboys and new hubris 43:20 – How the vibe shift looks from inside China Paying it forward: Echo Tang (Berlin Independent Chinese Film Festival organizer) and Zhu Rikun (New York Chinese Independent Film Festival organizer) Recommendations: Jeremy: Ja No Man: Growing Up in Apartheid Era South Africa by Richard Poplak Kaiser: Rhyming Chaos podcast with Jeremy Goldkorn and Maria Repnikova See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute and one of the sharpest China analysts working today. We dig into the 4th Plenary Session of the 20th Party Congress and what it reveals about China's evolving growth model — particularly the much-discussed but often misunderstood push against "involution" in key sectors like EVs and solar. Lizzi walks us through the structural incentives driving overcompetition, from local government finance and VAT collection to the challenges of rebalancing supply and demand. We also discuss her recent Foreign Affairs piece on China's manufacturing model, why "overcapacity" is a misleading frame, the unexpected upsides of China's industrial strategy for the global green transition, and what happened at the Trump-Xi meeting in Busan. This is a conversation about getting beyond the binaries and understanding the actual mechanisms — and contradictions — shaping China's economic trajectory. 4:43 – What Western reporting missed in the 4th Plenum communique 6:34 – The "anti-involution" push and what it really means 9:57 – Is China's domestic demand abnormally low? Context and comparisons 12:41 – Why cash transfers and consumption subsidies are running out of steam 15:00 – The supply-side approach: creating better products to drive demand 18:33 – GDP vs. GNI: why China is focusing on global corporate footprints 20:13 – Service exports and China's ascent along the global supply chain 24:02 – The People's Daily editorial on price wars and profit margins 27:31 – Why addressing involution is harder now than in 2015 29:56 – How China's VAT system incentivizes local governments to build entire supply chains 33:20 – The difficulty of reforming fiscal structures and local government finance 35:12 – What got lost in the Foreign Affairs editing process 38:14 – Why "overcapacity" is a misleading and morally loaded term 40:02 – The underappreciated upside: China's model and the global green transition 43:14 – How politically potent deindustrialization fears are in Washington and Brussels 46:29 – Industry self-discipline vs. structural reform: can moral suasion work? 50:15 – BYD's negotiating power and the squeeze on suppliers 53:54 – The Trump-Xi meeting in Busan: genuine thaw or tactical pause? 57:23 – Pete Hegseth's "God bless both China and the USA" tweet 1:00:01 – How China's leadership views Trump: transactional or unpredictable? 1:03:32 – The pragmatic off-ramp and what Paul Triolo predicted 1:05:26 – China's AI strategy: labor-augmenting vs. labor-replacing technology 1:08:13 – What systemic changes could realistically fix involution? 1:10:26 – Capital market reform and the challenge of decelerating slowly 1:12:36 – The "health first" strategy and investing in people Paying it forward: Paul Triolo Recommendations: Lizzi: Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman Kaiser: Morning Coffee guitar practice book by Alex Rockwell See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, editor of Foreign Affairs, about how the journal has both shaped and reflected American discourse on China during a period of dramatic shifts in the relationship. We discuss his deliberate editorial choices to include heterodox voices, the changing nature of the supposed "consensus" on China policy, and what I've called the "vibe shift" in how Americans across the political spectrum think about China. Daniel also reflects on his own intellectual formation, including his work on George Marshall's failed mission to mediate China's Civil War and the cautionary lessons that history holds for today's debates. We explore the challenges of bringing Chinese voices into Foreign Affairs, the balance between driving and reflecting policy debates, and whether we're witnessing a genuine opening of the Overton window on China discussions. 7:15 – Foreign Affairs in the era of Iraq and "China's peaceful rise" 12:09 – The Marshall mission and the "Who Lost China?" debate 17:17 – China's changing role and the journal's coverage density 19:43 – The Campbell-Ratner "China Reckoning" and subsequent debates 25:00 – The challenge of including authentic Chinese voices 29:42 – How Chinese leadership perceives and reads Foreign Affairs 32:12 – The "vibe shift" on China across the American political spectrum 35:56 – Cultivating contrarian voices: Van Jackson, Jonathan Czin, and David Kang 40:17 – Avoiding the trap of making everything about U.S.-China competition 43:12 – Diversifying perspectives beyond the Washington-Beijing binary 48:18 – The big questions: American exceptionalism and Chinese identity in a new era 51:42 – The dangers of cutting off U.S.-China scholarly conversations 56:26 – The uses and misuses of historical analogies 58:09 – Spain's Golden Age and late Qing memes as contemporary analogies Paying it forward: The unsung editorial staff at Foreign Affairs Recommendations: Daniel: Equator.org; The Rise of the Meritocracy by Michael Young; Granta's new India issue; The Party's Interests Come First by Joseph Torigian; The Coming Storm by Odd Arne Westad Kaiser: The Spoils of Time by C.V. Wedgwood See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I speak with Jonathan Czin, the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center. His new essay in Foreign Affairs, “China Against China: Xi Jinping Confronts the Downsides of Success,” challenges the dominant Western narrative of Xi Jinping as either Mao reincarnate or a brittle autocrat presiding over imminent collapse. Instead, Czin argues that Xi’s most illiberal reforms can be understood as attempts to cure the pathologies of China’s own success. We discuss his framing of Xi’s “Counterreformation,” how it helps explain China’s current political direction, and what it reveals about our own analytical blind spots in the West. 7:15 – Xi’s “reformation” and Carl Minzner’s “end of reform and opening” 12:18 – Corruption, decentralization, and the “lost decade” under Hu and Wen 20:12 – Defining “resilience” and what Xi means by “eating bitterness” 29:45 – The “downsides of success”: property, corruption, and governance contradictions 45:30 – Counter-reformation vs. counterrevolution: what Xi wants to preserve and discard 54:20 – The myth of yes-men: triangulation and feedback in Xi’s leadership style 1:07:07 – Cognitive empathy and why most U.S. analysis of Xi falls short 1:15:35 – Systems that can’t course-correct: comparing the U.S. and China 1:22:05 – Cognitive empathy, ideology, and the problem of American exceptionalism Paying it forward: Jonathan: Allie Mathias and Dinny McMahon Recommendations: Jonathan: The Thirty Years War by C.V. Wedgewood; The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni Kaiser: Transplants by Daniel Tam-Claiborne See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Peking University's Professor Wang Dong (王栋), an international relations scholar at the School of International Studies at Peking University, where he also serves as Deputy Director and Executive Director of the Office for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding. Professor Wang’s scholarship and public commentary focus on U.S.–China relations, Cold War history, and the uses of historical memory in diplomacy. He has been an especially thoughtful voice in connecting the Flying Tigers legacy with today’s efforts to stabilize and strengthen the people-to-people ties between our two countries. Check back in a day or two for the full podcast page and the transcript! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, co-host Tianyu Fang makes his debut on the show to join me in interviewing his Stanford classmate and talented writer Jasmine Sun, who studies the anthropology of disruption. This summer, she took a trip to China with a group of friends with different levels of China experience, from people raised in the country to total novices. She reflects on how it hit, and how a group of young people reckoned with the reality of Chinese hypermodernity, which she wrote about in a terrific essay titled "america against china against america: notes on shenzhen, shanghai, and more." 06:10 – Getting to know the new co-host: Tianyu Fang 07:17 – Meet the guest: Jasmine Sun 08:47 – Is there really an “American Vibe Shift” in how people see China? 13:56 – The stories nations tell: America vs. China 18:26 – Why that title for the essay? 21:05 – Surveillance, awe, and future shock: China vs. San Francisco 28:19 – Chinese tech’s power to surprise (and scare) + U.S.–China perceptions 34:34 – China vs. Silicon Valley: patriotism and motivation 39:51 – The involution phenomenon: China vs. U.S. 45:41 – China’s public services and the U.S. gap 52:33 – What U.S. cities could learn from China 56:13 – Guests’ tips for understanding China Recommendations: Jasmine: Yunnan food Tianyu: Mad Men (Tv series) Kaiser: The Origins of Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with well-known author and public intellectual Yascha Mounk about his recent fascination with China, his approach to learning about the country and learning Chinese, and his thoughts on how China fits into the current crisis of Western liberal democracy. 7:15 – Yascha’s experience of living in China and learning Chinese 12:18 – Yascha’s perspective on China’s strengths and weaknesses 20:12 – China in a global comparative perspective: Generational aspirations and demographic decline 29:45 – China’s Soft Power vs. Japan, Korea, and the U.S. 45:30 – Media narratives on China: have they shifted? 54:20 – Western Liberalism confronts China 01:07:07 – Backlash & criticism 01:11:35 - Polarization and “China as enemy” narratives Recommendations: Yascha: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (book), The Leopard (1963) (movie) Kaiser: A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism by Adam Gopnik (book) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I speak first with retired Senior Colonel Zhou Bo, a frequent commentator on Chinese military and security affairs and a prolific writer now at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, and with Rana Mitter of the Harvard Kennedy School and author of Forgotten Ally, a book about World War II in China. 4:08 – The primary objectives behind the September 3rd parade 10:03 – China’s position in the global arms market 14:45 – The strategic importance of the new weapons on display 21:10 – China, Russia, and North Korea: strategic dynamics 33:14 – Perspectives on the China–Russia relationship 44:13 – Avoiding security dilemma spirals 50:32 – Rana Mitter: Wartime memory, national narratives, and the 2025 shift 57:06 – Narratives of China’s role in World War II 01:19:01 – The significance and performative Dimension of the 2025 parade 01:26:26 – China’s postwar role and evolving global ambitions Recommendations: Rana: Face-Off (podcast), Enchanted Revolution by Xiaofei Kang See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Dave Kang (USC), Zenobia Chan (Georgetown), and Jackie Wong (American University in Sharjah, UAE) about their new paper in International Security titled "What Does China Want?" The paper, which has generated quite a bit of controversy, takes a data-driven approach to examine the claim that China seeks global hegemony — that it wants to supplant the U.S. as a globe-spanning top power. I'm traveling much of this week, so I'll update this podcast page when the transcript comes back! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I welcome back Evan Feigenbaum, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Evan served for many years as a State Department official, was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asia among his numerous positions in government, and was instrumental in building the U.S.-India relationship after 2000 — only to watch Trump round on India in recent months, slapping large punitive tariffs on the South Asian giant ostensibly over its purchases of Russian oil. What motivated Trump? And how does this look from New Delhi and from Beijing? Will China capitalize on the strains in the U.S.-Indian relationship? Listen and find out. 04:12 – Building "trust" in politics 10:22 – Changes in U.S. policy 15:11 – Did India take advantage of Russia? 20:07 – How U.S. rules shape India 25:21 – "Rebuilding" the U.S.–India relationship 29:56 – Beijing on Trump vs. India 42:48 – India, Quad, and Indo-Pacific strategy 49:55 – Managing U.S.–India tensions Paying it Forward: Kenji Kushida Recommendations:  Evan: How China Is Reshaping International Security Cooperation by Sheena Greitens and Isaac Kardon Kaiser: How Sino-centrism and U.S.-centrism warp(ed?) Beijing’s foreign policy thinking by Tang Shiping and Qi Dapeng See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I'm delighted to be joined by Dan Wang, formerly of Gavekal Dragonomics and the Paul Tsai Law Center at Yale University, now with the Hoover Institute's History Lab. Dan's new book is Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, and it's already one of the year's most talked-about books. In this conversation, we go beyond what's actually in the book to discuss the origins and implications of the Chinese "engineering state" — the world's biggest technocratic polity — and what the United States should and should not learn from China. We discuss how Dan's ideas sit with Abundance by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein, and much more. Don't miss this episode! 03:51 – Guitar industry in Guizhou 09:49 – Engineering state vs. lawyerly society 23:13 – Downsides of the engineering state 34:24 – Process knowledge: U.S. vs. China 43:01 – Attitudes toward technology: U.S. vs China 52:32 – Historical roots of the engineering state in China 59:48 – Building institutions that bind outcomes to rights 01:04:15 – What can be learned from the COVID lockdowns 01:07:51 – The tradeoff between resilience and efficiency 01:10:52 – Dan's view on Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein's "Abundance" argument 01:13:41 – Legitimacy in China and the U.S. 01:21:13 – Building toward cultural pluralism Paying it Forward: Afra Wang, He Liu. Recommendations: Dan: Mozart's Italian operas, written with Lorenzo Da Ponte; The Red and the Black by Stendhal; In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust; Moby Dick by Herman Melville; Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Kaiser: China is enjoying Trump 2.0 by Yun Sun (article), books:  Revolutionary Spring, The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Artificial intelligence has been a frequent topic on Sinica in recent years — but usually through the lens of the two countries that have produced the leading models and companies: the United States and China. We’ve covered generative AI, national strategies, governance frameworks, and the geopolitical implications of AI leadership. This webinar, broadcast on the morning of August 14, broadens that lens to explore how other countries — and especially Ukraine — are approaching AI in the public sector. Around the world, governments are experimenting with AI well beyond chatbots and text generation: China’s “City Brain” optimizes traffic, energy use, and public safety; U.S. agencies are streamlining services and automating benefits processing; and elsewhere, smart grids, predictive infrastructure planning, and AI-enabled e-governance are reshaping public administration. These projects reveal both the promise and the complexity of bringing AI into government — along with valid concerns over privacy, fairness, and inclusiveness. We’ll look at what lessons Ukraine might draw from U.S. and Chinese experiences, the opportunities and challenges of adapting these practices, and the strategic risks of sourcing AI solutions from different providers — especially in the context of Ukraine’s eventual postwar reconstruction. Joining us are three distinguished guests:Dmytro Yefremov, Board Member of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, with deep expertise in China’s political and technological strategies and Ukraine’s policy landscape.Wang Guan, Chairman of Learnable.ai in China, bringing extensive experience in AI applications for public administration and education.Karman Lucero, Associate Research Scholar and Senior Fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, whose work focuses on Chinese law, governance, and the regulation of emerging technologies. Thanks to the Ukrainian Platform for Contemporary China, the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill for organizing and sponsoring today’s event. Special thanks to Vita Golod for putting together the panel and inviting me to moderate. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join me for a conversation with four fantastic panelists about nuclear safety and security issues brought on by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and more broadly on the state of nuclear security globally during this era of dramatic change. This program was made possible by the Ukrainian Platform for Contemporary China and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.Nickolas Roth is Senior Director for Nuclear Materials Security at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). Nickolas works at the intersection of arms control, risk reduction, and institutional resilience, and previously directed nuclear security work at the Stimson Center and contributed to Harvard’s Project on Managing the Atom.Mariana Budjeryn is a Senior Research Associate with Managing the Atom at Harvard’s Belfer Center and author of Inheriting the Bomb, a definitive study of Ukraine’s post-Soviet disarmament and the limits of the Budapest Memorandum. Her scholarship grounds today’s debates about guarantees, coercion, and nuclear restraint.Pan Yanliang is a Research Associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). He studies the Russian and Chinese nuclear industries and the nuclear fuel cycle, and works on CNS engagement with Chinese counterparts—giving him a distinctive cross-regional vantage.Lily Wojtowicz is a Research Fellow at the Hertie School (Berlin) and a USIP–Minerva Peace & Security Scholar, whose work focuses on extended deterrence credibility, European security, and alliance adaptation under great-power rivalry. 5:19 - The Gap Between Coercive Rhetoric and First-use Thresholds 11:26 - The Implication of Ukraine’s allies regarding weapons  17:26 - Golden Dome 21:30 - China’s Position on Nuclear Weapons 29:25 - How Belarus Altered European Debates 31:13 - Civilian Nuclear Power  38:32 - North Korea’s Support for Russia 40:59 - Beijing on NATO and Asian Security 43:09 - Europe’s Reaction to Nuclear Risk 45:44 - Nuclear Risk in the Russia-Ukraine War 52:56 - Trump’s Impact on Kremlin Nuclear Thinking 1:01:52 - US-China Nuclear Relations 1:04:49 - Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Paul Triolo of DGA Albright Stonebridge and tech investor Ryan Cunningham join to talk about their observations and insights from the World AI Conference (WAIC), held in July in Shanghai, and what it tells them about China's ambitions in the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence. Don't miss this one! 04:21 - Ryan on his Edgerunner fund 06:23 - Impressions of the World AI Conference in Shanghai 13:52 - Approaches to AI development in the US and China 24:04 - China’s role in global AI safety  33:42 - AI market: US vs China 38:20 - AI diffusion in China 44:56 - AI safety frameworks 52:06 - Domestic development of Chinese AI 1:04:06 - Pressure of Domestic AI Alternatives 1:08:43 - Can AI have a dual role in the U.S.? 1:17:25 -Paying it Forward  1:20:16 - Recommendations Paying it Forward: Kevin Xu, Kyle Chan, Helen Toner (Rising Tide Substack),   Piotr Mazurek and Felix Gabriel (LLM Inference Economics from First Principles). Recommendations: Paul: Neil deGrasse Tyson - Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (book),  Sara Imari Walker’s Life As No One Knows It (book) Ryan: Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (video game) Kaiser: The Studio (TV series), Platonic (TV series) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica: On my final two days in Shaxi in Yunnan, Chris Thomas and Stephanie Li, the hosts of the marvelous YouTube channel Chinese Cooking Demystified, joined me for some cooking and lots of chatting about food! We recorded this show together and focus our conversation on their heroic attempt at a taxonomy of different Chinese cuisines. We don't talk about all 63 that they identify, but we do get into their 04:31 - Flavors of Yunnan  08:44 - On balancing between the “exotic” and “normal” China  11:53 - The origin story behind “Chinese Cooking Demystified” 14:56 - The Breath of the Wok (Wok Hei, 鑊氣 / huo6 hei3) 21:05 - A Comprehensive Taxonomy on Chinese Cuisine  32:25 - Correlations between dialects and cuisine  37:15 - Efforts behind the work 39:09 - Promoting local specialties 44:23 - Chinese identity and food trends 52:30 - "Minority" cuisine in Yunnan 01:00:52 - Yunnan cuisine and the Chinese hipster generation 01:05:52 - Dali dish recommendations Recommendations:  Chris & Steph: Shunde Lao Baby, Pin Nuo, Lao Dongbei Kaiser: Taking time off to do something you love! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I'm in Shaxi, a wonderful little town in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, and I was joined here by the Columbia economic historian Adam Tooze, who shared his thoughts on what he sees happening on the ground in China. Adam's been in China for the last month and reflects on his experiences learning about the country — and even attempting the language! 03:49 - The economic situation in China 10:42 - Patterns of consumption in China 14:38 - China’s industrial policy and renewable energy  18:52 - China vs. the U.S. on renewables 26:15 - China’s economic engagement with the Global South 33:13- Beijing’s strategic shift and Europe’s rethinking 37:49- The recent European Parliament paper 42:43 - Learning about China as an “Outsider”  51:31 - Adam’s evolving views on China  59:30 - Paying it Forward 01:01:07 - Recommendations  Paying it Forward: Kyle Chan, Pekingology. Recommendations: Adam: Caught by the Tide, Jia Zhangke (movie). Kaiser: Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao (book), Vera, or Faith, Gary Shteyngart (book). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, in a show taped in early June in Washington, Kaiser chats with Tong Zhao (赵通) of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading expert on Chinese nuclear doctrine, about why the PRC has, in recent years, significantly increased the size of its nuclear arsenal. Zhao offers a master class in the practice of strategic empathy. 03:12 – China’s nuclear doctrine: core principles 06:56 – Xi Jinping’s leadership and nuclear policy 12:33 – Symbolism vs. strategy: Defensive or offensive buildup? 16:55 – What’s driving the nuclear expansion? 28:33 – Trump’s second term: Impact on China’s strategic thinking 34:34 – Nukes and Taiwan 41:45 – Washington and Beijing nuclear doctrines perceptions 48:04 - China’s perspective on the Golden Dome program 52:32 - China’s Stance on North Korea’s nuclear program  01:01:00 - Beijing’s View on North Korean troops in Ukraine Paying it forward: David Logan, at Tufts University Recommendations: Tong:  Yellowstone, TV series  Kaiser: Gomorrah, TV series  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 2014, the writer Christopher Beam published a humorous, heartwarming story in The New Republic about an unlikely team of American football enthusiasts in Chongqing who went on to defeat their archrivals in Shanghai to win a championship. The piece was optioned by Sony Pictures, and had some big names attached, but was ultimately never made — not, at least, by an American studio. Eleven years later, Chris has written about a film that was made: Clash, produced by iQiyi, hit theaters in China earlier this year and followed the Chongqing Dockers in the same story arc, but with important and telling differences. His new story was published in The Atlantic, and he talks to me about the Dockers and the long, strange story of the film that wasn't and the one that was. 03:50 – The Meaning of Chinese YOLO 05:33 – Chris’s First Meeting With the Chongqing Team 13:11 – Chris McLaurin’s Background 15:54 – American Football as a Symbol of Masculinity 19:50 – The Failed Hollywood Adaptation 25:34 – First Impressions of the Film 31:55 – Bridging Perspectives: Can a Movie Speak To Both Sides? 36:42 – A Lost Moment in Globalization Paying it Forward: Viola Zhou Recommendations:  Chris: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte (short story collection) Kaiser: Becoming Led Zeppelin (documentary); the Beijing-based artist Michael Cherney. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Stephen Platt, historian at UMass Amherst and author, most recently, of the book The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II. Like his previous works, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom and Imperial Twilight, it offers a compelling narrative history of an overlooked chapter through a deeply empathetic and well-researched examination of individual lives. Please make sure to listen to the excerpt from the audiobook at the end of this podcast. 04:21 - Evans Carlson: A forgotten hero 07:49 - The Real Carlson vs. the constructed Carlson 10:04 - The book's origin 12:20 - Carlson's ideological transformation 16:50 - Carlson's religious beliefs and public perception 20:04 - Emerson's influence on Carlson's thinking  23:46 - Inner conflicts: Soul-searching or regret? 27:15 - Carlson's relationship with President Franklin D. Roosevelt 30:39 - Gung Ho Meetings: meaning, practice, and legacy 33:34 - Zhu De’s influence on Carlson  40:28 - Carlson’s relationships with Agnes Smedley and Edgar Snow 47:49 - Hopes for U.S.-China alliance  51:57 - Carlson’s death and his legacy  58:01 - Lessons from Carlson Paying it Forward: Peter Thilly, Emily Mokros Recommendations:  Stephen: 11.22.63 by Stephen King; Ted Chiang (author); Otoboke Beaver (band); Book of Mormon (musical) Kaiser: Wobbler (band); The Religion by Tim Willocks; Zappa (2020) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Jostein Hauge, political economist and an Assistant Professor in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, based at the Centre of Development Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies, and author of the book The Future of the Factory: How Megatrends are Changing Industrialization. 3:09 – Self Introduction: Jostein Hauge 4:23 – Anti-China Sentiment in Western Discourse 7:40 – Misconceptions and Prevailing Narratives 10:08 – Technological Transfer and the Political Economy 12:18 – Historical Periods of Economic Rivalry  14:36 – Evolving Industrial Policy: From Japan’s MITI to China and the U.S. today 18:59 – China’s Contemporary Industrial Policy: Quality or Quantity?  21:13 – China as a Rising Power: Is History Repeating? 24:18 – The Sustainability of China’s Industrial Policy  26:43 – China, Overcapacity, and Global Imbalances 34:07 – Overcapacity: Economic Reality or Ideological Construct? 36:04 – China's domination in the renewable energy market 39:13 – China’s greenhouse gas emissions 43:17 – How China is reshaping the IP regime  48:14 – The U.S. national security stance and the trade war with China 55:10 – Europe’s approach to China Paying it forward: Kyle Chan at High Capacity Recommendations: Jostein: The White Lotus (TV Series) Kaiser: The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II by Stephen R. Platt See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I speak with Kendra Schaefer, the partner at Trivium China who heads their tech practice. She recently published a fascinating paper looking at the Cyberspace Administration of China's comprehensive database of generative AI tools released in China, and she shares the insights and big takeaways from her research on that database. It's a terrific window into what Chinese firms, both private and state-affiliated, are doing with generative AI. 03:51 – Mandatory registration of generative AI Tools in China 10:28 – How does the CAC categorize AI Tools? 14:25 – State-affiliated vs. non-state-affiliated AI Tools 18:55 – Capability and competition of China's AI Industry 22:57 – Significance of Generative Algorithmic Tools (GAT) registration counts 26:06 – The application of GATs in the education sector 29:50 – The application of GATs in the healthcare Sector 31:00 – Underrepresentation of AI tools in other sectors 32:56 – Regional breakdown of AI innovation in China 36:07 – AI adoption across sectors: how companies integrate AI 40:21 – Standout projects by the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) 42:42 – How multinationals navigate China's tech regulations 47:50 – Role of foreign players in China's AI strategy 49:38 – Key takeaways from the AI development journey 53:41 -– Blind spots in AI data 57:25 – Kendra's future research direction Paying it Forward: Kenton Thibaut. Recommendations: Kendra: The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age by Thomas Mullaney. Kaiser: the Rhyming Chaos Podcast by Jeremy Goldkorn and Maria Repnikova See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jeremy Goldkorn joins for this largely unedited throwback to the early, sweary days of the show. We talk about the announcement made on Wednesday, 28 May 2025, on the "aggressive" revocation of Chinese student visas for students with Party "connections" or who study "critical fields." You've been warned! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A bonus episode this week. On May 22, I moderated a panel organized by Vita Golod and the UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies. The focus was on the U.S.-Ukraine Mineral Security Partnership, and it features Ivan Us, Chief Consultant at the Center for Foreign Policy at the National Institute for Strategic Studies; Jim Mullinax, a Senior Foreign Service Officer and former Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu (closed in 2020); Grzegorz Stec, Senior Analyst and Head of the Brussels Office at MERICS; and Xu Qinduo, journalist at CGTN and Senior Fellow at the Pangoal Institution. The panel explores the background and the implications of the minerals deal, signed on May 1, 2025, for the ongoing war in Ukraine, and prospects for post-war reconstruction. I hope you enjoy what I thought was a fascinating conversation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Eva Dou, technology reporter for the Washington Post, about her terrific new book about Huawei. From its prehistory to its fight for its life under tremendous U.S. pressure, she tells its story in a way that's both deeply engaging and very evenhanded. 04:53 – Meng Wanzhou’s case and its impact on media interest in Huawei 07:13 – How did Ren Zhengfei’s experiences in the PLA shape the corporate culture of Huawei? 10:21 – The impact of his father on Ren Zhengfei  13:42 – Women in Huawei’s leadership and Sun Yafang as a chairwoman  18:41 – Is Huawei a tool of the state? 23:21 – Edward Snowden’s revelations and how they influenced the perception of Huawei  26:34 – The Cisco lawsuit influence on the company’s approach to foreign markets 28:07 – Reasons for Huawei working with embargoed or sanctioned states 30:46 – Huawei’s international expansion  33:04 – Huawei’s management style and internal competition  36:33 – Meng Wenzhou’s detainment as a turning point for Huawei and China-U.S. relations 38:09 – Ren Zhengfei’s media campaign and narrative shift after the Meng affair 40:44 – Huawei’s involvement in Xinjiang’s surveillance  43:09 – Huawei’s success in shaping 5G standards despite global pushback 46:27 – The “Huawei index”: tracking Chinese investment abroad through Huawei’s market presence 48:35 – Huawei’s push into chip development amid sanctions: real progress or just hype? 52:23 – Huawei: a proxy, a leading or lagging indicator, or just a bellwether? 54:11 – Huawei’s “too big to fail” status: benefits and risks amid U.S. government pressure 56:29 – Huawei’s perspective on the backlash from sanctions 58:19 – Concluding question: about Huawei’s ownership and governance Paying it forward: Raffaele Huang at The Wall Street Journal Recommendations:  Eva: The Party's Interests Come First by Joseph Torigian; Yang Jie at The Wall Street Journal; Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Kaiser: Adolescence on Netflix; Kyle Chan's high-capacity.com  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Sinica Network proudly presents a new podcast: China Talking Points, featuring Kaiser Kuo (host of the Sinica Podcast), Eric Olander (host of the China-Global South Podcast and China In Africa Podcast) and Andrew Polk, co-founder of Trivium China and host of its podcast. We'll be joined regularly by Lizzi Lee, Fellow on Chinese Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s (ASPI) Center for China Analysis. Tune in live every other week for unscripted thoughts on the major China-related news of the week. This week, we focused on the truce in the trade war that Donald Trump launched with the so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs of April 9. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with top Chinese trade negotiator He Lifeng and his team in Geneva over the weekend, and we look at what came out of those meetings and what we can expect to happen next. We also discussed the dogfight that took place between India and Pakistan last week, in which the Pakistani air force claims to have downed as many as five Indian planes, significant for China because the Pakistani planes were Chinese-made J10-C fighters. Eric, who wrote about the Chinese reaction to this and offered his take on the reasons for their success, managed to incur a lot of online Indian wrath — an occupational hazard — but presents a compelling case for why the fully integrated Chinese military systems gave Pakistan the edge. Watch us live on YouTube starting May 28th. Check out the new Sinica Network YouTube channel here! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I had scheduled a show to record while I was in Providence last week, but it fell through and had to be rescheduled, so please give this talk I delivered at Carnegie Mellon last month a listen! Hope you enjoy. Kaiser See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with veteran Wall Street Journal reporter Bob Davis, who has covered the U.S.-China relationship for decades. He recently published a new book called Broken Engagement, which consists of interviews with U.S. policymakers who were instrumental in shaping American policy toward China from the George H.W. Bush administration through the Biden administration. It's an eye-opening look at the individuals who fought for — and against — engagement with China. 2:58 – Bob’s thoughts on engagement: whether it was doomed from the start, when and why there was a shift, people’s different aspirations for it and retrospective positioning, and whether it could have a transformative effect   13:28 – The Nancy Pelosi interview: her approach, her Taiwan visit, and her critique of capitulation to business interests 17:18 – Bob’s interviews with Charlene Barshefsky, Lawrence Summers, and Bob Zoellick: the WTO accession, the China shock, Zoellick’s “responsible stakeholder” concept, and diplomacy as an ongoing process  27:24 – The Robert Gates interview: security-focused engagement, and his shift to realism  31:14 – Misreading Xi Jinping 34:42 – Bob’s interviews with Stephen Hadley and Ash Carter regarding the South China Sea  39:19 – The Matt Pottinger interview: his view on China and how COVID changed everything  46:14 – Michael Rogers’ interview: cyber espionage and cyber policy  51:25 – Robert O’Brien’s interview: the “reverse Kissinger” and Taiwan  54:14 – Bob’s interview with Kurt Campbell: his famous Foreign Affairs essay, differentiating between decoupling and de-risking, and technology export restrictions and trade deals  59:28 – The Rahm Emanuel interview: his response to wolf warrior diplomacy 1:01:57 – Bob’s takeaways: the long-term vision of engagement, introspective interviewees, and his own increased pessimism  Paying It Forward: Lingling Wei at The Wall Street Journal; Eva Dou at The Washington Post and her book House of Huawei: The Secret History of China’s Most Powerful Company; and Katrina Northrop at The Washington Post  Recommendations:  Bob: The TV series Derry Girls (2018-2022) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2024); and Margaret O’Farrell’s novels, including Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait  Kaiser: The BBC and Masterpiece series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with SCMP Senior Europe Correspondent Finbarr Bermingham, who joins from Brussels where he's been covering the EU-China relationship in fantastic depth and with great insight. 3:17 – EU-China relations in early 2025: the effect of the 2021 sanctions, who advocated for engagement versus confrontation with China, and the importance of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) 13:49 – How Brussels initially reacted to the rupture in the transatlantic alliance  17:14 – China’s so-called charm offensive  21:03 – The idea of de-risking from Washington  23:10 – The impact of the Oval Office meeting with Zelensky  24:55 – Europe’s dual-track approach with China and shift toward pragmatism  29:35 – National interests versus EU unity regarding Chinese investment, and whether Brussels could extract concessions  35:20 – Brussels’ worry over Trump cutting a deal with China  38:06 – Possible signs of China’s flexibility on different issues 40:25 – The lifting of the sanctions on European parliamentarians  42:21 – The decrease in calls for values-based diplomacy, and whether securitization is happening in Europe 47:05 – How the EU might address tensions over China’s industrial overcapacity  50:17 – The possible future of EU-China relations, and whether the transatlantic relationship could go back to normal 55:50 – The knee-jerk element of looking past Europe Paying It Forward: Ji Siqi at SCMP, Cissy Zhou at Nikkei, and Kinling Lo and Viola Zhou at Rest of World Recommendations: Finbarr: The Stakeknife podcast series; Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe; and the 20th anniversary edition of Wilco’s album, A Ghost Is Born  Kaiser: The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs by Marc David Baer  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, in a show recorded at the University of Pittsburgh, I speak with Benno Weiner, Associate Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University, about how China's policy toward its minority nationalities (or minzu) have shifted from their older, Soviet-inspired form to the policies of assimilation we now see. 2:29 – How the so-called second-generation minzu policy evolved, and its shift away from the first-generation policy 17:15 – China’s language policy, comparisons to other historical cases, and the difficulty in striking a balance between language autonomy and the state interest of economic equality 25:26 – Debating the assumption of Uyghur forced labor  28:20 – How the minzu policy shift is driven by economic and political stability concerns  30:07 – The limited ability of minzus to make themselves heard 32:01 – The difficulty of advocacy in the face of accusations of U.S. hypocrisy  37:30 – Han guilt as a galvanizing idea  40:21 – Whether the shift in minzu policy is reversible, and the effect of external pressure  43:46 – Why Xinjiang has received greater global attention than other places  45:50 – How future historians may view minzu policy under Xi Jinping Paying It Forward: Guldana Salimjan, at the University of Toronto  Recommendations: Benno: The Red Wind Howls by Tsering Döndrup, translated by Christopher Peacock Kaiser: The Six: The Untold Story of the Titanic’s Chinese Survivors by Steven Schwankert See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Yawei Liu, Senior Advisor for China at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and Yukon Huang, former China country head of the World Bank and now Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The show was taped live at the 2025 Columbia China Summit at Columbia University, put on by the Columbia University Greater China Society, on April 13,. Special thanks to them for inviting us to attend! 3:53 – Columbia University’s history with China  7:52 – How Beijing views the current trade war  11:32 – Yawei’s idea of “the clash of misperceptions” 18:18 – The actual origins of America’s trade deficits and China’s trade surpluses  23:14 – How the inevitable talk between Trump and Xi Jinping may play out 32:04 – Sinophobia versus changing attitudes toward China  35:43 – How the current trade war is related to innovation in China  45:31 – How we can wage peace  Paying It Forward: Nicholas Zeller and his Substack newsletter, The U.S.-China Perception Monitor Recommendations: Yawei: Americans in China: Encounters with the People’s Republic ed. by Terry Lautz, and Chinese Encounters with America: Journeys That Shaped the Future of China ed. by Terry Lautz and Deborah Davis Yukon: David Brooks’ April 2022 article, “The End of Globalization: The Dominance of Global Cultural Wars”  Kaiser: The Weimar Years: Rise and Fall 1918-1933 by Frank McDonough  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Hazza Harding, a young Australian who began learning Chinese and made his way to China where he became a pop singer with hits on Chinese pop charts and a state media newscaster — and also lost his husband tragically, suffered through the COVID lockdowns while grieving for his loss. Yet he remains committed to furthering understanding and engagement, and has shown admirable resilience. Read his remarkable essay on his experiences here. 6:51 – How Hazza started in China, and how his career changed throughout his time there  19:27 – Hazza’s experiences feeling alienated in China  27:00 – Hazza’s experience working in Chinese state media  34:04 – How China shaped Hazza and Wayne’s love story, and how grief has shaped Hazza’s perspective on life 56:08 – The loveliness of everyday interactions  58:43 – Hazza’s advice on giving oneself time and leniency  1:02:38 – How Hazza may find his way back to China in the future  Paying It Forward: James Laurenceson at UTS Sydney  Recommendations: Hazza: China Blonde: How a newsreader’s search for adventure led to friendship, acceptance… and peroxide pandemonium in China by Nicole Webb  Kaiser: The TV series Xi Bei Sui Yue (Into the Great Northwest) (2024 - ) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Jeffrey Ding, author of Technology and the Rise of Great Powers, a book that argues that a nation's ability to invent foundational technologies matters ultimately less in its overall national power than its ability to diffuse those "general purpose technologies," like electricity, digital technology, the internet, and — in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution — Artificial Intelligence. I ask Jeff whether he thinks that China, with its powerful tech companies and its new enthusiasm for open source, may at last be closing what his book identifies as a diffusion deficit. 2:19 – Jeff’s argument for the power of diffusion in technological leadership 6:07 – China’s diffusion deficit  12:09 – Institutional factors that affect technology diffusion, and how culture can also play a role  19:49 – China’s successes in (non-GPT) diffusion  24:29 – China’s open source push  29:55 – Discussing He Pengyu’s piece on semiconductors  32:19 – How Jeff might tweak his chapter on China in a second edition of Technology and the Rise of Great Powers  Paying It Forward: Matt Sheehan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Recommendations: Jeff: The TV series The Pitt (2025 - ); and James Islington’s The Will of the Many  Kaiser: The album Perpetual Change by Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks; and Steven Wilson’s new album, The Overview See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Jeremy Garlick, Director of the Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, Prague University, and a scholar of China’s international relations. Jeremy is the author of the book Advantage China: Agent of Change in an Era of Global Disruption, but the book we're talking about this week is his new Cambridge Element titled Evolution in International Relations. It's a fascinating attempt to apply ideas from evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and archaeogenetics to further our understanding of how nations interact. 6:13 – Why Jeremy decided to apply an evolutionary framework to IR  15:34 – Why evolutionary science hasn’t really been integrated into IR 19:32 – How Jeremy views his project as refining the IR field  22:43 – The risk of the misappropriation of Jeremy’s work, and the evolutionary elements of cooperation and intergroup competition  28:54 – How to avoid the trap of viewing evolution as teleological  34:07 – The idea of self-domestication  39:55 – Morality and human rights  45:17 – How emotions affect decision-making and diplomacy  50:32 – Hierarchy and status-seeking in IR  56:56 – Applying an evolutionary framework to the IR phenomena of alliances, nuclear deterrence, and strategic balancing  1:01:31 – Altruism toward out-groups  1:05:57 – The inevitability of competition with China  1:08:19 – The intellectual challenges Jeremy faced while working on this project, and what he would develop further in the future 1:12:51 – Jeremy’s thoughts on what IR as a discipline should address, integrating evolutionary science  Paying It Forward: Richard Turcsányi Recommendations: Jeremy: The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich; and The Expanse novels by James S. A. Corey Kaiser: Playground by Richard Powers  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, a special episode taped live at the University of California, Berkeley — my alma mater — on March 6 and featuring Jessica Chen Weiss of Johns Hopkins SAIS and Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution, both well-known to people who follow U.S.-China relations. This episode was made possible by the Center for Chinese Studies at UC Berkeley's Institute for Asian Studies, and will be available on video as well — I'll update with the link. 5:32 – Looking back on the Biden administration’s approach to China 12:28 – Attempting to outline the new Trump administration’s approach to China 20:34 – The view from Beijing of Trump 2.0 26:54 – The Kindleberger Trap (and other "traps") 29:35 – China, the U.S., and the Russo-Ukrainian war, and the idea of a “reverse Kissinger”  34:23 – The problem with framing objectionable Trump policy moves as ceding victories to China  36:51 – How countries in the Western Pacific region are responding to the new administration  38:48 – Taiwan’s concerns for Trump’s shift on Ukraine 41:45 – Predictions for how the Trump administration will handle technology competition with China, and the apparent abandonment of industrial policy  48:14 – What the affirmative vision for U.S.-China policy should look like  Paying It Forward: Ryan: Patricia Kim and Jon Czin at Brookings Jessica: Jeffrey Ding at George Washington University and Jonas Nahm at Johns Hopkins SAIS  Recommendations: Jessica: The movie Conclave (2024) Ryan: Derek Thompson’s piece in The Atlantic, “The Anti-Social Century,” and Robert Cooper’s The Ambassadors: Thinking about Diplomacy from Machiavelli to Modern Times   Kaiser: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, I'm proud to announce a new collaboration with Trivium, a China-focused strategic advisory firm you've probably heard of. They've got offices in DC, London, Shanghai, and Beijing, and they focus on analyzing and forecasting Chinese policy developments for multinational companies and institutional investors across a range of verticals -- including macroeconomics, technology, automotive, resources, renewable energy, critical minerals, and green technology. They put out a terrific podcast each week, and you'll be able to listen to it here or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for the Trivium China Podcast. On today's show, you'll hear a half-hour chat between me and the two co-founders, Andrew Polk and Trey McArver, which we taped ahead of the Two Meetings — the NPC and the CPPCC. Then you'll hear a conversation between Andrew and his colleague Dinny McMahon, who you've heard on the show before in an episode we did on the digital yuan, talking about what came out of the Two Meetings. You'll be hearing from lots of the great folks at Trivium in coming episodes, so be sure to tune in. Beginning next week, or possibly sooner, we'll also be running a regular economy-focused roundup put together by Andrew and the team at Trivium. That will come out on Fridays. A warm welcome to Trey, Andrew, and all the excellent people at Trivium! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week: Part 2 in a series of podcasts in conjunction with the China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The series, titled "Studying China in the Absence of Access: Rediscovering a Lost Art," ran from September to November 2021, and featured four eminent "Pekingologists," or specialists in Chinese elite politics: Joseph Fewsmith, Thomas Fingar, Alice Miller, and Fred Teiwes. The talks were later published in a volume you can download here. The series is introduced by Andrew Mertha, George and Sadie Hyman, Professor of China Studies and director of the SAIS China Research Center, and each lecture includes a moderated discussion with Andy. After this series, I'll also be sharing with you a second series of lectures titled "Studying China from Elsewhere," which will include talks by Maria Repnikova, Mike Lampton, William Hurst, and Maggie Lewis — many of whom Sinica listeners will know from the show. Alice Lyman Miller is a leading scholar of Chinese politics and foreign policy. A research fellow at the Hoover Institution and lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford University, she previously served as an analyst at the CIA and editor of China Leadership Monitor. Miller's work has been instrumental in decoding the opaque world of Chinese elite politics, with a particular focus on political discourse and leadership transitions. Her major publications include Becoming Asia: Change and Continuity in Asian International Relations Since World War II (2011). Joseph Fewsmith is one of the foremost experts on contemporary Chinese politics, known for his in-depth analysis of political reform, elite competition, and policy shifts under the Chinese Communist Party. A professor of international relations and political science at Boston University, Fewsmith has authored seminal books such as China Since Tiananmen: The Politics of Transition (2001) and Rethinking Chinese Politics (2021), which challenge conventional wisdom on China's political system. His work blends rigorous historical analysis with close readings of official discourse. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica: February 24 marks the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as I’ve done for the last two years, I moderated a panel organized by Vita Golod, a Ukrainian China scholar who happens to be here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at UNC as a visiting scholar. She’s worked tirelessly to promote awareness of the war, and I’m honored again to have been asked to moderate this panel. The guests you'll hear from are: Dr. Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Director of the China Studies Centre at Riga Stradins University in Latvia. Fluent in Chinese, Russian, and English, she has collaborated with scholars like Kerry Brown of King’s College London and has done extensive work on China's role in Europe and beyond. Dr. Dmytro Yefremov, Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" in Ukraine. A board member of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, he specializes in China's foreign relations and has traveled extensively to China, providing firsthand insight into Ukraine's perspective on China's role in the war and beyond. Dr. Qiang Liu, Director of the Energy Economics Division at the Institute of Quantitative & Technical Economics within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He also serves as the Co-chair and Secretary-General of the Global Forum on Energy Security. His research focuses on energy security, energy economics, and policy, with a particular emphasis on China's Belt and Road Initiative and its global energy partnerships. Dr. Klaus Larres, Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor of History and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An expert on transatlantic relations, U.S., German, and EU foreign policy, and China's role in the post-Cold War order, he has a profound interest in the history of the Cold War and the politics of Winston Churchill. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with David Zweig, a veteran China scholar who is Professor Emeritus from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. We discuss Davis'd latest book, The War for Chinese Talent in America, which looks at Chinese efforts to harness the intellectual firepower of Chinese scientists and engineers who studied abroad, especially in the United States, and bring them — or at least their knowledge —back to China. David's book takes a balanced look at both the very real problems generated by Chinese policies as well as the overreaction by the U.S. Department of Justice in the form of the infamous China Initiative. 3:40 – Why got David interested on this particular topic  7:07 – The diaspora option 12:09 – The Thousand Talents Program/Plan 18:28 – How the talent programs operate 23:48 – Motivations for Chinese to participate in the talent programs, how geopolitics now impacts these decisions, and what the effect of the China Initiative has been on collaboration  36:29 – The China Initiative’s climate of fear and the concern for racial profiling  49:40 – The extent of the validity of U.S. security concerns 57:24 – David’s suggestions for balancing national security interests and open scientific exchange  Paying It Forward: Dan Lynch and his book, China’s Futures: PRC Elites Debate Economics, Politics, and Foreign Policy Recommendations: David: It’s a Wonderful World — The Louis Armstrong Musical in New York Kaiser: The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection by Tamim Ansary, especially the audiobook read by the author See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I’m delighted to bring you today the first in a series of conversations from a remarkable day-long session put on by the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs, or ACF, at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The session was held on Monday, February 3, and was called “Getting China Right.” On today’s show, we’ve got U.S. Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, one of the best-informed and sensible legislators focused on China today. He’ll be in conversation with James Steinberg, dean of SAIS, who also served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2009 to 2011. You’ll hear introductory remarks from Jim and from Jessica Chen Weiss, inaugural faculty director ACF and David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at SAIS, who listeners certainly know from her appearances on Sinica. More to come in this series, so stay tuned! Please enjoy Senator Kim’s very thoughtful remarks. Watch the morning sessions on YouTube here. The Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) of the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) was established in 2024 to add rigor and reason to public and policy discussions on China and the range of domestic and international issues that intersect China’s global role, bringing together experts and practitioners to foster informed public dialogue, promote evidence-based research, and support the next generation of scholars and practitioners. ACF was founded with the support of Johns Hopkins University and philanthropic contributions from across the United States. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with economic historian Andrew B. Liu of Villanova University about how to understand Trump's thinking on China and tariffs. Andy wrote about this in an excellent piece on N+1 called "Back to the 80s? Trump, Xi Jinping, and Tariffs." Check it out and then listen to the show! 3:59 – How the U.S.’s current trade anxieties echo those of the ‘80s 9:34 – How Cold War geopolitics shaped U.S.-Japan trade relations 18:23 – The lessons China learned from Japan’s experience and how it has shaped its recent economic strategy  21:03 – What Xi Jinping’s vision for the Chinese economy actually looks like  34:26 – Why China is favoring a more Ford-like model of industrial structure 41:28 – Michael Pettis’s ideas from Trade Wars Are Class Wars and points of critique  52:44 – The Trump administration’s use of tariffs Paying It Forward: Viola Zhou’s reporting on Rest of World (especially her piece on Foxconn in India) and Dong Yige  Recommendations: Andrew: Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Substack for vegan modern Cantonese recipes  Kaiser: The Substack of the Carter Center’s U.S.-China Perception Monitor; and the essay “The new frontline: The US-China battle for control of global networks” on the Transnational Institute website See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week as we enter the Year of the Snake, Sinica co-founder Jeremy Goldkorn makes a re-appearance on the show. It's been a year since his last, and much has changed — and indeed, if Jeremy is right, we may be at an inflection point in American attitudes toward China. With the "TikTok Refugees" on Xiaohongshu or "RedNote" taking in a view of China that contrasts starkly with the image presented by the U.S. Government and by many American media outlets, and with DeepSeek now having upended some ideas about American tech primacy, the "vibes" on China among young people seem to have changed for the better. Will it endure? Jeremy and I plunge into that question on this week's episode of the Sinica Podcast. 2:55 – What Jeremy has been up to lately  4:19 – What has been driving the recent narrative/vibe shift in China discourse in the U.S., and why human rights rhetoric around Xinjiang has died down   14:11 – Whether the narrative/vibe shift will be long-lasting and the role of young people in driving it  23:06 – Predictions for future changes within China 29:40 – The concern that the narrative/vibe shift could go too far, or that the copium will overwhelm the positive of the shift  33:24 – Previous narrative shifts around freedom of speech, the internet, and China, and technological innovation  43:57 – What recent developments reveal about Chinese soft power, and Jeremy’s predictions for how everything will play out  49:34 – Whether the narrative/vibe shift will change how American politicians talk about China, and the Chinese government has reacted to the shift so far Paying It Forward: Savannah Billman’s Career China email newsletter  Recommendations: Jeremy: Paul Cooper’s Fall of Civilizations podcast series; David Kidd’s Peking Story: The Last Days of Old China; and The 404’s podcast interview with a PornHub exec (which includes discussion of real-name registration requirements)  Kaiser: The TV miniseries American Primeval (2025) on Netflix; and Paul Triolo’s Substack  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Happy Chinese New Year! This week, while I'm decompressing from 10 days in the Alps, my friends at the Asia Society of Switzerland have graciously offered to let me share a podcast recorded just after the U.S. presidential election in November at their annual State of Asia event. "The State of China" features three terrific guests: Wang Qing (王卿), the host of the popular Chinese podcast "The Weirdo" (不合时宜), Zichen Wang of the Center for China and Globalization, and Adam Tooze, one of the truly great public intellectuals of our time. It's all skillfully moderated by the South China Morning Post's Europe editor, Finbarr Bermingham, and it covers a lot of ground. I'll be back next week in conversation with my dear friend Jeremy Goldkorn, and we'll be asking (and answering) the big question — Are we in the middle of a narrative shift on China? May the Year of the Snake be prosperous and full of happiness and success for all you Sinica listeners! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, I bring you the first in a series of podcasts in conjunction with the China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The series, titled "Studying China in the Absence of Access: Rediscovering a Lost Art," ran from September to November 2021, and featured four eminent "Pekingologists," or specialists in Chinese elite politics: Joseph Fewsmith, Thomas Fingar, Alice Miller, and Fred Teiwes. The talks were later published in a volume you can download here. The series is introduced by Andrew Mertha, George and Sadie Hyman, Professor of China Studies and director of the SAIS China Research Center, and each lecture includes a moderated discussion with Andy. After this series, I'll also be sharing with you a second series of lectures titled "Studying China from Elsewhere," which will include talks by Maria Repnikova, Mike Lampton, William Hurst, and Maggie Lewis — many of whom Sinica listeners will know from the show. This week's talk is from FrederickTeiwes, truly a legend in the field. The American-born Australian sinologist is best known for his analysis of Chinese Communist Party elite politics. He served as a professor emeritus in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney until his retirement in 2006. Teiwes has frequently collaborated with Warren Sun, producing seminal works such as The Tragedy of Lin Biao (1996) and China’s Road to Disaster: Mao, Central Politicians and Provincial Leaders in the Great Leap Forward, 1955-59 (1999). In this talk, he focuses on forthcoming work on the transition following Mao Zedong's death in 1976. Great thanks to Andy and to Hasta Colman, who first suggested this collaboration when we met in Shanghai recently. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I know I'd said last time there would be no show this week, but that was before this fascinating episode involving TikTok users signing up en masse to Xiaohongshu. Hilarity ensued, and my two guests — Ivy Yang, who runs Wavelet Strategy, an expert in cross-cultural communication, and David Fishman, Shanghai-based senior manager at Lantau Group who specializes in the Chinese energy sector and writes wonderfully about his excursions into the Chinese countryside. They've both been following this fascinating episode closely and have really smart things to say, so enjoy! 5:10 – How the migration of American Tiktokers to Xiaohongshu started  8:51 – A brief overview of Xiaohongshu: its users, typical content, and culture, including its “we’re all in this together” vibe   15:35 – The significance of Xiaohongshu as a Chinese app  19:48 – The scale of the American TikTok refugees phenomenon, and official reactions in the U.S. 24:52 – How Xiaohongshu has managed and reacted to the refugee phenomenon so far, and the PR opportunity presented for the PRC 29:33 – The Chinese government’s perspective  34:54 – Wholesome and interesting exchanges, and what American and Chinese users are finding surprising or amusing about each other’s cultures 38:50 – Why this new online encounter between Chinese and Americans is different from before  43:23 – The danger of irrational exuberance, and other risks the Xiaohongshu migration phenomenon presents  47:52 – The potential for a change in American thinking about China  Paying It Forward:  Ivy: Caiwei Chen David: Robert Wu and Amber Zhang, especially their work on Baiguan, and Robert’s Substack China Translated, especially his essay, “The Great Divorce” Recommendations: Ivy: Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Dr. Anna Lembke  David: Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler Kaiser: Other works by Peter Hessler (River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze; Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip; and Other Rivers: A Chinese Education), and Telecaster type electric guitars, especially the Sire Larry Carlton T7 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I'm joined by Lizzi Lee, fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute and by my lights one of the most astute, well-informed people writing on China in the English-speaking world today. She has fascinating perspectives on China's preparations for the Trump administration, on China's reluctance to roll out large-scale cash stimulus, and Xi Jinping's challenges. Don't miss this one! (I will update the show notes and publish the transcript early next week — thanks for your patience!) 3:39 – Lizzi’s argument from her op-ed, “Counting the Hawks in the Trump 2.0 Administration is Pointless”: the importance of which country will be able to get its act together  10:25 – U.S.-China competition as a long game, from China’s perspective 14:22 – How China views the current state of division in American politics 19:00 – The main risks and opportunities for China presented by Trump’s return, including opportunities in the geopolitical realm with the Europeans  28:09 – The state of China’s domestic economy 33:28 – Counterarguments to critiques of China’s cautious deployment of stimulus, and where Lizzi stands on the issue  43:46 – Lizzi’s thoughts on deflation in the Chinese economy  49:30 – The idea of accepting short-term pain for long-term gain in economic recovery  53:59 – Xi Jinping’s vision for China’s economy  58:46 – How Xi Jinping’s ideological language can be challenging for officials and markets  1:03:57 – How China’s political calendar has hindered execution of policy  1:06:42 – What Lizzi thinks the Chinese leadership should prioritize now Paying it Forward: Lizzi recommends the work of Barclay Bram, especially his series on Chinese youth at the Asia Society here. Recommendations: Lizzi: Grazia Ting Deng’s book Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy Kaiser: More historical fiction by Robert Harris, including An Officer and a Spy and Munich. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I speak with Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld, both investigative reporters at the New York Times, about a series of stories they've done, stretching between August and December 2024, on the Falun Gong-run performance troupe Shen Yun, and the Falun Gong-affiliated newspaper The Epoch Times. Read the latest two articles in that series here and here. There will be links to the other stories on the transcript page. 4:33 – Nicole and Michael's collection of pieces on Falun Gong  6:26 – Background on [the?] Falun Gong: Li Hongzhi, the context out of which the movement emerged, its international spread, and the CCP’s crackdown in the '90s 12:00 – Shen Yun performances, and audience reactions  18:46 – Following the money: Falun Gong’s dramatic financial growth, gray areas, and where the money goes  29:03 – Spiritual project or big grift? 31:39 – What Nicole and Michael uncovered  36:23 – Memorable individuals: Chang Chun-ko, Kate the performer, and Josh the violinist 41:10 – The dynamics within [the?] Falun Gong, and what has been alleged 45:34 – The Epoch Times, and their editorial changes  53:02 – The appeal of Falun Gong, and the level of scrutiny it gets Paying It Forward: Nicole: Researchers/freelancers/translators Yi Liu and Peiyue Wu  Michael: New York Times colleague Susan Beachy  Recommendations: Nicole: Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung  Michael: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel; One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (and the new One Hundred Years of Solitude TV series (2024)); and the TV series Gomorrah (2014-2021) Kaiser: TikTok accounts workplace_doodles (a former Shen Yun performer born into a Falun Gong family) and cocolarkincooks (a fantastic cooking resource) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I welcome back Michael Cerny — formerly of the Carter Center and now a Ph.D. student at Harvard — and Rory Truex of Princeton University to discuss a new working paper they've co-authored. They undertook a large-scale survey of foreign policy professionals at U.S. think tanks to ascertain whether there is a "consensus" on China policy, as is often claimed, and whether people working in think tanks feel pressure to take on more "hawkish" positions on China policy. We also introduce a new segment called "Paying it Forward." 5:04 – What motivated Michael and Rory to write their paper together  7:30 – Groupthink vs. consensus 10:08 – The methodology: combining surveys and interviews, and the sampling frame  14:35 – Trying to avoid leading questions  17:58 – Creating the “China Confrontation Index”  20:25 – Different levels of acceptance of the labels “hawk” and “dove”  23:33 – The issue of preference falsification  25:43 – Mechanisms behind disparities in perceived pressure  29:01 – Tying in Rory’s previous research on self-censorship  32:42 – How Michael and Rory decided on interviews  34:10 – What Michael believes were the most important and robust findings 36:09 – The distinction between the beliefs of think tankers vs. elected officials, and why people tend to believe there is a bipartisan consensus on China  40:34 – Pressure on hawks  42:35 – Specific policy questions 44:18 – Feedback on the paper so far, and what Michael and Rory may tweak in a subsequent draft  49:47 – The possible role of personality in hawkishness or dovishness  51:58 – Discussing Mike Mazarr’s concerns about the potential parallels between current Chinese discourse and the lead-up to the Iraq War  55:06 – Advice to younger professionals entering the foreign policy/China field  New segment: Paying It Forward: Rory: Michael Cerny and Edi Obiakpani-Reid  Recommendations: Rory: Edi Obiakpani-Reid’s Sinobabble podcast about Chinese history Michael: Jeffrey Ding’s Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition Kaiser: Imperium by Robert Harris  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica I'm delighted to be joined by Amy King, Associate Professor in the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre at The Australian National University. She shares her ideas about how perceptions of insecurity can paradoxically motivate closer economic relations between two states, and she looks at not only the examples of China and Japan after the end of World War II, but Australia and China as well. We also discuss Sino-Australian relations over the last 15 years, and much else! 2:48 – Key phases of Australia-China relations over the past 15 years and the security and economic nexus  9:05 – Amy’s research into the Sino-Japanese relationship and how perceptions of insecurity can motivate closer economic ties, and how Australia is responding to China now  21:22 – How Amy would argue the case for economic engagement with China to folks in Washington  26:31 – Securitization in Australia and the important differences between Australia and the U.S.  30:20 – The shift in the Australia-China relationship under the Albanese government  33:12 – What the U.S. can learn from Australia  35:14 – Why people tend to conflate Australia’s experience with America’s  39:04 – Amy’s essay, “The Collective Logic of Chinese Hegemonic Order,” and how we can understand China’s role in the emerging post-unipolar world 42:47 – Three mechanisms employed by China to amplify its voice post-war  (amplifying, grafting, and resistance by appropriation) and how modern “middle powers” can influence the international order now  52:31 – The state of discourse on China in Australia and what Amy believes China wants  58:54 – Amy’s thoughts on pluralism and international order  1:03:22 – What lessons about de-risking and navigating multi-alignment Australia should be learning from other nations in the region  Recommendations: Amy: Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland  Kaiser: The Paul Reed Smith (PRS) SE Hollowbody II Piezo electric guitar See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

China's rapid surge in electric vehicle manufacturing, adoption, and export has variously encouraged, delighted, impressed, frightened, and even enraged people around the world. What did China get right in facilitating the explosive development in this industry? Was is just subsidies, or were there other important policies that helped jumpstart it? How have other geographies responded? And what can they learn? Ilaria Mazzocco,  deputy director and senior fellow with the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) joins me to share her rich insights into the Chinese EV industry. 3:49 – How Ilaria became interested in green industrial policy 5:59 – The reality of progress in EVs in China  11:21 – The role of state subsidies and other things that tend to get missed in trying to understand EVs in China  16:51 – How other countries are trying to adopt China’s approach  19:21 – The differences between the EU and U.S. approaches  24:17 – The outlook for competition in the Chinese market  26:08 – Business models in the Chinese EV sector and the example of BYD 30:53 – Chinese firms’ push for internationalization and how the rapidity of becoming multinationals [multinational companies?] may pose challenges  35:54 – Alignment between host countries and Chinese companies  39:58 – What the U.S. is doing and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) 42:27 – How U.S. protectionist measures may affect third markets, and whether restrictions may backfire   48:57 – The coming shift to next-generation batteries, and the potential for international collaboration in advancing more circular practices  55:43 – How Ilaria’s fieldwork shifted her perspective on the EV industry  59:38 – How we can improve industrial policy  Recommendations: Ilaria: My Antonia by Willa Cather; the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel; The Army of Sleepwalkers by Wu Ming (an Italian novelist collective) about the French Revolution  Kaiser: The Wolf Hall audiobooks read by Ben Miles; the HBO series Rome (2005-2007)  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Jane Hayward, lecturer at King's College London, about her excellent YouTube channel, Jane Hayward China, and her efforts to bring up-to-date scholarship on modern and contemporary China to audiences through internet video, slaying various bugbears along the way. 3:28 Why Jane started her YouTube channel, her intended versus actual audiences, and navigating the current toxic media environment  10:56 The benefits of an area studies approach, and why Jane chose a U.S. PhD program 14:46 Defining the complicated public discourse in the West  19:35 Jane’s videos: the surprising popularity of “Xi Jinping is NOT like an Emperor;” and more controversial videos 26:28 New Qing History and different critiques of it 34:50 Jane's series on types of communism, and her video on reporting on China in British media  42:31 What may be coming next on Jane’s channel  Recommendations Jane: David Priestland’s The Red Flag: A History of Communism Kaiser: The YouTube channel Chinese Cooking Demystified, and specifically their video “63 Chinese Cuisines: the Complete Guide”  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Michael Swaine, Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for the last couple of years, prior to which he spent nearly two decades as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he led extensive work on Chinese defense and foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian international relations more broadly. He was also a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, where he developed a reputation for rigorous research on Asian security and crisis management. We focus on his recent report, “Avoiding the Abyss: An Urgent Need for Sino-U.S. Crisis Management,” which offers both a framework for understanding the forces driving U.S.-China crises and a roadmap to prevent or manage these crises effectively. He drew on his many decades of experience working on the security dimension of the bilateral relationship, including his participation in many Track II dialogues and simulations of crisis scenarios over the years. 4:51 – Defining "crisis" and "crisis prevention"  10:13 – The possibility of a crisis in the South China Sea 12:31 – Lessons from past crises   20:08 – The problematic moralistic stances and tit-for-tat escalation produced by yǒulǐ, yǒulì, yǒu jié 有理, 有利, 有节 27:37 – U.S. concern over the credibility of its alliance commitments  34:50 – The problem of perception  38:16 – Examples of how each side is sometimes unable to see how its own actions are perceived by the other  41:20 – The dangers of failing to understand and making assumptions about the China’s historical memory  45:42 – Problems of signaling and how best to solve them  51:17 – Mike’s suggestions for a crisis toolkit and his proposal of a civilian-led two-tier dialogue structure  58:41 – Track II dialogues  1:02:47 – The importance of educating leaders up and down the system on crisis management  1:06:08 – The structural issues of the decision-making systems in China and the U.S. Recommendations: Michael: Art critic Brian Sewell’s The Reviews That Caused the Rumpus; Robert Suettinger’s The Conscience of the Party: Hu Yaobang, China’s Communist Reformer   Kaiser: The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform by Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The British literary quarterly Granta has published a new issue dedicated to Chinese writers, featuring familiar mainstays of contemporary literature and some fresh new voices. This week on Sinica, I chatted with Thomas Meaney, editor of Granta, about what's happening in the literary scene in China today and how this fantastically interesting issue came together. Tom is wonderfully thoughtful and articulate, and we really get into some of the individual stories and the larger trends they may or may not represent. 3:17 – Tom’s familiarity with Chinese literature and China 4:40 – Why Granta dedicated this issue to Chinese literature, how the issue came together, and how Granta found its translators  10:54 – Balancing political considerations with artistic merits in curating this issue  17:20 – The Chinese literary obsession with losers and the role of losers in Xiao Hai’s “Adrift in the South” 25:11 – The so-called Dongbei Renaissance, and Wu Qi’s interview and why he pushes back on the idea of the Dongbei Renaissance genre  33:02 – Granta staff favorites  35:18 – The phenomenon of gratuitous name-dropping and borrowing stylistically from other writers  38:05 – The issue’s three photo essays by Feng Li, Li Jie and Zhan Jungang, and Haohui Liu  44:36 – Yu Hua’s “Tomorrow I’ll Get Past It” 50:09 – Mo Yan’s “The Leftie Sickle”  53:10 – Yan Lianke’s “Black Pig Hair, White Pig Hair”  57:56 – The "filmability" of some of the short stories and the connection between the film world and literary writers in China  1:00:08 – Where you can get Granta and pick up this issue Recommendations: Tom: The Egalitarian Moment: Asia and Africa, 1950-1980 by Anthony Low, a comparative history of land reform  Kaiser: The ever-expanding library of guitarless backing tracks on YouTube to play along to See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica in a show taped live at China Crossroads, Shanghai's premier event series, I'm joined by my good friend Cameron Johnson, who is on the governing board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, specializes professionally in supply chains in China, and teaches at NYU Shanghai. 4:20 – What makes up a supply chain ecosystem, and why it is difficult to build out  8:39 – A brief history of decoupling, the warning signs, and whether it matters “who shot first”  16:43 – Personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing in America, the lessons we (should have) learned, and Washington’s response 25:13 – EVs and batteries: manufacturing in America, and what it looks like on the ground in China  30:46 – The semiconductor industry  34:24 – “China Week” in Congress, and the different responses of GOP versus Democratic congressmen  38:36 – De-risking as globalization 2.0 42:21 – Cameron’s predictions on the effects of the [upcoming] U.S. elections  44:10 – Inside Chinese factories  47:44 – American shortfalls in manufacturing  50:21 – The importance of seeing China’s competitive markets and ecosystem clusters for oneself  53:09 – Cameron’s advice for the next U.S. administration  Recommendations:  Cameron: Gōngyìng liàn gōngfáng zhàn 《供应链攻防战》 (Supply Chain Offensive and Defense War) by Lin Xueping; No Trade is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America’s Workers by Robert Lighthizer  Kaiser: The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, in a show taped in Beijing at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, I speak with Professor Da Wei about a new public opinion poll on China's perception of international security and review its important findings. We also discuss Chinese views on the Russo-Ukrainian War and the upcoming U.S. presidential election. 2:11 – Da Wei’s new podcast  4:05 – CISS’s “Public Opinion Poll: Chinese Outlook on International Security 2024” 7:46 – The poll’s findings on pessimism about global security and the global influence of the U.S. and China 11:56 – China’s growing national confidence and growing pessimism about the U.S.-China relationship  18:26 – Paradoxical poll findings: proactive foreign policy stance vs. prioritizing domestic affairs, and involvement in global scientific cooperation vs. withdrawing in other areas of international agreement  24:30 – Why older respondents tended to be more pessimistic about China’s international security situation  25:58 – Understanding negative attitude toward the United States and the effectiveness of diplomacy  30:17 – The belief that the U.S. goal is containment of China’s development and the shift in view of America from a values-based country to a power-based country  36:12 – Chinese viewpoints on the Russo-Ukrainian war  39:22 – Da Wei’s travels in the U.S. and the changes he has perceived  45:04 – The U.S. agenda to dissuade China from deepening its involvement with Russia  49:02 – How Chinese views on the upcoming U.S. election have changed since Kamala Harris’ nomination Recommendations: Da Wei: Chen Jian’s Zhou Enlai: A Life; for Chinese to travel to the U.S. more Kaiser: Chen Jian and Odd Arne Westad’s The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform; for Americans to travel to China (and Beijing)  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, in a show recorded in Beijing, I speak with Liu Yang and Jiang Jiang, the authors of two excellent newsletters — The Beijing Channel and Ginger River Review, respectively — and two of the guys behind the YouTube show "Got China." They're making a great effort to bridge Chinese journalism with Anglophone reporting on China with perspectives and insights from within the Chinese state media system. 4:24 – How Jiang Jiang and Liu Yang became journalists  11:42 – How Liu Yang and Jiang Jiang decided to launch their newsletters, and the advantages of being tǐzhì nèi 体制内 20:29 – Jiang Jiang and Liu Yang’s Got China show  25:46 – Liu Yang’s and Jiang Jiang’s empathy for American perspectives  29:53 – The negative American discourse on the Chinese economy and “China collapse theory”  37:21 The recent press conferences on monetary and policies, and the response in the realty market in Beijing  46:17 What’s next for Got China  Recommendations: Liu Yang: Modern Chinese Government and Politics 《当代中国政府与政治?》, a Chinese-language textbook Jiang Jiang: The Chinese podcast Bié de diànbō 别的电波; and Shan Weijian’s Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America Kaiser: The album The Last Will and Testament by Swedish metal band Opeth; and the Provincial Cuisine Club in Beijing, for trying food from different parts of China See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, in a show recorded at Syracuse University on September 30, I chat with my old pal Bryce Whitwam about the remarkable rise of live-streaming e-commerce — and how it's already making its way to the U.S. 4:28 – Why Bryce chose to leave Shanghai and pursue a doctorate in the States 8:08 – How big livestream e-commerce has gotten and its predicted trajectory  9:37 – E-commerce livestreaming and the pursuit of celebrity  14:08 – The different types of livestream commerce 17:30 – Xiaohongshu  20:45 – Why Taobao has lost its dominance  22:07 – The value-add of an influencer’s pitch  27:00 – The demographics of Chinese livestream e-commerce consumers  29:09 – Insights from Bryce’s 25 interviews 36:36 – Buying food on livestream e-commerce and how agribusinesses are getting involved in the trend  41:21 – Livestream commerce in the United States 44:34 – How livestream e-commerce has changed the retail experience in China  46:43 – Potential future disruptions in the industry Recommendations: Bryce: Jeffree Star on TikTok as an American livestream commerce example and Omar Nok’s “Egypt to Japan Without Flying” TikTok stream  Kaiser: The album True by Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, a show taped live at Syracuse University on September 30 with Associate Professor Dimitar Gueorguiev, author of the excellent Retrofitting Leninism: Participation Without Democracy in China. We discuss his book, his recent paper exploring hawkishness in Chinese public opinion, and his thoughts about the upcoming U.S. presidential election. 1:59 Syracuse University’s MAX 132 class ("the globalization class") 4:10 Dimitar’s background and how he became interested in China  7:44 How the genre of authoritarian resilience took off  14:26 China’s understanding of democracy (whole-process democracy) 17:40 Features of Leninism that have allowed the Chinese Communist Party to survive 21:21 Why China in the 1980s and '90s admired Singaporea's authoritarian PAP  23:37 The idea of the mass line 27:16 China’s sentiment analysis through technology, and using bottom-up information as performance evaluation  34:03 The COVID-19 pandemic and the confirmation bias of the regime-type explanation 37:37 The National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) 40:14 Dimitar’s research on hawkishness in China: how he got the data, what drives Chinese hawkishness, and the national security vs. economic lens  51:08 Why those who are dissatisfied with the government lean more hawkish and those who are satisfied with the government lean more dovish  56:30 The upcoming U.S. election: how things may play out under the two different administrations, and understanding Chinese preferences  Recommendations: Dimitar: The TV series The Expanse (2015-2022) Kaiser: Anthea Roberts’ Six Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters; and the documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos (2024) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with my dear friend David Moser, a longtime resident of Beijing, formerly an occasional co-host of Sinica and associate professor at Beijing Capital Normal University. We have a long history of exploring the underlying issues in our approach to China, and this week, we unpack some of those, focusing on the role of outsiders in Chinese society and their role in "changing China," drawing on David's response to an essay I recently published. 3:46 —David’s thoughts on Kaiser’s essay (“Priority Pluralism: Rethinking Universal Values in U.S.-China Relations”) 5:18 —How David thinks about going on state media and the reasons he does so 10:37 —How David’s engagement with state media has changed over time  15:04 —Conscience, moral intuition, drawing lines, and whataboutism  26:35 —The outsider urge to change China: the differences between the U.S. and Chinese governments and COVID as a test of the two systems; the role of American policy in working toward positive change and the importance of continuing engagement; and so-called Enlightenment values and priority pluralism  50:46 —The debate over cultural differences 57:09 —China’s notion of whole-process democracy versus American democracy   1:05:55 — “Give them time:” Anticipating when we will see big changes in China’s political culture  Recommendations: David: Richard Nisbett’s The Geography of Thought; and his own article, “A Fearful Asymmetry: COVID-19 and America’s Information Deficit with China” Kaiser: The “Open Database for China Studies Resource Guide” published by ACLS  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Jessica Chen Weiss, until recently at Cornell University but now the David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, SAIS, in Washington D.C. Jessica, to those of you familiar with her work, has been at the forefront of the fight for a less strident, diplomacy-first approach to China, balancing threats with assurances to find a modus vivendi with China. She has challenged prevailing notions about China's intentions, and has called for the U.S. to advance an affirmative vision of how it wants to live in the world with China. We focus in this conversation about a recent piece in Foreign Affairs in which she challenges both the solidity and the logic of the "bipartisan consensus" on China, and holds out hope that a next administration might approach the relationship differently. 3:45 – How Jessica has settled into D.C.; her professorial namesake; and how she has become a leading voice for a less confrontational approach to China 9:30 – Where Jessica sees diverging views on China in the Republican and Democratic Parties  12:41 – What a more durable basis for coexistence should look like 14:46 – Credible deterrence and strategic ambiguity in the context of Taiwan  16:03 – Acknowledgements to limits on American power and the importance of being realistic  18:09 – Assurances on Taiwan and what threatens their credibility  21:13 – The question of engagement and the deterrent effect of economic integration 25:30 – How the U.S. can combat legitimate national security threats from China without undermining its own values, and the importance of not treating the Chinese in diaspora as a fifth column  31:31 – Electoral politics: the importance of welcoming and inclusive policies and creating space for debate and discernment 35:07 – The importance of testing our assumptions  38:30 – What another Trump presidency might look like  40:30 – How a Harris administration might differ from the Biden administration 44:13 – The U.S. and China-Russia relations Recommendations: Jessica: Valarie Kaur’s Sage Warrior: Wake to Oneness, Practice Pleasure, Choose Courage, Become Victory  Kaiser: BeaGo, an AI-powered search tool (download from your app store!) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week I continue my conversations with some of the outstanding Schwarzman Scholars who presented at the Capstone Showcase in late June. In this episode, I speak with Nainika Sudheendra about the problem of space debris and what can be done to reduce the creation of more of it or even begin removal of debris before it makes the launching of new satellites more costly or even impossible. 2:34 Nainika’s background and interest in the Schwarzman program 5:33 Why Nainika focused on space debris  7:23 Nainika’s prior knowledge about the Chinese space program and what she learned through the Schwarzman program 10:30 How space debris is measured, the Kessler syndrome, and the hazards that space debris poses  14:33 The obstacles Nainika encountered in her research  16:35 How political leaders in China and the U.S. are thinking about the space debris problem 20:02 How debris mitigation might [ought to?] be incentivized, who is working on the problem now, and the role of private insurers  24:03 The Wolf Amendment and Chinese private sector space companies  27:22 Technologies for mitigating and remediating debris  31:00 Lessons from another tragedy of the commons (the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer), and how the EU could take a leading role  34:59 The importance of data standardization and opportunities to negotiate fair use and safety precautions 38:17  How redundancy prevents public perception — the difficulty in going from “outage” to “outrage”  40:27 What Nainika has been doing since finishing at Schwarzman  Recommendations: Nainika: From Streets to Stalls: The History and Evolution of Hawking and Hawker Centres in Singapore by Ryan Kueh (another Schwarzman alum)  Kaiser: Journalist Andrew Jones on Twitter; the South Indian restaurant Viks Chaat in Berkeley, California  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I thought Sinica listeners might be interested in listening to an audio narration of my latest essay. I hope you enjoy and that it gives you some food for thought! If you prefer to read, you can find the essay — free for everyone this week — right here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Chinese game studio Game Science has a hit on its hands! The game Black Myth: Wukong, an action role-playing game (ARPG) based on the Monkey King from Journey to the West, has sold extraordinarily well in China and is breaking new ground in the U.S. market as well. This week, I speak with Rui Ma, who runs Tech Buzz China and is one of the most highly-regarded China tech commentators in the U.S., and with Robert Wynne, an industry veteran with many years in China currently serving as COO of a new game start-up that's still under wraps. They share their insights into the strengths and weaknesses of Black Myth: Wukong and the future of Chinese games. 6:44 – The scale of the phenomenon of Black Myth: Wukong  12:01 – Rui and Rob’s thoughts about the game (so far) 17:23 – What Chinese players think of the game, and the difficulty in understanding its esoteric characters for Western players  24:23 – The appeal of mobile games versus console games in China  27:30 – The difficulty of attracting investment [or “How Game Science attracted investment”] 31:06 – Rob’s criticism of the game’s go-to-market strategy and its lost opportunities  35:46 – The party-state's response so far, and the politics surrounding the game 40:57 – Feng Ji, the founding of Game Science, and his criticisms of the gaming industry  46:01 – AAA Chinese games to look forward to 49:29 – The impressive success stats of Black Myth: Wukong Recommendations: Rui: Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Rob: The Chinese TV series Escape from Trilateral Slopes (Biān shuǐ wǎngshì 边水往事) (2024) Kaiser: Steve Stewart-Williams, The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Olivia Fu, who this spring completed her year at Schwarzman College and wrote her Capstone project — a research paper that is required of all Schwarzman Scholars — on the rise and fall of the Beijing hip-hop scene. We explore some of the parallels to Beijing's rock scene, and how many of the same factors that stifled rock in Beijing ultimately led to Beijing's relative decline as a hip-hop city. 3:16 – Olivia’s background and connection to China, and what drew her to the Schwarzman Program and studying hip-hop 6:13 – Olivia’s Schwarzman mentor, Paul Pickowicz  7:47 – How Olivia dealt with censorship in her Capstone project  10:24 – The parallels and differences between the hip-hop and rock scenes in China 12:27 – The dakou CDs and the origins of the hip-hop scene in China  17:03 – The influences of Japanese and Korean rap and hip-hop and Black American culture 18:30 – The importance of studying Beijing hip-hop  23:05 – The spirit of Beijing and societal commentary in Beijing hip-hop  27:38 – The phenomenon of Rap of China  29:50 – The divergence of PG One and GAI, and the regulatory influence of the State Administration on Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television 35:13 – Sinifying hip-hop  37:21 – What the burgeoning hip-hop scene in China was like in the early 2000s 40:10 – Critiques of the Beijing dialect in rap and the Beijing rap style  45:16 – Iron Mic rap battles and Shanghai, and Chinese hip-hop’s critique of the educational system  48:34 – Why Beijing rap declined  59:09 – What’s next for Olivia  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey folks! I took some time off to drive the kids to college and then flew to California to celebrate my brother John’s birthday. The upshot is there’s no interview this week, so in place of that, here’s my essay from this week. Hope you enjoy it. If all goes as planned, I’m back next week with regular interview for Sinica! You can find the text of the essay at sinicapodcast.com. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I was looking for a good episode to pull from the archive to run this week as I'll be traveling and I asked my good friend Deb Seligsohn for a recommendation. She went immediately to this one, and by God if it's not an oldie-but-goodie. This is from December 2015 and features Jeremy Goldkorn — I miss him dearly! — and Terry Townshend, an absolute institution in China's birding community. I'll likely have to run another re-run next week, and I welcome your suggestions! All best, Kaiser Recommendations and Links: Birding Beijing Action for Swifts British Trust for Ornithology Jonathan Franzen, Purity: A Novel Cement and Pig Consumption Reveal China's Huge Changes See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Here's a little bonus ep for you ahead of tomorrow's show, which will be a re-run of a really fun one from about 10 years ago! I'm driving the rest of this week to the Midwest to drop my kids off at their respective universities, and I've been thinking a lot about the education systems in China and the U.S. So here's my essay for this week. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Paul Triolo rejoins the show for a deep, deep dive into China's response to American export controls on advanced semiconductors and related technologies. How much hurt has the policy put on Chinese firms — and how far along is China in finding its way toward technological autonomy? Kevin Xu, author of the fantastic "Interconnected" newsletter, joins to talk about some of the big ideas he's written about in recent months and to play co-host as we grill Paul on China's efforts to get out from under American controls. 9:10 – The downplaying of generative AI in the Third Plenum’s decision document  18:25 – Why the Middle East is an appealing and important region for major AI players  26:20 – Why chip wars have evolved into to cloud wars  29:36 – How China has fared in trying to achieve its goal of indigenous advanced semiconductor manufacture 31:50 – Semiconductors: What lies within the “small yard” versus what products are unaffected under U.S. export controls 35:42 – The quality and reliability caveat to China’s goal of self-sufficiency in semiconductor manufacture  38:35 – The success of the Biden administration’s export controls and whether the controls have really put the hurt on anyone  46:00 – The Harmony operating system  47:47 – The importance of packaging  50:45 – Paul explains what he calls “China Semiconductor Industry Policy 3.0” and its predecessors 57:03 – China’s EUV lithography challenge 1:03:14 – DUV lithography and multi-patterning, and the importance of collaboration across the ecosystemin the process of making semiconductors at scale  1:11:50 – Huawei’s progress so far and remaining major hurdles and bottlenecks  1:18:42 – Paul and Kevin’s thoughts on whether the American strategic class will regret its approach to export controls and whether there is an off-ramp  Recommendations: Paul: Ed Conway’s Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization  Kevin: Thurston Clarke’s The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America  Kaiser: The House of the Dragon (2022- ) TV series  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I'm joined by Eric Olander, host of the outstanding China in Africa Podcast and the indispensable China-Global South Podcast, and creator of the China-Global South Project. Eric's detailed and very current knowledge of China's relations across the developing world is on display in this whirlwind tour that takes us from the troubled waters of the South China Sea to China's diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, on to Subsaharan Africa and how Washington has struggled to create policies that can match what China offers, and to Latin America. He then zooms out and talks about what it all means in aggregate. Don't miss this show! Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter! Go to sinicapodcast.com to sign up! And if you want to support my work and access premium content, please be sure to become a paying subscriber. 2:39 The situation with the Philippines and the Second Thomas Shoal, and the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty — the potential challenges in activating it on the U.S. side and President Marcos’ changing standards for invoking it  15:50 ASEAN’s difficulty in reaching consensus, and Myanmar as another ASEAN priority   18:53 China’s role as convener in brokering a “unity deal” for Palestine 23:02 The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)  30:20 Why Africa is so hard to fit onto the U.S. foreign policy agenda and the lack of a forward-looking American vision for Africa  37:56 Geraud Neema’s disappointment with Washington’s talk about battery metals and critical minerals 42:22 The pushback from Mexico’s finance minister and Mexico’s concern over the growing number of imports from China 46:48 The trade surplus number and long-term concerns for China’s exports  49:35 Brazilian President Lula hints at willingness to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)  51:51 How it all fits together, and how China has leveraged the Global South’s frustration over the U.S.-European-led international order  Recommendations: Eric: Matt Pottinger’s The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan, and Anne Stevenson-Yang’s Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy Kaiser: Will Durant’s books from The Story of Civilization, especially The Age of Faith and The Reformation, as well as the audiobook versions read by Stefan Rudnicki  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, my narration of a longish essay about my recently-concluded four-week trip to Dalian and, more importantly, Beijing — my first time back in the city I called home for so long since the COVID pandemic. If you prefer to read rather than listen, you can find the essay — free for everyone this week — on the Substack. I hope you enjoy this! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I'm in Beijing, where I spoke with my dear friend Anthony Tao, an English-language poet and a builder of community in the city where I lived for over 20 years. Anthony recently published a volume of his poetry called We Met in Beijing, and it captures the relationship that so many have with the city wherever they might come from. The episode features readings of some of his — and my — favorite poems. 3:28 Why Anthony chose poetry as a medium, and the poetry he has read [appreciated?] 9:13 A discussion of Anthony’s poem, “I Landed in Beijing,” and the feelings Beijing inspires 19:56 Anthony’s poem, “Self-censorship” 27:08 Anthony’s journalism in poetic form and processing the trauma of COVID  31:38 Living as an “expat” and writing from an expat’s perspective: Anthony’s poem “Dancing like a Laowai  40:46 Anthony’s bar — The Golden Weasel — and meeting interesting people in Beijing  44:49 The themes of place and nostalgia, Anthony’s poem, “Postcard,” and the last stanza of his title poem, “We Met in Beijing” Recommendations: Anthony: The poetry of Stephen Dunn; the TV series Lucky Hank (2023) based on Straight Man by Richard Russo; Spittoon, an English-language literary collective in China; and his band, Poetry x Music  Kaiser: The many international restaurants of Xiaoyun Lu in Beijing  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I'm trying something different: totally unscripted and very, very lightly edited recordings grabbed on the go where I happen to be. For the inaugural episode, I've got Wang Zichen, the author of the amazing Pekingnology newsletter on Substack, as well as the man behind the Center for China and Globalization's newsletter "The East is Read." Hear Zichen's origin story, his approach to publishing Pekingnology, the skinny on his new Got China show with Liu Yang and Jiang Jiang, as well as his take on what we can expect from the Third Plenum. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with University of Melbourne transnational historian Pete Millwood about his outstanding book Improbable Diplomats: How Ping-Pong Players, Musicians, and Scientists Remade U.S.-China Relations. The road to normalization is told too often with a focus only on the Nixon-Kissinger opening and official diplomatic efforts culminating in the final recognition of the PRC in January 1979, but there's much more to the story than that, and Millwood tells it deftly, drawing on extensive archival research as well as interviews with many of those directly involved. 3:33 — Transnational history  4:44 — The early, “pioneering” trips to China in the 1950s and ‘60s and China’s shift in invitations  11:14 — The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) in the 1960s   16:27 — The role of the Committee of Concerned Asia Scholars (CCAS) 20:43 — Why Nixon’s opening to China was seen as so surprising, and the impact of the UN’s shift in recognition from the ROC to the PRC on American thinking  24:57 — The Glenn Cowan and Zhuang Zedong ping-pong diplomacy story  31:21 — Edgar Snow’s meeting with Mao 33:43 — The return leg of ping-pong diplomacy and the National Committee’s “baptism by fire” 36:33 — The significance of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s tour of China with Eugene Ormandy   42:23 — Jiang Qing and the controversy around the cancelled performing arts tour in the U.S. in 1975  46:03 — Kissinger’s thinking in the early 1970s after the first communiqué  48:48 — The U.S.-China People’s Friendship Association  50:42 — How scientific cooperation smoothed the process toward normalization under the Carter administration, the state of play in ’77, and how Frank Press CSCPRC argued for greater reciprocity  1:02:25 — The politics in China in regards to the grander bargain and the decentralization of exchanges  1:05:43 — The disbandment of the CSCPRC and the reinvention of the NCUSCR  1:08:58 — Pete’s suggestion for continuing academic and cultural exchange  1:12:51 — How Pete got interested in such an American and China-centric topic  1:18:02 — Pete’s current projects   Recommendations: Pete: Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism by Wendy Cheng; Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong by Louisa Lim (also available as an audiobook read by the author)  Kaiser: We Met in Beijing, a book of poems by Anthony Tao  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, in a show recorded on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions, historian Adam Tooze joins to chat about what the U.S. wants from China, China's vaulting green energy ambitions, and much more. Don't miss this episode: Tooze gets pretty darn spicy! 3:13 How Adam launched Chartbook in Chinese  5:37 How Dalian and Beijing have changed since Adam’s last visit in 2019 9:01 What the West wants from China, the Thucydides Trap, 15:11 The trajectory of China’s economic development and why it’s hard for the West to reconcile with] 25:11 “Overcapacity” and the politics of renewable energy 31:00 Russo-Chinese relations and the war in Ukraine 37:12 The Global South and China since February 24th and October 7th and the importance of Africa with regards to global development  41:39 Green energy as a driver of high-quality development in China  47:49 The “Red New Deal” and the combination punch metaphor  51:57 Adam’s cognitive style (an interrelated thinker averse to analogizing), climate as a touchstone topic, and China’s importance in global climate politics  Recommendations: Adam: The work of Lauri Myllyvirta, including his analysis on Carbon Brief Kaiser: Rewatching The Wire TV series (2002-2008) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Part 2 of the interview with anthropologist Stevan Harrell, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, about his magnum opus, An Ecological History of China. Be sure to listen to Part 1 first, as many important framing concepts are discussed in that episode! 1:44 “– The Four Horsemen of Ecopocalypse” and ecological disasters during the Mao period, and the story of the double-wheel, double-bladed plow 11:00 – The effect of the introduction of water systems and fertilizers on agricultural production  21:03 – “The replumbing of China:” The South-North Water Transfer Project and the National Water Network 27:32 – Areas of progress: Air pollution and the energy mix  32:48 – Areas lacking appreciable improvement: Soil contamination, water pollution, and flood vulnerability  36:04 – Ecological civilization and breaking the binary between development and environmental protection 47:00 – Steve’s cognitive style: A fox of the two cultures 53:23 – nSteve’s views on authoritarian environmentalism  58:46 – The Environmental Kuznets curve  1:05:54 – A preview of Steve’s current book project about the Yangjuan Primary School in Liangshan  Recommendations: Steve: Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories; Hampton Sides’ The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook; and the 2023 film The Taste of Things, starring Juliette Binoche  Kaiser: The Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Part 1 of a two-part podcast with Stevan Harrell, Professor Emeritus in Anthropology at the University of Washington. Steve's groundbreaking book An Ecological History of Modern China represents the culmination of a professional lifetime of work in disparate fields. It synthesizes ideas from geography, earth science, biology, anthropology, sociology, political science, and more. It's a book that will make you change the way you think not just about China, but about history more broadly, and about resilience in natural and social systems. In this first part, we focus on some of the core framing concepts of the book and how Steve demarcates China in both space and time. Part 2 is next week! 5:01 How Steve thinks about ecological history and resilience theory/ecology in relation to Chinese history  17:09 Social-ecological systems and the systems approach 24:46 The importance of etic and emic scale  30:15 How diversity contributes to resilience  36:18 The Malthus-Boserup Ratchet  42:43 The importance of buffers  51:24 The adaptive cycle  55:41 Ecological buffers and the threats they face] in the major regions of China: China Proper, Zomia, and Chinese Central Asia  1:06:28 Steve’s periodization of modern Chinese history from the perspective of ecological history  Recommendations at the end of Part 2 next week! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, the highly-regarded writer Peter Hessler joins to talk about his new book, out July 9: Other Rivers: A Chinese Education. Over 20 years after teaching with the Peace Corps in Fuling (the subject of his first book, Rivertown, Pete returns to China to teach at Sichuan University in Chengdu. He writes about the two cohorts of students, with whom he has maintained extensive contacts, to offer fascinating insights into how China has changed across this momentous period with touching, deeply human stories. 3:47 – Why Pete couldn’t teach in Fuling again 6:56 – How Pete stayed in touch with his Fuling cohort  9:46 – Pete’s SCUPI [(Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute)] cohort  13:51 – Pete’s Fuling cohort  19:35 – Chinese rural values: pragmatism and modesty 23:08 – The physical and psychological differences between the Fuling and Chengdu cohorts  29:32 – “Educated acquiescence” in the Chinese education system  35:07 – The Hessler family’s experience with Chengdu Experimental Primary School 43:04 – The impending lack of “Country feel,” and Pete’s sense of humor  47:02 – Facing criticism over his reporting during the pandemic   52:13 – Pete’s experience being jǔbào’ed and teaching Orwell’s Animal Farm  59:01 – Pete’s take on the COVID origins debate 1:02:10 – Competition and authoritarianism in China, and the phenomenon of Chinese and Chinese American Trump supporters  1:06:57 – Serena’s investigation for Chángshì and why Pete’s contract was not renewed  1:15:28 What’s next for Pete  Recommendations: Pete: Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux, a forthcoming novel about George Orwell’s time in Burma as a policeman; Burmese Days by George Orwell  Kaiser: the Meta Quest VR headset  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, a conversation that I moderated on May 30th called “Assessing the Impact of US-China Rivalry on Ukraine and Taiwan,” put on by the Ukrainian Platform for Contemporary China. The main organizer was my friend Vita Golod, who is the chair of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists. The panelists are: Dmytro Burtsev, a Junior Fellow at A. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.Da Wei, Director of the Center for International Security and Strategy and Professor at the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University. Emilian Kavalski, Professor at the Centre for International Studies and Development at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. I Yuan, Adjunct Research Fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by Jonathan Chatwin, author of a new book about Deng Xiaoping's "Southern Tour" of early 1992 — a pivotal event that renewed a commitment to economic reforms after they'd stalled following 1989, and seized the initiative from conservatives in the Chinese leadership. The book is called The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China's Future. 2:10 – Why Jonathan focused on the Southern Tour, and the narratives surrounding it in China 7:19 – How the events of ’89 influenced Deng’s thinking  11:08 – How the political fates of Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang affected Deng’s planning  14:31 – The reformers’ path to victory from the second half of ’89 to January of ’92 20:32 – Deng’s vision of opportunity in the face of communism’s apparent global retreat 24:53 – How Deng’s personal experiences shaped his policy decisions  27:07 – The strategic signaling and risky timing of the Southern Tour  34:07 – The influence of the Chinese horoscope, and “The Story of Spring” 37:33 – Shenzhen speed  40:57 – What Jonathan learned about Deng Xiaoping  45:00 – Jonathan’s recommendations for learning more about Deng Xiaoping and the post-Mao era  46:18 – Xi Jinping, the “end” [not sure how to phrase] of Deng’s reform and opening era, and the [parallels with the?] Chinese economic situation today  Recommendations Jonathan: China’s Hidden Century, edited by Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell, produced to accompany the British Museum’s exhibition by that name; and the app Voice Dream, a text-to-speech reader  Kaiser: Andrea Wulf’s Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self, a book about the group of German Romantics gathered in Jena, Germany  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser is joined by old friend Ed Lanfranco, who lived in Beijing from 1988 to 2009. An inveterate packrat, Ed managed to accumulate an incredible trove of documents, maps, photos, and ephemera from his years there and from the decades and even centuries before his arrival. Ed talks about his collection, and invites scholars interested in his material to get in touch! 2:46 – Ed’s time in China and saving ephemera  11:47 – Ed’s favorite old Chinese brands  14:41 – Ed’s map collection  19:34 – The Tiananmen incident of 1976, Ed’s collection of unpublished photographs from the Panjiayuan Antique Market, and a leaflet from April 7th, 1976  30:40 – Ed’s patriotic music record collection  33:28 – Ed’s U.S.-China collection  38:00 – The story behind Ed’s U.S.-China panda button from 2002  43:18 – Ed’s Tiananmen ’89 story and collection of leaflets and files  50:56 – The Underground City of Beijing tour  53:50 – Ed’s SARS 2003 epidemic experience and artifacts Recommendations: Ed: Roger Garside’s Coming Alive: China After Mao; Lin Yutang’s works, especially My Country and My People and The Importance of Living Kaiser: The Rochester-based progressive metal trio Haishen’s new album, Awaken the Endless Deep  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I'm delighted to welcome — my brother! Jay Kuo is a Broadway writer & producer, and the man behind the terrific U.S. politics-focused Substack newsletter The Status Kuo. In a previous life, from 1996 to 2000, he was also really active in Beijing's gay community, just at the time when homosexuality was being decriminalized and was stepping out of the shadows. We talk about how it all took off. Jay also puts on his other hat to talk about how China figures into American politics with the election less than five months away, and about the legal standing of the TikTok divest-or-ban law. 4:54 – The gay community in Beijing in the ‘90s, and the Half-and-Half bar in Sanlitun  16:06 – How the gay community in Beijing changed after two major rulings  27:33 – The end of the “golden era” for the gay community in China 36:26 – Progress and its drivers and obstacles 42:28 – Jay’s “China priors” 50:41 – The issue of China in the upcoming U.S. presidential election   57:08 – The TikTok ban bill  Recommendations:  Jay: The TV series Manhunt (2024), available on Apple TV Kaiser: The TV series The Sympathizer (2024), available on HBO; the audiobook of The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, narrated by François Chau  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Sulmaan Wasif Khan, professor of history and international relations at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, about his book The Struggle for Taiwan: A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between, which comes on May 14. 4:28 — The Cairo Agreement 6:59 — General George Marshall, George Kennan, and the change in the idea of American trusteeship of Taiwan? 17:08 — The debate over the offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu 23:55 — Mao’s evolving interest in Taiwan 27:49 — The averted crisis of 1962 32:06 — Peng Ming-min and the Taiwan independence movement 37:14 — What changed in 1971? 42:51 — The legacy of Chiang Ching-kuo 45:14 — The story of Lee Teng-hui 52:37 — The change within the Kuomintang 1:00:11 — Why Taiwan has become “sacred” for China 1:10:26 — Sulmaan’s own narrative shift 1:13:26 — Chen Shui-bian and the threat of independence referendums 1:17:53 — The Sunflower Movement 1:25:21 — The causal direction of Taiwan’s importance in the U.S.-China relationship 1:28:32 — Why the status quo shifted 1:30:51 — Drawing parallels between Taiwan and Ukraine 1:33:26 — Sulmaan’s sources for his book 1:35:38 — Agency versus structure 1:39:29 — Feedback (so far) on the new book and what’s next for Sulmaan Recommendations: Sulmaan: Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad  Kaiser: The “My China Priors” series (and other essays), available on the Sinica Substack; Angus Stewart’s essay, “Alien Bless You: A Review of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem”  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, veteran reporter Jane Perlez, who served as bureau chief for the New York Times in Beijing until 2019, joins to discuss her new podcast series Face-Off, which explores different facets of the U.S.-China relationship. We also talk about the state of Western journalism in China in the wake of tit-for-tat expulsions of reporters from the U.S. and China that took place during the Trump administration, and the challenges of covering China well without people on the ground in country. 5:16 – How Jane Perlez got into podcasting 7:59 – The challenge of understanding Xi Jinping 12:44 – The Face-Off podcast and appealing to a general audience 19:00 – Face-Off’s interview with Zhao Tong on the nuclear issue; the importance of quality diplomacy; and debating the efficacy of the S&ED 30:48 – The pleasure of meeting Yo-Yo Ma  36:52 – The state of Western journalists in China, and how the situation may eventually play out  48:44 – The difficulty of covering China from the outside  53:52 – What’s next for Jane Perlez and the Face-Off podcast Recommendations: Jane: Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia by Gary Bass Kaiser: The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Iza Ding, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University and author of The Performative State: Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China, joins to share her ideas on how American academia has framed and problematized authoritarianism, especially when it comes to China. A deep and subtle thinker, she offers thought-provoking critiques of some of the assumptions that have become nearly axiomatic in political science and other social sciences in their approach to understanding politics in China. 3:13 – Iza Ding’s concept of “authoritarian teleology” 15:31 – The concept of authoritarian resilience  19:58 – The question of regime legitimacy  24:09 – The question of whether authoritarianism is an ideology  26:24 – The China model?  30:58 – Finding a balance between generalizability and the sui generis, and striving toward cognitive empathy and “Verstehen”  42:04 – The state of area studies and avoiding essentialism  49:32 – Iza Ding’s advice on how to become a better writer  Recommendations: Iza: The Wife of Bath: A Biography by Marion Turner — the story of Alison, the Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales  Kaiser: the guitarist Kent Nishimura, especially his recordings of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police, and “Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I'm delighted to welcome Dá Wēi (达巍), one of China’s foremost scholars of China’s foreign relations and especially relations with the U.S. Da Wei is the director of the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and is a professor in the department of International Relations at the School of Social Science at Tsinghua. Before September 2017, Professor Da served as the Director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a leading think tank in Beijing. He was at CICIR for more than two decades and directed the Institute of American Studies from 2013 to 2017. We discuss the state of Chinese understanding of the United States: how China’s strategic class assesses the state of the relationship, what brought it to this point, and what the future might hold. 2:52 – American attitudes toward the U.S.-China relationship 5:32 – The focus of academic think tanks and strategic communities in the U.S. versus China  11:13 – The Chinese strategic community’s understanding of American domestic politics with respect to the upcoming U.S. presidential election   15:08 – The Chinese strategic community’s understanding of why and how the current state of relations developed, and why China changed its trajectory   23:12 – The Chinese strategic community’s perspectives on American policy: Do they see a difference between the parties? 27:02 – Da Wei’s concept of “Sullivanism”  33:41 – The question of mutual misunderstanding  38:37 – The role and influence of China’s think tanks in the policymaking process 43:29 – The idea of cognitive empathy — aka strageic empathy, or intellectual empathy — and how it could aid mutual understanding and the policymaking process 52:30 – The Chinese perspective on Russia and the war in Ukraine  57:37 – The Chinese perspective on China’s other international relations and the global context of the U.S.-China relationship  1:04:19 The issue of Taiwan and the question of the “status quo”  1:13:52 The importance of building people-to-people ties  1:16:51 – Da Wei's personal anecdote about an experience that influenced his understanding the U.S.-China relationship Recommendations: Da Wei:  Lust for Life by Irving Stone — a biography of Vincent van Gogh; Pablo Casals’s recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites; the films Cinema Paradiso (1988) and Forrest Gump (1994).   Kaiser: The Sopranos (1999-2007) TV series and The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco, written by Allen Rucker with recipes by Michele Scicolone.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, a discussion of Netflix's adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem (or more accurately, Remembrance of Earth's Past). Joining me to chat about the big-budget show is Cindy Yu, host of The Spectator’s “Chinese Whispers” podcast, one of the very best China-focused podcasts; and Christopher T. Fan, who teaches English, Asian American Studies, and East Asian Studies at U.C. Irvine and is a co-founder of Hyphen magazine. Cindy and Chris both wrote reviews of the show and a bunch of other folks answered the call and contributed their thoughts as well. 6:46 – 3 Body Problem as Chinese IP and audience reception  14:44 – The pros and cons of a more faithful adaptation, comparisons with Tencent’s adaptation, [and the Netflix production (process) (? Or keep it separate, 20:17)] 23:44 – How the show portrays its Chinese characters and China and audience responses 38:14 – Allegorical interpretations and real-world (political?) connections  48:11 – What to look forward to in (possible?) future seasons  51:14 – Chenchen Zhang’s humanity/autocracy binary and the 工业党 gōngyè dǎng  57:02 A win for Chinese soft power?  Recommendations: Cindy: The Overstory by Richard Powers  Chris: Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park Kaiser: Kaiser: Run and Hide by Pankaj Mishra; other novels by Pankaj Mishra, including Age of Anger: A History of the Present and From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia; and other novels by Richard Powers, including Galatea 2.2, Operation Wandering Soul, and The Gold Bug Variations  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica: I wandered the halls at the Association for Asian Studies Conference in Seattle and talked to 14 participants and asked them all the same question: What has become clear to you about our field recently? The fantastic diversity of areas of inquiry and of perspectives was really energizing. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did! 02:25 Michael Davidson from UC San Diego on working towards climate change goals 04:22 Timothy Cheek from University of British Columbia on the importance of continuing to study China despite political tensions  06:51 Chen Zifeng from LSE on Chinese propaganda that surrounds everyday life  11:08 Clyde Yicheng Wang (Wang Yicheng) from Washington and Lee University on Chinese propaganda and its spread into social media  16:57 Jeff Wasserstrom from UC Irvine on connections between events in China and the world 18:26 Ian Johnson from CFR on researching China from afar and the importance of online databases  21:01 Daniel Leese from the University of Freiburg on the work of digitizing Chinese sources  24:06 Tyler Harlan from Loyola Marymount University on opportunities for cooperation in the environmental field  25:41 Abby Newman from the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies on the importance of spaces for conversation within the field 27:55 Sophie Loy-Wilson from the University of Sydney on studying violence and war in Asia with more sympathy  33:45 Joe Dennis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the changes he has witnessed in Chinese studies at the university level  36:49 Ed Pulford from the University of Manchester on China’s differing perspective on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine  39:49 Emily Matson from Georgetown University on the importance of Marxist and Mao thought in analyzing modern Chinese history and World War II 42:14 Jan Berris from the National Committee on United States-China Relations on redirecting the U.S. government’s focus  Recommendation: The musical, poetic, and comedic work of Elle Cordova (formerly Reina Del Cid), on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook; and the Led Zeppelin tribute band "Presence," fronted by singer Tamar Boursalian. (Alas, the band, which is new, has no online presence. See them if you're in Seattle!) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I speak with veteran China analysts Thomas Fingar and David M. Lampton — Mike Lampton — about a paper they published in the Winter 2024 edition of the Washington Quarterly. It's an excellent overview of how and why the bilateral relationship took such a bad turn roughly 15 years ago, citing mistakes both sides made and the reasons why China shifted around that time from one of its two basic behavioral modes — more open, tolerant, and simpatico in its foreign policy — to the other mode, which is both more internally repressive and externally assertive. Thomas Fingar is Shorenstein APARC Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He was Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. He served as the first deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and as chairman of the National Intelligence Council — and he’s the author of many books, including most recently From Mandate to Blueprint: Lessons from Intelligence Reform. Mike Lampton is Professor Emeritus and former Hyman Professor and Director of SAIS-China and China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute. Mike was also formerly President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. 05:04 – The problem with the use of the term "autocracy" to describe China's system 09:18 – Analysis of the motivation behind China's actions, questioning the assumption that all decisions are solely for perpetuating the Communist Party's power. 10:25 – Rethinking Xi Jinping's personal influence over China's policy decisions: the checks on his power within the Chinese political system. 15:58 – Critique of deterministic theories in political science regarding state behavior, particularly concerning China's foreign policy and domestic policy actions. 19:13 – The importance of avoiding oversimplified and deterministic explanations for Chinese behavior on the global stage. 23:43 – Discussion on the perception of China as an unstoppable juggernaut and the consequences of such a view for international relations and domestic policies in the U.S. 24:41 – Analysis of the notion that China seeks to recreate an imperial tribute system in its foreign relations and regional strategy. 28:09 – Introduction of the concept of two strategic constellations that have historically guided China's policy focus: national/regime security and economic/social development. 33:11 – Exploration of factors leading to China's shift from prioritizing economic and social development to focusing more on national and regime security. 37:38 – Examination of the internal and external dynamics contributing to China's policy shifts and the impact of globalization on societal and political tensions. 48:47 – Reflection on the post-9/11 period as a time of relatively smooth U.S.-China relations and speculation on the role of international crises in shaping bilateral dynamics. 52:59 – Discussion on the challenges and opportunities for the U.S. and China to adjust their policies and rhetoric to manage tensions and avoid further exacerbating the bilateral relationship. Recommendations:  Tom: The novels of Mick Herron (author of Slow Horses); the novels of Alan Furst, including Night Soldiers and The Polish Officer. Mike: Philip Taubman, In the Nation’s Service (a biography of George Schultz); and Liz Cheney, Oath and Honor Kaiser: The Magician, by Colm Tóibín — an unconventional novelized biography of Thomas Mann See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, a show taped in Salzburg, Austria, at the Salzburg Global Seminar with Kerry Brown of King's College, London, on the prolific author's latest book, China Incorporated: The Politics of a World Where China is Number One. 05:22 – Chinese worldview and historical perceptions 07:51 – The unease with China's rise 10:42 – Chinese exceptionalism vs. Western universalism 17:30 – Parallels between American domestic unease and perceptions of China 22:27 – Discussion on China's competing belief system 33:56 – China's raw form of capitalism 40:36 – What the West wants from China 46:10 – The internet as a reflection of Chinese power and limitations 51:17 – China's syncretism and its impact today 55:00 – The narrative of Chinese success and its PR challenges 1:05:32 – Revising Western narratives on China's development A complete transcript of this podcast is available at sinica.substack.com. Join the community on Substack and get not only the transcript but lots of other writing and audio to boot! Recommendations: Kerry: Civilization and Capitalism by Fernand Braudel Kaiser: Empire of Silver: A New Monetary History of China by Jin Xu; and re-reading Hilary Mantel's masterful Wolf Hall trilogy (Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Historian Rana Mitter joins Sinica this week in a show taped live in Salzburg, Austria at the Salzburg Global Seminar, in which he discusses efforts by Party ideologists to create a Confucian-Marxist synthesis that can serve as an enduring foundation for a modern Chinese worldview in the self-proclaimed “new era.” 01:28 – Is China a revisionist power? 02:16 – Right-sizing China's global ambitions 09:27 — How China utilizes historical narratives to support political ends 10:43 – Marxism and China's Historical Understanding 17:07 – China's "New Era" and Party history 28:38 – The Confucian-Marxist Synthesis  56:58 – China's ability to reinvent itself 1:02:15 – What’s the next big question? A complete transcript is available at the Sinica Substack. Recommendations:  Rana: Eliza Clark, Boy Parts Kaiser: Anthony Kaldellis, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, the winners of the 2023 Schwarzman Capstone Showcase. Two individuals and one team were selected as the best research projects after review of their projects and presentation of their findings. Their work is first-rate — and if you don’t factor in the very young age of the Schwarzman Scholars in competition. You’ll meet Shawn Haq, who won for his work on U.S. and Chinese expert perspectives on Taiwan; Corbin Duncan, who looked at the impact of the One Child Policy on the economic and social circumstances of only children in China; and the duo of Kelly Wu and Manthan Shah, part of a larger team that studied decarbonization efforts in Shandong province in steel, aluminum, chemical, and cement production. All three of these research efforts yielded fascinating insights. 2:15 – Introducing the Schwarzman Capstone Showcase: topics, judges, and process 4:41 – Self-introductions from Shawn Haq, Corbin Duncan, Kelly Wu, and Manthan Shah 15:07 – Shawn Haq: U.S.-China Expert Perspectives on Cross-Straits Relations 29:09 – Corbin Duncan: Only Children and Contemporary China 48:12 – Kelly Wu and Manthan Shah: Decarbonization of Shandong Province’s Materials Sector See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, a special taping of an online event I moderated on February 22, just two days shy of the second anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The session was titled “The Ukrainian Factor in China’s Strategy,” and it was organized by the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, and featured that organization’s chairperson, Vita Golod; Bartosz Kowalski, senior analyst at the Center for Asian Affairs at the University of Lodz; Lü Xiaoyu of Peking University’s School of International Studies; and Klaus Larres, distinguished professor of history and international affairs, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Please support Sinica by becoming a subscriber at sinica.substack.com. Please note that I have discontinued Patreon, and ask all supporters to help out over on Substack.  2:42 – Introducing the guests 6:19 – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s meeting with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi 12:19 – What do Ukraine and its allies want from China? 16:59 – What inducements might Ukraine’s Western allies offer China? 21:51 – How has China’s position changed over the course of the last two years? 29:52 – The space for expression of pro-Ukraine voices in China 32:08 – Ukrainian and Chinese popular opinion  36:44 – Does the diplomacy of sanctimony work on a realist power? 48:00 – China’s 12-Point Position 51:48 – Does Russian economic dependency on China translate into leverage? 54:04 – The overlap between China’s 12 points and Zelenskyy’s 10 points 57:42 – How reliable is America as a partner in this election year? 1:08:53  – How will this war end? What compromises are the sides willing to make? 1:21:32 – Lü Xiaoyu’s trip to Ukraine and his meeting with President Zelenskyy There’s a complete transcript to this episode available at sinica.substack.com. Sorry, no recommendations this week, but here’s one from me: The new remake of James Clavell’s epic novel Shògun, which is out on Hulu and FX. It’s pretty mind-blowing! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica I'm delighted to bring you a live conversation with writer Peter Hessler, recorded at Duke University's Nasher Auditorium in Durham, North Carolina on November 10, 2023. The event was sponsored by the Duke Middle East Studies Center and the Asian Pacific Studies Institute, and was titled "Modern Revolutions in Ancient Civilizations." Peter, known for both his trilogy of books written in China — Rivertown, Oracle Bones, and Country Driving — as well as for his reporting for The New Yorker, talks about how his years in China gave him perspective when living in Cairo and writing about Egypt during the Arab Spring. His book on Egypt, The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution, was made richer for me by the comparisons and contrasts with China threading throughout. Special thanks to Griffin Orlando of the Middle East Study Center and Alex Nickley from the Asia Pacific Studies Institute, and Ralph Litzinger from Duke Anthropology. 6:27 – What Peter’s China experience brought to his writing on China — and vice-versa 9:45 – Contrasting the Chinese and Egyptian revolutions 18:37 – Revolution in thinking in Egypt and China 35:49 – Peter on his approach to the craft of reporting and writing 51:47 – Peter’s work in China as a longitudinal cohort study — and what it reveals so far 58:03 – A preview of Peter’s forthcoming book, Other Rivers Recommendations: Peter: Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals is one of the books Kaiser: Kenneth W. Harl’s book Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sinica is proud to present historian James Carter's column "This Week in China's History," one of the most popular offerings from the late great China Project. I'm delighted to be able to bring this back and to narrate it. You can expect a new column every other week, and we'll be publishing on Fridays. This week, Jay looks at the last Qing emperor, Puyi's, abdication in February 1912, marking the end not only of the Qing Empire but of imperial Chinese history. Please enjoy! The music on this episode is from the song "Between the Mountains and the Sea" (山海间) by my old band, Chunqiu. This song was written and performed by Yang Meng. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this first post-TCP episode, Kaiser and Jeremy reminisce about their careers in China-focused media, and share some of their precepts for good China analysis.

This week on Sinica, a live recording from New York on the eve of the 2023 NEXTChina Conference. Jeremy Goldkorn joins Kaiser as co-host, with guests Maria Repnikova of Georgia State University, who specializes in Chinese soft power in Africa and on Sino-Russian relations, and Eric Olander, co-founder of the China Global South Project and co-host of the excellent China Global South Podcast and China in Africa Podcast. This show is unedited to preserve the live feel! Recommendations: Jeremy: Empire podcast William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, about how empires rise, fall, and shape the world around us Maria: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall Eric: Eat Bitter, a documentary by Ningyi Sun, a filmmaker from China, and Pascale Appora Gnekindy, from the Central African Republic Kaiser: Wellness, an ambitious novel by Nathan Hill about a Gen X couple in Wicker Park, Chicago; and the NOVA documentary Inside China's Tech Boom, of which Kaiser is correspondent, narrator, and co-producer. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, we're running an interview with Jeffrey Bader from early last year. We learned on Monday morning that Jeff had died, and we dedicate this interview to his memory. ___ This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Jeff Bader, who served as senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council during the first years of the Obama presidency, until 2011. Now a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute, Jeff was deeply involved in U.S.-China affairs at the State Department from his first posting to Beijing back in 1981 continuously for the next 21 years, through 2002. He later served as U.S. ambassador to Namibia and was tapped to head Asian Affairs at the NSC after Obama took office. Jeff is the author of a fascinating book on Obama’s China policy, Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy. In this conversation, he offers a candid critique of the Biden China policy to date. Note that this conversation was taped in mid-February — before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, and before the Department of Justice announced the end of the “China Initiative.” Note that this conversation was taped in mid-February — before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, and before the Department of Justice announced the end of the “China Initiative.” 3:23 – How viewing China over 40 years of rapid development has shaped the way Jeff thinks about China 8:54 – Jeff Bader’s critique of the Biden administration’s China policy 19:40 – Is it important to have a China strategy? 24:55 – Right-sizing China’s ambitions: Is Rush Doshi right? 31:17 – Defining China’s legitimate interests 38:31 – Has China already concluded that the U.S., irrespective of who is in power, seeks to thwart China’s rise? 43:16 – How can China participate in the rules-based international order? 47:52 – Is it still possible for Biden to change his tune on China? 52:57 – How much room does Biden have politically? Can he exploit to electorate’s partisan divide on China? 59:54 – What is the “low-hanging fruit” that Biden could pluck to signal a lowering of temperature? 1:12:09 – Jeff Bader’s precepts for better understanding of — and better policy toward — China Recommendations Jeff: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, a book by Stephen Platt about the Taiping Civil War focusing on Hong Rengan. Kaiser: Re-recommending two previous guests’ recommendations: Iaian McGilchrists’s The Master and his Emissary recommended by Anthea Roberts; and Unfabling the East: The Enlightenment’s Encounter with Asia by Jurgen Osterhammel, recommended by Dan Wang. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, a live recording from October 10 in Chicago, Kaiser asks Chang-Tai Hsieh of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, Damien Ma of the Paulson Institute’s think tank MacroPolo, and our own Lizzi Lee, host of The Signal with Lizzi Lee, to right-size the peril that the Chinese economy now faces from slow consumer demand, high youth unemployment, a troubled real estate sector, and high levels of local government debt. This event was co-sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute, the Paulson Institute, and The China Project.  06:32 – What is the current state of the Chinese economy? 11:14 – The origins of China’s crisis in comparison to crises from 1990 in Japan and 2008 in the U.S. 14:25 – Real estate sector’s role in the crisis and possible solutions 22:51 – The significance of able management during times of crisis. Is this a crisis of confidence or expectations? 29:34 – The question of the general direction of the Chinese economy  43:33 – What does an actual debt crisis look like in China? 48:00 – The right  U.S. policy towards China in light of current affairs The complete transcript of the show is now in the main podcast page for the episode! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast: a lecture by Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center's Kissinger Institute, delivered last year to D.C.-based Faith & Law at their Friday Forum. The lecture, titled "Is Our Foreign Policy Good? American Moral Absolutism and the China Challenge," is a powerful and thought-provoking talk. Kaiser follows up with a long conversation with Robert about the themes raised in the talk, and then some. Enjoy. 03:04 – A talk by Robert Daly from June 24th, 2022, given at Faith & Law’s Friday Forum 45:49 – What is lacking in the mainstream dialogue about American policies on China-related issues? 49:37 – Over-willingness to turn towards a military approach in the U.S.-China relationship in recent years 1:00:48 – The missionary aspect of the American approach in dealing with China 1:05:02 – The differences and commonalities between Chinese and American exceptionalism 1:17:42 – Are we in a state of Cold War with China? 1:23:54 – The question of moral standing in light of whataboutism 1:27:08 – Comparing American intentions with Chinese realities and the issue of moral absolutism 1:44:50 – What a “Just Cold War” would involve? 1:51:34 – Can the U.S. imagine a world in which it is not a hegemonic power? A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com. Recommendations:  Robert: The House of Sixty Fathers (a Newbury Award-winning book) by Meindert DeJong with illustrations by the late Maurice Sendak Kaiser: Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel Anda Union (Inner Mongolian band) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.