ChinaTalk

What's it like to live across the US-China scientific divide? Yale Law School postdoc, particle physicist and essayist Yangyang Cheng (@yangyang_cheng) joins me alongside undergrad Alex Liang to talk about understanding the other, how the personal can be lost in the noise of geopolitical tension and science across borders. We also discuss Power hierarchies and identities The “new red scare” and sc...

Dewey Murdick, director of CSET, discusses how the organization has brought a new level of rigor to hot topics ranging from chips to immigration and AI safety policy. We also discuss: CSET's Map of Science and the fate of Google Scholar Being beholden to the checkbooks of funders Topics that make policymakers' eyes roll - but shouldn't The optimal employment conditions for growing temperate, nice,...

Can eating your sons be morally justified? Stratagems of the Warring States is a collection of stories compiled during the Han dynasty about the many states that fought for control of all under heaven in the Warring States Period between the fifth and third centuries BC. Featuring tales of hostages, statecraft, assassinations and throwing shade on princelings, in this special episode of ChinaTalk,...

What does the 6th Plenum communique tell us about where Xi wants to take China? What can you learn by reading the People’s Daily daily and writing a substack on it? And how would you design a course to learn how to read the CCP? To discuss, Manoj Kewalramani (@theChinaDude) of the https://trackingpeoplesdaily.substack.com/ and https://manojkewalramani.substack.com/ newsletters, joins to discuss. F...

Winner of the inaugural Rhodium and China Talk essay contest, recent college grad Maggie Baughman discusses her essay on how the Chinese government uses Western social media to promote their desired image of China internationally with myself and co-host Jeff Kao, a computational journalist at ProPublica. We discuss: The companies offering Chinese entities access and marketing on western social med...

Red Roulette, Desmond Shum’s memoir of a fast life, deep in the bowels of Chinese politics, is the bombshell China book of 2021. It tells the story of his rise from an impoverished childhood in cultural revolution-era Shanghai and Hong Kong to his marriage to his social climbing wife with ties to the premier of China, and ultimate downfall as Xi’s anti-corruption push caught up with him.  New York...

China's energy problems are back in the news. Joining me to discuss them is Yan Qin, lead analyst at Refinitiv, with my Rhodium colleague Irina Liu as co-host. We discuss Whether China is serious about its climate pledge Why Chinese industry is moving westwards How "carbon neutral" became a hot topic The importance of global cooperation on climate change For an ad-free feed, please consider suppor...

Lisa Porter joins me with Eric Lofgren from AcquisitionTalk as cohost to reflect on how R&D works and doesn't work `in the Pentagon. Lisa served as was deputy director of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the DoD, founding director of IARPA, and executive vice president of In-Q-Tel. We touch on: How the error correction of free markets is absent in DoD A round of overrated...

Hosts of the Dongfang Hour (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3UXwB0UbUIg4z4vssUHPBw), a podcast focusing on the Chinese aerospace industry, Blain Curcio and Jean Deville join me in another ChinaTalk space episode to talk about launches in China and public enthusiasm for space projects. We discuss The Belt and Road in space The differences between the Starlink and Guowang networks Europe’s dilemma...

Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group returns to the pod to discuss Evergrande's implosion, how we got here, and what this week means for China's economy. Read Credit and Credibility! https://www.csis.org/analysis/credit-and-credibility-risks-chinas-economic-resilience If you only have time for one section, start with section 6. Check out Jon's substack here https://jonathonpsine.substack.com/ Come wo...

Julia Lovell, author of Maoism: A Global History and The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China, discusses translating Journey to the West (https://www.amazon.com/Monkey-King-Journey-Classics-Hardcover/dp/0143107186), for English audiences. Joined by translator Brendan O'Kane as co-host, on this episode we discuss: The origins of Journey to the West and the exploits of its primate protag...

How did Russian imperial ambitions and expansionism eastward change over time? Joining me on this episode is Chris Miller, author of We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin. Chris is a history professor at the Fletcher School and Eurasia Director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Cohosting is independent researcher, journalist and fellow at the Wilson...

I was a guest on the Compounding Curiosity podcast, a new show founded by a ChinaTalk fan that focuses on ASEAN, and we had a halfway decent conversation! Hope you enjoy. Mentioned Content: After Xi: Future Scenarios for Leadership Succession in Post-xi Jinping Era China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed by Andrew G. Walder Outtro Music: 功夫胖KUNGFU-PEN -《阿修罗》https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c...

How much credit can the CCP claim post-1949 for the higher level of human development relative to the level of visible capital in China? To discuss, historian Adam Tooze and Matt Klein of the Overshoot come for their third ChinaTalk appearance. We go back to the oft-forgotten hyperinflation of the 1940s to why in the 80s the World Bank believed a little bit of policy tinkering would lead China’s e...

How did SpaceX revolutionize the global space industry? To discuss SpaceX's origin story and secret sauce, guest Eric Berger, author of Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX, joins the show. Cory Fitz, author of the TaikoNautica newsletter on China's space industry (http://taikonautica.substack.com), cohosts and shares his perspective on the Chinese launch ecosystem....

@BadChinaTake, an anonymous twitter account that combined vicious takedowns of, well, bad china takes with a blog https://wokeglobaltimes.com/ that does deep dives into everything from tankie subcultures to China’s xinjiang policy, is one of the best things to hit China twitter. BadChinaTake was recently unmasked as Jake Eberts, a young DC-based China analyst. He joins us today to talk about his j...

In 2019, Thomas Colvin, Irina Liu and Shirley Han at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (https://www.ida.org/ida-ffrdcs/science-and-technology-policy-institute) were part of a team of researchers that published what is to date the most comprehensive English-language overview (https://www.ida.org/research-and-publications/publications/all/e/ev/evaluation-of-chinas-commercial-space-sector)...

How do Roombas illustrate the promise and peril of translational research? Which valley of death is really the worst valley of death? And how can woolly mammoths save the planet from climate change?   To discuss, I have on: Andrew Sosanya, Policy Analyst for the Day One Project Adam Marblestone of Schmidt Futures (his policy proposal: https://www.dayoneproject.org/post/focused-research-organizatio...

Chris Miller of Tufts and I discuss our report Labs over Fabs, our case for the US to be spending money more broadly than currently conceived by the CHIPS act. (https://chinatalk.substack.com/p/labs-over-fabs-risc-vs-promise)   Please consider supporting ChinaTalk! https://glow.fm/chinatalk/  JP Kleinhans (@JPKleinhans) joins to cohost and discuss his April 2021 report that argues it's dumb for Eu...

Why does Xi govern like he's running out of time? Rhodium's Dan Rosen and CSIS' Jude Blanchette discuss their recent Foreign Affairs pieces recapping the past years of Xi's rule from an economic and political perspective. We get into failed financial liberalization, anti-corruption, the prospects for war over Taiwan, lessons from Sputnik, and vertical farming.   Dan's FA piece: https://www.foreign...

How did Chinese firms come to dominate the global solar industry? Now that the Biden administration has banned imports for some key components of solar panels made in Xinjiang, how will global solar buyers adapt? Andy Klump, CEO of Clean Energy Associates, a firm tasked with monitoring Chinese solar supply chains, joins the podcast to discuss.   Outtro Music:  星球坠落（FALLING）by 艾热, a rapper...

Is China different? Does secular stagnation apply?  How have Chinese economic policymakers changed over time? Should industrial policy be a thing? What should American academia navigate its relationship with China? To discuss, ChinaTalk welcomes its first former cabinet secretary to the show! Larry Summers is a professor at Harvard, who previously served as Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury and...

Xi Jinping will not rule China forever. What have CCP leadership transitions looked like in the past, and what can we expect when Xi exits stage left? To discuss we have today Richard McGregor, an Aussie journalist with decades of experience in East Asia and author of three absolutely mandatory China books The Party, Asia’s Reckoning, and Xi: The Backlash, and Peter Vanderslice, a recent college g...

Dave Aitel, who started his career at NSA and spent the past twenty years in offensive cybersecurity,  comes on ChinaTalk to discuss What he's learned in his quest to read every cyber policy paper What blindspots remain in the field How China ranks in offensive and defensive cyber ceapabilities relative to the US and what we can all learn from the Tianfu Cup (http://www.tianfucup.com/) Why Cyberpu...

Ben Reinhardt, an independent researcher and robotics PhD, discusses Why DARPA has so many hits to its name Why NASA wasted the past two decades What needs to be subtracted from the US research ecosystem Sci-fi book recommendations Please consider supporting ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/ Intro Music: Mura Masa, Messy Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwXuBAd7Hh4 Outtro Music: 贝贝 / M...