The Negotiation

Episode Description In Part 2 of our conversation with Alvin Wang Graylin — Professor of AI and Tech Policy at the University of Washington and author of Our Next Reality — the discussion turns to AI and the US-China relationship. Alvin argues that the framing of an 'AI race' between the two superpowers is both inaccurate and counterproductive, explains why US export controls have backfired, and e...

Episode Description Alvin Wang Graylin is a Professor of AI and Tech Policy at the University of Washington, a fellow at the Asia Society and Stanford HAI, and the author of Our Next Reality. In Part 1 of this conversation, Alvin and Todd explore the big-picture questions around artificial intelligence: what AGI and ASI actually mean, whether AI will deliver a post-scarcity world or introduce new...

David Fishman is a Principal at The Lantau Group, an Asia-Pacific energy consultancy based in Shanghai. He has spent his entire career advising investors, corporations, and governments on China's power sector: from coal and nuclear to solar, wind, and green power procurement. In this episode, David breaks down China's current energy mix and the forces driving its renewable energy boom, explains wh...

In a special episode of The Negotiation, WPIC CEO Jacob Cooke sits down with Dr. Henry Wang, founder and president of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), one of China's leading policy think tanks. The conversation takes place fresh off the Trump-Xi summit — a historic meeting that put AI governance, trade stability, and the future of the US-China relationship back at the centre of global...

In Part 2 of his conversation with The Negotiation, Zak Dychtwald, founder and CEO of BridgeWorks Global, shifts from diagnosing the hidden tax on global business to addressing what it means for companies operating in or competing against China. Zak regularly briefs executives from Qualcomm, Microsoft, Google, and Walmart when they come through the region, and he shares the framework he uses with...

Zak Dychtwald is the founder and CEO of BridgeWorks Global, a cross-geography collaboration lab based in Shanghai. He is the author of Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World, has lived in China for over a decade, and speaks Mandarin. His clients include Google, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Medtronic, Walmart, and Ant International. His work has appeared four times...

Jim Fields is an American entrepreneur who has spent over 15 years living and building businesses in China. He speaks fluent Mandarin, began his career at Adobe in Silicon Valley, and moved to China, where he worked at Nokia and Reckitt Benckiser before founding Relay Video in 2016 - a Beijing-based creative marketing agency that helped Chinese tech companies including Xiaomi, Tencent, and Lenovo...

Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. It was a tournament full of drama, upsets, and cultural moments - not least in China, where Xiaohongshu streamed all 104 matches for free and Norwegian striker Erling Haaland generated nearly 1.8 billion views on the platform. China's national team, meanwhile, watched from home. Again. Mark Drey...

Most influencers build an audience on one platform and stay there. Crystal Yu operates across two ecosystems that couldn't be more different: Instagram in the West and Xiaohongshu in China. The content strategies, audience expectations, brand partnership dynamics, and even the definition of authenticity diverge significantly between them. Crystal has built a following on both, and in this episode,...

Rui Ma, founder of Tech Buzz China and one of the most trusted English-language voices on China's technology sector, is back to break down everything happening in China’s tech landscape, from DeepSeek to humanoid robots. Rui runs in-person tech immersion trips to China for investors and executives, giving her a ground-level view of what's actually being built and deployed - not just what's being a...

For North American sports in China, the appetite is there - millions of fans, growing middle-class purchasing power, a government actively promoting winter sports and athletic culture. However, the path from interest to revenue remains complicated. Leif Rogers has spent his career navigating exactly that path. As Founder and CEO of Red Phoenix Entertainment, he helps North American athletes, leagu...

The headlines about China's economy often tell two contradictory stories at once: recovery and stagnation, consumer confidence and persistent caution, tech boom and structural drag. Making sense of what's actually happening requires someone who's tracking the data closely, week by week, from the ground up. Robert Wu does exactly that through Baiguan, a consultancy and popular newsletter that cover...

Most global businesses enter Asia with a playbook built elsewhere. The pricing models, growth assumptions, labour structures, and definitions of value that worked in North America or Europe get applied to markets that operate by fundamentally different rules. The result, as Eric Stryson has observed across nearly two decades of on-the-ground leadership work in Asia, is failure - not dramatic failu...

Lisa Nan, Beauty Editor at Jing Daily, joins The Negotiation to break down what's really happening in China's beauty and luxury markets right now. From the rise of C-beauty brands challenging international players to the unexpected virality of Kris Jenner as China's 'money goddess,' Lisa tracks the trends that are reshaping how brands sell in the world's largest beauty market. In this episode, Lis...

In this episode of The Negotiation , host Todd Embley welcomes Dr. Nici Sweaney, founder of AI Her Way and one of the most compelling voices on ethical AI adoption, gender equity in technology, and responsible AI systems. Nici has an extraordinary background. She started in butterfly ecology, spent 17 years as a quantitative scientist in academia, and has worked with the United Nations, World Bank...

In this rapid-fire update episode of The Negotiation , our host, Todd Embley, sits down with Jacob Cooke, CEO and Co-Founder of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, for a fast-paced conversation covering the biggest developments in China's e-commerce and AI landscape. Jake unpacks Alibaba's recent earnings—why he's encouraged despite weak earnings—and breaks down the significance of their new AI busines...

In this episode of The Negotiation , host Todd Embley welcomes Colin Jeavons, Founder and CEO of Nomix Group—a forward-thinking holding company reshaping digital commerce through AI, performance marketing, and creator-driven commerce. Colin is a veteran of the digital space with over 25 years of experience, from the early days of commercial search in the late 1990s to today's AI-powered shopping r...

In this special episode of The Negotiation , WPIC CEO Jacob Cooke steps in as host to interview Bijan Ahmadi, Executive Director & COO at the Canada China Business Council—one of the leading organizations supporting Canadian businesses in China and strengthening bilateral commercial ties. This episode offers a unique perspective: Jacob was in Beijing during Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent...

In this episode of The Negotiation , host Todd Embley welcomes Tom Simpson, Managing Director of China Operations and China Chief Representative for the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC)—one of the leading organizations supporting UK businesses in China and strengthening bilateral commercial ties. Tom joins the show to unpack Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's recent visit to China—the first by...

In this episode of The Negotiation podcast , host Todd Embley welcomes back Justin Downes, President of Axis Leisure Management and one of the foremost experts on skiing and winter sports development in Asia. With nearly two decades of experience shaping China’s ski and snowboard industry — including playing a role in the infrastructure behind the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics — Justin brings a rar...

In this episode of The Negotiation Podcast , host Todd Embley sits down with Nichola Quail , Founder and CEO of Insights Exchange and a leading global market research strategist. Nichola works at the intersection of strategy, research, and execution, helping brands access the right insights to make smarter decisions in complex and fast-changing markets. Nichola shares her career journey and the mo...

In this episode of The Negotiation Podcast , host Todd Embley is joined by Jacob Cooke , CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, to unpack the significance of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Beijing —the first by a Canadian prime minister in eight years. Jacob provides a timely analysis of what this visit signals for Canada–China relations after nearly a decade of diplomatic and trade...

 In this episode of The Negotiation Podcast , host Todd Embley is joined by Richard Kimber , an Australian and Hong Kong–admitted lawyer who has helped more than 400 companies enter and operate in the Chinese market. Richard brings decades of experience advising international businesses across sectors, including agribusiness, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, sports, and education. His work s...

In Part 2 of our conversation with Professor Lizhi Liu, we shift from the origins of China’s e-commerce boom to the competitive dynamics shaping its present—and its future. Lizhi breaks down how major platforms like Taobao/Tmall, JD, and Pinduoduo have shaped institutional innovation through intense competition, and what their strategies reveal about China’s digital governance model. We discuss th...

In this first installment of our two-part conversation with Professor Lizhi Liu, Todd sits down with one of the leading scholars shaping global understanding of China’s digital economy. Lizhi’s award-winning book, From Click to Boom , explores how political institutions and digital platforms co-evolved to fuel the world’s most sophisticated e-commerce ecosystem. In this episode, Lizhi walks us thr...