ChinaTalk

Ivana Karásková, China Research Fellow and a Project Coordinator at the Association for International Affairs (AMO), shares her view from Central Europe. We discuss Why so many Europeans came out in the streets today The German political about-face in favor of supporting Ukraine What this means for the future of the EU What Xi thinks about all of this My half-baked sleep-deprived Biden hottakes Th...

Chris Miller of Tufts joins to discuss Why Putin invaded Why he humiliated his security council If Putin is on drugs US public opinion and the politics of sanctions Sanctions' impact on the Russian economy Russia/China tech trade in the context of global sanctions The far-reaching implications of Ukrainian heroism This show was recorded on Feb 26. Please consider making a donation to https://www.g...

Justin Sherman of the Atlantic Council joins to discuss Putin's history of cyber operations How he sees the current state of play What is Putin thinking about as he considers escalating in the cyber domain The tradeoffs of various policy choices facing American and Europeans leaders thinking about more aggressive offensive cyber operations Please consider making a donation at https://www.globalgiv...

What’s the point of NASA? Will Starlink end up funding Elon’s Mars dreams? To discuss the US space ecosystem in both the private and public sector, I am joined by Casey Handmer (@CJHandmer), former NASA Jet Propulsion Lab system architect and founder of Terraform Industries. We also talk about The potential for Starlink to improve internet access in developing countries Whether the US immigration...

Do you know your breaking porcelain from your eating human-blood-soaked steam buns? Slow Chinese author Andrew Methven (@AndrewMethven) joins me to talk about some of the newest and most interesting Chinese internet slang from the previous year and their origin stories. We discuss new words and phrases inspired by Haidilao cockroach scams, misbehaving tech companies and 996 culture, as well as: Wh...

Author of China's Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Peter Martin (@PeterMartin_PCM) and Schwarzman scholar Jason Zhou return to take us from the young diplomats venturing out of China in the eighties to today’s Wolf Warriors and the adoption of more nationalist rhetoric. We also discuss Chinese diplomats’ and Canadian retirement homes Xi Jinping’s father-in-law and his admiration...

Why has China and its foreign ministry struggled to communicate with the world? In his book, China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, Peter Martin (@PeterMartin_PCM) traces the history of China’s post-1949 diplomatic corps, from the impact of Zhou Enlai’s experiences in Paris to reluctant guerrilla-generals-turned-ambassadors trying to get to grips with manning embassies half a...

What can US-China relations learn from US-Japan relations in the leadup to WWII? To discuss, I’m joined by Stony Brook University’s Michael Barnhart, author of the 1987 Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919–1941 and the more recent Can You Beat Churchill?: Teaching History through Simulations (https://www.amazon.com/Can-You-Beat-Churchill-Simulations/dp/1501755641),...

See here for the Year in Review in text form with lots of links: https://chinatalk.substack.com/p/2021-year-in-review-future-plans Support ChinaTalk on Patreon at https://patreon.com/chinatalk Fill out this form to help my 'market research' on how to construct the CCP course! https://forms.gle/dXKjzfXWyxyi2ixg9 Wanna cohost a ChinaTalk episode? Fill out this form here: https://docs.google.com/form...

NYT bestselling YA author Xiran Jay Zhao (@XiranJayZhao) joins me to talk about her new book, Iron Widow, a Pacific Rim meets Handmaiden's tale sci-fi retelling of the story of Wu Zetian. Co-hosting is ChinaTalk's editor Callan Quinn (@quinnishvili). We discuss: Chinese history Easter eggs in Iron Widow Going viral and Youtube China content How censorship is stifling creativity in C-dramas Why Xir...

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....