Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang

This episode of Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang , I’m joined by Professor Michael Jinghan Zeng from the Department of Public and International Affairs at City University of Hong Kong explore the controversies — and realities — surrounding Confucius Institutes and China–UK relations. Before relocating to Hong Kong, Professor Zeng spent 13 years in the UK, where he built his academic career....

This week on Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang , I’m joined by Professor Yueping Song from the School of Population and Health at Renmin University of China to explore the current landscape of gender equality in China. In 1995, Beijing hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women, where the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action became a global milestone for advancing women’s rights. Thir...

Welcome to the Reading Room section of Inside the China Room podcast. I’m your host, Jiang Jiang. This is a new segment I’ve added to the show, where I read aloud some of the most popular stories I’ve published on Substack. Ideally, this section will alternate with my guest interview episodes here on the podcast. Today, I want to share with you one of my favorite stories of the year so far. Out of...

This week on Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang , I’m joined by Rui Ma — founder of Tech Buzz China and longtime tech analyst— to unpack what’s really happening inside China’s fast-moving AI ecosystem. Rui just wrapped up a packed trip to China in late July, leading a delegation of AI founders and investors from Silicon Valley, Europe, and India. They visited the 2025 World Artificial Intellig...

This week on Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang, I’m joined by Jianlin Zhong — a Shanghai-based investor and lifelong AAA gamer — to unpack the rise of Chinese AAA games and how titles like Black Myth: Wukong and WuChang: Fallen Feathers are reshaping global perceptions of China’s game industry. Set in a dark fantasy world at the end of the Ming Dynasty, WuChang: Fallen Feathers is China’s lat...

This week on Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang, I’m joined by Chen Jun —better known as CJ—FIFA’s Football Development Manager for East Asia, to discuss a grassroots phenomenon that’s been capturing hearts across China this summer: the Su Super League . The 2025 Jiangsu Football City League, dubbed with "Su Super League," -- made up of 13 city teams competing in the east China's Jiangsu provi...

This week on Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang, I'm joined by Daniel A. Bell, vice president of the International Confucian Association and chair of Political Theory with the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. On July 9 and 10, the 11th Nishan Forum on World Civilizations will be held in Qufu city in east China's Shandong Province. Qufu is renowned as the birthplace of Confucius a...

This week on Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) is joined by Bert Hofman , professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School at the National University of Singapore and the former World Bank's Chief Economist of East Asia and the Pacific Region, and Country Director for China. The United States and China agreed on May 12 to drastically roll back tariffs on each other’s goods for an initial 90-day period,...

This week on Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) is joined by Robert Wu , CEO of BigOne Lab , a leading alternative data and research firm in China. Robert is also the creator of two acclaimed China-focused newsletters, Baiguan and China Translated . Long-time listeners might remember Robert as the guest on our very first episode . During this holiday season, I couldn't think of a better time...

This week on Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes Annie Song , a young Chinese film producer and art director of 林象文化 Jungle Vision , a Beijing-based start-up dedicated to curating independent film festivals in China. In this episode, we explore how young independent Chinese filmmakers are seizing opportunities at film festivals and contributing to the rise of new genres in China,...

This week on Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes Prof. Tang Xiaoyang 唐晓阳 , a distinguished scholar from Tsinghua University who specializes in China-Africa relations, China's engagement in the developing countries, and global modernization. In today's episode, we explore the current dynamics of China-Africa cooperation, with a special emphasis on the upcoming Forum on China-Africa...

This week on  Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes  Bob Chen , an investor working for  Mangrove Capital 沣源资本 , a China-based venture capital fund specializing in software and globalization-themed investments.  In this episode, Bob discusses the central authorities' recent  resolution on further deepening reforms comprehensively . He explores the challenges in China's development...

This week on Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes Yaling Jiang , the founder of Following the Yuan , a newsletter covering China's consumer market, and Aperture China, a research and strategy consultancy. The show kicks off with a review of the changes in China's 2023 consumer market and explores future trends, the key drivers behind these shift and the potential impacts on internatio...

This week on Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes Prof. Wu Yongping 巫永平, the dean of the Institute of Taiwan at Tsinghua University and a renowned expert on Taiwan affairs and cross-Strait relations. In this episode, Prof. Wu shares his views on the outcomes of Taiwan's elections in January and his understanding of mainstream public opinion, voter divisions on cross-Strait issues,...

This week on Inside the China Room , Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes Prof. Yao Yang 姚洋 , one of China's leading economists and the dean of Peking University's National School of Development. In this episode, Professor Yao shares his views on the "Peak China” theory, his expectations for China's GDP growth rate in 2024 and his takeaways from the recent Central Economic Work Conference and the study ses...

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes 王义桅 Wang Yiwei , who is Jean Monnet Chair professor, Director of the Institute of International Affairs, and Director of the Center for EU Studies at Renmin University of China. With his academic interests spanning diverse realms, including Belt & Road studies, European integration, public diplomacy, Chinese foreign policy, and EU-China...

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang (JJ) welcomes 刘宏 Mike Liu , who is Vice President, Senior Fellow – Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading non-governmental think tank in Beijing, and has an accomplished executive with 30+ years of professional experience in digital transformation, operational excellence, cross culture leadership development and market growth strategies w...

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang welcomes Stephen D. Mull , who is Vice Provost for Global Affairs at the University of Virginia (UVA) and has served in a broad range of U.S. national security positions, most recently as Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Mull introduces the members and business objectives of the delegation of the UVA to Shang...

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang welcomes Dr. Henry Huiyao Wang , who is the Founder and President of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) , a leading non-governmental think tank in Beijing. Wang shares his insights into China's post-pandemic diplomacy and Chinese think tanks' Track Ⅱ diplomacy, including China's potential role in helping medicate the Russia-Ukraine conflict, C...

This week on Ginger River Radio, Ivy Yang , who writes an op-ed column called “Discourse Power” or 话语权时代 for FT China and has written for The China Project , shares her insights into the recent restructuring of Alibaba and TikTok's dilemma in the US. Ivy has worked in strategic communications and in corporate comms for more than a decade, including two years at Alibaba Group. She follows topi...

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang, the founder of GRR newsletter , welcomes Yihan Zhou , an AI scientist for Mind AI , a South Korean company which uses new approaches and data structures to complement Generative AI such as GPT. Now based in Shenzhen, China's Silicon Valley, Yihan shares his firsthand insights into ChatGPT and discusses with Jiang Jiang on topics including Chinese compa...

This week on the first episode of the Ginger River Radio (GRR) podcast, Jiang Jiang (JJ) , the founder of GRR, chats with Robert Wu , CEO of BigOne Lab, one of the leading alternative data companies in China. Robert shared his firsthand insights into China's data economy, including the country's most recent data governance regulation, the country's economic recovery from COVID, the tech landscape,...