Sinica Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Mr. Blinken goes to Beijing, with former NSC China Director Dennis Wilder Jun 19, 2023

Show notes

With Secretary of State Antony Blinken's two days of meetings in Beijing just concluded, Kaiser spoke with Dennis Wilder, managing director for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, where he also serves as an assistant professor of practice in Asian Studies in the School of Foreign Service. Dennis was the National Security Council's director for China from 2004-2005, and then served as the NSC special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asian affairs from 2005 to 2009. From 2009 to 2015 Dennis served as the senior editor of the President’s Daily Brief, the worldwide intelligence update produced under the auspices of the director of national intelligence. He also served from 2015 to 2016 as the CIA’s deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific. Who better to give an informed take on Secretary Blinken's diplomatic mission?

Today is a public U.S. holiday so we'll get the transcript and podcast page with show notes up later in the week. Look for it on the TheChinaProject.com website.

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Economist Keyu Jin on her new book, "The New China Playbook" Jun 15, 2023

Show notes

This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by Keyu Jin, associate professor of economics at LSE, who talks about her new book, The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism, a wide-ranging, ambitious, and accessible book that explains the unique Chinese political economy, emphasizing both its successes to date and how it must change to meet the challenges to come.

01:01 – An overview of the book The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism by Keyu Jin

09:22 – Is the criticism about being pro-China justified?

14:25 – The element of culture in the Chinese economy

27:56 – What is the mayor economy and what are its pros and cons?

38:00 – The power of the Chinese state to affect changes in the macroeconomy

42:52 – The modern state-owned enterprise and its purpose

47:39 – China’s financial system – the disparity between China’s GDP growth and its abyssmal stock market

52:07 – The current situation with the real estate market: Is the bubble going to pop?

1:02:03 – Pros and cons of the growth of the shadow banking sector in China

1:06:32 – The position of China in the global trading system

1:13:52 – How does China respond to technology restrictions in key areas such as semiconductor manufacturing?

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations:

Keyu: When the Facts Change: Essays, 1995-2010 by Tony Judt

Kaiser: 1776 (Musical)

Mentioned:

The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism by Keyu Jin

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David Ownby of ReadingtheChinaDream.com on the intellectual mood in China Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with David Ownby, the University of Montreal historian who runs the excellent ReadingTheChinaDream.com website — a trove of translations of writings by mainstream Chinese intellectuals. David talks about the website’s mission and about tells about his recent three-week trip to Beijing and Shanghai, in which he met with many of the people he translates on his site. Many of them are profoundly disillusioned with the leadership’s handling of the end of Zero-COVID, he found.

03:38 – Genesis of the project Reading the Chinese Dream

09:32 – The choice of intellectuals being translated

14:11 – An overview of common ideological denominators for the New Confucians, the Liberals, and the New Left.

24:19 – The emerging groups as a direct response to certain phenomena happening in the West

25:58 – How did we fail to understand the intellectual life in China?

30:30 – An overview of David’s recent trip to China

35:12 – How does the post-COVID reality in China affect Chinese intellectuals?

45:34 – Are we observing a turning point in the intellectual community and its relationship with the Chinese government?

47:41 – The attitudes of Chinese intellectuals towards the U.S.

56:04 – Will the negativity currently observed among Chinese intellectuals a temporary or enduring issue?

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations:

David: Ties by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri

Kaiser: The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson

Mentioned:

Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri

Simplicissimus by Johann Grimmelshausen

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Curtain-raiser on the Shangri-La Dialogue, with the man who runs the show: James Crabtree of IISS Jun 01, 2023

Show notes

With the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue kicking off in Singapore on Friday, June 2, Kaiser chats with the organizer’s managing director for Asia, James Crabtree, about the history, structure, and significance of this Asian answer to the Munich Security Conference, James, who joined the Institute for International Strategic Studies in 2018, offers a great sneak-peek and a curtain raiser on the three-day event, which will bring ministers and secretaries of defense together from all over the region and beyond.

05:54 – What are the differences between the Munich Security Conference and the Shangri-La Dialogue?

10:21 – Notable past Shangri-La Dialogues

14:42 – Who are the guests of this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue?

19:53 – The programming of the Shangri-La Dialogue

26:48 – The Chinese participation in the event and the background of China-US and Sino-Japanese relations

34:16 – European delegations in recent years attending the event and the challenges they face

37:42 – The connotation of Indo-Pacific as opposed to the Asia-Pacific

41:17 – The dynamics on the axis China-India-US and a multipolar vision for Southeast Asia

52:33 – The current intentions for the bilateral relationship between the United States and China?

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations:

James: The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark; and The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carré

Kaiser: A Perfect Spy: A Novel by John le Carré

Mentioned:

The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age by James Crabtree

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Harvard's William Kirby on China's higher education system and his book "Empires of Ideas" May 25, 2023

Show notes

This week on Sinica, Harvard’s eminent sinologist William Kirby joins Kaiser to talk about his book Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China,and to share his views on the state of higher education in China and the U.S，

03:12 – Wissenschaft and the German contribution to the creation of the modern research university

06:30 – The decreasing number of Chinese students willing to study in the U.S. and the defunding of American public universities

12:17 – What is the current state of higher education in China?

18:19 – Continuities between the old imperial civil service examination system and the current higher education system in China

23:08 – The state of Chinese universities before the Cultural Revolution

29:23 – How China revived higher education on the model of American universities in the early years of Reform and Opening

33:00 – Why does China maintain the gaokao examination despite its great unpopularity?

41:38 – Differences between the two leading universities in China: Peking University and Tsinghua University

44:00 – Institutional entrepreneurship at Tsinghua University

50:01 – The origins of Nanjing University and how it evolved over the years

57:21 – The importance of governance and management in the example of the University of Hong Kong

1:05:23 – What is the future of the joint programs between American and Chinese universities?

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations:

Bill:

Made in Hong Kong: Transpacific Networks and a New History of Globalization by Peter E. Hamilton

The Dean of Shandong: The Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University by Daniel A. Bell

The Real World of College: What Higher Education Is and What It Can Be by Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner

9,000 Years of Wine: A World History by Rod Phillips

Red Mandarin Dress: An Inspector Chen Novelby Qiu Xiaolong

Kaiser: Adventures of Horatio Hornblower by Entertainment Radio

Mentioned: Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China by William C. Kirby

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Does the Capvision raid signal a crackdown on consultancies in China? The China Project's CEO Bob Guterma, formerly of Capvision, weighs in May 18, 2023

Show notes

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser is joined by The China Project's CEO Bob Guterma, who just so happens to have served at Chief Compliance Officer (and later Managing Director for Europe and the U.S.) for the expert network Capvision. Capvision, as listeners may well be aware, was the Shanghai-based company whose offices in China were raided by Chinese law enforcement, resulting in the detention of two experts for allegedly passing on military secrets to foreign companies. Does this signal a major crackdown on consultancies? And what are the implications for foreign businesses in China? Bob shares his insights — and things are more complicated than you might think.

03:39 – Background information on Capvision

10:29 – The national security concerns in the Capvision case.

12:27 – Is there a connection between the case of Capvision with the previous cases of Bain and Mintz?

20:13 – Is there changing optics for Western companies doing business in China?

22:13 – The possible connection between the Capvision case and the Espionage Law

32:22 – The context of bigger changes in the past three years in China in light of achieving government goals.

34:34 – The inner workings of a compliance officer in expert networks

36:44 – Media outlets’ misconceptions and a lack of diligent research regarding the Capvision case

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations:

Bob: Energy and Civilization: A History by Vaclav Smil

Kaiser: Mr. Bungle’s debut album Mr. Bungle

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China's draft regulations on generative AI, with Kendra Schaefer and Jeremy Daum May 11, 2023

Show notes

This week on Sinica, Kendra Schaefer, a partner specializing in technology at China-focused consultancy Trivium, and Jeremy Daum, Senior Research Scholar in Law and Senior Fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center. discuss the new draft regulations published in April by the Cyberspace Administration of China that will, when passed, govern generative AI in China. Will it choke off innovation, or create conditions for the safe development of this world-changing technology?

04:36 – What is the difference between deep synthesis internet services and generative AI?

06:17 – Areas affected by the set of newest regulations: recommendation algorithms, deep fakes

11:15 – Major national regulations governing generative AI in China vs. in the West.

15:35 – The question of the privacy policy in China

18:25 – How far along are the tech companies when it comes to truly applying generative AI?

24:16 – Main areas of concern about ChatGPT raised in China and the US. What are the government and companies doing to deal with these issues?

28:04 – Is the idea to label AI-generated content sufficient?

38:28 – Requirements and concerns for training data for generative AI. Questions of accuracy and authenticity.

47:21 – Will the generative AI stay in the social media landscape, or spread toward the industrial sector?

50:12 – To what extent will export restrictions affect the development of generative AI in China?

A transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com

Recommendations:

Kendra: Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara

Jeremy: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

Kaiser: The Earth Transformed: An Untold History by Peter Frankopan; Belafonte: At Carnegie Hall by Harry Belafonte; and Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall (Live) by Harry Belafonte

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Xiong'an: Techno-natural utopia or authoritarian folly? May 04, 2023

Show notes

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Andrew Stokols, a Ph.D. researcher at MIT who has been studying the “techno-natural utopia” that the Chinese government is now building a hundred kilometers southwest of Beijing: Xiong’an. Andrew breaks down why he sees it as an urban manifestation of the fundamental ideas embodied in Xi Jinping’s ideological vision for China.

02:02 - Xiong’an New Area as a bold vision for China

07:36 - Planned stages for the development of Xiong’an. Milestones in 2035 and 2050.

12:03 - Cities as expressions of political ideas

15:32 - Different facets of the Xiong’an as the legacy of Xi Jinping

20:03 - The elements of ecological civilization intended to be built into the new city

27:41 - Technologies employed with the intention of making Xiong’an a smart city

31:56 - The idea of incentivizing the digital yuan into the city of Xiong’an

34:55 - Xiong’an as an expression of Chineseness

40:05 - How is Xiong’an discussed in the English-language press outside of China?

47:59 - Approaches to technology and nature in Western and Chinese discourses. The

concept of techno-naturalism.

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com

Recommendations:

Andrew: The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development by Shiping Tang

Kaiser: Five Families by Selwyn Raab

Mentioned:

Andrew’s article on Xiong’an: Chinas techno-natural utopia: A deep dive into Xiong’an

Shanghai Future: Modernity Remade by Anna Greenspan

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Earth Day episode: How can the U.S. and China cooperate on climate in this era of competition? Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

This week on Sinica, an Earth Day special: Kaiser chats with Marilyn Waite, managing director of the Climate Finance Fund; Alex Wang, a UCLA law professor who specializes in China climate and environmental law; and Deborah Seligsohn, a political scientist at Villanova University who served as the Environment, Science, Technology and Health Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. This episode was taped live on Thursday, April 20, as a webinar from The China Project.

5:24 – Taking stock: Where have we come since the first Earth Day in 1970?

14:24 – Is the Inflation Reduction Act an unalloyed good for the environment and climate?

17:17 – The good and the bad of China’s recent record on climate

20:45 – The unmet need for climate finance globally, and what China’s PbOC is doing right

27:54 – Should we roll our eyes when China speaks of “ecological civilization”?

31:57 – Embracing the JEDI approach in addressing climate change

35:30 – Can the U.S. and China harness competition to drive better climate outcomes?

39:54 – Why pushing each other won’t work, and cooperation is still needed

45:15 – Addressing hard-to-abate sectors like agrifood

50:30 – Balancing cooperation and competition between the U.S. and China on climate

A complete transcript of this episode is available at TheChinaProject.com.

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Legendary CNN reporter Mike Chinoy on his book and documentary series "Assignment China" Apr 20, 2023

Show notes

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Jeremy and I chat with Mike Chinoy, the legendary award-winning TV newsman who helmed CNN in Beijing for many critical years. Mike talks about the video documentary series and accompanying book Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the People’s Republic, for which he interviewed about 130 journalists whose careers spanned an 80-year period, from the 1940s to the present.

04:08 – The genesis of the Assignment China project

11:15 – Editorial decisions: What was included, and what wasn’t

16:13 – The big takeaways for Mike on finishing this project

25:13 – The role of contingency and the observer effect

32:52 – How Tiananmen really made CNN and changed the future of cable news

36:30 – Tough ethical calls in the reporting of China

42:42 – Structural biases in American reporting on China…

50:50 – …and what news consumers can do to adjust for those baked-in biases

52:54 – Does where the reporters are actually determine what the story is?

1:02:17 – What went wrong with TV news?

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations: