Roger is a former diplomat, development banker, and capital market development advisor, who twice served in the British Embassy in Beijing, and is the author of the highly acclaimed Coming Alive: China After Mao, which explained how Deng Xiaoping won the struggle to succeed Chairman Mao Zedong and what he would do with his power. He has recently published a provocative new book China Coup: The Great Leap to Freedom. In the podcast, we talk about:
- Why China is outwardly strong and inwardly weak
- The debt and efficiency problems of the state sector
- The role of corruption
- The centralisation of power around President Xi
- How a top-down coup could occur in China
- The role of the US in forcing regime change
- How COVID has impacted the Chinese political structure
- Why China is more fragile today than in the past
- Books that influenced Roger: The Bible and Capitalism and Freedom (Friedman)
