#019 - Ian Williams: China's Influence Is Everywhere But It's Future Is Not Golden

Ian Williams is an author and award-winning journalist who has reported from across the world. He covered business and technology for the Sunday Times before moving to television. He was a foreign correspondent, first for Channel 4 News in Moscow and Asia, and then for NBC news, based in Bangkok and Beijing. Ian has travelled and reported from across China and has also covered conflicts across the Balkans, the Middle East, and Ukraine. 

In this episode, Ian Williams and I talk about the political class’s response to China in recent decades, what Britain and the western world should be concerned about, the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on academia in Britain, China’s capability for innovation, the future of its Belt & Road Initiative, and why China’s rise is not as inevitable as it seems.

Show notes
- How China bought Cambridge - The Spectator
- Britain finally wakes up to China's influence operations - The Spectator