Sinica Podcast

This week, a bonus episode to keep you caught up on the week's biggest China story: Xi Jinping's two days of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Maria Repnikova, a Latvian-born native Russian speaker who is also fluent in Chinese and who teaches Chinese politics and communications at Georgia State University, joins the show again to talk about what each side hoped for, what each side got, and the asymmetries of power on conspicuous display in Moscow.1:53 – Does Beijing look at the Ukraine War and still see the United States, as Maria argued last year?3:06 – How Xi and Putin spoke to their own domestic audiences, and to each other’s4:43 – How the Xi-Putin meeting was viewed in the Global South8:10 – Why was the elephant in the room go mostly unremarked upon?10:27 – Junior partner, senior partner, and “optionality”16:27 – Did Putin come away disappointed from the meeting?18:03 – How did China’s peace framework come off in the West vs. in China?21:11 – What might the United States have done differently — and what might it still do to prevent China from drifting too close to Russia?A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Maria: Solomon Elusoji, Travelling with Big Brother: A Reporter’s Junket in China Kaiser: The Polish progressive rock band Riverside, and its latest album ID.EntitySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser welcomes Tuvia Gering of Israel's Institute of National Security Studies, where he focuses on China's relations with Israel and other countries of the Middle East. Tuvia breaks down the agreement to normalize relations between Riyadh and Tehran, which Beijing brokered during secret talks that were only revealed, along with the fruit they bore, on March 10.6:05 – How was China able to broker the Saudi-Iran normalization?17:00 – Notable commitments from Saudi, Iran, and China25:01 – China’s non-energy interests in and engagement with the Middle East29:03 – Reactions from world capitals39:28 – Saudi’s balancing act between U.S. security partnership and engagement with China49:52 – Implications for China as a mediator in Ukraine and other international conflict zones52:44 – Overview of China-Israel relationsA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Tuvia:  King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on YouTubeKaiser: The Venture of Islam by Marshall G. S. HodgsonMentioned:Tuvia's Discourse Power SubstackThe China-Global South PodcastTuvia’s interview with retired PLA Colonel Zhou BoSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser welcomes Taisu Zhang, professor of law at Yale University, who discusses his recent work on the expansion of the administrative state down to the subdistrict and neighborhood level — changes that are far-reaching, and likely permanent. They also discuss a recent essay in Foreign Affairsi n which Taisu argued that Beijing is shifting away from "performance legitimacy" as the foundation of political rule, and more toward legality — not to be confused with the rule of law.3:29 – Nationalism as legitimacy, and its grounding in economic performance7:45 – The CCP’s unique approach to “legal legitimacy”21:28 – Evidence from the Two Meetings, or 兩會 liǎnghuì35:56 – Chinese Administrative Expansion in the Xi Jinping Era49:40 – The role of the anti-corruption campaign in expanding local government authority56:18 – Changes in local governance after COVID1:01:27 – Who were the dàbái?1:04:10 – Technology in China’s post-pandemic power structureA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Taisu: The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber; The Rise and Fall of Imperial China: The Social Origins of State Development by Yuhua Wang; Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State by Maura Dykstra; The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; and The Lower Yangzi Trilogy by Ge FeiKaiser: Kaiser: Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the People's Republic by Mike Chinoy; and the many uses of beeswaxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Lulu Chen, who has reported on tech in China for over a decade and is the author of the book Influence Empire: The Inside Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition. It's a fascinating look at not only Tencent but at the overall internet sector in China, focusing on the travails and the triumphs of some of the most consequential Chinese internet entrepreneurs.5:31 – Motivation for and background of Influence Empire10:15 – Ma Huateng and Martin Lau at Tencent19:56 – How the Chinese internet sector went from copying to innovating30:59 – Cutthroat company cultures33:20 – What made Allen Zhang successful?37:25 – The Tencent-Meituan food delivery coup45:21 – Tencent’s position in the online game industry51:58 – Understanding China’s 2020-2022 tech crackdownA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Lulu: The Gay Talese Reader: Portraits and Encounters by Gay TaleseKaiser: Cunk on Earth on NetflixSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A second full episode this week for you Sinica listeners! Jude Blanchette joins to talk about the House Select Committee on United States Competition with the Chinese Communist Party, and all that is wrong with it, from its framing of the CCP as an "existential threat" to its focus on the CCP, and how all of this adds up to an embarrassing moral panic that distracts from the serious issues the U.S. confronts when it comes to China.4:37 – What’s wrong with the Select Committee’s framing of China as an “existential threat,” and why the first hearing was an embarrassment9:01 – The current moment as a moral panic over China12:09 – Domestic political drivers of U.S. China policy15:04 – Why the United States versus the Chinese Communist Party is the wrong framing too22:46 – Is this more like McCarthyism — or antisemitism? 28:58 – The downstream effects of U.S. tech containment policy toward China42:01 – The advantage of simplistic, Manichean messaging46:15 – Prioritizing U.S. issues with China: why Confucius Institutes and TikTok are so far down the to-do list, and what really matters48:59 – And what are the real issues that deserve priority?A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.comRecommendations:Jude: Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon by Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam, from AudibleKaiser: This podcast interview with Angela Rasmussen, the virologist who has been in the front lines fighting back against the resurgent lab leak theory, from the Slate What Next: TBD podcastSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy speak with Henry Sanderson, a former AP and Bloomberg reporter who was based in China for many years, about his book Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green — a book that reminds us of the very ugly fact that the metals that are needed to make electric vehicle batteries need to be dug out of the earth, and processed in ways that are anything but environmentally friendly. Henry talks about China's outsize role in lithium, cobalt, and nickel processing, as well as some promising chemistries that allow for EV batteries without some of the problematic metals.2:49 – China’s role in the EV battery supply chain9:36 – Global Chinese investments in lithium mines14:04 – Is cobalt a necessary evil?18:56 – Can NGO pressure induce better corporate behavior in EV battery supply chains?21:28 – How Indonesia used its nickel resources to attract Chinese FDI26:17 – China’s efforts to innovate around scarce metals32:08 – China’s metal processing industry: State- or market-driven?36:06 – Lessons from Europe’s battery industry40:42 – Electrification of two-wheeled vehiclesA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Jeremy: London Review of BooksHenry: The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen CheungKaiser: Tracking the People’s Daily newsletter by Manoj KewalramaniSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's been one year now since Vladimir Putin launched his assault on Ukraine, and China has sought to maintain the same difficult, awkward straddle across a difficult year. Did Beijing's efforts to project the impression that it had distanced itself from Russia in the wake of the Party Congress mean anything? And how should the U.S. manage its expectations of what China can or will do? Evan Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, joins us again as he did a year ago. We're also joined by his colleague Alexander (Sasha) Gabuev, who is a senior fellow at Carnegie, who headed the Carnegie Moscow Center until recently.4:37 – Are Beijing’s actions surprising?7:34 – The nature of China-Russia relations15:45 – How has Beijing concretely supported Russia?22:07 – Did Beijing know Putin was going to invade?29:48 – European perspectives on the No Limits partnership37:02 – Beijing’s assessment of Russia’s military performance39:07 – What Beijing has learned from Russia’s invasion46:47 – What carrots can the United States offer China?A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Sasha:  Writing From Ukraine: Fiction, Poetry and Essays since 1965 by Mark AndryczykEvan: The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War,1916-1917 by Philip ZelikowKaiser: Jessica Chen Weiss on The Ezra Klein Show and The Problem With Jon Stewart; "Avoiding Catastrophe Will Be the True Test of Fractious U.S.-China Relations," an op-ed in the Financial Times by Jude BlanchetteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Raffaello Pantucci, co-author of the 2022 book Sinostan: China's Inadvertent Empire, which examines China's presence in Central Asia. Based on extensive travel and interviews undertaken both before and after the tragic murder of his co-author, Alexandros Petersen, in 2014, the book is a highly readable if difficult to categorize melange of analysis and anecdote, history and travelogue, and it paints a complex portrait of China's extensive efforts to build out a network of commercial and cultural ties throughout the pivotal region.3:48 – Remembering the late Alexandros Petersen9:35 – Xinjiang’s importance in Beijing’s Central Asia policy13:36 – Central Asian states’ reactions to Xinjiang internment camps24:39 – Assessing China’s soft power in Central Asia37:10 – BRI: strategic calculus or ad-hoc scramble?43:32 – Evolution of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization49:45 – China’s characterization of terrorism54:45 – The SCO today and China’s growing security footprint1:03:03 – China in Afghanistan1:10:36 – Current status of the BRIA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Raffaello: The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan; The Geographical Pivot of History by Halford MackinderKaiser: Volt Rush by Henry SandersonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we've got a short show focused on the Chinese balloon that became the obsessive focus of American attention from Thursday through Sunday, February 5, when an F-22 shot it out of the sky off of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Gerard DiPippo, a senior fellow with the Economics Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, joins to discuss the incident and its potential fallout.We'll have the transcript for you on the website in a day or so.2:27 –Establishing the facts about the Balloon4:32 – Precedents for U.S. reactions to aerial surveillance7:36 – Was the balloon’s flight path intentional?9:34 – Why did the Pentagon go public?13:26 – The thinking behind Blinken’s postponement15:47 – Reactions in U.S. media17:19 – Beijing’s perspective on the U.S. reaction20:23 – How Gerard Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BalloonA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Gerard: The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present, by John PomfretKaiser: Improbable Diplomats: How Ping-Pong Players, Musicians, and Scientists Remade US-China Relations by Pete MillwoodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, our live recording from the Rizzoli Bookstore in the Flatiron district of Manhattan with the legendary Ian Johnson, who has covered China for a host of publications spanning 35 years. Ian, who is now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, offers his analysis of media coverage, shares some pet peeves in the way China is reported, and offers a sneak peek at some of the themes of his forthcoming book.4:31 – Beijing’s shifting diplomatic messaging12:10 – U.S. media coverage of China’s COVID-19 policies14:45 – Structural biases of reporting on/in China24:05 – Reporting on China through social media29:46 – Resisting and recasting the blob’s China narrative39:52 – How think tanks affect China discourse in the U.S.43:03 – The importance of history to the CCPA complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.Recommendations:Jeremy: Paul French's Ultimate China Bookshelf, a new feature at The China ProjectIan: Golden Age by Wáng Xiaǒbō 王小波, translated by Yan Yan; Blue Note jazz LP re-issues Kaiser: Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, narrated by Julia Whelan and Edoardo BalleriniSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.