Sinica Podcast

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser chats with Ali Wyne, senior analyst at the Eurasia Group's global macro geopolitics practice and author of the brand new book America's Great Power Opportunity: Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition. Ali's book calls on American policymakers to craft a strategy that is guided by confidence and a clear vision of American renewal and emphasizes America's competitive advantages, rather than being determined by the behavior of our notional competitors, especially China.2:09 – The framework of great power competition and building a foreign policy that is not dictated by the actions of other great powers16:13 – The competitive challenges from China and Russia25:38 – America's psychological anxiety over China's rise39:30 – Eight principles for building a new foreign policy: Principle one – renew America's competitive advantages51:35 – Principle two: regard the power of America's domestic example, not as a supplement to external competitiveness, but as a precondition for it.56:22 – Principle three: do not use competitive anxiety as a crutch and principle four: frame internal renewal as an explicit objective of U.S. foreign policy, not as a desired byproduct1:01:19 – Principle five: enlisting allies and partners in affirmative undertakings1:08:26 – Principle six: appreciate the limits to American unilateral influence1:13:38 – Principle seven: pursue cooperative opportunities that can temper the destabilizing effects of great power competition1:17:29 – Principle eight: rebalance toward the Asia Pacific within economic focus1:20:12 – How Russia's invasion of Ukraine has affected the framework laid out in Ali's bookA complete transcript of this interview is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:Ali: The Foreign Affairs essay "Beijing Is Still Playing the Long Game on Taiwan: Why China Isn’t Poised to Invade" by Andrew NathanKaiser: The Swedish TV show Clark on NetflixSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In a week dominated by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Kaiser welcomes John Culver, who served as national intelligence officer for East Asia from 2015 to 2017 and as a CIA analyst focusing on China for 35 years. John offers his perspective on Pelosi's trip and provides important context with a discussion of the last Taiwan Straits Crisis, in 1995-96 — a crisis touched off by Lee Teng-hui's decision to visit Cornell University, his alma mater. John also draws important parallels to the Diaoyu/Senkaku crisis of the fall of 2012, after the Japanese government nationalized the disputed islands.2:47 – A walkthrough of the last Taiwan Strait crisis13:45 – How China's growing capabilities could affect its decision-making in future Taiwan crises19:52 – Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan and the political environment surrounding her decision25:14 – Explaining China's interpretation of U.S. actions and the Chinese domestic political context32:21 – Parallels to the 2012 Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands episode35:22 – The potential fallout of this crisisA complete transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations: John: The late Alan Romberg's exegesis of the US-China negotiating record, "Rein In at the Brink of the Precipice" and Ryan Hass's book Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive InterdependenceKaiser: Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada — and the town of Canmore as a great place to stay nearby.See 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, we offer listeners a sneak preview of one of the new shows coming soon to the Sinica Network: Café & Seda, or Coffee and Silk. While this episode is in English, the podcast will be mostly in Spanish — our first non-English show. The host is Parsifal D'Sola, who is Executive Director of the ABF China Latin America Research Center and a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. Parsifal is a native of Venezuela, and his focus is on Sino-Latin American relations. Between 2019 and 2020, he acted as Chinese Foreign Policy Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Interim Government of Venezuela of Juan Guaido.In this episode, Parsifal talks with Dr. Evan Ellis. Evan is a research professor of Latin American Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. His work focuses on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors as well as transnational organized crime and populism in the region. He previously served on the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean as well as international narcotics and law enforcement issues. Evan has also been awarded the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova by the Colombian government for his scholarship on security issues in the region.Latin America has been the world’s most affected region due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Poverty levels have risen considerably, and economic contraction is several points higher than the global average. How will this affect Sino- Latin American relations? Furthermore, while the United States increasingly loses influence across the region, Chinese foreign policy has become more sophisticated and localized, filling many of the spaces traditionally filled by the United States and other Western actors. Evan helps us answer these questions and offers recommendations both for the United States in dealing with China’s growing role in the region, as well as advice for Latin American countries in managing the challenges that greater engagement with China will bring about.      A complete transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:China Engages Latin America: Distorting Development and Democracy? By Evan EllisLinks of interest:Articles from Evan Ellis at Global AmericansAndrés Bello Foundation - China Latin America Research CenterTwitter: @FABChinaLatam | @REvanEllisSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser chats with Silvia Lindtner of the University of Michigan about her book Prototype Nation. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss how China's maker movement inspired the Party leadership to encourage tech entrepreneurship, how Shenzhen rose to such prominence in technology production, the fetishization of the shanzhai movement, and much more.5:29 How narratives on Chinese tech innovation have shifted14:10 What made China's technological innovation possible?20:37 State support for the maker movement and mass innovation29:52 The technocratic and entrepreneurial mindset of the CCP38:45 Techno-optimism in China versus the West45:57 Shenzhen's "hacker paradise" as a transnational project50:02 Orientalism in the West's fascination with shanzhai, or copycat, cultureA complete transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.RecommendationsSilvia: In This Moment, We Are Happy by Chen Qiufan and Surrogate Humanity: Race, Robots, and the Politics of Technological Futures by Kalindi Vora and Neda AtanasoskiKaiser:  Sarmat Archery based in Kiev, UkraineSee 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 Paul Triolo, Senior VP for China and Technology Policy Lead at Dentons Global Advisors ASG, formerly and probably better known still as Albright Stonebridge Group. Paul provides an in-depth overview of today’s semiconductor landscape, from export control issues, to the unstable equilibrium between U.S., China, and Taiwan’s industries. He walks us through the strategic importance of semiconductors in U.S. national security considerations — and how unintended consequences of our current policies toward China might actually end up undermining U.S. national security. 04:45 – An overview of semiconductor geopolitics and supply chains20:33 – Why the U.S. is cutting China off from advanced semiconductor technologies27:02 – The shift in technology export controls from Trump to Biden32:08 – The CHIPS Act and subsidies for the semiconductor industry37:43 – Deterrence and Taiwan’s semiconductor industry as a “silicon shield”46:16 – Lessons learned from the chip shortage52:30 – Why is the U.S lighting a fire to Chinese self-sufficiency efforts?57:57 – The implications of Pelosi’s planned visit to TaiwanA transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:Paul: Rob Dunn, A Natural History of the Future; and Ryan Hass, Stronger: Adapting America's China Strategy in an Age of Competitive InterdependenceKaiser: The Boys on Amazon PrimeSee 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 Villanova University historian Andrew Liu. Andy published an excellent essay in n+1 magazine in April that captured how the eclipse of the "wet-market" theory of COVID origins and its replacement by the "lab-leak" theory illustrates how an old racial form — "Orientalism," which sees countries of Asia as backward, dirty, and barbarous — gave way to what's been termed an "Asiatic" racial form, which reflects anxiety over Asians as hyperproductive, robotic, and technologically advanced.3:05 – Andy's n+1 essay on the lab leak theory and the two racial forms6:26 – A primer on Edward Said's Orientalism and why it's a poor fit for Asia today10:41 – The "Asiatic racial form" and the notionally "positive" Asian stereotypes13:58 – How Orientalism and the Asiatic racial form interact today and historically23:50 – Conspiracies on China, and what's wrong with the Asiatic form27:51 – Japan's rise as a parallel30:57 – How to talk about Chinese attitudes toward tech without invoking Asiatic stereotypes37:27 – Race, culture, and global capitalismA full transcript of this podcast is available on SupChina.com.Recommendations:Andy: Stay True: a memoir by the New Yorker writer Hua Hsu and donating to abortion providers in states affected by the end of Roe v. Wade:, like Abortion Care for Tennessee, abortioncaretn.orgKaiser: The Danish political drama Borgen on NetflixSee 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 Jing Tsu, John M. Schiff Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures & Comparative Literature at Yale University, about her wonderful new book Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern. Jing talks about her role as culture commentator for NBC during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, about how the written Chinese language has helped shape China, and about the fascinating individuals who worked to bring a writing system so deeply rooted in history and tradition into the modern world.Link to Jing and Kaiser interviewed for the Radio Opensource Podcast here.4:59 – Jing's role as cultural commentator for NBC during the Winter Games10:43 – The impetus for writing Kingdom of Characters16:09 – Why the critics of the Chinese writing system called for its destruction18:57 – What the defenders of the Chinese writing system love so much about it25:51 – The challenge of writing about the technology of Chinese writing29:05 – The Chinese writing system as a metaphor for China32:46 – The next technological frontiers for Chinese35:48 – Language and how it shapes thinking in ChinaA complete transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:Jing: Everything Everywhere All at OnceKaiser: The Pattern of the Chinese Past by Mark Elvin; and Closure/Continuation, a new album by the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Shelley Rigger of Davidson College returns to the show to talk Taiwan. She's joined by Simona Grano, a sinologist and Taiwan specialist at the University of Zürich. They talk about President Joe Biden's recent "gaffes" that call into question the longstanding, unofficial U.S. policy of "strategic ambiguity," talk about how Taiwan has been impacted by the Ukraine War, and much more.4:59: – What did Joe Biden's latest "gaffe" on Taiwan actually signify?10:06 – Did "strategic ambiguity" serve its intended purpose?16:23 – The mood in Taiwan20:51 – The impact of the Ukraine War on thinking in Beijing and in Taipei34:12 – European countries navigating relationships with Taiwan43:54 – The "One China Principle" versus the "One China Policy"47:20 – Are bilateral trade agreements enough for Taiwan?50:27 – Ethnicity, nationality, and the Taiwan issue59:00 – Making sense of the PRC claim to TaiwanA complete transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:Simona: Orphan of Asia, a novel by Wu Zhuoliu; and the show Orange is the New BlackShelley: Occupied, a Norwegian thriller series on NetflixKaiser: Meizhong.report, a Chinese-language resource from the Carter Center's U.S.-China Perception Monitor, covering official, media, and social media commentary on U.S.-China relationsSee 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 James (Jay) Carter, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Jay, who joined us on the show in December 2020 to talk about his book Champion's Day, is the author of one of the most widely-read columns that SupChina runs: This Week in China's History. In honor of two full years of contributions, with over 100 columns, Kaiser asked Jay to talk about his process, his purpose, and the challenges and the rewards of writing this excellent column.6:34 – The origin story of the column, and its original intention11:34 – How the hell does Jay do it week in and week out?23:84 – Jay talks about Jonathan Spence and what it was like to study under him at Yale31:32 – On the diversity of perspectives in the column40:53 – How the column keeps Jay connected to academic work and intellectual life43:35 – Threading the needle in deploying historical analogy, and right-sizing historical "rhymes" and patternsA complete transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:Jay: The Broadway musical Hadestown; and the New York City BalletKaiser: The inaugural Sinologia Conference on June 10See 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 back Dr. George Hu, a clinical psychologist based in Shanghai, who has a lot to say about the state of mental health in Chinese cities under lockdown. Unsurprisingly, mental health disorders like anxiety and depression have been exacerbated under conditions of isolation and food insecurity. Surprisingly, there's a silver lining or two to the whole thing.6:52 – Getting a sense for the scale of mental health problems related to the lockdown in Shanghai16:23 – Have the lockdowns increased awareness of and empathy for people suffering from mental health disorders in Shanghai and in China?20:07 – The lockdowns and impact on children and on the elderly34:05 – The impact on essential workers42:21 – What other Chinese cities are learning from Shanghai's COVID-19 experience45:22 – The quarantine centers and mental health servicesA full transcript of this podcast is available at SupChina.com.Recommendations:George: How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid For Success by Julie Lythcott-HaimsKaiser: Nicholas Confessore's series in the New York Times on Tucker Carlson, "American Nationalist"See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.