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A weekly discussion of current affairs in China with journalists, writers, academics, policy makers, business people and anyone with something compelling to say about the country that's reshaping the world. A SupChina production, hosted by Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn.
This week on Sinica, we're running an interview with Jeffrey Bader from early last year. We learned on Monday morning that Jeff had died, and we dedicate this interview to his memory.
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This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Jeff Bader, who served as senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council during the first years of the Obama presidency, until 2011. Now a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute, Jeff was deeply involved in U.S.-China affairs at the State Department from his first posting to Beijing back in 1981 continuously for the next 21 years, through 2002. He later served as U.S. ambassador to Namibia and was tapped to head Asian Affairs at the NSC after Obama took office. Jeff is the author of a fascinating book on Obama’s China policy, Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy. In this conversation, he offers a candid critique of the Biden China policy to date.
Note that this conversation was taped in mid-February — before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, and before the Department of Justice announced the end of the “China Initiative.”
Note that this conversation was taped in mid-February — before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, and before the Department of Justice announced the end of the “China Initiative.”
3:23 – How viewing China over 40 years of rapid development has shaped the way Jeff thinks about China
8:54 – Jeff Bader’s critique of the Biden administration’s China policy
19:40 – Is it important to have a China strategy?
24:55 – Right-sizing China’s ambitions: Is Rush Doshi right?
31:17 – Defining China’s legitimate interests
38:31 – Has China already concluded that the U.S., irrespective of who is in power, seeks to thwart China’s rise?
43:16 – How can China participate in the rules-based international order?
47:52 – Is it still possible for Biden to change his tune on China?
52:57 – How much room does Biden have politically? Can he exploit to electorate’s partisan divide on China?
59:54 – What is the “low-hanging fruit” that Biden could pluck to signal a lowering of temperature?
1:12:09 – Jeff Bader’s precepts for better understanding of — and better policy toward — China
Recommendations
Jeff: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, a book by Stephen Platt about the Taiping Civil War focusing on Hong Rengan.
Kaiser: Re-recommending two previous guests’ recommendations: Iaian McGilchrists’s The Master and his Emissary recommended by Anthea Roberts; and Unfabling the East: The Enlightenment’s Encounter with Asia by Jurgen Osterhammel, recommended by Dan Wang.
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This week on Sinica, a live recording from October 10 in Chicago, Kaiser asks Chang-Tai Hsieh of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, Damien Ma of the Paulson Institute’s think tank MacroPolo, and our own Lizzi Lee, host of The Signal with Lizzi Lee, to right-size the peril that the Chinese economy now faces from slow consumer demand, high youth unemployment, a troubled real estate sector, and high levels of local government debt. This event was co-sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute, the Paulson Institute, and The China Project.
06:32 – What is the current state of the Chinese economy?
11:14 – The origins of China’s crisis in comparison to crises from 1990 in Japan and 2008 in the U.S.
14:25 – Real estate sector’s role in the crisis and possible solutions
22:51 – The significance of able management during times of crisis. Is this a crisis of confidence or expectations?
29:34 – The question of the general direction of the Chinese economy
43:33 – What does an actual debt crisis look like in China?
48:00 – The right U.S. policy towards China in light of current affairs
The complete transcript of the show is now in the main podcast page for the episode!
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This week on the Sinica Podcast: a lecture by Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center's Kissinger Institute, delivered last year to D.C.-based Faith & Law at their Friday Forum. The lecture, titled "Is Our Foreign Policy Good? American Moral Absolutism and the China Challenge," is a powerful and thought-provoking talk. Kaiser follows up with a long conversation with Robert about the themes raised in the talk, and then some. Enjoy.
03:04 – A talk by Robert Daly from June 24th, 2022, given at Faith & Law’s Friday Forum
45:49 – What is lacking in the mainstream dialogue about American policies on China-related issues?
49:37 – Over-willingness to turn towards a military approach in the U.S.-China relationship in recent years
1:00:48 – The missionary aspect of the American approach in dealing with China
1:05:02 – The differences and commonalities between Chinese and American exceptionalism
1:17:42 – Are we in a state of Cold War with China?
1:23:54 – The question of moral standing in light of whataboutism
1:27:08 – Comparing American intentions with Chinese realities and the issue of moral absolutism
1:44:50 – What a “Just Cold War” would involve?
1:51:34 – Can the U.S. imagine a world in which it is not a hegemonic power?
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Robert: The House of Sixty Fathers (a Newbury Award-winning book) by Meindert DeJong with illustrations by the late Maurice Sendak
Kaiser: Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel
Anda Union (Inner Mongolian band)
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This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by Jason McLure, a correspondent for a new investigative reporting outfit called The Examination, and reporter Jude Chan, who writes for Initium Media. The two worked with two other reporters on a fascinating expose, funded by the Pulitzer Center, of China's tobacco monopoly, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (or China Tobacco), and how it has managed to be both the biggest seller of tobacco in the world — and also the effective regulator of tobacco laws in China.
06:41 – The origins and mission of The Examination
09:24 – An overview of the tobacco industry in China
12:17 – What is the true power China Tobacco holds in the Chinese tobacco industry?
14:34 – The history and inner workings of China Tobacco
20:30 – China Tobacco - a manufacturer or a regulator?
28:42 – The current situation of anti-smoking advocacy in China
31:47 – The role of smoking in the Chinese culture and the gender discrepancy within the custom of smoking
39:09 – How does China Tobacco manage to prevent the implementation of smoking bans in Chinese cities?
48:07 – What was the reason behind the faltering of promising initiatives regarding smoking control?
55:33 – The approach of Chinese youth towards the unequal fight with China Tobacco?
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Jude: Zhang Chunqiao: 1949 and Beyond by Zheng Zhong
Jason: Top Boy (British crime drama on Netflix)
Kaiser: The music of Florence Price, and especially Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 3 recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra
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This week on Sinica, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1950 concert tour of China by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973, Kaiser chats with Matías Tarnopolsky, the orchestra’s president and chief executive; Alison Friedman, executive and creative director of Carolina Performing Arts; and virtuoso guzheng player and composer Wu Fei about the legacy of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s China tour, their continuing connection with China, and their concert performances in Chapel Hill, performed to the day on the two closing nights of that historic tour 50 years ago.07:00 – The China connection in the overall identity of the Philadelphia Orchestra
11:32 – 缘分 [yuánfèn] and the serendipity of the commemorative concert in Chapel Hill
14:19 – What can we learn from the original Philadelphia Orchestra members?
19:49 – Has the interest in the China-U.S. culture exchange started to fall off in recent years?
25:04 – Music as the common ground in the light of worsening relations with China
28:02 – “What’s the orchestra of today?” - as the leading theme for the commemorative concert
31:10 – The significance of Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 to the orchestra’s history in China
33:41 – The inspiration for Hello Gold Mountain and its connection to the Jewish history in China
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Matias: Soave sia il vento (the trio from Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte)
Alison: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (podcast)
Fei: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (avant-garde metal band)
Kaiser: Good Harvest 大丰收 (restaurant)
Matteo Mancuso (Sicilian guitar virtuoso)
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This week on Sinica, Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran journalist Ian Johnson, now a senior China fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Kaiser to discuss his new book, Sparks" China's Underground HIstorians and their Battle for the Future. Profiling both prominent and lesser-known individuals working to expose dark truths about some of the grimmest periods of the PRC's history, including the Great Leap Forward famine and the violence of the Cultural Revolution, Johnson argues that the efforts of China's "counter-historians" have managed to survive the stepped-up efforts of Xi Jinping to control the historical narrative completely.
03:27 – Is the obsessive control of historical narratives a particularly Chinese phenomenon?
07:19 – The life of Ai Xiaoming and the creation of a collective memory as one of the main themes in the book
21:46 – The story of Jiang Xue, citizen journalist
25:22 – Journalistic stubbornness of Tan Hecheng
28:39 – Cheng Hongguo and the Zhiwuzhi salon
30:26 – Common traits shared by many Chinese regime critics
37:17 – Is there a link between dissent in China and Christianity?
39:53 – Historical nihilism and sensitive topics for the Chinese Communist Party
47:08 – Are counter-historians especially noteworthy because they’re exceptional, or representative?
57:36 – The most important insight the book adds to our understanding of regime critics in China
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Ian: The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal Beckerman
Kaiser: Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann, translated by Joachim Neugroschel
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This week on Sinica, Kaiser speaks with Representative Rick Larsen of the Washington 2nd District, the co-founder and continuously serving Democratic co-chair of the bipartisan U.S.-China Working Group. Last month, he published a white paper outlining his recommendations for how the U.S. can more effectively compete. That paper and its recommendations are the focus of this week's show.
02:35 – The origins of the U.S.-China Working Group
04:44 – Updated version of the white paper: new priorities and recommendations in response to the new reality
07:42 – What is the danger of bifurcating the world into blocs in Biden's administration?
11:16 – Four guiding principles behind a four-point strategy.
16:09 – Five issue areas mainly affected by the four-point strategy: national security, development, diplomacy, technology, and education.
18:38 – What should be the approach we take toward China’s Belt & Road Initiative?
29:40 – The ideas for changes in education investment in the U.S. and the role of China
34:08 – The response to the paper from the members of Congress as well as the general public
37:53 – Is there a bigger change happening regarding the relations with China?
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
Recommendations:
Rep. Larsen: Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss
Kaiser: The Driftless Area (a topographical and cultural region in the Midwestern United States)
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This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by Karen Hao, a reporter recently with the Wall Street Journal whose previous work with the MIT Technology Review has been featured on Sinica; and by Deborah Seligsohn, assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, who has been on the show many times just in the last three years. Both Karen and Deborah have written persuasively about the importance of renewing the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement, first signed in 1979 shortly after the normalization of U.S.-China relations under Jimmy Carter and renewed, for the most part, every five years without much fuss — until this year. Karen and Debbi make clear what has been accomplished under the agreement's auspices, and why GOP concerns are largely misplaced.
03:45 – The origins of the STA and the reasons for establishing it
07:34 – Criticisms against the agreement — the question of IP theft and PLA’s engagement
17:53 – What is the real reason behind such a strong opposition towards the agreement?
22:23 – How have the dynamics between China and the U.S. contribution to the STA changed over the years?
30:36 – The consequences of ending the scientific relationship with China on the example of the terminated space exploration cooperation
35:23 – Which specific projects would be put on hold in case of lack of renewal of scientific cooperation with China?
41:23 – Other scenarios for cooperation in the area of AI in the possible absence of the STA
50:10 – Are there parts of the agreement that should be enhanced or improved?
53:50 – What’s the chance for a renewal of the agreement after the six-month extension?
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com
Recommendations:
Debbi: Abortion Opponents Are Targeting a Signature G.O.P. Public-Health Initiative by Peter Slevin (in The New Yorker)
Karen: Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daren Acemoglu and Simon Johnson
Kaiser: King’s War (Chinese TV series 《楚汉传奇》Chǔhàn chuánqí on Netflix
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This week on Sinica, MIT professor Yasheng Huang joins Kaiser to talk about his brand new book The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why they Might Lead to its Decline. This ambitious and thought-provoking book is bound to stir up quite a bit of controversy. It’s a long conversation — but worth the listen!
A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.
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Something different this week on Sinica: A selection of "This Week in China's History" columns by James Carter, all narrated by Kaiser with a little interstitial music by Chunqiu (Spring & Autumn).
The columns:
The music: snippets from
All these tracks and more are available on Spotify here or on YouTube here.
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Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
