Pekingology

In this episode from the ChinaPower Podcast, Dr. Joseph Torigian joins host Bonny Lin to discuss his newly released book, The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping. Dr. Torigian describes the life and struggle of Xi Zhongxun as a party official during the Cultural revolution and specifically the impact he had on the life and political views of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Dr. Torigian notes that his book utilizes the story of Xi Zhongxun's life as a lens to better understand how the Party works and why both Xi Zhongxun and Xi Jinping believe certain values, such as those of sacrifice and suffering for the greater good, are highly important. He describes how Xi Jinping was viewed positively by his father due to the idea that his son had “eaten more bitterness” than other children, even going as far as to state that Xi Jinping had “the makings of a premier.” Dr. Torigian describes how deeply involved Xi Zhongxun was during his time in the party on the United Front, ethnic policy in Tibet and Xinjiang, and policy towards Taiwan, and how, because of his father's dedication to these issues, Xi Jinping views them as personal unfinished business. Finally, Dr. Torigian describes how Xi Zhongxun's influence on his son has left Xi Jinping with a Hobbesian view of the world and with the idea that the Party is the best tool for helping China assert its rightful place in the world and secure its inevitable march towards greatness.

In this episode from The Impossible State, host Victor Cha moderates a discussion with Henrietta Levin, former Deputy China Coordinator for Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and former Director for China at the National Security Council, and Dr. Luis Simón, director of the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) School of Governance and the Brussels office of the Elcano Royal Institute. Together, they discuss the Trump administration's policy toward China, U.S.–China trade relations, the future of U.S. and NATO engagement with China, and more. Originally aired on May 28, 2025.

On this episode from the Trade Guys, Bill Reinsch, Scott Miller, and Andrew Schwartz unpack the Geneva agreement between the U.S. and China to deescalate their trade war. They also look at the US-UK framework agreement and what lessons it offers for other countries looking to negotiate with the Trump administration. Originally aired on May 15, 2025.

In this special episode from the ChinaPower podcast, Mr. Jon Czin joins host Bonny Lin to discuss domestic dynamics and leadership decisionmaking within the People's Republic of China's (PRC), including what is currently missing in the conversation within the United States on Chinese politics. Mr. Jonathan A. Czin is the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies at Brookings Institution and a fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center. He is a former member of the Senior Analytic Service at CIA, where he was one of the intelligence community's top China experts. From 2021 till 2023, he was director for China at the National Security Council, where he advised on, staffed, and coordinated White House and inter-agency diplomacy with the People's Republic of China, including all of President Biden's interactions with President Xi, and played a leading role in addressing a wide range of global China issues. He also served as advisor for Asia-Pacific security affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and overseas at a CIA field station in Southeast Asia. Original interview published on October 31, 2024.

In this special episode from China Field Notes from CSIS, host Scott Kennedy speaks with Chen Dongxiao, the President of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). He discusses how China's shifting role to the center of global politics and economics has shaped his career, and he offers a frank assessment of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship during the late-Biden and early Trump administrations. The discussion concludes with a strong defense of the value of U.S.-China track-2 dialogue for thinking creatively about the world's most important challenges and offering reforms to global institutions.

In this special episode from The Truth of the Matter from CSIS, host Andrew Schwartz speaks with Scott Kennedy, CSIS senior adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics, to discuss the latest in the U.S.-China trade war, including China's technological capabilities, new export controls, and the possibility of future decoupling. Original interview published on April 17, 2025.

In this episode of Pekingology from January 2023, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Martin K. Dimitrov,  a professor of political science at Tulane University, to discuss his recent book, ‘Dictatorship and Information': Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Communist Europe and China.

In this episode of Pekingology which aired in February 2022, Jude Blanchette is joined by Xuezhi Guo, the Lincoln Financial Professor of Political Science at Gilford College, to discuss his book, The Politics of the Core Leader in China: Culture, Institution, Legitimacy, and Power.

In this episode of Pekingology from June 2022, Jude Blanchette is joined by Victor Shih, associate professor and Ho Miu Lam Chair in China and Pacific Relations at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego. They discuss his book, Coalitions of the Weak: Elite Politics in China from Mao's Stratagem to the Rise of Xi.

In this episode of Pekingology which aired on July 6, 2023, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a fellow for international political economy at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the book Sovereign Funds: How the Communist Party of China Finances Its Global Ambitions. 

In this episode of Pekingology from March 2023, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Dr. Lynette H. Ong, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, jointly appointed to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy's Asian Institute and also a Faculty Fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. They discuss her recent book Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China.  

With the removal of the only term limit on office in March 2018, Xi Jinping stands to rule indefinitely. But what happens if he suddenly dies in office? How will China's political and economic system respond? In this episode from September 2020, Jude Blanchette is joined by Michigan State University's Erica Frantz to discuss her co-authored paper, "When Dictators Die." 

In this episode of Pekingology which originally aired on June 17, 2021, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Wang Yuhua, the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University, to discuss how rulers in Imperial China maintained -- and lost -- political power. 

In this episode of Pekingology, originally released on April 8, 2021, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Jessica Teets, then an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Middlebury College (now Professor at Middlebury College and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science), to discuss her work on China's evolving governance system. 

In this episode of Pekingology, originally released on April 21, 2022, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Lizhi Liu, Assistant Professor in the McDonough School of Business and a faculty affiliate of the Department of Government at Georgetown University, to discuss her paper, The Rise of Data Politics: Digital China and the World.

In this episode of Pekingology which aired on Dec. 10, 2020, Jude Blanchette talks to Jörg Wuttke, the president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, to discuss the expanding power and influence of state-owned enterprises in China's economy.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Muyang Chen, Assistant Professor of International Development at Peking University's School of International Studies. They discuss her new book The Latecomer's Rise: Policy Banks and the Globalization of China's Development Finance (Cornell University Press, 2024).   Enroll in the Flashpoints and Future of the U.S.-China Relationship course at cs.is/uschinacourse.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. He is also the Henry A Kissinger chair in foreign policy and international relations at the US Library of Congress, Washington DC. They discuss his recently co-authored book The Idea of China: Chinese Thinkers on Power, Progress, and People. (European Council on Foreign Relations, 2024)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Minxin Pei, Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. He is also editor of the China Leadership Monitor. They discuss his recent book The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China. (Harvard University Press, 2024)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Kharis Templeman, Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the manager of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. He is also a Lecturer at the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University. They discuss Taiwan's Lai Ching-te administration, and the strategy Beijing may adopt to govern its relations with the Taipei.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by David Hoffman, Senior Advisor with the China Center for Economics & Business at The Conference Board The Conference Board, and non-resident Senior Associate with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at CSIS. They discuss China's economy, political economy, and evolving business environment.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Courtney Fung, Associate Professor in the Department of Security Studies & Criminology at Macquarie University. She is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Asia Society Australia and at the Lowy Institute. They discuss her article “Peace by piece: China's policy leadership on peacekeeping fatalities” (Contemporary Security Policy, July 2022), China's role in the United Nations, and its involvement with international peacekeeping efforts.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Manoj Kewalramani, Fellow for China Studies and the Chairperson of the Indo-Pacific Studies Programme at the Takshashila Institution. He is also a non-resident Senior Associate with the Freeman Chair in China Studies, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They discuss interpreting Beijing's actions and Sino-India relations. 

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns. They discuss his time spent in China and his perception of current and future U.S.-China relations.   

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Rory Truex, Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. They discuss Timur Kuran's seminal 1991 paper Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989. (World Politics, October 1991)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Jessica Teets, Professor at Middlebury College and Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science. They discuss her work on resilient authoritarianism and information flows in contemporary China.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Dylan Loh Ming Hui, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. They discuss his book “China's Rising Foreign Ministry: Practices and Representations of Assertive Diplomacy” (Stanford University Press, April 2024.)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Yeling Tan, Professor of Public Policy in the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. They discuss her book Disaggregating China, Inc.: State Strategies in the Liberal Economic Order. (Cornell University Press, 2021)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Jacob Stokes, Senior Fellow with the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. They discuss China's foreign policy decision making and his new report “Beyond China's Black Box: Five Trends Shaping Beijing's Foreign and Security Policy Decision-Making Under Xi Jinping.” (April, 2024)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Audrye Wong, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California, and Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. They discuss her recent article: “Mobilizing patriotic consumers: China's new strategy of economic coercion,” published in the Journal of Strategic Studies (May 2023).

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by the Andrew Walder, Denise O'Leary & Kent Thiry Professor at Stanford University, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies. Today they discuss his article “China's Extreme Inequality: The Structural Legacies of State Socialism.” (The China Journal, July 2023)

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Chenggang Xu, Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions and Visiting Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford University to discuss the institutional underpinnings of China's political economy. What explains the Communist Party's ongoing resilience? Why did China pivot away from the economic reforms that had generated so much wealth for the country and the government? Xu advances the framework of “Regionally Administered Totalitarianism” (RADT) to describe China's political economic transition during the reform period. He is also author of the forthcoming book Institutional Genes: The Origins of China's Institutions and Totalitarianism (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) exploring these questions.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette,is joined by Yanmei Xie, Geopolitics Analyst with Gavekal Research, who has recently been publishing articles at Gavekal and the Financial Times. Today, Jude and Yanmei discuss her recent client notes on Chinese overcapacity and its EV sector.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Evan Medeiros, The Penner Family Chair in Asia Studies at Georgetown University. During the Obama Administration, Evan was on the staff of the National Security Council as Director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia and special assistant to the president and Senior Director for Asia. They discuss his recent report “The New Domestic Politics of U.S.-China Relations” published by the Asia Society Center for Public Analysis. 

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Andrew Batson, China Research Director at Gavekal Dragonomics to discuss his recent blog post entitled “Xi's New Growth Synthesis.” He also publishes The Tangled Woof blog, and wrote the enlightening post “Some Cadres Cannot Keep Up.”  

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Emily Kilcrease, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security to discuss her recent report entitled “No Winners in This Game: Assessing the U.S. Playbook for Sanctioning China.”  

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Ya-Wen Lei, Professor of Sociology at Harvard University to discuss her recent report entitled “The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development and State Capitalism in China.”   

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Max Zenglein, Chief Economist at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) to discuss his recent report, co-authored with MERICS Lead Analyst Jacob Gunter, entitled “The Party Knows Best: Aligning Economic Actors with China's Strategic Goals.” 

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to discuss U.S.-China policy and the Select Committee's work to address the strategic competition with the People's Republic of China (PRC). 

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Wei Cui, professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Colombia to discuss his recent book The Administrative Foundations of the Chinese Fiscal State.

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Xiaobing Li, professor of history and Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma to discuss his new book China's New Navy: The Evolution of PLAN from the People's Revolution to a 21st Century Cold War.  

In this episode of Pekingology, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Chun Han Wong, a China reporter for the Wall Street Journal, to discuss his new book Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China's Superpower Future.