Podcasts about asia society's center

The foreign policy establishment sees America locked in a fierce and strategic competition with China. With the ongoing trade war, the protests engulfing Hong Kong, and China’s rising geopolitical influence, are Washington’s fears and hardliner policies justified? Two China experts, Isaac Stone Fish and Stephen Orlins, join None Of The Above to discuss and debate Washington’s appropriate response to this rising power and offer new and divergent ways of thinking about the U.S.-China relationship.  Isaac Stone Fish is a journalist, contributing columnist for The Washington Post, and a senior fellow at the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. Stephen Orlins is the president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. Prior to that, he was the managing director of Carlyle Asia and the chairman of one of Taiwan's largest cable television and high-speed internet providers.

October 1st marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China – the name given by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1949. To understate the reality, a lot has happened in China over the last 70 years. The fact is, a lot has happened in China over the last 70 days – much of it unexpected, confusing, and on-going – politically and economically. Politically, of course, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong capture global attention and concern. So, too, does China’s economic situation, in particular, its continuing – sometimes escalating – battle with the U.S. over tariffs, intellectual property, market access, currency valuation and more… all fitting somewhat neatly under the “Great Power Competition” with the United States. As the 2020 campaign heats up, several key questions will be asked and debated, including: How did we get here – and where do China and US-China relations go next? To find out, I talked with Isaac Stone Fish – a senior fellow at the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, as well as a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Washington Post Global Opinions contributing columnist, and more. Stone Fish has studied China from the inside, having spent seven years living there. Today he continues to analyze China’s place in the world as a Truman National Security Project fellow, a non-resident senior fellow at the University of Nottingham's China Policy Institute, and an alum of the World Economic Forum Global Shaper's program. For show notes & my newsletter, go to chrisriback.com.

October 1st marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China – the name given by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1949.To understate the reality, a lot has happened in China over the last 70 years. The fact is, a lot has happened in China over the last 70 days – much of it unexpected, confusing, and on-going – politically and economically.Politically, of course, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong capture global attention and concern. But so, too, does China’s economic situation, in particular, its continuing – sometimes escalating – battle with the U.S. over tariffs, intellectual property, market access, currency valuation and more… all fitting somewhat neatly under the “Great Power Competition” with the United States.  For business and public policy leaders, the question remains: How did we get here – and where do China and Chinese-U.S. relations go next?To find out, I talked with Isaac Stone Fish – a senior fellow at the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, as well as a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Washington Post Global Opinions contributing columnist, and more. Stone Fish has studied China from the inside, having spent seven years living there. Today he continues to analyze China’s place in the world as a Truman National Security Project fellow, a non-resident senior fellow at the University of Nottingham's China Policy Institute, and an alum of the World Economic Forum Global Shaper's program.  

For this edition of the Expert Series, Paul welcomed Isaac Stone Fish for a discussion on Chinese Soft power. Isaac is a journalist and a senior fellow at the Asia Society's Center on US-China Relations in New York; he is also a contributor to CBSN, an international affairs analyst for PRI's The World and a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund. Soft power in a Chinese context was first discussed by former president Hu Jintao, and is concerned with the development of a positive Chinese narrative around the globe. Isaac discusses how and where China uses Soft power to shape its image. Paul and Isaac delve into everything from using lobby groups in the US-China trade dispute to why Xi Jinping is so afraid of Winnie the Pooh.

Xi Jinping is headed to Mar-a-Lago for his first big meeting with Donald Trump. The US-China relationship is arguably the most consequential bi-lateral relationship in the world so naturally this trip is garnering a lot of attention. But what is actually on the agenda? And how might US-China relations shift in the coming years under President Trump? I put these questions and more to Susan Jakes who is the editor of ChinaFile and Senior Fellow at Asia Society's Center on US-China Relations. She discusses why the optics of this meeting are so meaningful to both sides, how the domestic politics in China inform a trip like this, and why the irksome and threatening actions of North Korea may become an increasingly important aspect of US-China relations.  If you have twenty minutes and want to learn more about the key elements of the relationship between the US and china and how they may evolve, have a listen.    Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!) #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea (Coming soon!) #6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!) #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) This is about two and a half hours for your listening pleasure. With more on the way. If there's a topic you want me to explore, please send me an email!

Peter Dutton of the U.S. Naval War College; Atlantic foreign correspondent Robert D. Kaplan; Holly Morrow, Fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center; and Zha Daojiong of Peking University (via Skype) examine ways in which the South China Sea dispute might be disentangled while avoiding a potentially disastrous conflict. Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, moderates the conversation.

In New York City, New Yorker magazine correspondent Evan Osnos discusses his new book, "Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China," based on eight years of living in Beijing, with Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. (1 hr., 6 min.)

Through a series of absorbing portraits of iconic modern Chinese leaders and thinkers, two of today's foremost specialists on China provide a panoramic narrative of the nation's ascent from imperial doormat to global economic powerhouse in Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-First Century (Random House). Author Orville Schell, author of many books, studied Chinese history at Harvard and Berkeley and has written for many publications, including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Time, Foreign Affairs,The New York Review of Books, Harper's, and The New York Times. Formerly dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, he is now the Arthur Ross Director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations in New York City. Schell is a member of the USC U.S.-China Institute's board of scholars. Discussants Geoffrey Cowan has long been an important force in education, communication, and public policy. Cowan became the first president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands in 2010 and hosted the Xi Jinping/Barack Obama meeting there in June. Previously he was dean of the USC Annenberg School for a decade and headed the Voice of America during the Clinton administration. Cowan also heads the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. His co-authored play Top Secret has twice toured China. Clayton Dube has headed the USC U.S.-China Institute since it was established by USC President C.L. Nikias in 2006. Dube was trained as an economic historian, lived in China for five years and visited dozens of times. Dube's long been committed to informing public discussion about China and about the U.S.-China relationship. He oversees the institute's magazines and documentary efforts and writes the institute's Talking Points newsletter and earlier edited the academic journal Modern China.

Through a series of absorbing portraits of iconic modern Chinese leaders and thinkers, two of today's foremost specialists on China provide a panoramic narrative of the nation's ascent from imperial doormat to global economic powerhouse in Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-First Century (Random House). Author Orville Schell, author of many books, studied Chinese history at Harvard and Berkeley and has written for many publications, including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Time, Foreign Affairs,The New York Review of Books, Harper's, and The New York Times. Formerly dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, he is now the Arthur Ross Director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations in New York City. Schell is a member of the USC U.S.-China Institute's board of scholars. Discussants Geoffrey Cowan has long been an important force in education, communication, and public policy. Cowan became the first president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands in 2010 and hosted the Xi Jinping/Barack Obama meeting there in June. Previously he was dean of the USC Annenberg School for a decade and headed the Voice of America during the Clinton administration. Cowan also heads the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. His co-authored play Top Secret has twice toured China. Clayton Dube has headed the USC U.S.-China Institute since it was established by USC President C.L. Nikias in 2006. Dube was trained as an economic historian, lived in China for five years and visited dozens of times. Dube's long been committed to informing public discussion about China and about the U.S.-China relationship. He oversees the institute's magazines and documentary efforts and writes the institute's Talking Points newsletter and earlier edited the academic journal Modern China.

Current and former Wall Street Journal China correspondents — including Deputy Editor in Chief Rebecca Blumenstein, Marcus Brauchli, Andy Browne, Jeremy Page, Li Yuan, and Amanda Bennett — reflect on China's progress, past and present. Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, moderates the conversation. (1 hr., 18 min.)

Hedge fund manager Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates and Stephen Roach, Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, debate whether China's economy is headed for a crash. Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, moderates the program. (1 hr., 13 min.)

In a discussion centered on his new book China Goes Global, China scholar David Shambaugh takes a nuanced look at China's current and future roles in world affairs with Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. (1 hr., 12 min.)

U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke assesses China's just-completed leadership transition with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. (1 hr., 23 min.)

U.S. Under Secretary of Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Robert D. Hormats looks back on 40 years of U.S.-China ties, and offers suggestions for moving the relationship forward, in prepared remarks and in conversation with Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. (1 hr., 25 min.)

While diplomats and academics met at the General Assembly of the United Nations on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, the Asia Society hosted "Voices from Burma," an event honoring the stories of Burmese refugees and political prisoners. Actor and playwright Wallace Shawn, actor Kathryn Grody, writers Amitav Ghosh and Deborah Eisenberg, and former political prisoner Law Eh Soe read from Nowhere to Be Home: Narratives from Survivors of Burma's Military Regime. Veteran journalist, educator, and current Director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations Orville Schell opened and closed the event.   The stories in Nowhere to Be Home are first-hand accounts of refugees who have survived displacement within and across Burma's borders, who have witnessed the destruction of thousands of ethnic minority villages, and who witnessed their home become a country with one of the largest fleets of child soldiers in the world. The book is the seventh title in the McSweeney's non-profit Voice of Witness publication series, and executive director Mimi Lok helped curate the event. “It’s impossible not to be engaged and moved by these stories,” Lok said. “Hopefully people will be compelled to encourage the United Nations to make sure the work is being done to investigate these abuses.” The event concluded with a prayer by U Agga, a Theravada Buddhist monk and Burmese refugee. Facing the packed auditorium and joined by monks U Gawsita and U Pinyar Zawta, U Agga repeated three times: “May there be no deception of one another. May love and kindness envelope the world and may there be peace on earth.” The issue of human rights in Burma has been a long-standing debate at the U.N. Sixteen member states currently support a U.N.-led Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma, including the United States, Australia, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. Others argue open political and economic engagement with Burma is a better strategy. Below listen to Amitov Ghosh and Deborah Eisenberg read the oral histories of Aye Maung and Fatima. Closing remarks by Orville Schell. Burmese refugee U Agga ends with his oral history narrative and Theravada Buddist prayer. Bon Mots: The words of survivor Khin Lwe on the complex beauty of Burma, read by actor Kathryn Grody: "One day when I was a child, I was playing with some fruit. My mom had never let me eat this fruit before, because she was worried I would choke on the seeds. But I accidentally broke the fruit open and I saw it was ripe, so I tasted it. It tasted so sweet. The situation in Burma is like that. The people don’t even know what the fruit is, but when they start to learn and become concerned about the issues in Burma, then they will start to understand how sweet the fruit can be." Survivor Hla Min remembers life before abandoning his post in the Burmese military. His words as read by Wallace Shawn: "While we were on the front line, our officers ordered us to completely destroy the local people. They told us that even the children had to be killed if we saw them. I saw soldiers abducting young girls, dragging them from their houses and raping them. At the time, I felt that those girls were like my sisters." Executive director of Voice of Witness Mimi Lok on publishing first-person narratives: "We approach the architecture of an oral history narrative in the same way we might approach a short story—but underpinned by our responsibility to journalistic integrity. So we make sure everything is fact checked and accurate." The Asia Society event was sponsored by the Pen American Center, the Open Society Foundations, Voice of Witness and the Magnum Foundation. Video work by Magnum photographers Chien Chi Chang and Lu Nan with James Mackay were presented throughout the evening. To watch a video from the event by Chien-Chi Chang, click here, or a video by Takaaki Okada, click here.