Podcasts about Chengdu

Un sistema di messaggistica dedicato ai veicoli autonomi, che fornisce in tempo reale informazioni su come comportarsi: una sorta di vigile urbano elettronico incorporato nell'incrocio stesso che, sulla base di un sistema di comunicazione strettamente locale - quindi indipendente da Internet - comunica con i veicoli dando le istruzioni necessarie. La soluzione, denominata TLM (Time-Logic-Map), è stata messa a punto dal CNR di Pisa insieme all'Università di Pisa e al Massachussetts Institute of Technology, ed è stata presentata con successo alla Vehicle Technology Conference di Chengdu. Ne parliamo con Ilaria Matteucci, prima ricercatrice di IIT-CNR.

This week on Sinica, I speak with Yi-Ling Liu, journalist, former China editor at Rest of World, and author of the new book The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet. Yi-Ling's book traces the arc of Chinese online life through five protagonists — a rapper, a gay rights entrepreneur, a feminist activist, a science fiction writer, and an internet censor — each navigating the creative and constrictive forces of the Chinese internet in their own way. The result is a deeply reported, novelistic account of what it felt like to live, create, and push back in one of the most surveilled and dynamic digital environments on earth. We discuss the book's central metaphor of "dancing in shackles," the early utopian glow of Chinese netizen culture, the parallel fates of hip hop and science fiction under the state's alternating embrace and constraint, and the eerie convergence between the Chinese internet and our own.0:06 — "Wall dancers" as a metaphor: what it captures that "dissident" or "netizen" doesn't0:09 — Why 网民 (wǎngmín) took root in China as a concept of digital citizenship0:13 — The early Chinese internet: more open than we remember, but not as free as the myth suggests0:15 — Ma Baoli: closeted cop to CEO of China's largest gay dating app, and the Gay Talese reporting strategy0:20 — Lan Yu, Beijing Story, and the film that became a coming-out moment for a generation of queer men0:22 — Pragmatism at the heart of the dance: how individuals and the state negotiated the internet together0:28 — Lu Pin and Feminist Voices: from "playing boundary ball" to sudden exile0:35 — Stanley Chen Qiufan and the state's attempt to co-opt science fiction for nationalist ends0:43 — The generational split in Chinese sci-fi: Liu Cixin's cosmic scale vs. the near-future unease of Chen Qiufan and Hao Jingfang0:46 — Hip hop's arc: from underground scenes in Chengdu and Beijing to The Rap of China and sudden constraint0:51 — Eric Liu, the Weibo censor: humanizing the firewall from the inside0:55 — Common prosperity, Wang Huning, and the moral panic behind the crackdown on "effeminate" culture0:59 — Techno-utopianism in retrospect: was the emancipatory internet always a fantasy?1:03 — The convergence of the Chinese and American internets: Weibo and Twitter, TikTok and Oracle1:07 — What it means to be free: how the book expanded Yi-Ling's sense of what freedoms people actually wantPaying it forward: Zeyi Yang, technology reporter at WIRED, and co-author (with Louise Matsakis) of the excellent tech x China newsletter Made in ChinaRecommendations:Yi-Ling: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai; Machine Decision is Not Final, an anthology of essays on Chinese AI compiled by scholars affiliated with NYU Shanghai.Kaiser: The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict and Warnings from History by Odd Arne Westad (forthcoming); Essays from Pallavi Aiyar's Substack The Global Jigsaw, particularly "How Has China Succeeded in Making People Mind their Manners" and "Why I Would Rather Be Born Chinese than Indian Today."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Tuesday, February 24th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson and Timothy Reed Early Rain Covenant Church Hit Again China Aid reports of more communist persecution of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, China.   Pastor Wang Yi is entering his seventh year in prison -- of a nine-year sentence.   But now, elder Li Yingqiang and his wife have been arrested for their commitment to Christ. His wife was released on bail, and encouraged friends on social media that “God's arrangements are always good.” Multiple churches in North America, and an organization in Australia, have designated the ninth of each month as a “Day of Fasting and Prayer for the Persecuted Church in China.”  Mexican National Guardsmen killed the most wanted cartel leader in the country Mexico is in turmoil this week, after Mexican National Guardsmen killed the most wanted cartel leader in the country, Nemesio Cervantes, a criminal known as “El Mencho.” So far, 34 drug cartel members are dead. Sadly, another 25 federal troops were killed in the ongoing conflict. European immigration numbers down Immigration numbers have dropped sharply in Europe. Britain records only 200,000 immigrants in 2025, down from 900,000 in 2023.  Eurostat's Migration and Asylum report indicates a 13% drop in asylum applicants to European Union countries in 2024. That's the first drop since 2020.  And October 2025 numbers indicate a 28% drop compared with October 2024. European Parliament refused to affirm only women can get pregnant The Parliament of the European Union voted 340-141 to artificially redefine the definition of what a woman is. The Parliament also refused to affirm the biological fact “that only women can become pregnant.” German Parliament member Tomasz Froelich blasted the new guidance. He said, “This isn't about courtesy or pronouns. It's about law, language, and the destruction of biological clarity in public policy.” The new law opens the continent up to “the full recognition of trans women as women,” directly opposing God's created gender roles. In Matthew 19:4, Jesus asked, “Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female?” Reform UK lacked traction; Will Restore Britain thrive? As The Worldview reported on February 19th, Britain has a new populist political party called the Restore Britain party. The previous nationalist party, Reform UK, gained 14% of the vote in the 2024 election, but only holds eight seats which is a little over 1% of the seats in parliament. Back in 2002, the UK populist parties had only 2% of the national vote. More debt and more inflation for the U.S. In President Donald Trump's first year in office in his second term, the US Debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio spiked to 122%. That's the highest since Joe Biden's first year in office during the COVID spend-a-thon.   Today's U.S. federal debt stands at $38.7 trillion — exactly double what it was 10 years ago during the first Trump term, and quadruple the size of the debt 18 years ago during the 2008 recession.   Also in economic news, despite all the political noise and hand waving coming out of Washington, inflation is up in the U.S. The core Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation index is up to 3% — back up to where it was two years ago.   The GDP inflator reached 3.7%, the worst it's been in three years. And yet, the average 30-year mortgage rate has dropped to 6%, That's the lowest it's been in two and a half years. Deuteronomy 15:6 ties in here. It says, “For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.” Kansas legislature overturns veto on transgender Law KANSAS LEADER: “The motion prevails and the bill passes.” (Gavel comes down) And with that announcement, the Kansas Legislature, dominated by Republicans, voted to overturn Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's veto on a bill that banned men, including men pretending to be women, from entering women's spaces. The Kansas House voted 87-37 and the Kansas Senate voted 31-9 to overturn the veto.  Republican Kansas State Senator Virgil Peck, Jr. spoke from the Senate floor. PECK: “I'm amazed that we're not hearing from more of those who are, if you will, feminists standing up for young ladies.” The bill allows for criminal charges to be brought against biological men who intrude on women's bathrooms and locker rooms, and holds to the birth gender or biological definition of male and female. 118,000 applications submitted for tax-funded school vouchers Texas parents have submitted 118,000 applications since Texas Freedom Education Accounts opened up on February 4th. The Houston public school district is looking at closing down 12 of its schools for the next school year, reports The Chronicle. The Texas Homeschool Coalition estimates there are 500,000 homeschooled students in the state. Add to that 422,000 children enrolled in Texas charter schools, and another 279,000 children enrolled in Texas private schools. That adds up to 1,200,000 Texas students not attending public school, representing 21% of school-aged children in Texas. Study reveals cancer linked to COVID-19 shot A new scientific study has linked the rise in certain types of cancer to the mRNA COVID-19 shots.  The study, published by Oncotarget, marks the spike in cancers, including highly aggressive cancers, in correspondence with certain lipid nanoparticles that were in the COVID vaccines.  The study evidenced that the modRNA in the COVID shot, along with the lipid nanoparticles, could “affect various tissues and organs, including the bone marrow and other blood-forming organs.”  The study also found a link between rising mortalities worldwide and the rollout of the COVID shot. In one Italian province, for example, “vaccination was associated with a 23% increased risk of cancer hospitalization after receiving one or more doses.”  U.S. Men's Hockey team wins gold in overtime And finally … (Audio of Olympic theme song) Norway has captured the highest number of gold medals in the 2026 Winter Olympics this year — taking home 18 medals (so far). The United States comes in second with 12 golds. That's a record for America — this time including a top medal for the Men's and Women's Hockey competition.   The U.S. Men's Hockey Team won the gold medal for the first time in 46 years in a 2-1 overtime win on the final golden goal knocked in by Jack Hughes, who played center. Listen. ANNOUNCER: “Jack Hughes wins it. The golden goal for the United States. For the first time since the 1980 Miracle, the United States takes the gold.” Jack will be remembered for having taken a high stick and losing multiple teeth before scoring the winning goal. Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, February 24th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ. Extra print stories Elderly farmer refuses to sell farm to data company 86-year-old farmer Mervin Raudabaugh refused to sell his Pennsylvania farm to data company developers, even though his farm was valued at over $15 million. Raudabaugh has lived in Silver Springs Township in Cumberland County and been a farmer for more than 60 years. He exclaimed, “I was not interested in destroying my farms. That was the bottom line. It really wasn't so much the economic end of it. I just didn't want to see these two farms destroyed.”  Raudabaugh instead sold his property for a much lower price to the Silver Springs Township's Land Preservation Program, which protects farmland, woodland, and wetlands. He explained, “I love this land. It's been my life. And I realized… if it wasn't built on or dug up, another set of families could live here—and that's what I wanted to do. And I got it done.” Micah 4:4 promises, “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.” 10 major British cities have Muslim mayors 46 million Muslims now live in Europe, as migrants from third world countries continue overwhelming the European system.  Muslims are taking over political offices in European nations, including in the United Kingdom, where 10 major cities now have Muslim mayors. The massive influx in illegal immigration to Europe, while condemned and hated by its people, is being celebrated by its leaders. Newsmax reports, “They've chosen to stand with radical Muslims over their own people. It's because of all of these reasons these countries are falling apart and failing as the attack on Western civilization continues.” Muslim infiltration has also reached the United States, evidenced by Muslim influence in states like Texas and Minnesota. Chase Bank admits to debanking Trump JPMorgan Bank has admitted to freezing President Donald Trump's bank account following the January 6, 2021 protests. Trump had sued the bank for $5 billion in damages. The admission came after JPMorgan initially dodged the question of whether it debanked the President, and is yet another confirmation that conservatives were in fact targeted and persecuted under the Biden administration.  CNBC reported, “This is not the first lawsuit Trump has filed against a big bank, alleging that he was debanked. The Trump Organization sued credit card giant Capital One in March 2025 for similar reasons and allegations.” However, some have pointed out that the Trump administration is working towards digital currencies, which run a large risk of being controlled.

Show Notes: Elijah Siegler recalls the day of graduation on June 5, 1992, and the prominent promotion of the movie Patriot Games, which seemed at the time an ominous omen, as graduates began to navigate their post-grad journey. Elijah shares his advice to his kids and students: "You don't need to have your whole life post-college figured out. You just need one cool thing lined up, and that'll lead to another cool thing." Elijah describes his first post-graduation job as the editor of the Greece and Turkey book for Let's Go travel guides, which he found out about due to a last-minute cancellation. A Ticket to Israel and Traveling Adventures Elijah had previously been a researcher for Let's Go Pacific Northwest in the summer of 1989. After graduation, Elijah moved back to his parents' house in Toronto, Canada, and spent time reading and applying for jobs. Elijah cashed in his graduation gift from his grandparents, a ticket to Israel, and spent six months in the Middle East, including a solo tour of the Mediterranean. Elijah used his own guidebook for the Greece and Turkey parts of his trip and mentions Gary Bass, a classmate who edited Let's Go Israel and Egypt. Exploring the Middle East Elijah enjoyed both Greece and Turkey, finding Turkey to be one of the great travel destinations of the world. He highlights the unique experiences in Istanbul and Cappadocia, including staying in cave hotels and visiting a center for Sufi culture. Elijah reflects on his visit to Syria, noting the cultural richness and the sadness of seeing the country torn apart by civil war. Elijah moved back to Toronto, spent time with family, and eventually found a job in the non-profit sector in New York. Taking a Slow Boat to China Elijah describes his temporary job in New York, living in a basement in Chelsea, and the cultural experience of living in New York City. He recounts his decision to travel to Asia, including a trip to Japan, where he received a telegram about a job in China. Elijah took a slow boat to China from Kobe to Shanghai and then trains to Chengdu, where he taught English for nine months. He shares his experiences in Chengdu, including teaching and traveling around China, and his interest in Taoism. Opening the Door to the World's Parliament of Religions Elijah attended the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in the fall of 1993, which marked the 100th anniversary of the original event in 1893. He volunteered at the event, met various religious leaders, and was inspired to study religion academically. Elijah decided to pursue a graduate degree in religious studies, applying to various programs and eventually enrolling at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He describes the rigorous Religious Studies Program at UCSB and his initial research on Taoism in America. A Focus on Taoism Elijah explains the concept of Taoism, the indigenous religion of China, and its focus on the Tao, a non-personal divine force. He discusses the transmission of Taoist ideas to America through popular culture, such as the TV show Kung Fu and the book The Tao of Pooh. Elijah interviewed Chinese Taoist masters who came to America and taught Taoist techniques, such as martial arts and meditation. He completed his PhD on Taoism in America and began his academic career, moving from assistant to associate to full professor. The Americanization of Taoism Elijah contrasts Taoism with Buddhism, noting that Taoism does not have a missionary impulse and is spread indirectly through practices like martial arts. He discusses the Americanization of Taoism and the role of popular culture in shaping American Taoism. Elijah shares his research on the authenticity of Taoist masters in America and the concerns within the American Taoist community about who is a genuine master. He mentions the organizational structure of Taoism in China and the challenges of defining authenticity in American Taoism. Religion and Television Elijah discusses his research on religion and television, contrasting it with the study of religion and film. He argues that television's open narrative format allows for the exploration of religious change over time. Elijah highlights the religious themes in popular TV shows and how they reflect and shape American spirituality. He plans to publish a book on his theory of religion and television combining his previous essays on the topic. A Spiritual Journey Elijah shares his personal spiritual journey, growing up in a secular Jewish household and raising his children as Jewish. He expresses a strong affinity for Taoism but does not call himself a Taoist due to the formal initiation required in Taoist traditions. Elijah teaches a class on spirituality, exploring the rise of "spiritual but not religious" individuals and the history of spirituality in America. He emphasizes the importance of interfaith dialogue and understanding different religious traditions, both in his teaching and in his community involvement. Promoting Interfaith Understanding Elijah describes his involvement in the Charleston Interfaith Council, organizing cultural and educational programming to promote interfaith understanding. He organized a  Jewish Muslim Dinner in 2017, bringing together Jewish and Muslim communities for a shared meal and conversation, which has evolved into the Spirited Brunch, a self-guided tour of different sacred spaces in Charleston with snacks, promoting interfaith dialogue and cultural exchange. He encourages others to replicate these initiatives in their own communities, emphasizing the importance of interfaith connections and understanding. Harvard Reflections Elijah  was in the comparative study of religion that was drawn from other departments in the Divinity School, and he mentions professor Diana Eck, who was the chair of that committee on the comparative study of religion. She started something called the pluralism project in 1991 and that summer, Elijah was in the first cohort of student employees for that so I actually got paid to go to Los Angeles and study religious diversity there and inter religious dialog, and in particular, Buddhism.  Timestamps: 01:30 Initial Career Steps and Travel Experiences  04:06: Exploring Greece, Turkey, and Syria  09:03: Moving to New York and Asia  12:10: Attending the World's Parliament of Religions  15:21: Research on Taoism in America  17:31: Taoism in America and Its Cultural Impact  28:59: Religion and Television 31:49: Personal Spiritual Journey and Teaching  39:29: Interfaith Initiatives in Charleston  Links: Faculty Bio: https://charleston.edu/religious-studies/faculty-staff/siegler-elijah.php Spirited Brunch: https://thefoodsection.com/spirited-brunch-101/ The Musical: https://www.happylandmusical.com/ Featured Nonprofit: The featured nonprofit of this week's is brought to you by Tobey Collins who reports:  "Hi. I'm Tobey Collins, class of 1992. The featured nonprofit of this episode of The 92 Report is the Barnstable Land Trust, or BLT. Barnstable Land Trust is a land conservation organization dedicated to preserving green space in the town of Barnstable in Cape Cod, and enhancing access to green space for the broader community. BLT, stewards more than 1250 acres of land in Barnstable, and is always on the lookout for new opportunities. I'm proud to have served as a board member for the Barnstable Land Trust since 2022 as well as having been a regular donor going back more than 15 years. I love helping keep Cape Cod beautiful for generations to come. You can learn more about their work at B, l, t.org, and now here's Will Bachman with this week's episode.  To find out more about their work, visit: www.blt.org.  This episode on The 92 Report: https://92report.com/podcast/episode-161-elij…de-the-classroom/   *AI generated show notes and transcript

ITP - 140 A Liverpool-born educator who once resisted teaching ends up saying yes to South Korea—and never looks back. Ken Bence traces an 18+ year arc from public-school TEFL to PGCE, then into a fast-growing bilingual school in Shanghai where rapid expansion pulled him into hiring, standards alignment, and early leadership. Seeking the IB bridge, he lands in Kuwait and grows into K–12 instructional coaching with the help of strong mentors, then tackles leadership fairs, multiple offers, and a vice head role that drops him back into China just as COVID reshapes borders and daily life. The journey continues through Shenzhen and Chengdu, a doctorate alongside principal work, and a brief interim senior leadership post in Budapest—plus practical rituals that make each new country feel like home: spices, quality bedding, and a folder of notes that keeps the purpose front and center.(00:00) Introduction to Ken Bence and His Journey(02:35) Cultural Shock and First Impressions in South Korea(06:53) Transitioning to Leadership Roles in Education(12:40) Exploring New Opportunities in Kuwait(17:37) Navigating Job Fairs and Networking in International Teaching(22:48) Navigating Career Pathways in Education(24:31) Midway-Contact Break(27:06) Cultural Shifts: Returning to China During COVID(29:59) Transitioning to Chengdu: New Challenges and Opportunities(32:55) Career Baby Steps: Progressing Through Education Roles(34:19) New Beginnings: Moving to Budapest(36:20) Preparing for Change: Leaving Budapest(40:29) The Emotional Journey of Teaching AbroadThe International Teacher Podcast is a bi-weekly discussion with experts in international education. New Teachers, burned out local teachers, local School Leaders, International school Leadership, current Overseas Teachers, and everyone interested in international schools can benefit from hearing stories and advice about living and teaching overseas.Additional Gems Related to Our Show:Greg's Favorite Video From Living Overseas - ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQWKBwzF-hw⁠Signup to be our guest  ⁠https://calendly.com/itpexpat/itp-interview?month=2025-01⁠Our Website⁠ -  ⁠https://www.itpexpat.com/⁠Our FaceBook Group - ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/itpexpat⁠⁠JPMint Consulting Website  - ⁠https://www.jpmintconsulting.com/⁠Greg's Personal YouTube Channel: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs1B3Wc0wm6DR_99OS5SyzvuzENc-bBdO⁠Books By Greg "the Single Guy":⁠International Teacher Guide: Finding the "Right Fit" 2nd Edition (2025)⁠ | by Gregory Lemoine M.Ed.⁠⁠"International Teaching: The Best-kept Secret in Education"⁠⁠ | by Gregory Lemoine M.Ed.Featured APP:https://apps.apple.com/app/6755244840 Who's That? Name & Face Trainer  (Nov 21, 2025 ): For specialists and teachers that can't remember all 180 or more of their student's faces and names. Free. Local Data Only. Greg uses it daily to train his brain on 650 students this year.

This week on Sinica, I speak with Kyle Chan, a fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings, previously a postdoc at Princeton, and author of the outstanding High-Capacity Newsletter on Substack. Kyle has emerged as one of the sharpest and most empirically grounded voices on U.S.-China technology relations, and he holds the all-time record for the most namechecks on Sinica's “Paying it forward” segment. We use his recent Financial Times op-ed on “The Great Reversal” in global technology flows and his longer High-Capacity essay on re-coupling as jumping-off points for a wide-ranging conversation about where China now sits at the global technological frontier, why the dominant decoupling narrative misses powerful structural forces pulling the two economies back together, and what all of this means for innovation, choke points, and the global tech ecosystem.4:35 – How Kyle became Kyle Chan: from Chicago School economics to development, railways, and systems thinking 12:50 – The Great Reversal: China at the technological frontier, from megawatt EV charging to LFP batteries 17:59 – The electro-industrial tech stack and China's overlapping, mutually reinforcing tech ecosystems 22:40 – Industrial strategy and time horizons: patience, persistence, and the long arc of China's auto industry 33:45 – Re-coupling under pressure: Waymo and Zeekr, Unitree robots, and the structural forces binding the two economies 40:22 – The gravity model: can political distance overwhelm technological mass? 47:01 – What China still wants from the U.S.: Cursor, GitHub, talent, and the AI brain drain 51:52 – Weaponized interdependence and the danger of securitizing everything 57:30 – Firm-level adaptation: HeyGen, Manus, and the playbook for de-sinification 1:02:58 – The view from the middle: Gulf states, Southeast Asia, and India as geopolitical arbitrageurs 1:10:18 – Engineering resilience: what policymakers are getting wrong about the systems they're buildingPaying it forward: Katrina Northrop; Grace Shao and her AI Proem newsletterRecommendations:Kyle: Wired Magazine's Made in China newsletter (by Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis); The Wire China Kaiser: The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet by Yi-Ling LiuSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send a textIsingizwe Didier Frank was born in a refugee camp in Congo in 1995 following the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis. In Frank is now working in Chengdu, China, speaks Chinese, and specialises in artificial intelligence after having studied computer science at Tsinghua University, one of the top universities in the world.How did he get here?  Let's hear his remarkable story. Learn about his experiences.00:59 Frank's story10:43 Going back to the refugee camp12:32 What was it like growing up in Rwanda?13:46 What gave you the idea to study in China?16:35 Being a singer19:08 Studying at Tsinghua University19:46 The Tsinghua University application process22:55 Working in China 24:00 How to get a job in China?25:44 Work culture in China26:34 Life in Chengdu26:49 Being African / Black / Foreigner in China30:12 What are your future plans?31:57 Advice for others  33:14 Inspiration from Frank33:53 How to contact Frank35:28 China Admissions - how to apply to universities in China?You can contact Frank on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/isingizwe-didier-frank-3630b8135Are you interested in studying in China? Check out China Admissions www.china-admissions.com the online platform to apply to universities in China.Please share if you think it might educate or inspire someone

In this episode, Jared chats with Jack Mullinkosson, whose Chinese-learning journey runs from a Vice China documentary set… to living with a Chinese immigrant family in suburban California… to studying in Chengdu… and now biking from Chengdu to Hanoi.Jack got started the way many learners do: by feeling left out. On set, surrounded by Chinese speakers, he noticed how differently the foreigners who spoke Mandarin were treated. Chinese looked like a superpower, and he wanted it.With plenty of downtime during the shoot, Jack began studying characters and survival phrases, boosted by the classic “Your Chinese is so good!” encouragement (even when it wasn't). That early confidence turned into a full-on obsession.Then COVID hit, and Jack found a creative workaround. Back in the U.S., he made a flyer in Chinese offering to live with a Chinese family in exchange for helping their kids with English. The result: four months in a Rancho Cucamonga “McMansion” shared by multiple Chinese families, nightly Mandarin dinners, and a crash course in immigrant hustle and real-world language practice.Along the way, Jack:Read Mandarin Companion graded readers to build his foundationUsed shadowing to level up tones and pronunciationLooked for chances to speak—even when it was inconvenientTurned everyday errands into “Chinese missions”After a few years in Brazil, where he learned Portuguese and became a remote software engineer, Jack returned to China with a new goal: connect Chinese to his career. He now makes videos in Chengdu, capturing spontaneous conversations with park shūshu fitness legends, friendly aunties selling plum wine, and locals who light up when a foreigner speaks Mandarin.And one of the coolest payoffs? While traveling in Spain, Jack used Chinese to order food from a Chinese restaurant owner when neither of them shared English or Spanish.Links from the episode:Jack Mullinkosson | InstagramMandarin Companion Graded Readers

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Finding Belonging: A Lantern Festival Journey in Chengdu Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-02-12-23-34-02-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 灯笼节的清晨，成都市的天空飘着细细的雪花，远处的景物被白雪覆盖。En: On the morning of the Denglongjie (Lantern Festival), the sky over Chengdu was filled with fine snowflakes, and distant scenes were covered with white snow.Zh: 莉芬裹紧大衣，深吸了一口寒冷但是新鲜的空气，开始了她和家人的旅程。En: Lifen wrapped her coat tightly around herself, took a deep breath of the cold but fresh air, and started her journey with her family.Zh: 他们一起去参观在大熊猫繁育研究基地工作的舅舅金海。En: They were heading to visit her uncle, Jinhai, who works at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base.Zh: 莉芬听说这个地方是世界上最著名的大熊猫保护区之一，心中的好奇和期待与日俱增。En: Lifen had heard that this place is one of the most famous giant panda sanctuaries in the world, and her curiosity and anticipation grew with each passing day.Zh: 进入基地，莉芬立刻被一片生机勃勃的场景吸引。En: Upon entering the base, Lifen was immediately drawn to the vibrant scene.Zh: 黑白相间的大熊猫在雪地里攀爬、嬉戏，显得格外可爱。En: Black and white pandas were climbing and frolicking in the snow, appearing particularly adorable.Zh: 红灯笼悬挂在枝头和屋檐，给冬日的基地增加了一抹亮丽的色彩。En: Red lanterns hung from the branches and eaves, adding a splash of bright color to the winter base.Zh: 这时，金海迎上来，和蔼地笑着。En: Just then, Jinhai approached with a friendly smile.Zh: “莉芬，欢迎来到我们的熊猫之家。希望你会喜欢这里！”金海说道，脸上挂着满满的自豪。En: "Lifen, welcome to our panda home. I hope you will like it here!" Jinhai said, a look of pride on his face.Zh: 与金海同行的还有他的女儿，美玲，一个机灵的小姑娘，总是喜欢讲述她父亲工作中有趣的故事。En: Accompanying Jinhai was his daughter, Meiling, a clever little girl who always enjoyed telling interesting stories about her father's work.Zh: “莉芬姐姐，你知道吗？这些熊猫都是我们的家人，每一只都有自己的名字和故事。”美玲兴奋地说道。En: "Lifen sister, did you know? These pandas are our family, and each one has its own name and story," Meiling said excitedly.Zh: 莉芬微笑着点头，可心里却觉得有些疏远。En: Lifen nodded with a smile, but inside she felt a bit distant.Zh: 虽然她仰慕着舅舅的事业，但同时也感觉自己与家族的文化距离有些遥远。En: Although she admired her uncle's career, she also felt somewhat detached from her family's culture.Zh: 午后，基地开始为灯笼节做准备。En: In the afternoon, the base began preparations for the Lantern Festival.Zh: 红色的灯笼被小心翼翼地挂起，彩色的手工灯笼竞相辉映。En: Red lanterns were carefully hung, and colorful handmade lanterns vied for attention.Zh: 莉芬有些犹豫，不确定自己是否该积极参与。En: Lifen hesitated, unsure if she should actively participate.Zh: 然而，当她看到人们忙碌的身影，心里忽然涌出一股不容错过的冲动。En: However, when she saw the busy figures of people around, an irresistible urge not to miss out suddenly welled up in her heart.Zh: 正值傍晚，灯笼节活动开始了。En: As evening fell, the Lantern Festival activities began.Zh: 莉芬和美玲一起动手制作了一盏属于她们的灯笼。En: Lifen and Meiling worked together to make a lantern of their own.Zh: 当灯光点亮的一刻，激动之情无法言表。En: At the moment the light was turned on, the excitement was indescribable.Zh: 她们用灯笼上的笔写下了心愿。En: They wrote down their wishes on the lantern.Zh: 随后，灯笼漫天飘舞，携着她们的祝福，慢慢升向天空。En: Then, the lanterns floated across the sky, carrying their blessings, slowly ascending.Zh: 望着缓缓升起的灯笼，莉芬忽然感受到一种从未有过的宁静与连接。En: Watching the slowly rising lanterns, Lifen suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of peace and connection.Zh: 她在星光与灯光汇聚的夜空下，似乎找到了与祖辈文化的联结。En: Under the starry and lantern-lit night sky, she seemed to have found a connection with her ancestral culture.Zh: 她也发现，保护大熊猫不仅仅是舅舅的事业，更是每个家庭成员情感交流的一部分。En: She also realized that protecting the giant pandas was not just her uncle's cause, but a part of emotional communication for every family member.Zh: “真美！”莉芬轻声说道，心中温暖，脸上露出久违的笑容。En: "So beautiful!" Lifen whispered, warmth in her heart, showing a long-lost smile on her face.Zh: 活动结束后，莉芬走到金海身边，由衷地对他说：“舅舅，我为你的工作感到骄傲，也为能成为这个家庭的一员感到自豪。”En: After the event ended, Lifen walked up to Jinhai and sincerely said, "Uncle, I am proud of your work, and I am proud to be a member of this family."Zh: 金海微笑着拍拍她的肩膀回答：“无论走多远，文化总是我们回归的起点。”En: Jinhai smiled and patted her shoulder, replying, "No matter how far you go, culture is always the starting point to return to."Zh: 在这一刻，莉芬终于体会到来自家庭和文化的归属感。En: At this moment, Lifen finally experienced a sense of belonging from her family and culture.Zh: 她决定，要更多地了解自己的文化背景，拥抱这片土地给予她的温暖。En: She decided to learn more about her cultural background and embrace the warmth this land offered her.Zh: 从这天起，莉芬以更加自信的步伐走向未来，而她的故事也在这个冬天的灯笼节中留下了温情的印记。En: From this day on, Lifen walked into the future with more confidence, and her story left a warm imprint during this winter's Lantern Festival. Vocabulary Words:distant: 远处的curiosity: 好奇anticipation: 期待vibrant: 生机勃勃的frolicking: 嬉戏adorable: 可爱eaves: 屋檐pride: 自豪detached: 疏远hesitated: 犹豫irresistible: 不容错过urge: 冲动indescribable: 无法言表blessings: 祝福unprecedented: 从未有过的ancestral: 祖辈的connection: 联结emotional: 情感communication: 交流sincerely: 由衷地belonging: 归属感embrace: 拥抱confidence: 自信imprint: 印记fine snowflakes: 细细的雪花sanctuaries: 保护区wrapped: 裹紧carefully: 小心翼翼地participate: 参与ancestral culture: 祖辈文化

Mersch, Britta www.deutschlandfunk.de, Campus & Karriere

This week on Sinica, I speak with Patricia Kim, a Fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center, where she focuses on U.S. policy toward China and the broader Asia Pacific. One year into Donald Trump's second term, Pattie and her colleague Joyce Yang have published a comprehensive Brookings assessment titled "Making America Great Again? Evaluating Trump's China strategy at the one-year mark," which examines whether the administration's stated objectives on reindustrialization, AI leadership, strategic dependence, and global standing are actually being met. We discuss the paradox of Trump's China policy (which is surprising consistency in goals despite the absence of a formal strategy document), with its mixed results on economic rebalancing and supply chain security, the troubling deterioration in U.S.-China diplomatic and military channels, and why the administration's approach to allies and partners may be undermining its own objectives. Pattie brings analytical discipline and empirical rigor to debates that are often long on rhetoric and short on evidence, cutting through a lot of noise to assess what's actually working, what isn't, and where the strategy is running up against reality.4:45 – Does Trump have a China strategy? Consistency without a formal framework8:15 – Assessing the economic rebalancing goals: reindustrialization and tariffs15:30 – Technology competition: export controls and AI leadership23:45 – Supply chain security and strategic dependence challenges31:20 – The deterioration of diplomatic and military-to-military channels39:50 – The ally and partner problem: how Trump's approach undermines his own goals47:15 – Global standing and American credibility in the Trump era52:30 – Paying it forward: The Lost in Translation series at BrookingsPaying it forward:Lost in Translation Series (Brookings Global China Project)Recommendations:Pattie: To Dare Mighty Things by Michael O'HanlonKaiser: Stalingrad by Vasily GrossmanSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Minh Tran (https://www.couldabeenatthe.club/), Afra Wang (https://afra.work/) and Lauren Teixeira (https://lrntex.substack.com/) join me to talk about Chinamaxxing — the growing fascination among younger Americans with Chinese short-form content. We discuss why these videos feel so appealing in a moment of pessimism at home, how Trump's America shapes that gaze, and where the “shiny,” abundance-driven vision of China starts to break down. We also get into what short-form can't show and review Chinese films and hip-hop! Chapters 00:00 Cultural Exchange and Chinese Short Form Content 08:14 Influencers and the Appeal of the China Aesthetic 14:13 Contradictions in the Chinese Narrative 25:06 Recommendations for Exploring Chinese Culture 33:33 Jia Zhangke's Cinematic Vision 38:12 Chengdu hip hop 41:48 The Future of Chinese Cultural Products 42:56 Censorship and the Dynamics of Domestic Entertainment in China Outtro Music: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't look away - if you keep looking at those hard questions, the answers come. Listen as we chat about this today! Diana Hongcha is a Chinese American author whose debut thriller, If You Don't Go, earned a silver medal at the Global Book Awards and reached Amazon Bestseller status. Born and raised in China, Diana emigrated to the United States as a teenager. A frequent traveler to China and a self-appointed culture attaché, she aims to write compelling stories that bridge the gap between the China she knows and the one depicted in the headlines. Diana dreams of one day splitting her time between Chengdu and Bozeman, Montana. For now, she's happily immersed in family life and the next story waiting to be told. Find out more at www.dianahongcha.com

Minh Tran (https://www.couldabeenatthe.club/), Afra Wang (https://afra.work/) and Lauren Teixeira (https://lrntex.substack.com/) join me to talk about Chinamaxxing — the growing fascination among younger Americans with Chinese short-form content. We discuss why these videos feel so appealing in a moment of pessimism at home, how Trump's America shapes that gaze, and where the “shiny,” abundance-driven vision of China starts to break down. We also get into what short-form can't show and review Chinese films and hip-hop! Chapters 00:00 Cultural Exchange and Chinese Short Form Content 08:14 Influencers and the Appeal of the China Aesthetic 14:13 Contradictions in the Chinese Narrative 25:06 Recommendations for Exploring Chinese Culture 33:33 Jia Zhangke's Cinematic Vision 38:12 Chengdu hip hop 41:48 The Future of Chinese Cultural Products 42:56 Censorship and the Dynamics of Domestic Entertainment in China Outtro Music: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gyatso, a local entrepreneur, felt immense pride when his village was named "Best Tourism Villages" by the United Nations World Tourism Organization in October. The dramatic boost to his homestay business as a result of the designation was an unexpected but welcome bonus.当家乡村庄在10月被联合国世界旅游组织评为“最佳旅游乡村”时，当地企业家嘉措感到无比自豪。这一殊荣为他的民宿生意带来了意想不到的巨大增长，堪称意外之喜。"Guest numbers surged so much that I had to hire several fellow villagers to help run the business,"Gyatso said.嘉措说道：“游客数量激增，我不得不雇佣几位村民帮忙经营生意。”Nestled on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at an altitude of about 2,000 meters, Jikayi village in Danba county, Sichuan province, is a living museum of Gyalrong Tibetan culture. The Gyalrong Tibetans, an indigenous ethnic group who primarily live in western Sichuan, are known for their stone architecture and rich cultural heritage.位于青藏高原东南边缘海拔约2000米处的四川省甘孜藏族自治州丹巴县基卡依村，是格鲁藏族文化的活态博物馆。格鲁藏族作为主要聚居于四川西部的土著民族，以其独特的石构建筑和深厚的文化底蕴闻名于世。Covering 5.95 square kilometers, the village is home to 92 households and 408 residents. Despite its small size, it serves as a "cultural gene bank" for the Gyalrong Tibetans, preserving a wide range of intangible cultural heritage.基卡依村占地5.95平方公里，共有92户408名居民。虽面积不大，却是嘉绒藏族的“文化基因库”，保存着丰富的非物质文化遗产。These include national-level Tibetan watchtower construction techniques and western Sichuan Tibetan folk songs, as well as provincial-level traditions such as Tibetan liquor brewing, coming-of-age ceremonies and the Danba Guozhuang dance.这些非物质文化遗产包括国家级藏族瞭望塔建造技艺和西川藏族民歌，以及省级传承项目如藏族酿酒技艺、成人礼和丹巴郭庄舞。"Before tourism took off, life in our village was not affluent despite the fertile land," said Kelsang, the village's Communist Party of China secretary. "Household income mainly depended on women selling plums, Sichuan peppercorns and other farm products at markets, while most men worked away from home to support their families."村里的中国共产党支部书记凯桑说：“旅游业兴起之前，我们村的生活并不富裕，尽管土地肥沃；家庭收入主要依靠妇女在集市上卖李子、花椒等农产品，而大多数男人则在外打工养家。”The turning point came in 2007 when villagers began opening homestays. The trend accelerated after China proposed its rural vitalization strategy in 2017.转折点出现在2007年，当时村民开始经营民宿。2017年中国提出乡村振兴战略后，这一趋势加速发展。"Infrastructure improved significantly, attracting more tourists and encouraging villagers to run homestays and start livestreaming," Kelsang said, adding that many university graduates have also returned to start businesses.凯桑表示：“基础设施得到显著改善，吸引了更多游客，并鼓励村民经营民宿和开展直播业务。”并补充说许多大学毕业生也已返乡创业。Dekyi Tso, 30, is among these entrepreneurs. After graduating from a university in Chengdu about a decade ago, she returned to Jikayi and spent three years building a homestay that blends traditional Tibetan architecture with modern amenities.30岁的德吉措正是这些创业者中的一员。约十年前从成都某大学毕业后，她回到基卡依村，耗时三年打造了一处融合藏族传统建筑与现代设施的民宿。Since opening in March 2020, the 21-room homestay has recorded steady year-on-year growth in guest numbers. Last year, it hosted 15,000 tourists. "In the past, it was difficult to keep young people in the village. Now they can find jobs right at their doorstep," said Dekyi Tso, whose business has created employment for more than 20 local residents.自2020年3月开业以来，这家拥有21间客房的民宿接待量逐年稳步增长。去年接待游客达1.5万人次。德吉措说：“过去年轻人很难留在村里，现在他们在家门口就能找到工作。”她的民宿已为当地20多名居民创造了就业机会。She said rising incomes have been accompanied by growing confidence in ethnic culture, with more villagers voluntarily wearing traditional attire and performing ethnic songs, dances and handicrafts.她说，随着收入的增长，村民对民族文化的信心日益增强，越来越多村民自发穿着传统服饰，表演民族歌舞，制作民族手工艺品。"The UNWTO recognition is a huge encouragement for us," she said. "We believe more tourists and investment will come, making our village even better."她表示：“联合国世界旅游组织给予的认可对我们而言是巨大的鼓舞；我们相信将有更多游客和投资涌入，让我们的村庄变得更美好。”Kelsang said the key to Jikayi's tourism success lies in integrating traditional culture into development. "Houses and ancient watchtowers have retained their traditional appearance, while cultural practices such as coming-of-age ceremonies, Guozhuang dance and mountain songs have been well preserved," he said.克桑表示，基卡依村旅游业成功的关键在于将传统文化融入发展进程。他说道：“房屋和古瞭望塔保留了传统风貌，成年礼、郭庄舞、山歌等文化习俗也得到了良好传承。”More than 90 percent of households now participate in the tourism industry, with 74 families operating homestays. The village's per capita disposable income reached 41,000 yuan ($5,900) last year, up more than 20 percent year-on-year, Kelsang said. "Life is becoming more promising for everyone, and our hearts are filled with hope."目前全村90%以上的家庭参与旅游业经营，其中74户开展民宿接待。村委会主任凯桑介绍，去年全村人均可支配收入达到4.1万元（约合5900美元），同比增长20%以上。“大家的生活越来越有希望，我们心里都充满了期待”。Building on Jikayi's success, the county government has launched a comprehensive plan to develop a tourism zone centered on the village and extending to four neighboring villages. The plan includes a smart tourism platform with multilingual guides and online booking services, ecosystem diversity study programs, nighttime economy projects, and a Tibetan watchtower construction skills training center, local authorities said.在基卡依村取得成功的基础上，县政府启动了一项综合规划，旨在以该村为核心，辐射周边四个村庄，打造旅游区。据当地政府透露，该计划包含多语种导览与在线预订服务的智能旅游平台、生态系统多样性研究项目、夜间经济项目，以及一座藏式瞭望塔建造技艺培训中心。homestay/ˈhoʊm.steɪ/民宿

This week on Sinica, I speak with Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings and one of the most clear-eyed analysts of the U.S.-China relationship working today. Ryan was director for China at the NSC during the Obama Administration.As Donald Trump moves through his second year in office, the bilateral relationship has defied easy characterization. The once-dominant language of great power competition has receded, China hawks have been sidelined, and Trump's personalistic approach—marked by praise for Xi Jinping and a willingness to bracket ideological disputes—represents a sharp departure from recent Washington orthodoxy.Ryan has just published an essay laying out three plausible pathways for the relationship under Trump: a soft landing, a hard split, or what he considers most likely—a period of uneasy calm in which both sides seek stability not out of trust, but out of mutual constraint. We discuss Trump's apparent strategy, the vibe shift in American attitudes, Beijing's choice between managing Trump versus managing uncertainty, the critical importance of Xi's planned April visit, and whether we're headed toward genuine stabilization or just buying time before the next collision.5:24 – Trump's approach: respect for Xi, military deterrence, and the rare earths constraint8:03 – The vibe shift and Trump's “reptilian feel” for American exhaustion with confrontation10:52 – Three scenarios: soft landing, hard split, or uneasy calm through mutual constraint16:30 – Beijing's bet: managing Trump versus managing whoever comes next26:46 – Economic interdependence and why decoupling is like “separating egg whites from a scrambled egg”37:12 – The April visit as a critical test: pageantry, protests, and what both sides are watching for42:18 – Taiwan as the most dangerous variable and where theory meets practice46:58 – Lack of institutional guardrails and the risks of Trump's personalistic foreign policyPaying it forward:Audrye Wong (USC)Recommendations:Ryan: The Conscience of the Party: Hu Yaobang, China's Communist Reformer by Robert SuettingerKaiser: The Last Cavalier (Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine) by Alexandre Dumas; Asia Society conversation with Lizzi Lee, Bert Hoffmann, and Gerard DiPippo on rebalancing China's economy; Trivium China Podcast with Andrew Polk, Joe Peissel, Danny McMahon, and Cory Combs on capital expenditure headwindsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we look at the the final part of an interview with a Chinese pastor recently released from prison, followed by some specific prayer requests for members and friends of Early Rain Church who have recently been arrested and harrassed. In China, it seems, persecution never sleeps. Let's pray for our brothers and sisters, as bound with them! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on Twitter/X (@chinaadventures) where I present a new Chinese city or county to pray for every single day. Please send any questions or comments to a new, secure email: chinacompass@privacyport.com. Everything else can be found at PrayGiveGo.us! Why the Prison Pulpit? The goal is to remind people to pray for persecuted believers as Hebrews 13:3 teaches: “Remember those who are in prison, as bound with them.” We’ve looked at Wang Yi and Early Rain Church’s writings in the aftermath of their arrest and attack in 2018, but I’ve also regularly turned to other persecuted ministers who have gone before, such as Richard Wurmbrand, to give us a voice literally from prison. Interview with an Imprisoned Chinese Pastor (Part III) https://chinapartnership.org/blog/2026/01/persecuted-church/ Early Rain Church Prayer Requests (January 25-31) This week, we will pray for believers associated with Early Rain Covenant Church. Earlier this month, there was a series of large scale arrests similar to those in 2018. Seven church members were arrested and confined, while five other members were brought in for questioning and then released. Several of the people arrested are elders of the church. Pray for those who have been arrested and their families… Pray for brothers and sisters in Chengdu and Deyang who have been taken away, are missing, or are under surveillance at home. Pray for God to grant them peace and protection, and to experience God’s presence and strength amidst uncertainty and hardship. Especially pray for the families and children to experience God’s comfort and love in suffering. Pray for the Lord to preserve brothers and sisters in the church, to love one another, and to be united and show the witness of Christ in times of trouble. Pray for Sister Z, who was taken to jail with her husband. Their two children were taken in with them, and spent the first night at the police station. Now they have been temporarily placed with their grandmother. Pray for a seminary student who was arrested and beaten in Chengdu recently. Pray for God’s comfort and grace to be with him, that he would know the presence of the Lord even in suffering. Pray for comfort and strength for his wife, and for him to be released soon. Continue to pray for Pastor Wang Yi, who was arrested in 2018 and continues to serve time in prison. Pray for the Lord’s presence to be with him in prison, that he may even be a witness to those with him in jail, and for his family and church on the outside. Follow China Compass Thank you for listening! Subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! There’s also a donation link at PrayforChina.us if you’d like to support our China ministry. For everything else, visit PrayGiveGo.us. Hebrews 13:3: Remember those who are in prison, “as bound with them”!

This week on Sinica, I speak with Afra Wang, a writer working between London and the Bay Area, currently a fellow with Gov.AI. We're talking today about her recent WIRED piece on what might be China's most influential science fiction project you've never heard of: The Morning Star of Lingao (Língáo Qǐmíng 临高启明), a sprawling, crowdsourced novel about time travelers who bootstrap an industrial revolution in Ming Dynasty Hainan. More than a thought experiment in alternate history, it's the ur-text of China's "Industrial Party" (gōngyè dǎng 工业党) — the loose intellectual movement that sees engineering capability as the true source of national power. We discuss what the novel reveals about how China thinks about failure, modernity, and salvation, and why, just as Americans are waking up to China's industrial might, the worldview that helped produce it may already be losing its grip.5:27 – Being a cultural in-betweener: code-switching across moral and epistemic registers 10:25 – Double consciousness and converging aesthetic standards 12:05 – "The greatest Chinese science fiction" — an ironic title for a poorly written cult classic 14:18 – Bridging STEM and humanities: the KPI-coded language of tech optimization 16:08 – China's post-Industrial Party moment: from "try hard" to "lie flat" 17:01 – How widely known is Lingao? A cult Bible for China's techno-elite 19:11 – From crypto bros to DAO experiments: how Afra discovered the novel 21:25 – The canonical timeline: compiling chaos into collaborative fiction 23:06 – Guancha.cn (guānchá zhě wǎng 观察者网) and the Industrial Party's media ecosystem 26:05 – The Sentimental Party (Qínghuái Dǎng 情怀党): China's lost civic space 29:01 – The Wenzhou high-speed rail crash: the debate that defined the Industrial Party 33:19 – Controlled spoilers: colonizing Australia, the Maid Revolution, and tech trees 41:06 – Competence as salvation: obsessive attention to getting the details right 44:18 – The Needham question and the joy of transformation: from Robinson Crusoe to Primitive Technology 47:25 – "Never again": inherited historical vulnerability and the memory of chaos 49:20 – Wang Xiaodong, "China Is Unhappy," and the crystallization of Industrial Party ideology 51:33 – Gender and Lingao: a pre-feminist artifact and the rational case for equality 56:16 – Dan Wang's Breakneck and the "engineering state" framework 59:25 – New Quality Productive Forces (xīn zhì shēngchǎnlì 新质生产力): Industrial Party logic in CCP policy 1:03:43 – The reckoning: why Industrial Party intellectuals are losing their innocence 1:07:49 – What Lingao tells us about China today: the invisible infrastructure beneath the hot showerPaying it forward: The volunteer translators of The Morning Star of Lingao (English translation and GitHub resources)Xīn Xīn Rén Lèi / Pixel Perfect podcast (https://pixelperfect.typlog.io/) and the Bǎihuā (百花) podcasting community Recommendations:Afra: China Through European Eyes: 800 Years of Cultural and Intellectual Encounter, edited by Kerry Brown; The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet by Yi-Ling Liu Kaiser: Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim AnsarySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we look at the the final part of an interview with a Chinese pastor recently released from prison, followed by some specific prayer requests for members and friends of Early Rain Church who have recently been arrested and harrassed. In China, it seems, persecution never sleeps. Let's pray for our brothers and sisters, as bound with them! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on Twitter/X (@chinaadventures) where I present a new Chinese city or county to pray for every single day. Please send any questions or comments to a new, secure email: chinacompass@privacyport.com. Everything else can be found at PrayGiveGo.us! Why the Prison Pulpit? The goal is to remind people to pray for persecuted believers as Hebrews 13:3 teaches: “Remember those who are in prison, as bound with them.” We’ve looked at Wang Yi and Early Rain Church’s writings in the aftermath of their arrest and attack in 2018, but I’ve also regularly turned to other persecuted ministers who have gone before, such as Richard Wurmbrand, to give us a voice literally from prison. Interview with an Imprisoned Chinese Pastor (Part III) https://chinapartnership.org/blog/2026/01/persecuted-church/ Early Rain Church Prayer Requests (January 25-31) This week, we will pray for believers associated with Early Rain Covenant Church. Earlier this month, there was a series of large scale arrests similar to those in 2018. Seven church members were arrested and confined, while five other members were brought in for questioning and then released. Several of the people arrested are elders of the church. Pray for those who have been arrested and their families… Pray for brothers and sisters in Chengdu and Deyang who have been taken away, are missing, or are under surveillance at home. Pray for God to grant them peace and protection, and to experience God’s presence and strength amidst uncertainty and hardship. Especially pray for the families and children to experience God’s comfort and love in suffering. Pray for the Lord to preserve brothers and sisters in the church, to love one another, and to be united and show the witness of Christ in times of trouble. Pray for Sister Z, who was taken to jail with her husband. Their two children were taken in with them, and spent the first night at the police station. Now they have been temporarily placed with their grandmother. Pray for a seminary student who was arrested and beaten in Chengdu recently. Pray for God’s comfort and grace to be with him, that he would know the presence of the Lord even in suffering. Pray for comfort and strength for his wife, and for him to be released soon. Continue to pray for Pastor Wang Yi, who was arrested in 2018 and continues to serve time in prison. Pray for the Lord’s presence to be with him in prison, that he may even be a witness to those with him in jail, and for his family and church on the outside. Follow China Compass Thank you for listening! Subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! There’s also a donation link at PrayforChina.us if you’d like to support our China ministry. For everything else, visit PrayGiveGo.us. Hebrews 13:3: Remember those who are in prison, “as bound with them”!

This week on Sinica, I speak with Jia Ruixue and Li Hongbin, coauthors of The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China. We're talking about China's college entrance exam — dreaded and feared, with outsized ability to determine life outcomes, seen as deeply flawed yet also sacrosanct, something few Chinese want drastically altered or removed. Cards on table: I had very strong preconceptions about the gaokao. My wife and I planned our children's education to get them out of the Chinese system before it became increasingly oriented toward gaokao preparation. But this book really opened my eyes. Ruixue is professor of economics at UC San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy, researching how institutions like examination systems shape governance, elite selection, and state capacity. Hongbin is James Liang Chair at Stanford, focusing on education, labor markets, and institutional foundations of China's economic development. We explore why the gaokao represents far more than just a difficult test, the concrete incentives families face, why there are limited alternative routes for social mobility, how both authors' own experiences shaped their thinking, why exam-based elite selection has been so durable in China, what happened when the exam system was suspended during the Cultural Revolution, why inequality has increased despite internet access to materials, why meaningful reform is so politically difficult, how education translated into productivity and GDP growth, the gap between skill formation and economic returns, how the system shapes governance and everyday life, and the moral dimensions of exam culture when Chinese families migrate to very different education systems like the U.S.6:18 – What the gaokao actually represents beyond just being a difficult exam 11:54 – Why there are limited alternative pathways for social mobility 14:23 – How their own experiences as students shaped their thinking 18:46 – Why the gaokao is a political institution, not just educational policy 22:21 – Why exam-based elite selection has been so durable in China 28:30 – What happened in late Qing and Cultural Revolution when exams were suspended 33:26 – Has internet access to materials reduced inequality or has it persisted? 36:55 – Hongbin's direct experience trying to reform the gaokao—and why it failed 40:28 – How education improvement accounts for significant share of China's GDP growth 42:44 – The gap: college doesn't add measurable skills, but gaokao scores predict income 46:56 – How centralized approach affects talent allocation across fields 51:08 – The gaokao and GDP tournament for officials: similar tournament systems 54:26 – How ranking and evaluation systems shape workplace behavior and culture 58:12 – When exam culture meets U.S. education: understanding tensions around affirmative action 1:02:10 – Transparent rule-based evaluation vs. discretion and judgment: the fundamental tradeoffRecommendations: Ruixue: Piao Liang Peng You (film by Geng Jun); Stoner (a novel by John Williams) Hongbin: The Dictator's HandbookKaiser: Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right by Laura K. Field; Black Pill by Elle ReeveSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For much of the past decade, Chile's export of cherries to China ran on a narrow calendar.过去十年间，智利樱桃对华出口长期受制于狭窄的时令窗口。From December to early the following year, the fruit ripened in Chile's central valleys. Weeks later, just ahead of the Chinese New Year, those cherries arrived as a seasonal luxury, scarce, expensive and tightly bound to the holiday. The logic was simple: southern-hemisphere harvests met Northern Hemisphere festivities, and value depended on timing as much as taste.从十二月到次年年初，智利中部山谷的果实逐渐成熟。数周后，恰逢中国新年之际，这些樱桃作为季节性奢侈品抵达，稀缺昂贵，与节日紧密相连。其逻辑很简单：南半球的收获期恰逢北半球的节日庆典，价值取决于时机与风味同样重要。That logic is now weakening.这种逻辑如今正在减弱。In early 2026, more than a month before Chinese New Year, Chilean cherries were already widely available in China at prices far below previous norms. Boxes of JJ-level Chilean cherry (with a diameter of 28 to 30 millimeters) weighing about 2.5 kilograms were selling for around 159 yuan ($22.7) in major supermarkets in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, with some promotional prices falling to 99 yuan, roughly 40 percent lower than a year earlier.2026年初，距离春节还有一个多月时，智利樱桃已在国内广泛上市，价格远低于往年水平。在西南地区四川省成都市的主要超市里，每箱重约2.5公斤的JJ级智利樱桃（直径28至30毫米）售价约159元（22.7美元），促销价甚至低至99元，较去年同期下降约40%。At local wholesale markets, prices fell even more sharply, with some high-grade cherries priced at nearly half of last year's level.在当地批发市场，价格跌幅更为显著，部分优质樱桃的价格几乎跌至去年水平的一半。Such movements do not point to a weakening of demand. Rather, they reflect a structural change in how supply reaches the market.此类变动并非表明需求疲软，而是反映了供应进入市场的结构性变化。Importers say the traditional preholiday bottleneck has eased, as improved logistics have reduced the need for cherries to flood the market in a short festive window.进口商表示，传统的节前供应瓶颈已有所缓解，因为物流改善减少了樱桃在短暂节日窗口期涌入市场的必要性。The redistribution of time has institutional roots.这种时间的重新分配具有制度根源。China and Chile's upgraded free trade agreement in 2017 placed more than 97 percent of traded products under zero tariffs, lowering the fixed costs of entry for Chilean cherries. Over time, it encouraged not just higher volumes but investment in logistics capable of delivering large quantities with greater predictability.2017年中国与智利升级的自由贸易协定使超过97%的贸易产品享受零关税待遇，降低了智利樱桃进入中国市场的固定成本。随着时间推移，该协定不仅促进了出口量的增长，更推动了物流领域的投资——这些投资使大宗樱桃能够以更高的可预测性完成运输。The result is a highly concentrated trade relationship. In the previous harvest season, more than 90 percent of Chile's cherry exports went to China. That degree of demand certainty has allowed the industry to organize production and shipments across the entire season, rather than around a single holiday peak.由此形成了高度集中的贸易关系。在上个采收季，智利樱桃出口量的90%以上销往中国。如此确定的需求量使该行业得以在整个采收季统筹安排生产和运输，而非仅围绕单一节庆高峰期运作。Claudia Soler, executive director of the Cherries Committee of Fruits from Chile, described the relationship as both economic and cultural. China, she said, is the market that enabled the industry's expansion. The cherry's red color and rounded shape, she added, closely align with Chinese cultural symbolism, especially around the Chinese New Year, when cherries became a popular gift symbolizing happiness and success.智利水果出口商协会下属智利车厘子委员会执行总监克劳迪娅·索勒将两国关系描述为经济与文化双重纽带。她指出，中国市场推动了智利樱桃产业的扩张。樱桃的鲜红色彩与圆润造型，恰与中华文化象征高度契合——尤其在春节期间，樱桃作为象征幸福与成功的热门礼品广受欢迎。Since 2018, Chile has operated a direct shipping route to China known as the "cherry express", cutting transit time from roughly 30 days to about 23 days. By the end of 2025, this dedicated shipping corridor had been further scaled up, doubling the number of direct sailings compared with the previous year. This allows cherries to arrive in China in greater volumes during the peak harvest season.自2018年起，智利开通了直达中国的“樱桃快线”航运通道，将运输时间从约30天缩短至23天左右。截至2025年底，这条专用航运通道进一步扩容，直航班次较上年翻倍增长。这使得樱桃在丰收旺季能以更大规模运抵中国。This shift has reshaped incentives at the production end. Data from the office of agrarian studies and policies at Chile's Ministry of Agriculture show that the cherry planting area has expanded roughly twenty-fold since 2000, nearly doubling from about 38,392 hectares in 2019 to 70,686 hectares by 2024.这一转变重塑了生产端的激励机制。智利农业部农业研究与政策办公室数据显示，樱桃种植面积自2000年以来扩大了约二十倍，从2019年的38,392公顷增至2024年的70,686公顷，增幅近一倍。Industry participants attribute this rapid growth in part to the gradual formation of a logistics system geared toward the Chinese market, which has given Chilean growers clearer expectations over timing, allowing them to expand planting and plan output with greater confidence.行业人士认为，这种快速增长部分归功于面向中国市场的物流体系逐步形成，这使智利种植者对时间节点有了更清晰的预期，从而能够更自信地扩大种植规模并规划产量。Processing hubs in Chile's central regions now operate on a different temporal logic. Time remains critical, but it is no longer singular. In the past, a delayed shipment could miss the Chinese New Year altogether, erasing margins and turning a strong harvest into a liability. Today, improved transport has allowed exporters to distribute shipments across the season, reducing the risk concentrated in any single sailing.智利中部地区的加工中心如今遵循着不同的时间逻辑。时间依然至关重要，但已不再是唯一考量。过去，货运延误可能导致错过整个春节销售期，利润尽失，丰收反而变成负担。如今，运输条件的改善使出口商能够将货运分散在整个季节进行，从而降低了单次航运集中承担的风险。For Chinese consumers, cherries are no longer limited to a short preholiday rush, easing the need for concentrated buying ahead of Chinese New Year. Fruit exporters from Chile estimate that in the 2025-2026 season, Chile will export about 110 million boxes of cherries (five kilograms per box, roughly 550,000 metric tons), with more than 90 percent destined for China.对于中国消费者而言，樱桃消费季不再局限于春节前的短暂抢购期，缓解了春节前集中采购的需求。智利水果出口商预计，在2025-2026年产季，智利将出口约1.1亿箱樱桃（每箱5公斤，约合55万吨），其中90%以上将销往中国。preholiday bottleneck节前供应瓶颈

This week on Sinica, I speak with Daniel Bessner, the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and co-host of the American Prestige Podcast. If you follow U.S.-China relations even casually, you can't avoid hearing that we're in a new Cold War — it's become a rhetorical reflex in D.C., shaping budgets, foreign policy debates, media narratives, and how ordinary Americans think about China.But what does it actually mean to call something a Cold War? To think clearly about the present, I find it helps to go to the past, not for simple analogies but to understand the intellectual and ideological machinery that produced and now sustains a Cold War mentality. Danny has written widely about the architecture of American power, the rise of the national security state, and the constellation of thinkers he calls Cold War liberals who helped define the ideological landscape of U.S. foreign policy. We explore how Cold War liberalism reshaped American political life, how the U.S. came to see its global dominance as natural and morally necessary, why the question of whose fault the Cold War was remains urgent in an age of renewed great power rivalry, the rise of China and anxiety of American decline, and what it would take to imagine a U.S.-China relationship that doesn't fall back into old patterns of moral binaries, ideological panic, and militarized competition.6:20 – Danny's background: from Iraq War politicization to studying defense intellectuals11:00 – Cold War liberalism: the constellation of ideas that shaped U.S. foreign policy16:14 – How these ideas became structurally embedded in security institutions22:02 – The Democratic Party's destruction of the genuine left in the late 1940s27:53 – Whose fault was the Cold War? Stalin's sphere of influence logic vs. American universalism31:07 – Are we facing a similar decision with China today?34:23 – The anxiety of loss: how decline anxiety distorts interpretation of China's rise37:54 – The new Cold War narrative: material realities vs. psychological legacies41:21 – Clearest parallels between the first Cold War and emerging U.S.-China confrontation44:33 – What would a pluralistic order in Asia actually look like?47:42 – Coexistence rather than zero-sum rivalry: what does it mean in practice?50:57 – What genuine restraint requires: accepting limits of American power54:14 – The moral imperative pushback: you can't have good empire without bad empire56:35 – Imperialist realism: Americans don't think we're good, but can't imagine another worldPaying it forward: The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and Responsible Statecraft publication; The Trillion Dollar War Machine by William Hartung and Ben FreemanRecommendations:Danny: Nirvana and the history of Seattle punk/indie music (forthcoming podcast project)Kaiser: Hello China Tech Substack by Poe Zhao (hellotechchina.com)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, in a joint episode with the China-Global South Podcast, I speak with Eric Olander, host of the China Global South Podcast and founder/editor-in-chief of the China-Global South Project. In the early hours of January 3rd, U.S. forces carried out a coordinated operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, followed by their rendition to the United States to face drug trafficking charges. The operation unfolded quickly, with minimal kinetic escalation, but has raised far-reaching questions about international law, hemispheric security, and the Trump administration's willingness to use force in the Western Hemisphere. Just before the raid, China's Special Envoy for Latin America, Qiu Xiaoqi, had met with Maduro in Caracas. Commentary linking Trump's action to China has ranged widely—claims about spheres of influence, arguments this was all about oil or rare earths, and pronouncements about what this means for Taiwan. Eric helps us think through China's actual stake in Venezuela, how deeply Beijing understands Latin America, what this episode does and does not change about China's role in the region and the global South more broadly, China's immediate reaction and concrete exposure on the ground, how it manages political risk when partner regimes collapse, and what Chinese military planners may be studying as they assess how this operation unfolded.5:18 – How Beijing is reading this episode: official messaging versus elite thinking 7:40 – The Taiwan comparisons on Chinese social media and why they don't work 11:09 – How deep is China's actual expertise on Latin America? 14:56 – Comparing U.S. and Chinese benches of Latin America expertise 18:02 – Are we back to spheres of influence? Why that framing doesn't work 20:09 – Where is China most exposed in Venezuela: oil, loans, personnel? 23:41 – The resource-for-infrastructure model and why it failed 28:27 – The political assets: China as defender of sovereignty and multilateralism 36:25 – Will this push left-leaning governments closer to Beijing? 40:07 – The "China impotence" narrative and what doing something would actually mean 46:26 – What Chinese military planners are actually studying 51:46 – The Qiu Xiaoqi meeting: strategic failure or intelligence delivery? 58:40 – What actually changes and what doesn't: looking aheadPaying it forward: Alonso Illueca, nonresident fellow for Latin America and the Caribbean at the China Global South ProjectRecommendations: Eric: "China's Long Economic War" by Zongyuan Zoe Liu (Foreign Affairs)Kaiser: The Venetian Heretic by Christian CameronSee 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, recorded at Yale University, I speak with Michael Brenes and Van Jackson, coauthors of The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy. Their argument is that framing the U.S.-China relationship as geopolitical rivalry has become more than just a foreign policy orientation — it's a domestic political project that reshapes budgets, norms, and coalitions in ways that actively harm American democracy and the American people. Rivalry narrows political possibility, makes dissent suspect, encourages neo-McCarthyism (the China Initiative, profiling of Chinese Americans), produces anti-AAPI hate, and redirects public investment away from social welfare and into defense spending through what they call "national security Keynesianism."Mike is interim director of the Brady Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, while Van is a senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University of Wellington and host of the Un-Diplomatic Podcast. We discuss the genesis of their collaboration during the Biden administration, how they navigate China as a puzzle for the American left, canonical misrememberings of the Cold War that distort current China policy, the security dilemma feedback loop between Washington and Beijing, why defense-heavy stimulus is terrible at job creation, how rivalry politics weakens democracy, recent polling showing a shift toward engagement, and their vision for a "geopolitics of peace" anchored in Sino-U.S. détente 2.0.5:47 – The genesis of the book: recognizing Biden's Cold War liberalism 11:26 – How they approached writing together from different disciplinary homes 13:20 – Navigating China as a puzzle for the American left21:39 – How great power competition hardened from analytical framework into ideology 28:15 – Mike on two canonical misrememberings of the Cold War 33:18 – Van on the security dilemma and the nuclear feedback loop 39:55 – National security Keynesianism: why defense spending is bad at job creation 44:38 – How rivalry politics weakens democracy and securitizes dissent 48:09 – Building durable coalitions for restraint-oriented statecraft 51:27 – Has the post-COVID moral panic actually abated? 53:27 – The master narrative we need: a geopolitics of peace 55:29 – Associative balancing: achieving equilibrium through accommodation, not armsRecommendations:Van: The Long Twentieth Century by Giovanni Arrighi Mike: The World of the Cold War: 1945-1991 by Vladislav Zubok Kaiser: Pluribus (Apple TV series by Vince Gilligan)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Happy holidays from Sinica! This week, I speak with Paul Triolo, Senior Vice President for China and Technology Policy Lead at DGA Albright Stonebridge Group and nonresident honorary senior fellow on technology at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis. On December 8th, Donald Trump announced via Truth Social that he would approve Nvidia H200 sales to vetted Chinese customers — a decision that immediately sparked fierce debate. Paul and I unpack why this decision was made, why it's provoked such strong reactions, and what it tells us about the future of technology export controls on China. We discuss the evolution of U.S. chip controls from the Entity List expansions under Trump's first term through the October 2022 rules and the Sullivan Doctrine, the role of David Sacks and Jensen Huang in advocating for this policy shift, whether Chinese firms will actually want to buy H200s given their heterogeneous hardware stacks and Beijing's autarky ambitions, what the Reuters report about China cracking ASML's EUV lithography code tells us about the choke point strategy, and whether selective engagement actually strengthens Taiwan's Silicon Shield or undermines it. This conversation is essential listening for understanding the strategic, technical, and political dimensions of the semiconductor competition.6:44 – What the H200 decision actually changes in the real world 9:23 – The evolution of U.S. chip controls: from Entity Lists to the Sullivan Doctrine 18:28 – How Jensen Huang and David Sacks convinced Trump 25:21 – The good-faith case for why export control advocates see H200 approval as a strategic mistake 32:12 – What H200s practically enable: training, inference, or stabilizing existing clusters 38:49 – Will Chinese companies actually buy H200s? The heterogeneous hardware reality 46:06 – The strategic contradiction: exporting 5nm GPUs while freezing tool controls at 16/14nm 51:01 – The Reuters EUV report and what it reveals about choke point technologies 58:43 – How Taiwan fits into this: does selective engagement strengthen the Silicon Shield? 1:07:26 – Looking ahead: broader rethinking of export controls or patchwork exceptions? 1:12:49 – What would have to be true in 2-3 years for critics to have been right about H200?Paying it forward: Poe Zhao and his Substack Hello China TechRecommendations: Paul: Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Amerca's Great Power Propheti by Ed Luce; Hyperdimensional Substack by Dean Ball Kaiser: Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green; The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green; So Very Small by Thomas LevensonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the “Prison Pulpit” on the China Compass podcast! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I share, among other things, daily reminders to pray for China. Also, feel free to email any questions or comments to bfwesten at gmail dot com. And last but not least, learn more about (most of) our strategic prayer and missions projects @ PrayGiveGo.us! The Prison Pulpit As I’ve stated all year, the goal of the Prison Pulpit series is to remind people to pray for persecuted believers as Hebrews 13:3 teaches us to do: “Remember those who are in prison, as bound with them.” As I am recording this podcast, we have just passed the 7th anniversary of the attack and forced closure of Early Rain Church in Chengdu, China, and the arrest of Pastor Wang Yi, on December 9th, 2018. A couple weeks ago I read the Wang Yi family newsletter that was published just 12 days before his arrest on Dec 9, 2018. Last week I shared a few updates that were put out by unnamed Early Rain Church members in the aftermath of the attack and arrest of the pastor and most of the leadership. As one of last week's updates reminded us, there was no guarantee that the next update would ever come. Arrests were ongoing and, for lack of a better phrase, church leaders were falling like flies. However, in spite of all this, more updates did follow, and I want to share some of them with you now: Early Rain Urgent Prayer Update #10 (12/12/18) May the Lord give us love for souls. These law enforcement officers greatly need the gospel of Christ. They have greatly sinned against God. We need to pray for them, for we were once like them. May the Lord himself speak words of comfort to us, for he has given his life for us. We suffer with those brothers and sisters who suffer as though imprisoned with them. May God make peace like a river flow through our hearts… Please strengthen your resolve, brothers and sisters. Experience in the midst of every kind of tribulation and danger the filling of the Holy Spirit and the renewal of your lives. Early Rain Urgent Prayer Update (12/15/18) According to some testimonies of brothers and sisters that have emerged, they have been sharing the gospel while under guard. They have been using their suffering as a beautiful testimony for the Lord. Some police officers and workers have been very interested in the gospel, even giving their addresses and asking for Bibles. May the Lord choose for himself children from among these law enforcement officers persecuting the church. Another encouraging testimony from a church member who was just released from 10 days of detention... “It is like a monastery in there. I cultivated myself for ten days there. Thank God for his protection. I often shared the gospel in there. There was a Tibetan named Z who really wanted to hear preaching, to join a small group, and to become a Christian. There was also a master’s student who has been quite miserable since entering [the detention center]. He wanted to buy a Bible, and I told him I would give him one. He also wanted to attend a small group Bible study. There was also another person who used to belong to a traditional house church but who stumbled because of marriage problems. I am preparing to give him one of our church’s thumb drives so he can listen to preaching. Please keep praying for the nearly 20 brothers and sisters at the detention center and for Yingxu and Shuqi, about whom we still have no information. And pray for the others, as well, because we don’t know how they are doing now. It is a high-level detention center, and it is quite strict; but from another perspective, the despair of the prisoners inside is also quite high, making evangelizing more fruitful. Thank the Lord!” Lord, the greatest freedom in the world is the freedom of becoming your children. You say that we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. May your Spirit fill us and make us to worship freely, to enter prison freely, to spread the gospel freely. Give us free and noble hearts. Turn us into liberated criminals willing to be detained by the world. For a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted you, they will persecute us. We also ask you to forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Open their eyes to see your glory and turn them into free children! In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / All our sins are washed away / Only by His blood. Follow China Compass Subscribe to China Compass wherever you get your podcasts. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures), email anytime (bfwesten at gmail dot com), and check out our website (PrayGiveGo.us). Hebrews 13:3!

This week on Sinica, I speak with Mark Sidel, the Doyle Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a senior fellow at the International Center for Not for Profit Law. Mark has written extensively on law and philanthropy in China and across Asia, including widely cited analyses of how the Chinese security state came to play a central role in managing foreign civil society organizations. Since the Law on the Management of Domestic Activities of Overseas NGOs took effect on January 1, 2017, China has introduced a remarkably comprehensive, vertically integrated system of oversight for foreign NGOs, foundations, and nonprofits.We discuss how this system combines securitization and political risk management with selective accommodation of service provision and technical expertise, Mark's typology of organizational responses (survivors, hibernators, regionalizers, work-arounders, and leavers), the requirement that foreign NGOs secure professional supervisory units, the impact on China's domestic nonprofit ecosystem, and what this tells us about the party-state's long-term vision for controlled engagement with the outside world.4:43 – The landscape of non-state organizations before the 2016 law 7:06 – What changed: color revolutions, Arab Spring, and domestic anxieties 9:08 – Public security intellectuals and their influence on the law 11:51 – How registration and temporary activity filing systems work in practice 13:48 – Why the Ministry of Public Security, not Civil Affairs, was put in charge 19:31 – The professional supervisory unit requirement and dependency relationships22:48 – How the state shifted foreign NGO work away from advocacy without banning it26:17 – Mark's typology: survivors, hibernators, regionalizers, work-arounders, and leavers 35:19 – What correlates with success for those who have survived 40:41 – Impact on China's domestic nonprofit ecosystem and professional intermediaries 45:54 – What makes China's system distinctive compared to India, Egypt, Russia, and Vietnam 50:19 – The Article 53 problem and university partnerships 55:32 – Advice for mid-sized foundations or NGOs considering work in China todayPaying it Forward: Neysun Mahboubi and the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China RelationsRecommendations:Mark: Everyday Democracy: Civil Society, Youth, and the Struggle Against Authoritarian Culture in China by Anthony SpiresKaiser: The music of Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, The Dregs, Steve Morse Band)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the “Prison Pulpit” on the China Compass podcast! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I share, among other things, daily reminders to pray for China. Also, feel free to email any questions or comments to bfwesten at gmail dot com. And last but not least, learn more about (most of) our strategic prayer and missions projects @ PrayGiveGo.us! The Prison Pulpit As I’ve stated all year, the goal of the Prison Pulpit series is to remind people to pray for persecuted believers as Hebrews 13:3 teaches us to do: “Remember those who are in prison, as bound with them.” As I am recording this podcast, we have just passed the 7th anniversary of the attack and forced closure of Early Rain Church in Chengdu, China, and the arrest of Pastor Wang Yi, on December 9th, 2018. A couple weeks ago I read the Wang Yi family newsletter that was published just 12 days before his arrest on Dec 9, 2018. Last week I shared a few updates that were put out by unnamed Early Rain Church members in the aftermath of the attack and arrest of the pastor and most of the leadership. As one of last week's updates reminded us, there was no guarantee that the next update would ever come. Arrests were ongoing and, for lack of a better phrase, church leaders were falling like flies. However, in spite of all this, more updates did follow, and I want to share some of them with you now: Early Rain Urgent Prayer Update #10 (12/12/18) May the Lord give us love for souls. These law enforcement officers greatly need the gospel of Christ. They have greatly sinned against God. We need to pray for them, for we were once like them. May the Lord himself speak words of comfort to us, for he has given his life for us. We suffer with those brothers and sisters who suffer as though imprisoned with them. May God make peace like a river flow through our hearts… Please strengthen your resolve, brothers and sisters. Experience in the midst of every kind of tribulation and danger the filling of the Holy Spirit and the renewal of your lives. Early Rain Urgent Prayer Update (12/15/18) According to some testimonies of brothers and sisters that have emerged, they have been sharing the gospel while under guard. They have been using their suffering as a beautiful testimony for the Lord. Some police officers and workers have been very interested in the gospel, even giving their addresses and asking for Bibles. May the Lord choose for himself children from among these law enforcement officers persecuting the church. Another encouraging testimony from a church member who was just released from 10 days of detention... “It is like a monastery in there. I cultivated myself for ten days there. Thank God for his protection. I often shared the gospel in there. There was a Tibetan named Z who really wanted to hear preaching, to join a small group, and to become a Christian. There was also a master’s student who has been quite miserable since entering [the detention center]. He wanted to buy a Bible, and I told him I would give him one. He also wanted to attend a small group Bible study. There was also another person who used to belong to a traditional house church but who stumbled because of marriage problems. I am preparing to give him one of our church’s thumb drives so he can listen to preaching. Please keep praying for the nearly 20 brothers and sisters at the detention center and for Yingxu and Shuqi, about whom we still have no information. And pray for the others, as well, because we don’t know how they are doing now. It is a high-level detention center, and it is quite strict; but from another perspective, the despair of the prisoners inside is also quite high, making evangelizing more fruitful. Thank the Lord!” Lord, the greatest freedom in the world is the freedom of becoming your children. You say that we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free. May your Spirit fill us and make us to worship freely, to enter prison freely, to spread the gospel freely. Give us free and noble hearts. Turn us into liberated criminals willing to be detained by the world. For a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted you, they will persecute us. We also ask you to forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Open their eyes to see your glory and turn them into free children! In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / All our sins are washed away / Only by His blood. Follow China Compass Subscribe to China Compass wherever you get your podcasts. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures), email anytime (bfwesten at gmail dot com), and check out our website (PrayGiveGo.us). Hebrews 13:3!

En este episodio platicamos con la Gerente de producto de la marca Lynk & Co, con quien viajamos a China para conocer más de cerca, es una marca automotriz chino-sueca fundada en 2016, resultado de una colaboración entre Geely Auto Group y Volvo Car Group. Su objetivo es crear vehículos innovadores y de alta calidad, combinando la tecnología y seguridad de Volvo con la innovación y diseño chino. Utiliza la plataforma CMA (Compact Modular Architecture), desarrollada conjuntamente con Volvo, que permite una mayor flexibilidad y eficiencia en la producción. Impresionante lo que la marca Lynk & Co ha sido capaz de lograr en tan solo 9 años y han logrado vender 1.62 millones de unidades. Atrévete a conocer más sobre esta marca que seguramente te llamara la atención de inmediato por su tecnología y diseño. 

Teahouses were once hubs of socializing, business, and leisure in towns along the Yangtze, akin to British pubs or Shanghai's 1990s eateries. At Jiaotong Teahouse, most patrons are retired local men, much like their ancestors a century ago. They trickle in around 5 a.m., chatting, playing cards, chess, or sipping tea under dim wooden beams and brick walls, with scarcely a sound from phones or devices. Some linger all day, swapping tales from near and far; others head home by noon with vegetables for lunch. Wang Di's book Teahouse vividly explores the traditional Chengdu teahouse's role in culture, politics, and society—a history and voice of ordinary people. Recorded in Chongqing by Digimonk.

As I am recording this podcast, we have just passed the 7th anniversary of the attack and forced closure of Early Rain Church in Chengdu, China, and the arrest of Pastor Wang Yi, on December 9th, 2018. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I share, among other things, daily reminders to pray for China. Also, feel free to email any questions or comments to bfwesten at gmail dot com. And last but not least, learn more about (most of) our strategic prayer and missions projects @ PrayGiveGo.us! Early Rain Attack Updates Last week I read the Wang Yi family newsletter that was published just 12 days before his arrest on Dec 9, 2018. This week I will be sharing a handful of updates that were put out by unnamed Early Rain Church members in the immediate aftermath of the attack and arrest of the pastor and most of the leadership. As the writer mentions in one of the updates, there was no guarantee that the next update would ever come. Arrests were ongoing at the original time of publishing. I tried (unsuccessfully) to just read these powerful proclamations, only pausing to comment when absolutely necessary. On my Substack (ChinaCompass.substack.com) you will find the written version today’s podcast: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/early-rain-forcibly-closed-pastor Last but not least, when mentioning this week’s special resource, The Memoirs of William Milne (PrayGiveGo.us), I shared how after 200+ years of missions in China things have come full circle. Follow China Compass Subscribe to China Compass wherever you get your podcasts. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures), email anytime (bfwesten at gmail dot com), and check out our website (PrayGiveGo.us). Hebrews 13:3!

This week on Sinica, I'm delighted to have Iza Ding as guest host. Iza is a professor of political science at Northwestern University and a good friend whose work on Chinese governance I greatly admire. She's joined by Deborah Seligsohn, who has been a favorite guest on this show many times. Deb is an associate professor of political science at Villanova University and was previously a science and environmental counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. This episode was recorded in three parts: the first two in Belém, Brazil during COP30 (the 30th UN Climate Change Conference), and the final segment after the conference concluded. Iza and Deb discuss China's role at the climate summit, the real story behind the famous 2007 U.S. Embassy air quality monitor in Beijing (spoiler: it wasn't China's "Silent Spring moment"), Brazil's management of the conference, why China leads on technology but not on negotiation, and what the outcomes of COP30 mean for the future of global climate cooperation. This is an insider's view of how climate diplomacy actually works, complete with unexpected fire evacuations and glut-shaming of The New York Times.3:43 – Deb's impressions of COP30 and Brazil's inclusive approach 9:21 – China's presence at COP30: technology leadership without negotiation leadership 15:34 – Xie Zhenhua's absence and the U.S.-China dynamic at previous COPs 24:46 – Inside the negotiation rooms: language, politeness, and obstruction 33:06 – BYD's presence in Brazil and Chinese EV expansion 40:54 – The real story of the 2007 U.S. Embassy air quality monitor in Beijing 45:00 – Fire evacuation at COP30 and UN territorial sovereignty 1:22:06 – What actually drove China's air pollution control: the 2003 power plant standards 1:41:27 – The dramatic final plenary and the Mutirão decision 1:55:17 – China's NDC 3.0: under-promise and over-deliver strategySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As I am recording this podcast, we have just passed the 7th anniversary of the attack and forced closure of Early Rain Church in Chengdu, China, and the arrest of Pastor Wang Yi, on December 9th, 2018. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I share, among other things, daily reminders to pray for China. Also, feel free to email any questions or comments to bfwesten at gmail dot com. And last but not least, learn more about (most of) our strategic prayer and missions projects @ PrayGiveGo.us! Early Rain Attack Updates Last week I read the Wang Yi family newsletter that was published just 12 days before his arrest on Dec 9, 2018. This week I will be sharing a handful of updates that were put out by unnamed Early Rain Church members in the immediate aftermath of the attack and arrest of the pastor and most of the leadership. As the writer mentions in one of the updates, there was no guarantee that the next update would ever come. Arrests were ongoing at the original time of publishing. I tried (unsuccessfully) to just read these powerful proclamations, only pausing to comment when absolutely necessary. On my Substack (ChinaCompass.substack.com) you will find the written version today’s podcast: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/early-rain-forcibly-closed-pastor Last but not least, when mentioning this week’s special resource, The Memoirs of William Milne (PrayGiveGo.us), I shared how after 200+ years of missions in China things have come full circle. Follow China Compass Subscribe to China Compass wherever you get your podcasts. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures), email anytime (bfwesten at gmail dot com), and check out our website (PrayGiveGo.us). Hebrews 13:3!

Despite their support for Ukraine, European countries have been a significant market for Russian energy. But an agreement has now been reached between the European Council and the European Parliament to phase out imports of Russian gas. The announcement came as it emerged peace talks between the US and Russia had failed, once again, to produce a breakthrough. Also in this episode - France's President, Emmanuel Macron, has arrived in Beijing for an official visit that will also take him to the city of Chengdu. The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH-370 will resume this month. A new draft law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews has sparked uproar in Israel. The American city of San Francisco is to file the nation's first government lawsuit against manufacturers of ultra-processed food. The BBC investigates the dramatic rise in online abuse towards football players and managers in the Premier League and Women's Super League. And a man in New Zealand is being questioned after allegedly swallowing a Faberge diamond pendant, in an attempt to smuggle it out of a jewellery store.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

This week on Sinica, I speak with Zhong Na, a novelist and essayist whose new piece, "Murder House," appears in the inaugural issue of Equator — a striking new magazine devoted to longform writing that crosses borders, disciplines, and cultures. In January 2024, a young couple, both Tsinghua-educated Google engineers living in a $2.5 million Silicon Valley home, became the center of a tragedy that captivated Chinese social media far more than American outlets. Zhong Na explores how the case became a collective Rorschach test — a mirror held up to contemporary Chinese society, exposing cracks in the myths of meritocracy, the prestige of global tech firms, and shifting notions of gender, class, and the Chinese dream itself. We discuss the gendered reactions online, the dimming of America's appeal, the emotional costs of the immigrant success story, and the craft of writing about tragedy with compassion but without sentimentality.5:06 – How the story first reached Zhong Na, and the Luigi Mangione comparison 7:05 – Discovering she attended the same Chengdu high school as the alleged murderer Chen Liren 8:10 – The collaboration with Equator and Joan Didion's influence 10:30 – Education, class, and the cracks in China's meritocracy myth 16:01 – Tiger mothers vs. lying flat: two responses to a rigged system 19:12 – The pandemic and the dimming of the American dream 22:49 – Chinese men as perpetrators: immigrant stress and the loss of patriarchal privilege 25:56 – The gender war online: moral autopsy and victim-blaming 30:25 – The obsession with the ex-girlfriend and attraction to the accused 34:37 – The murder house, Chinese numerology, and the rise of Gen Z metaphysics 37:08 – Geopolitics, the China Initiative, and rethinking America as a destination 39:42 – Craft and moral compass: learning from Didion and Janet Malcolm 42:31 – Zhong Na's fiction: writing Chinese experiences without catering to Western expectationsPaying it forward: Gavin Jacobson and the editorial team at EquatorRecommendations: Zhong Na: Elsewhere by Yan Ge Kaiser: Made in Ethiopia, documentary by Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan (available on PBS)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

December 3, 2025Download the app HEREwww.TheDailyMojo.com"Ep 120325: Christmas Past  | The Daily MoJo"In 2025, Matt Van Epps wins a race in Tennessee, sparking humorous discussions about Michael Dell's wife and a $6.25 billion investment in children's accounts. A lighting ceremony for a 53-foot silver bell tree in Nevada features a fourth grader's essay contest win. The dialogue covers political engagement, health checkups, and skepticism about vaccines. The New Century Global Center in Chengdu is highlighted, along with aviation issues and societal reflections.Phil Bell's Morning Update - Great job, Tennessee! HEREOur affiliate partners:EMP Shield - Figuring out the odds of a devastating EMP attack on the United States is impossible, but as with any disaster, the chances are NOT ZERO, and could happen any day. This decade has proven that the weird and unexpected is right around the corner. Be prepared - protect your home, vehicle, even your generator - with EMP Shield. You'll save money and protect what's important at the same time!ProtectMyMoJo.com Be prepared! Not scared. Need some Ivermection? Some Hydroxychloroquine? Don't have a doctor who fancies your crazy ideas? We have good news - Dr. Stella Immanuel has teamed up with The Daily MoJo to keep you healthy and happy all year long! Not only can she provide you with those necessary prophylactics, but StellasMoJo.com has plenty of other things to keep you and your body in tip-top shape. Use Promo Code: DailyMoJo to save $$Take care of your body - it's the only one you'll get and it's your temple! We've partnered with Sugar Creek Goods to help you care for yourself in an all-natural way. And in this case, "all natural" doesn't mean it doesn't work! Save 15% on your order with promo code "DailyMojo" at SmellMyMoJo.comCBD is almost everywhere you look these days, so the answer isn't so much where can you get it, it's more about - where can you get the CBD products that actually work!? Certainly, NOT at the gas station! Patriots Relief says it all in the name, and you can save an incredible 40% with the promo code "DailyMojo" at GetMoJoCBD.com!Romika Designs is an awesome American small business that specializes in creating laser-engraved gifts and awards for you, your family, and your employees. Want something special for someone special? Find exactly what you want at MoJoLaserPros.com  There have been a lot of imitators, but there's only OG – American Pride Roasters Coffee. It was first and remains the best roaster of fine coffee beans from around the world. You like coffee? You'll love American Pride – from the heart of the heartland – Des Moines, Iowa. AmericanPrideRoasters.com   Find great deals on American-made products at MoJoMyPillow.com. Mike Lindell – a true patriot in our eyes – puts his money where his mouth (and products) is/are. Find tremendous deals at MoJoMyPillow.com – Promo Code: MoJo50  Life gets messy – sometimes really messy. Be ready for the next mess with survival food and tools from My Patriot Supply. A 25 year shelf life and fantastic variety are just the beginning of the long list of reasons to get your emergency rations at PrepareWithMoJo50.comStay ConnectedWATCH The Daily Mojo LIVE 7-9a CT: www.TheDailyMojo.com Rumble: HEREOr just LISTEN:The Daily MoJo ChannelBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-daily-mojo-with-brad-staggs--3085897/support.

Voici l'essentiel à retenir sur le départ des pandas géants de France, et surtout sur la promesse diplomatique qui a suivi. Here is the essential information to remember about the departure of the giant pandas from France, and especially about the diplomatic promise that followed.Après 12 ans comme véritables stars du zoo de Beauval, les deux pandas, Huan Huan et Yuan Zi, sont repartis pour la Chine. After 12 years as the true stars of the Beauval zoo, the two pandas, Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, have left for China.Faut savoir que Huan Huan et Yuan Zi, qui étaient prêtés par Pékin depuis 2012, sont repartis pour des raisons médicales. You should know that Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, who had been loaned by Beijing since 2012, left for medical reasons.Et leur voyage, c'était toute une opération. And their journey was quite an operation.Un convoi spécial, un vol de 12 heures dans un Airbus A330 cargo d'Air China qui a décollé de Roissy pour atterrir à Chengdu. A special convoy, a 12-hour flight in an Air China Airbus A330 cargo plane that took off from Roissy to land in Chengdu.Deuxièmement, et c'est là que ça devient intéressant, il y a eu la promesse de la Chine. Secondly, and this is where it gets interesting, there was the promise from China.Alors que les pandas s'apprêtaient à décoller, le chargé d'affaires de l'ambassade de Chine, Shen Dong, a fait une déclaration pour rassurer tout le monde. As the pandas were preparing to take off, the chargé d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy, Shen Dong, made a statement to reassure everyone.Il a formellement promis que de nouveaux pandas géants seraient envoyés en France dans le futur pour continuer cette tradition. He formally promised that new giant pandas would be sent to France in the future to continue this tradition. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

This week on Sinica, I welcome back Finbarr Bermingham, the Brussels-based Europe correspondent for the South China Morning Post, about the Nexperia dispute — one of the most revealing episodes in the global contest over semiconductor supply chains. Nexperia, a Dutch-headquartered chipmaker owned by Shanghai-listed Wingtech, became the subject of extraordinary government intervention when the Netherlands invoked a Cold War-era emergency law to seize temporary control of the company and suspend its Chinese CEO. Finbarr's reporting, drawing on Dutch court documents and expert sources, has illuminated the tangled threads of this story: preexisting concerns about governance and technology transfer, mounting U.S. pressure on The Hague to remove Chinese management, and the timing of the Dutch action on the very day the U.S. rolled out its affiliate rule. We discuss China's retaliatory export controls on chips packaged at Nexperia's Dongguan facilities, the role of the Trump-Xi meeting in Busan in unlocking a temporary thaw, and what this case reveals about Europe's agonizing position between American pressure and Chinese integration in global production networks.4:34 – Why the "Europe cracks down on Chinese acquisition" framing was too simple 6:17 – The Dutch court's extraordinary tick-tock of events and U.S. lobbying 9:04 – The June pressure from Washington: divestment or the affiliate list 10:13 – Dutch fears of production know-how relocating to China 12:35 – The impossible position: damned if they did, damned if they didn't 14:46 – The obscure Cold War-era Goods Availability Act 17:11 – CEO Zhang Xuezheng and the question of who stopped cooperating first 19:26 – Was China's export control a state policy or a corporate move? 22:16 – Europe's de-risking framework and the lessons from Nexperia 25:39 – The fragmented European response: Germany, France, Hungary, and the Baltics 30:31 – Did Germany shape the response behind the scenes? 33:06 – The Trump-Xi meeting in Busan and the resolution of the crisis 37:01 – Will the Nexperia case deter future European interventions? 40:28 – Is Europe still an attractive market for Chinese investment? 41:59 – The Europe China Forum: unusually polite in a time of tenterhooksPaying it forward: Dewey Sim (SCMP diplomacy desk, Beijing); Coco Feng (SCMP technology, Guangdong); Khushboo Razdan (SCMP North America); Sense Hofstede (Chinese Bossen newsletter)Recommendations: Finbarr: Chokepoints by Edward Fishman; Underground Empire by Henry Farrell and Abe Newman; "What China Wants from Europe" by John Delury (Engelsberg Ideas) Kaiser: The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and Milady (2023 French film adaptation)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

flameZ joins us during the pre-Major week to talk about the team's recent performances in Hong Kong and Chengdu, practice, his inspirations, style adjustments, FURIA, and Stage 1 (including Pick'Ems)➡️ Follow us for updates: https://twitter.com/HLTVconfirmed

All aboard, Culture Kids! In this week's magical adventure, Mom and Asher hop on the Culture Train and travel to Beijing, China, a city filled with history, color, and stories that stretch back thousands of years. Together with special guest Ms. Dan Song, author of the My City Adventures series, they step through the mighty red gates of the Forbidden City, where emperors once ruled and legends were born. You'll hear the echoes of ancient footsteps, learn what the color red means in Chinese culture, and even discover why the Forbidden City was once “forbidden.” From dragons and phoenixes to royal bedrooms and bronze cranes, this episode brings China's past to life in a way kids can see, hear, and imagine. And of course, no Culture Kids adventure would be complete without food!

This week on Sinica, I welcome back Jeremy Goldkorn, co-founder of the show and my longtime co-host, to revisit the "vibe shift" we first discussed back in February. Seven months on, what we sensed then has fully borne out — there's been a measurable softening in American attitudes toward China, reflected not just in polling data but in media coverage, podcast discussions, and public discourse. We dig into what's driving this shift: the chaos of American politics making China look competent by comparison, the end of Wolf Warrior diplomacy, the gutting of China hawks in the Trump administration, Trump's own transactional G2 enthusiasm, and the generational divide in how younger Americans encounter China through TikTok rather than legacy media. We also discuss the limits of this shift, the dangers of overcorrection, and what it feels like to watch the fever break after years of panic and absolutism in U.S.-China discourse.5:29 – The [beep] show in America as the biggest factor 8:38 – China hawks deflated: from Pompeo to Navarro's pivot to India 11:21 – Ben Smith's piece on the end of a decade of China hawkism 13:30 – Eric Schmidt and Selina Xu's Atlantic piece on tech decoupling 17:17 – Long-form China podcasts: Dwarkesh Patel with Arthur Kroeber, Lex Fridman with Keyu Jin 19:35 – Jeremy's personal vibe shift: distance from The China Project and renewed perspective 23:33 – The world turning to predictability and stability 26:05 – The Chicago Council poll: dramatic shift away from containment 29:09 – The generational shift: TikTok, infrastructure porn, and Gen Z's globalized worldview 31:15 – The end of Wolf Warrior diplomacy and why it mattered 37:03 – Kaiser's "Great Reckoning" essay and why it didn't get the usual hate 39:00 – The destruction of Twitter and the vicious China discourse culture 41:10 – The pendulum swinging too far: China fanboys and new hubris 43:20 – How the vibe shift looks from inside China Paying it forward: Echo Tang (Berlin Independent Chinese Film Festival organizer) and Zhu Rikun (New York Chinese Independent Film Festival organizer)Recommendations: Jeremy: Ja No Man: Growing Up in Apartheid Era South Africa by Richard Poplak Kaiser: Rhyming Chaos podcast with Jeremy Goldkorn and Maria RepnikovaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Le championnat du monde de League of Legends 2025 se déroule en Chine, à Chengdu, marquant l'essor spectaculaire des compétitions e-sports.Traduction : The 2025 League of Legends World Championship heads to Chengdu, China – a testament to e-sports' global rise and industry momentum. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

El programa 'Buenos días, Javi y Mar' en CADENA 100 se emite en lunes 10 de noviembre. José Real informa que hoy lloverá en Galicia y el noroeste (sin importancia), con más sol hacia el centro, sur y Mediterráneo, y temperaturas frías. Los Reyes Felipe y Letizia visitan China; hoy están en Chengdu y el miércoles en Pekín. En Valencia, se pide la dimisión del gobierno de Mazón. Empieza hoy una normativa temporal para aves de corral en 1200 municipios por la gripe aviar. Málaga activa la primera red de pictogramas accesibles en paradas de autobús. Mara Mate comenta la película "Frankenstein" y una ruta por Segovia. Se escuchan canciones como "Want to Want Me" de Jason Derulo y "Noche entera" de DVICIO. Javi Nieves habla de las quejas en el gimnasio: Susana no soporta que le copien los ejercicios, Antonio Aguilar no aguanta los gritos y Juli se queja de la falta de limpieza y de la gente que espera por las máquinas. Suena "Messy" de Lola Young. También se aborda el concurso del mejor pan ...

This week on Sinica, I chat with Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute and one of the sharpest China analysts working today. We dig into the 4th Plenary Session of the 20th Party Congress and what it reveals about China's evolving growth model — particularly the much-discussed but often misunderstood push against "involution" in key sectors like EVs and solar. Lizzi walks us through the structural incentives driving overcompetition, from local government finance and VAT collection to the challenges of rebalancing supply and demand. We also discuss her recent Foreign Affairs piece on China's manufacturing model, why "overcapacity" is a misleading frame, the unexpected upsides of China's industrial strategy for the global green transition, and what happened at the Trump-Xi meeting in Busan. This is a conversation about getting beyond the binaries and understanding the actual mechanisms — and contradictions — shaping China's economic trajectory.4:43 – What Western reporting missed in the 4th Plenum communique 6:34 – The "anti-involution" push and what it really means 9:57 – Is China's domestic demand abnormally low? Context and comparisons 12:41 – Why cash transfers and consumption subsidies are running out of steam 15:00 – The supply-side approach: creating better products to drive demand 18:33 – GDP vs. GNI: why China is focusing on global corporate footprints 20:13 – Service exports and China's ascent along the global supply chain 24:02 – The People's Daily editorial on price wars and profit margins 27:31 – Why addressing involution is harder now than in 2015 29:56 – How China's VAT system incentivizes local governments to build entire supply chains 33:20 – The difficulty of reforming fiscal structures and local government finance 35:12 – What got lost in the Foreign Affairs editing process 38:14 – Why "overcapacity" is a misleading and morally loaded term 40:02 – The underappreciated upside: China's model and the global green transition 43:14 – How politically potent deindustrialization fears are in Washington and Brussels 46:29 – Industry self-discipline vs. structural reform: can moral suasion work? 50:15 – BYD's negotiating power and the squeeze on suppliers 53:54 – The Trump-Xi meeting in Busan: genuine thaw or tactical pause? 57:23 – Pete Hegseth's "God bless both China and the USA" tweet 1:00:01 – How China's leadership views Trump: transactional or unpredictable? 1:03:32 – The pragmatic off-ramp and what Paul Triolo predicted 1:05:26 – China's AI strategy: labor-augmenting vs. labor-replacing technology 1:08:13 – What systemic changes could realistically fix involution? 1:10:26 – Capital market reform and the challenge of decelerating slowly 1:12:36 – The "health first" strategy and investing in peoplePaying it forward: Paul TrioloRecommendations: Lizzi: Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman Kaiser: Morning Coffee guitar practice book by Alex RockwellSee 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, I chat with Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, editor of Foreign Affairs, about how the journal has both shaped and reflected American discourse on China during a period of dramatic shifts in the relationship. We discuss his deliberate editorial choices to include heterodox voices, the changing nature of the supposed "consensus" on China policy, and what I've called the "vibe shift" in how Americans across the political spectrum think about China. Daniel also reflects on his own intellectual formation, including his work on George Marshall's failed mission to mediate China's Civil War and the cautionary lessons that history holds for today's debates. We explore the challenges of bringing Chinese voices into Foreign Affairs, the balance between driving and reflecting policy debates, and whether we're witnessing a genuine opening of the Overton window on China discussions.7:15 – Foreign Affairs in the era of Iraq and "China's peaceful rise" 12:09 – The Marshall mission and the "Who Lost China?" debate 17:17 – China's changing role and the journal's coverage density 19:43 – The Campbell-Ratner "China Reckoning" and subsequent debates 25:00 – The challenge of including authentic Chinese voices 29:42 – How Chinese leadership perceives and reads Foreign Affairs 32:12 – The "vibe shift" on China across the American political spectrum 35:56 – Cultivating contrarian voices: Van Jackson, Jonathan Czin, and David Kang 40:17 – Avoiding the trap of making everything about U.S.-China competition 43:12 – Diversifying perspectives beyond the Washington-Beijing binary 48:18 – The big questions: American exceptionalism and Chinese identity in a new era 51:42 – The dangers of cutting off U.S.-China scholarly conversations 56:26 – The uses and misuses of historical analogies 58:09 – Spain's Golden Age and late Qing memes as contemporary analogiesPaying it forward: The unsung editorial staff at Foreign AffairsRecommendations: Daniel: Equator.org; The Rise of the Meritocracy by Michael Young; Granta's new India issue; The Party's Interests Come First by Joseph Torigian; The Coming Storm by Odd Arne Westad Kaiser: The Spoils of Time by C.V. WedgwoodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think you know how to pair wine with Asian cuisine? Think again.In this episode, we explore the intriguing insights of Master of Wine Richard Hemming, who challenges traditional pairing norms with his groundbreaking book, Wine & The Food of Asia. After two years of rigorous research, including the testing of 400 wines and 80 recipes from 13 countries, Richard invites us to rethink our approach and discard the traditional rules.Today, we explore the misconceptions about Riesling being the go-to choice for spicy foods and uncover effective strategies for navigating complex pairings. We'll discuss how to pair wine with Chengdu and Chongqing's iconic mala spice, identify suitable white wines for vinegar-heavy dishes, and highlight Richard's unexpected wine and Asian food combinations.Richard's book, Wine & The Food of Asia, is available through the 67 Pall Mall website, with Amazon distribution on the way.  Since 2016, Bottled in China brings you into the food and drink scene through conversations with the some of the most happening personalities. Hosted by Emilie Steckenborn, the show is your one spot for all things food, beer, wine and spirits from across the world. Connect with us on LinkedIn or Instagram @bottled.in.chinaPodcast available on iTunes, Spotify , online or wherever you listen to your episodes! Subscribe to Bottled in China to follow the journey!Check out our new website & find out more at https://www.thebottledshow.com

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I speak with Jonathan Czin, the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and a fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center. His new essay in Foreign Affairs, “China Against China: Xi Jinping Confronts the Downsides of Success,” challenges the dominant Western narrative of Xi Jinping as either Mao reincarnate or a brittle autocrat presiding over imminent collapse. Instead, Czin argues that Xi's most illiberal reforms can be understood as attempts to cure the pathologies of China's own success. We discuss his framing of Xi's “Counterreformation,” how it helps explain China's current political direction, and what it reveals about our own analytical blind spots in the West.7:15 – Xi's “reformation” and Carl Minzner's “end of reform and opening”12:18 – Corruption, decentralization, and the “lost decade” under Hu and Wen20:12 – Defining “resilience” and what Xi means by “eating bitterness”29:45 – The “downsides of success”: property, corruption, and governance contradictions45:30 – Counter-reformation vs. counterrevolution: what Xi wants to preserve and discard54:20 – The myth of yes-men: triangulation and feedback in Xi's leadership style1:07:07 – Cognitive empathy and why most U.S. analysis of Xi falls short1:15:35 – Systems that can't course-correct: comparing the U.S. and China1:22:05 – Cognitive empathy, ideology, and the problem of American exceptionalismPaying it forward:Jonathan: Allie Mathias and Dinny McMahonRecommendations:Jonathan: The Thirty Years War by C.V. Wedgewood; The Betrothed by Alessandro ManzoniKaiser: Transplants by Daniel Tam-ClaiborneSee 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, I chat with Peking University's Professor Wang Dong (王栋), an international relations scholar at the School of International Studies at Peking University, where he also serves as Deputy Director and Executive Director of the Office for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding. Professor Wang's scholarship and public commentary focus on U.S.–China relations, Cold War history, and the uses of historical memory in diplomacy. He has been an especially thoughtful voice in connecting the Flying Tigers legacy with today's efforts to stabilize and strengthen the people-to-people ties between our two countries.Check back in a day or two for the full podcast page and the transcript!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today's episode, we dive into the resilience and courage of those standing up for truth and freedom. We open by reflecting on the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk, highlighting how students and activists at Turning Point USA's first campus event since his death are rallying to continue his mission. From touching moments with Erika Kirk, who shares her message of forgiveness, to rare footage of Trump and Elon Musk coming together in Charlie's memory, we explore the unity and determination driving this movement. We also cover the latest security threats in New York, including the Secret Service's dismantling of a telecommunications network near the UN General Assembly, underscoring the ever-present challenges facing our society. Our featured guest, Lily Tang Williams, shares her remarkable journey from growing up under China's Cultural Revolution to becoming a U.S. citizen and political leader. Born in Chengdu to working-class parents, Lily endured extreme poverty, repression, and a lack of basic freedoms before escaping to the United States in 1988. Her story is one of resilience, courage, and the pursuit of liberty. As a former law professor, corporate executive, and entrepreneur, Lily has brought her experience and dedication to public service, running for Congress in New Hampshire's 2nd District in 2022 and 2024, and now announcing her 2026 campaign. She discusses why she is running again, her vision to “Keep the American Dream Alive,” and how her experiences in communist China inform her views on education, freedom, and governance in America today. We also examine international concerns about free speech and rising unrest, featuring clips from England where citizens are protesting against government overreach and immigration policies. The episode concludes with a powerful call to action on government transparency, focusing on the release of Epstein-related documents and the importance of holding institutions accountable. This episode is a must-watch for anyone committed to justice, liberty, and the defense of free speech at home and abroad.  

Catherine, David and Matt are here, unusually, on a Tuesday to look back on Laver Cup, Iga Swiatek's title in Seoul, and a couple of ATP events in China. Part one - Laver Cup. We start by hearing from The Athletic's Matt Futterman who spent the weekend in San Francisco at Laver Cup. He explains why and how he entered the week with skepticism only to be won over by the crowds, the format and the vibe of the event. After that, despite promising not to get into an existential discussion about Laver Cup like we always do, we get into an existential discussion about Laver Cup. Part two - Tour results (36m41s). We cover Iga Swiatek's victory in Seoul, her gutsy performance to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova in a dramatic final, and the race for year-end #1 on the WTA Tour. On the men's side, there's chat about Alejandro Tabilo's sudden resurgence to triumph in Chengdu, the utter devastation for beaten finalist Lorenzo Musetti, and whether Alexander Bublik can qualify for Turin after his fourth title of the season. Part three - Preview of the week ahead (59m47s). We discuss what to expect from a stacked field for the WTA 1000 in Beijing as well as two ATP 500 events in Beijing and Tokyo. Tickets are now on General Sale for The Tennis Podcast - Live in Wrexham on Wednesday October 22nd! Buy ⁠here⁠.Become a ⁠Friend of The Tennis Podcast⁠Check out our ⁠⁠⁠⁠new merch shop⁠⁠⁠⁠! Talk tennis with Friends on ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Barge! ⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up to receive our free ⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ (daily at Slams and weekly the rest of the year, featuring Matt's Stat, mascot photos, Fantasy League updates, and more)Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ (@thetennispodcast)Subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠ channel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.