Podcasts about china centre

This event is part of our ⁠Age of the Strongman⁠ series. ⁠Click here⁠ to see the other events in the series. President Xi Jinping has ruled China for more than a decade. He has overseen an era of unprecedented economic prosperity, cracked down on dissidents, reinvented national identity in his own image and adopted a confrontational ‘wolf warrior' style of diplomacy on the world stage. Xi has also abolished term limits as President of the Communist Party and it's possible that he will remain China's all-powerful leader for the rest of his life. So what motivates the leader of the world's most populous nation? What is his vision for China and the world? How much should the West push back and how much should it cooperate with Xi? In May 2025, Rana Mitter, renowned historian at Harvard Kennedy School and previously the Director of The University of Oxford's China Centre, came to Intelligence Squared for the next event in our new series, The Age of the Strongman. Drawing on his work and recent book China's Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism, Mitter examined the key tenets of Xi's political ideology, and how his cult of personality and military posturing in the Indo-Pacific will play out in 2025 and beyond. The event was hosted by Gideon Rachman. ---- If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events  ...  Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This event is part of our Age of the Strongman series. Click here to see the other events in the series. President Xi Jinping has ruled China for more than a decade. He has overseen an era of unprecedented economic prosperity, cracked down on dissidents, reinvented national identity in his own image and adopted a confrontational ‘wolf warrior' style of diplomacy on the world stage. Xi has also abolished term limits as President of the Communist Party and it's possible that he will remain China's all-powerful leader for the rest of his life. So what motivates the leader of the world's most populous nation? What is his vision for China and the world? How much should the West push back and how much should it cooperate with Xi? In May 2025, Rana Mitter, renowned historian at Harvard Kennedy School and previously the Director of The University of Oxford's China Centre, came to Intelligence Squared for the next event in our new series, The Age of the Strongman. Drawing on his work and recent book China's Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism, Mitter examined the key tenets of Xi's political ideology, and how his cult of personality and military posturing in the Indo-Pacific will play out in 2025 and beyond. The event was hosted by Gideon Rachman. ---- This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events  ...  Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we dive into why dominant European perceptions of China turned sharply negative in recent years. Drawing on fresh academic insights from the recently published article “Bundling Threats: Why Dominant Perceptions of China Changed in Europe” by Shaun Breslin and Mikael Mattlin, the authors and Ágota Révész explore how shifting narratives—not just facts—shape policy decisions. The discussion unpacks the deeper, underlying reasons behind these changing perceptions, as well as their more immediate triggers. We also look at how a powerful image of China as a future threat towards European values and interests influences how today's actions by China and Chinese organizations are interpreted, creating a reinforcing loop with real policy consequences. Tune in for a thought-provoking look at how stories, assumptions, and fears drive international relations. This discussion is based on the following article: Shaun Breslin and Mikael Mattlin, “Bundling Threats: Why Dominant Perceptions of China Changed in Europe,” The Chinese Journal of International Politics, Volume 18, Issue 2, 2025, Pages 196–219, https://doi.org/10.1093/cjip/poaf003 Discussion hosted by Ágota Révész, China Centre at the Technische Universität TU Berlin. Podcast guests: Shaun Breslin, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Mikael Mattlin, Research Professor and the leader of Center on Global Orders and China (CORD) CHERN – the China in Europe Research Network – is a platform for knowledge exchange about China in Europe among academic and non-academic communities. Find out more about the project here: https://china-in-europe.net/ EuroHub4Sino - provides independent European policy research and analysis. Find out more about the project here: https://eh4s.eu/ ReConnect China - Generating independent knowledge for a resilient future with China for Europe and its citizens. Find out more about the project here: https://www.reconnect-china.ugent.be/ Transcript: https://www.utu.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/podcast/reconnect

What is BRICS, really — a loose coalition of emerging economies, or a growing challenge to Western-led global governance? In this episode, we take a deep dive into the origins, goals, and internal dynamics of BRICS, the group that brings together Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — and now a new wave of members. Why do such diverse countries come together under one banner? What does BRICS actually do, and how effective is it in turning ambition into action? We explore China's and Russia's strategic interests, the Global South's discontent with the current international system, and whether BRICS could offer a real alternative to institutions like the UN, G7, IMF, or World Bank. We also discuss recent developments — from the war in Ukraine to U.S. trade policy — and ask: Is BRICS moving toward a shared ideology? Can economic cooperation within the bloc grow? And how realistic is the idea of a BRICS currency — or the broader push toward de-dollarizing global trade? To unpack all this and more, we're joined by Ingrid D'Hooghe and Ksenia Radchenkova, offering insights on geopolitics, economics, and the shifting architecture of international power.Guests:Dr. Ingrid d'Hooghe is Senior Research Associate at the China Centre of the Clingendael Institute and Senior Research Fellow at the LeidenAsiaCentre, The Netherlands. Her areas of expertise include China's strategic thinking and policy making in areas such as international relations and diplomacy, global governance, and science and technology.D'Hooghe holds a Master's degree in Sinology from Leiden University, The Netherlands, and a PhD in political science from Antwerp University, Belgium. She started her career as a policy officer at the Dutch Embassy in Beijing in the period 1989 – 1991 and has since worked as a China researcher and lecturer at various universities and think tanks, and as an advisor to Dutch government organizations, the European Commission, and European research institutions. She also presents at top universities and think tanks around the globe, and at institutions such as the European External Action Service and NATO. She publishes in academic and popular journals and appears regularly in the media. Recent publications address European universities' S&T collaboration with China, and China's maritime activities in disputed areas in the South China Sea.Ksenia Radchenkova, BA. spec. M.Sc. Ph.D is a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Coordinator for Eastern European, Eurasian and Asian research and cooperation projects at the Section Global Governance at the Institute for the Foundations of Law of the University of Graz. She was awarded her Bachelor's and Specialist's degrees in Sinology and Chinese Economy from the Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok, Russia. She subsequently obtained her Master of Science degree in Technology Economy Management from Xiamen University, People's Republic of China. Following several years of professional experience in the field of international trade as an operations manager, Radchenkova returned to academic pursuits in Austria, where she successfully defended her PhD in Law and Politics, entitled "The Concept of Sovereignty in Political and Legal Discourse in Russia and China", at the University of Graz, Austria. Radchenkova's current position entails the integration of her business experience with her academic background, with the objective of enhancing the international connections of the University of Graz. She is also committed to the promotion of excellence in research within the domain of international relations and politics. Moderation:Marylia Hushcha, Researcher and Project Manager at the IIP.The episode was recorded on 17 April 2025 with the support of The Austria Future Fund and the Conflict Peace Democracy Cluster of the Federal Ministry of the Republic of Austria - Education, Science and Research.

Amid signs of potential economic optimism, a complex array of risks threatens to derail progress. From tackling climate emergencies, to rising geopolitical tensions and the accelerating infodemic, how can global collaboration and innovation protect and propel economic growth? This is the full audio from a session at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC24) on June 26, 2024. Watch it here: Speakers: Peng Sen, President, China Society of Economic Reform (CSER) Michael Wang, Anchor, Global Business and BizTalk, China Global Television Network (CGTN) Busi Mabuza, Chairperson, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Andre Hoffmann, Chairman, Massellaz Mohamad Al-Ississ, Minister of Finance, Ministry of Finance of Jordan Links: Annual Meeting of the New Champions - Next Frontiers for Growth, 25–27 June, 2024, Dalian, China: Centre for the New Economy and Society: Podcasts: Check out all our podcasts on : - - : - : - : Join the :

Thank you to The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School for providing support for this episode. Visit the link below to know more about research, ideas, and leadership programs for a more peaceful world: https://www.belfercenter.org/ -------------------- The future remains a mystery, yet glimpses of it can be found in the echoes of the past. In this episode, Endgame speaks with China historian Rana Mitter to gain insight into the minds of Chinese leaders. The discussion covers potential military action in Taiwan, the future of US-China relations, and the implications of the Belt and Road Initiative for the region and the world. About the Guest: Professor Rana Mitter is an ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. He was a Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford and the Director of the China Centre. Rana is also the author of several books, including “China's Good War” (2020), “Forgotten Ally” (2013), “A Bitter Revolution” (2004), and “The Manchurian Myth” (2000). About the Host: Gita Wirjawan is an Indonesian entrepreneur, educator, and Honorary Professor of Politics and International Relations at the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham. He is also a visiting scholar at The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University (2022—2024) and a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. -------------------- Get Rana's Books at Periplus Bookstore: http://www.periplus.com/p/9780674984264/?utm_source=EG http://www.periplus.com/p/9780544334502/?utm_source=EG http://www.periplus.com/p/9780198753704/?utm_source=EG -------------------- Earn a Master of Public Policy degree and be Indonesia's future narrator. More info: admissions@sgpp.ac.id https://admissions.sgpp.ac.id https://wa.me/628111522504 Visit and subscribe:  @SGPPIndonesia   @Endgame_Clips 

In this episode of Let's Talk Global Business, Sara Murray, Managing Director at The Conference Board International, delves into the recent CEO Confidence Survey results from Europe and China. Joining her are Konstantinos Panitsas, Economist at the European Economy Strategy and Finance Center, and Alfredo Montufar-Helu, Leader of the Conference Board's China Centre for Economics and Business. Together, they explore the cautious optimism among CEOs regarding the short-term global economic outlook and the underlying concerns that persist.

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Rana Mitter and Harvard Business School Associate Professor Meg Rithmire say that after decades of tremendous growth, an economically slowing China is the new normal. With a growing debt-to-GDP ratio, an aging population, a devastating real estate bubble, and a loss of confidence among both foreign investors and domestic consumers, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party face a daunting array of thorny problems—including ones of their own making resulting from the One Child law policy and other home-grown policies. So how should the United States and other Western countries respond? Is it a moment China's rivals can use to their advantage, or one where great power rivalry can give way to great power cooperation? And how will an economic slowdown affect China's geopolitical ambitions, and is an annexation of Taiwan now more or less likely? Rana Mitter is a historian and the S.T. Lee Chair in U.S.-Asia relations at the Kennedy School and the former director of the China Center at Oxford University. Harvard Business School Associate Professor Meg Rithmire is a political scientist who studies the comparative political economy of development in Asia and China's economic relations with the rest of the world, particularly the United States. They join host Ralph Ranalli to explore some of the underlying reasons behind for the country's current malaise, and to offer some policy ideas to help create a positive outcome with relations with China moving forward. Rana Mitter's Policy Recommendations: Liberal nations should take a realistic view of security issues involved in engagement with China, while preserving cultural interaction and scientific knowledge exchanges with the long-term benefits to both sides. The United States should focus on deepening free trade agreements and opening up new markets and in the Asia Pacific region to counter-balance China's influence.  Meg Rithmire's Policy Recommendations: U.S. and Western officials should reassure China they that they want to see its economy succeed as long as it isn't weaponizing trade and is moderating its geopolitical ambitions to reduce conflict. Continue pursuing “de-risking” policies instead of decoupling policies that would lead to a hard economic break with China. Avoid framing the situation as a choice between bringing jobs back to the United States or keeping them in China, while also addressing the fallouts of global trade and compensating those who are negatively affected.  Episode Notes: Rana Mitter is the ST Lee Chair in U.S.-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School and a member of the board of directors of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. A historian who focuses on the politics and history of modern China, particularly during the communist era, he was formerly director of the China Centre at Oxford University, Mitter is the author of several books, including “Forgotten Ally: China's World War II,” which was named a Book of the Year in the Financial Times and Economist. His latest book is “China's Good War: How World War II is Shaping a New Nationalism.” His recent audio documentary on contemporary Chinese politics "Meanwhile in Beijing" is available on BBC Sounds.  He won the 2020 Medlicott Medal for Service to History, awarded by the UK Historical Association. A Fellow of the British Academy, he holds a master's degree and a PhD from King's College, Cambridge (UK). Meg Rithmire is the F. Warren McFarlan Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, where she teaches in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit. A political scientist, her my teaching and research focus on comparative politics and political economy with a geographic focus on Asia, especially China and Southeast Asia. Rithmire is also faculty affiliate at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, where she convenes a seminar on the Chinese economy. Her first book, “Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism,” examines the role of land politics, urban governments, and local property rights regimes in the Chinese economic reforms. Her most recent book, “Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia” investigates the relationship between capital and the state and globalization in Asia, comparing China, Malaysia, and Indonesia from the early 1980s to the present. The book examines how governments attempt to discipline business and how businesses adapt to different methods of state control. She holds a master's degree in political science from Emory University and a master's and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. Ralph Ranalli of the HKS Office of Communications and Public Affairs is the host, producer, and editor of HKS PolicyCast. A former journalist, public television producer, and entrepreneur, he holds an AB in Political Science from UCLA and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.Design and graphics support for PolicyCast is provided by Laura King, Delane Meadows and the OCPA Design Team. Social media promotion and support is provided by Natalie Montaner and the OCPA Digital Team. Nora Delaney and Robert O'Neill provide editorial support.

Tell us what you think of The Bunker in our Listener Survey – five respondents will get the Bunker mug or t-shirt of their choice.  It's been ten years since China launched its colossal Belt and Road initiative, intended to usher in a new era of trade and economic growth. Has it achieved what it set out to? Or is progress starting to ebb? Alex Andreou is joined by George Magnus, an associate at the China Centre at Oxford University and author of Red Flags: Why Xi's China Is In Jeopardy, in The Bunker.  • “People thought that the Belt and Road was a very planned and thought out centralised project from Beijing - it's really nothing of the sort.” - George Magnus  • “China sees the Belt and Road as fertile ground to get countries to align with its own governance priorities.” - George Magnus  www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Alex Andreou. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard and Liam Tait. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China's currency, the yuan, has seen its value against the US dollar depreciate sharply this year. That may reflect foreign disillusionment with China's economic prospects and policy making. Many investors are also unnerved by a regulatory crackdown on technology companies, with the Communist Party insisting on more centralised control. In this podcast,  George Magnus, a research associate at the SOAS China Institute and Oxford University's China Centre, discusses China's economic challenges with regular host, Duncan Bartlett.

Is China In Jeopardy? China's extraordinary rise to global superpower once appeared to be unstoppable, but now the country is facing a number of difficulties, sending shockwaves throughout the Chinese economy. On this week's podcast, IEA Director of Public Policy and Communications Matthew Lesh sits down with George Magnus, Associate at the China Centre at the University of Oxford.

China's economy has slipped into deflation as consumer prices declined in July for the first time in more than two years.Ballooning local government debt, weak import and exports, challenges in the housing market, and growing youth unemployment are all contributing to the country's downturn. On the Sky News Daily Dominic Waghorn speaks to our Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith about why China's economy is running out of steam. Plus, George Magnus, economist and associate at Oxford University's China Centre talks about the potential impacts for the global economy ahead of the G20 summit.Podcast producers: Emma-Rae Woodhouse, Sydney Pead and Soila Apparicio Podcast promotion producer: David Chipakupaku Senior podcast producer: Annie Joyce Editor: Paul Stanworth

China has this week reopened its borders for the first time in nearly three years. There have been scenes of joy and relief for many Chinese citizens after years of isolation. Ed Butler asks whether this is a turning point, as some are describing. What are the longer term economic threats for the so-called engine of global growth? And how does that impact the rest of the world? Ed speaks to two young Chinese professionals - one in Beijing and one in Shanghai, who are feeling a mixture of relief and concern about the current situation. George Magnus is a research associate at Oxford University's China Centre - he tells Ed that the current Covid infection wave could spread right across the country, to smaller cities and rural areas. It's difficult to get the true economic picture of what's happening in China, but Shehzad Qazi, managing director of the China Beige Book, the biggest private data collection network on China, says growth turned negative last year, with demand crashing and factories forced to close down. Presenter/producer: Ed Butler (Photo: A woman at an airport in China after restrictions were lifted. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

China's imports and exports jolted to a halt earlier this month - marking the first contraction since the pandemic struck in 2020. At a time of worldwide surging inflation and central banks everywhere raising interest rates to painful levels, the “miracle of growth” that powered much of the world's prosperity these last two decades is causing growing concern. For the second installment of our three-part series looking in depth at China at a crossroads, One Decision considers the economic crises that could be facing the country - and the world. George Magnus, former Chief Economist at UBS, now author and research associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, explores whether China can bounce back in the coming months.

As Joe Biden holds his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he became president, we speak to George Magnus, Associate at the China Centre at Oxford University, about how the countries economies are faring. We hear from the BBC's business correspondent Archana Shukla in Colombo after Sri Lanka's new Government set out it's budget plans for the country. Former Finance Minister for the country Eran Wickramaratne gave us his reaction. Molly Jane Zuckerman, content czar at CoinMarketCap, tells about calls for more regulation in the Cryptocurrency market, in the wake of the collapse of the crypto currency exchange FTX. With Mozambique exporting it's first liquefied natural gas we speak to Claudio Descalzi, the Chief Executive of Eni the company mining the gas.

A display of raw power at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, as Xi Jinping has his predecessor dragged off the podium. So how much should we in the West be afraid of the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao? From the clothes we wear to the phones in our pockets, to the videos we post on TikTok, China is part of how we live our lives, so should we be concerned at the push for global dominance of the 21st century's new superpower? There's a move in Washington, London and Brussels to disengage, but is that even possible now, or are we already in too deep? George Magnus, research associate at Oxford University's China Centre, and at SOAS walks Phil and Roger through the risks and possibilities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What will the social and economic costs be of China's full-scale lockdown of Shanghai? David Aaronovitch examines the problems with the country's vaccination programme. Joining David in the briefing room are:Robin Brant, BBC Correspondent based in Shanghai Vincent Ni, China Affairs correspondent for The Guardian Professor Nancy Qian, Northwestern University Dr Yu Jie, senior research fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House George Magnus, economist and research associate at Oxford University's China Centre.Producers: Rosamund Jones, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter Production Co-ordinator: Siobhan Reed Studio Manager: Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon

For years China has been perhaps the most important economic engine driving growth around the world. Earlier this year it bounced back from the Covid shutdowns with double-digit growth. Global demand for Chinese-made products has been booming. But this week growth figures have dropped dramatically. The country has been experiencing an energy and property crisis. So, is the bubble bursting? And should we be worried?Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room are:Celia Hatton, the BBC's Asia Pacific Editor Dr. Philip Andrews-Speed, Senior Principal Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute of the National University of Singapore George Magnus, Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University Tom Orlik, Chief Economist at Bloomberg Economics Dr. Keyu Jin, Associate Professor of Economics at the London School of EconomicsProducers: John Murphy, Soila Apparicio, Kirsteen Knight Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot Editor: Jasper CorbettImage: Chenzhou in China during a blackout Credit: Alamy

China's second largest property developer, Evergrande, is at risk of financial collapse, saddled with billions of dollars of debt. It's already defaulted on some bond repayments and has been forced to sell off assets; both Chinese and international investors are worried and Beijing is weighing the risk of spreading contagion. The BBC's Stephen McDonnell tells us about the property boom in China while Sara Hsu, a Visiting Scholar at Fudan University, tells us that the sheer size of the company is a worry. China watcher George Magnus, Research associate at Oxford University's China Centre, and at SOAS appraises the wider ramifications of the Chinese property bubble being deflated for both China and the rest of the world. (Image: Evergrande's HQ; Image credit: Reuters)

Beijing's ambitions have been the subject of much discussion and its relationship with some countries can be described as a little "can't live with, can't live without". On the Sky News Daily podcast with Dermot Murnaghan, we are joined by former US Ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker and George Magnus, an associate at Oxford University's China Centre as we discuss issues including security, human rights and what property firm Evergrande's debt problems could mean for President Xi Jinping.Daily podcast team:Senior podcast producer - Annie JoycePodcast researcher - Rosetta FourlagawoInterviews producer - Tatiana AldersonArchive - Simon WindsorArchive - Rob FellowesArchive - Nelly StefanovaMusic - Steven Wheeler

China's stock market is one of the only major equity indices to have posted negative returns in 2021 – reflecting the impact of political and regulatory headwinds that have thrown cold water on investors' enthusiasm for its market. In today's podcast, we are joined by George Magnus. George is an independent economist and commentator, and Research Associate at the China Centre at Oxford University and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Prior to this he was the Chief Economist, and then Senior Economic Adviser at UBS Investment Bank. George's current book, Red Flags: why Xi's China is in Jeopardy was published in September 2018 by Yale University Press.

Is China's behavior towards its innovators separating the country further from the world? That's the question on everybody's mind, as the Chinese authorities continue to exert their political power over the country's rising tech companies. George Magnus, associate at the China Centre at Oxford University warns that despite increasing western interest in the Chinese market, foreign investors should be wary about political clampdowns on companies. But Angela Zhang at the University of Hong Kong, argues some of the government's actions could be seen simply as prudent regulatory moves against the power of Big Tech. And Ker Gibbs, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, explains how businesses are navigating this intersection between politics and commerce. Producer: Frey Lindsay. (Picture: Logo of Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing company. Picture credit: Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)

There has been growing criticism of the confusion over changing rules about vaccine passports and self-isolation rules for key workers. Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley tells Bloomberg Westminster's Caroline Hepker and Roger Hearing she's not confident in the way the government is managing the reopening. Phillips also outlines the themes from her new book "Everything You Really Need to Know About Politics" including getting more women into parliament. George Magnus, associate at Oxford University's China Centre, joins to discuss the changing relations between China and the West, and how China is likely to respond to greater isolation. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

China's climb to the top of world economic rankings is considered a foregone conclusion in many circles, especially those inside the Chinese Communist Party. But all is not assured: Beijing faces economic and demographic challenges that make surpassing the U.S. less of a no-brainer than one might think. On this week's podcast, host Stephanie Flanders steers a lively debate on global domination between Bloomberg Chief Economist Tom Orlik and George Magnus, a research associate at Oxford University's China Centre. At present, China's $14.7 trillion gross domestic product is 70% of America's $20.9 trillion economy. In China's best-case scenario, it could overtake its Western rival by 2031, according to research by Orlik and Eric Zhu, a Bloomberg economist based in Hong Kong. In a worst case scenario, a combination of stalled reforms, international isolation and financial crisis could relegate China to permanent second place. Magnus is skeptical of China's chances of passing the U.S., arguing that its most productive periods were during liberal economic reform, which is hardly the state of affairs under President Xi Jinping.  In a second segment, London-based economy reporter Lizzy Burden shares how some U.K. corporations are speaking more openly about menopause, something 1 in 4 women around the world may be facing by 2030. A rising number are leaving the workforce as a result, which is prompting business leaders to finally address the sometimes taboo subject.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

The Communist Party of China, founded a century ago, has been in power for more than seven decades – and it has big plans for the future. What do those plans entail, and is the Party still strong enough to implement them? Here to help us answer these questions is Rana Mitter. Mitter is the director of the China Centre at the University of Oxford, and a professor of the history and politics of modern China.

When Americans think of a global menace, one of two countries often comes to mind: China or Russia. These global powerhouses are two of the United States’ greatest adversaries on the world stage. But what are the risks they actually pose? In Spymaster’s Prism, 32-year CIA veteran Jack Devine details how Russia’s intelligence apparatus has continuously worked against American national security from the Cold War to the present. He uses the history of U.S. intelligence achievements and failures to help Americans understand what this adversary may be planning in the future. In a similar vein, geostrategic expert John Ward’s China’s Vision of Victory outlines the ways in which “the Chinese Communist Party is guiding a country of 1.4 billion people towards” the “great rejuvenation” of China and the downfall of American dominance. Combining their joint knowledge, Devine and Ward lay out the threats America currently faces, as well as what can be done to neutralize those threats. Jack Devine is a 32-year veteran of the CIA and the founding partner and president of The Arkin Group, an international consulting firm. At the CIA, Devine served as acting director and associate director, chief of Latin America, head of the Counter-Narcotics Center, and head of the Afghan Task Force. He was awarded the CIA’s Meritorious Officer Award and the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. Devine is a published author and op-ed writer. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Jonathan Ward is the founder of the Atlas Organization, a consultancy firm focused on Chinese and Indian national strategy. Before Atlas, Ward was a geostrategic consultant for Oxford Analytica and for the U.S. Department of Defense. He is currently a research associate at Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme and a visiting academic at the university’s China Centre. Ward holds a Ph.D. from Oxford University in China-India relations, as well as an M.St. in Global and Imperial History, also from Oxford. Mike Capps is the Director of Strategic Development, Intelligence, Information & Services at Raytheon. . . Do you believe in the importance of international education and connections? The nonprofit World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth is supported by gifts from people like you, who share our passion for engaging in dialogue on global affairs and building bridges of understanding. While the Council is not currently charging admission for virtual events, we ask you to please consider making a one-time or recurring gift to help us keep the conversation going through informative public programs and targeted events for students and teachers. Donate: https://www.dfwworld.org/donate

George Magnus, Research associate au Oxford University’s China Centre, spoke to Sean about the strange disappearance of Chinese Tech magnate, Jack Ma

In 1949 Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the long and bloody Chinese Civil War. The impact of this victory was felt not just within China itself, but globally throughout the Cold War and into the modern era. Today, the legacy of 1949 still resonates shaping the political and ideological landscape of China and how it perceives itself on the world stage. Graham Hutchings joins me to discuss the fateful events of 1949 and their impact and the looming possibility of conflict over the island of Taiwan.Graham Hutchings is an Associate at the University of Oxford's China Centre and an Honorary Professor at University of Nottingham, UK. Having previously been Principal at Oxford Analytica and China Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph from 1987 to 1998 he is an expert on Chinese history, and the author of Modern China: A Companion to a Rising Power (2000). His latest book China 1949: Year of Revolution Hardcover is available now from Bloomsbury Press. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1949 Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the long and bloody Chinese Civil War. The impact of this victory was felt not just within China itself, but globally throughout the Cold War and into the modern era. Today, the legacy of 1949 still resonates shaping the political and ideological landscape of China and how it perceives itself on the world stage. Graham Hutchings joins me to discuss the fateful events of 1949 and their impact and the looming possibility of conflict over the island of Taiwan.Graham Hutchings is an Associate at the University of Oxford's China Centre and an Honorary Professor at University of Nottingham, UK. Having previously been Principal at Oxford Analytica and China Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph from 1987 to 1998 he is an expert on Chinese history, and the author of Modern China: A Companion to a Rising Power (2000). His latest book China 1949: Year of Revolution Hardcover is available now from Bloomsbury Press. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When thinking about Chinese student protests, you'll inevitably think about Hong Kong or Tiananmen. But there's one that kicked it all off in modern Chinese history, and its reverberations are still felt throughout the century, not least because of its role in the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It's the May Fourth Movement of 1919, which is the topic of this episode. Professor Rana Mitter, former head of the China Centre at the University of Oxford and author of numerous books on Chinese history, joins the podcast on why China is no stranger to student protests. Presented by Cindy Yu.

When thinking about Chinese student protests, you'll inevitably think about Hong Kong or Tiananmen. But there's one that kicked it all off in modern Chinese history, and its reverberations are still felt throughout the century, not least because of its role in the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It's the May Fourth Movement of 1919, which is the topic of this episode. Professor Rana Mitter, former head of the China Centre at the University of Oxford and author of numerous books on Chinese history, joins the podcast on why China is no stranger to student protests. Presented by Cindy Yu.

During the first ChinaTalk webinar, we will talk with George Magnus, independent economist and commentator on Chinese affairs, Research Associate at the China Centre, at Oxford University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. The conversation will focus on China relations with the United States in the economic and political dimensions. We will discuss the American perception of the Chinese threat, the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese ambitions and the global response they elicit, the role and influence of Europe on the rising tensions between the two world economic powers, and the barriers to Chinese growth, such as demography and the middle-income trap. About „ChinaTalk” series ChinaTalk is a series of interviews with leading global experts on China and East Asia, produced jointly by the Polish Chinese Business Council (PCBC) and SWPS University. Interviews are hosted by PCBC President, Mr. Zbigniew Niesiobędzki, and Professor Marcin Jacoby, Head of the Department of Asian Studies at SWPS University. ChinaTalk brings you the latest knowledge on the economy, social issues, management, and politics of China and East Asia. Our guest interpret the current developments and trends in the Chinese economy, and predict global, regional and bilateral outcomes of political decisions. Chinese relations with the European Union, and Poland in particular, constitute an important context of these discussions. The expert insights provide valuable input for business practitioners, analysts, as well as researchers and students interested in macroeconomics and global trade. George Magnus George Magnus independent economist and commentator, Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Over the years, he has held numerous positions, including Senior Economic Adviser at UBS Investment Bank, Chief Economist at SG Warburg (1987-1995), senior positions at Laurie Milbank/Chase Securities, Bank of America in London and San Francisco. George writes for the Financial Times, Times, Daily Telegraph, Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, Prospect Magazine, theArticle.com, and CapX, and is a contributor to many UK and international TV and radio programs. His books include “The Age of Aging” (2008), “Uprising: will emerging markets shape or shake the world economy?” (2011), and “Red Flags: why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy” (2018, Yale UP). More information at www.georgemagnus.com. Prof. Marcin Jacoby Sinologist, translator, expert on socio-political processes in East Asia, particularly China and Republic of Korea. He is also Head of the Department of Asian Studies at SWPS University, where he teaches literature, art, and cultural diplomacy in China and East Asian. Zbigniew Niesiobędzki, Ph.D. Economist with a career associated with investment funds. Over the years, he worked for Deloitte, and served as board member and member of supervisory boards of many companies in the telecommunications, construction, and furniture sectors. Currently, he is President of the Polish Chinese Business Council.

Why does China seem to be upsetting countries around the world? Beijing's recent clampdown on Hong Kong with a new security law has led many countries to condemn the Chinese leadership. It's also put more pressure on the trade war with the US. So what's in it for Beijing to apparently spur international hostility over Hong Kong and a number of other regional border conflicts? George Magnus, an economist and an associate at the China Centre at Oxford University, believes the domestic unemployment issue is a big determining factor in Beijing's thinking. Yuen Yuen Ang, a political scientist and an expert on China and emerging economies at the University of Michigan, says it's all a symptom of President Xi's and Donald Trump's insecurities at home. And Ian Bremmer the President of the risk consultancy the Eurasia Group, says despite the Chinese always having been thought of long term, strategic thinkers they are now not even thinking six months ahead. (Picture: Cargo containers with US and China flags hoisted by crane hooks clash with each other; Credit: cybrain/Getty Images)

The former Managing Director of Frontier Capital, Olufemi Edun provided an insightful tour de force of the intricacies of financing and managing big infrastructure projects and investments. He provides rich historical and political contexts to such projects in Nigeria. He also has an important commentary on development policy towards the end of our conversation.You can listen or download in the player above, all other listening options are here. Or you can can just read the transcript. You can also rate this podcast on any of your preferred listening apps or directly here.TranscriptTobi: Welcome to Ideas Untrapped and today I am on with Mr Femi Edun. Femi Edun is the former Managing Director of Frontier Capital Limited. You're welcome.Femi: Thanks very much, Tobi.Tobi: One thing I first want to discuss with you is public-private partnerships in the finance of big infrastructure projects like monumental projects or special economic zones or ports. What really are the barriers to making them work and why haven't we seen some kind of explosion in its impact in Nigeria?Femi: Perhaps I should start by telling a story. Last August, I was in Togo meeting with the top executives of one of the largest fashion brand companies in the world, and they are considering setting up multisite manufacturing operations in west Africa to support their global business. And they said, "we just want to get comfortable with all the countries that we are planning to locate in". They were in Togo at the invitation of the Togolese president who had met with them in London, as well as in China - and he said, you know, doing large projects and making large investments in a country is like getting married.Tobi: Hmm.Femi: So first there has to be a courtship, and these days smart countries are the ones that go out courting investors and then we get comfortable. And when we get comfortable, then we get married. Because we're going to business together for a long time, and a major investment - whether by a domestic investor or a foreign investor, it doesn't really matter...a major investment like that is in a sense like a marriage. So why are we not getting married in that space? It's a number of things. I think we need to be a bit more deliberate and systematic in our messaging and in the signals that will send out to investors. So on the one hand, we're telling investors that they are welcome and their investments will be protected, on the other hand, they are seeing examples of activity that may suggest that that is not exactly the case. And certainly as far as foreign investors are concerned, one of the things that foreign investors will tell you is that they want to see how a country has treated its local investors in the process of making decisions about whether to invest or not. Then beyond all that, in making the investments, is there a smooth seamless process (going) in these investments? What are the rules, are they well-known upfront? How much work has the government of Nigeria done? Has the public sector side demonstrate its readiness to investors?With all of these projects, usually, there's a significant amount of project preparation that has to be done in order to demonstrate, at least, in an outline and preliminary way the viability and the desirability of these investments. We need to be very clear about the legal and regulatory regime. We need to be clear about how the relationships are likely to be structured. We need to be clear about the extent to which investors will have protection for their funds. These are some of the areas that we need to improve. So we have an Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission, the ICRC, that does a great job, led by very good people. The CEO there is an ex-Shell executive who's got an engineering background, worked on large projects, he knows how the world works. And there are some excellent people working within the ICRC. But beyond navigating ICRC, there's the whole question of how you just deal with the octopus that Nigeria can be - lots of regulation, there are lots of government agencies and entities that have some form of oversight or some form of regulatory role to play in these projects and we've just got to be able to do a better job of bringing all those things together in one place. And it goes beyond lining up 26 agencies in a hall and saying that it's a one-stop-shop. It really goes beyond that. We really need to be a lot more joined-up in the public sector in terms of how we approach the private markets for capital for these projects.Tobi: Is it a failure of communication because interesting thing you mentioned... you can have the Ministry of Trade and Investment that is trying to bring investment into the country courting investors and all that, and you can also have an example of a regulatory agency that is more or less standing in the way of growth for a fledgling sector or industry, so what could better improve this synergy in communication to present a common agenda on the investment front? Femi: Again, I'm a great believer in the power of stories. Let's go back to two examples. Nigeria is a country of interesting paradoxes because one of the most successful PPP entities in the world is in Nigeria. Tobi: Hmm.Femi: Nigeria LNG is one of the best examples that you can find globally in the area of public-private partnerships. That's something that was constructed very very carefully to create alignment between Nigeria and the international oil companies (the IOCs) in the process of trying to exploit our gas resources. Now, if you remember the history of Nigeria LNG, it took a while... it took a number of years for it to actually come out of the ground and become operational. But I think one of the key messages there is that there was a very careful and deliberate process of creating alignment between the public and the private sectors. The public sector being [the] government of Nigeria (the NNPC), the oil industry, at least, the publicly owned oil industry in Nigeria and IOCs who brought in management and capital of this project. So we brought our gas, and for that we got equity. The IOCs brought cash, the knowhow, the management expertise to run these multiple projects over several streams that represent the company to create what is the largest fleet of LNG vessels in the world, to build a company that has paid billions of dollars (tens of billions of dollars) to government in dividends over the years. So beyond communication, I think the real point is working hard to ensure that there is alignment; that's something that we hear a lot in investing, in private equity, in principal investing, in any type of investing where partners are involved - it's critical for you to have alignment between the partners, that's why the analogy of marriage is such a powerful one when you're thinking about PPP projects in Nigeria. So, yes, just as you need communication to make good marriages work, you need communication to make good PPP projects work. That communication is even more critical early on whilst you're trying to find the partners and whilst you're trying to create alignment.Tobi: Hmm.Femi: It's not exactly a PPP project but the process by which we conducted the auctions for the GSM licences that brought private companies coming in to take spectrum from government in what was acknowledged as an open, fair, transparent, very professionally managed process is certainly one of the high points in the history of Nigeria in terms of attracting foreign direct investment; and if we just apply those lessons on a consistent basis to the things that we do, take time to be very clear about our objectives, take time to make sure that we communicate those objectives very clearly, design a playing field, level it, and make it open and use sensible criteria to determine the sorts of partners that you want. One of my old bosses always used to say that one of the things that's important for you to do in life in building a business and selling a product or services is to define your target market clearly. Tobi: Hmm.Femi: Even going into partnerships like marriages you've got to be very clear about it. So we were clear that we wanted investors that had experience in deploying telecoms networks internationally, that had experience in working with the manufacturers, that had experience in rolling out the technology, also evidence of a particular capability to make these things work and that's why we got the results. So if we follow these sorts of processes and we make sure that they're run properly, openly, by people of integrity, then we'll get the results that we're looking for. So we have great people in the ICRC, they are credible, they have character, what we need to do is just add the other bits, then just get our signalling right as a country, get our priorities right as a country and start singing off the same hymn sheet. Tobi: Since we're on the subject, maybe you can help me untangle one puzzle that has personally haunted me for years and I haven't been able to get a good answer. What went wrong with Tinapa? This was a project that had so much promise, there's so much investment and, of course, we've gotten a multitude of answers... some will say "oh, it's because government didn't build the port" or "Calabar did not have the natural advantages" blah blah blah, in your own opinion, what went wrong with that project and would you say we have learnt the lessons from some of our failures?Femi: Well, you're right when you say that, you know, depending on who you talk to, you'll probably get many answers as questions to the question of what happened to Tinapa. In my view, from the perspective of an interested bystander, in the sense that I was somewhat involved in the credit rating process of the project financing that went into that. And I certainly was involved from just my interest in governance and political economy. But my view is that like most other project financings, when a project has lots of externalities - in this case, things like dredging, modernization of the ports, improvement of road, air, infrastructure going into Calabar - were outside the role of sponsors, Cross Rivers state and their investment company. When you have those sorts of things and those who were involved are not tied into the financing themselves with clear obligations in order to make the project go forward. Tinapa was a great project, an interesting location but if they had put it, perhaps, closer to the existing infrastructure in Lagos even as poor as it is and as stretched as it is currently, maybe they would have had a better chance of success. But you see I think one of the issues there is that we've got to realise that it's important for a country of this size for us to, if you like, democratise the development of infrastructure. We roll it out, so that we reduce the pressure on Lagos. But Tinapa was a few years ahead of its time and it was also a victim of externalities that were outside the control it's [indistinct word].Tobi: Would you say we have learnt the lesson from that experience?Femi: Well, I think the way to answer that question is to say that when a project sponsor is a public sector entity or a sub-national government, to the extent that it doesn't try and repeat projects like the one that failed, it learns the lesson, right? But when we see similar projects coming to market and getting broad support across the board? No, we haven't learned the lesson. One of the paradoxes of the financial market especially the banking credit markets which goes through cycles, seven to ten-year cycles, everybody that was involved in the last banking downtown, the last growth of non-performing loans either retired or they lost their jobs and the institutional memory sort of just stays on the shelf and we end up making the same mistakes in different ways. But we forget everything and we learn nothing. That's what the history of the financial markets tells us, that's what the history of the economic cycles tells us. I don't think that's anybody's fault in particular, it's just that, usually, what we end up finding is that there is a triumph of hope and optimism over experience.Tobi: Another passion of mine is special economic zones which I have actually researched quite extensively and there are a number of them in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, we've been doing it for years under different aegis whether industrial parks or export processing zones. Again, why haven't we seen the kind of impact for this idea as we saw in the case of places like China and Korea? What's going on?Femi: Nigeria was actually an early adopter of the idea of special economic zones and our export processing zone decree was written in the Babangida administration, so this is something that we did in the early 90s. The development of Calabar export processing zone, Calabar free trade zone which was the first one which is fully government-owned, I think started in 1993. Kano free trade zone which is also government-owned started, I believe, in 1996. So Nigeria was an early adopter of the idea but when you think about government ownership of special economic zones whatever name they are called by, we've got to look at the fact that one of the drivers of the success of these things is the quality of infrastructure, the ease of doing business, and the cost of doing business. So it's supposed to be a magnet for investment by offering world-class infrastructure that makes it easy to do business and lowers the cost of doing business. What that means is that government needs to make significant amounts of investment in the hard and soft infrastructure, both inside and outside the fence. Outside the fence in terms of the connecting infrastructure - road, rail, air, sea or water transportation, power, these days ICT and so forth. You need to make sure that there is also infrastructure within the fence. You need to make sure that in addition to all the hard infrastructure, there is also the soft infrastructure in terms of the regulatory framework in terms of the supply of skilled labour both operational and managerial. So there's a huge amount of investment that needs to be made in hard and soft infrastructure both inside and outside the fence of these SEZs, and that requires government to come up with substantial amount of money. Now when you think about all of the competing demands on the treasury - for education, for healthcare, for public infrastructure, for the justice system, for the police, for the armed forces, the court system - we will struggle to be able to come up with the amount of investments required to make these projects work, at least, to the standards that are required and to the levels that we see when we go around the world. That is something that we cannot run away from and government hasn't been very successful in being able to attract private investment into collaborations with the public sector in that space. The best examples that you will see in Nigeria of special economic zones are private ones - the Onne free trade zone in the Port Harcourt area is a great example, that's an Intels project; the LADOL project in Lagos is another example; Nigerdock is another example, even though Nigerdock, the basic infrastructure there was invested in by government in the late [70s] and early 80s and it went through a process of privatisation. But the real issue is that government would struggle to come up with the amounts of capital investment required and its patient money that's required to stay there over 15-20 year time frames. So I think until we figure out a sustainable way in which to attract private investment in collaboration with government because there is a very important role that government will play as an enabler, as a regulator, as a facilitator of the operation of these special zones. Until we find that solution, I think we'll continue to struggle.Tobi: Do you think that in making some of these policies, particularly regarding special economic zones, do you think we are pragmatic enough about the economics? And here is why I say this: some of these projects you'll see, at least, in my own reading of some of the initiatives and some of the policy documents, you see things like, oh, wanting to put a zone in all the six geo-political zones and trying to be ethnically correct or politically balanced, where actually in some cases those are not what works. Special Economic Zones primarily should be able to facilitate trade and you have industrial parks located in landlocked places in Nigeria. So are we being pragmatic enough about how we apply these policies?Femi: As to the question of pragmatism, my answer is no. As to the example of locating zones across what we now call our geo-political zones, I beg to differ slightly.Tobi: Okay.Femi: If you look around Nigeria, there is no part of the country, there is almost no state you would look in where there's not some compelling argument for some type of investment. I remember looking at the northwest and a place like Sokoto and you will say it's far from the port, it's landlocked blah blah blah, but what most people usually buy as Moroccan leather is mostly the hides of goats that are killed in Nigeria. If you look in the southeast, some of the best quality lead and zinc on earth is buried between Abakaliki and Ishiagu in Ebonyi State. If you look in the southwest, you look in Ogun State, you will see its ability to support major investments in ceramics. If you look in almost every state in Nigeria, I daresay every state in Nigeria, there is some compelling case that can be made and that's not to suggest that you should put a special economic zone in every state, I think that what is required here is to actually take a regional view and use these things as regional levers for development. Use them to leverage regional development by making them magnets for infrastructure investment, magnets for development of manpower and almost like hubs around which regions of the country can grow. So I think that's actually being pragmatic when you take a regional view of development of Nigeria and I think you will be able to establish viability as long as you do the hard work of approaching it correctly and making sure that they're set up properly. However, that's not to say that generally as a country we approach our economic decision-making primarily from a pragmatic point of view. There's a lot of emotion, there is a lot of emotiveness that goes into our policy-making and there's the diversity of views that complicates decision making in Nigeria. There is the fact that we are a democracy which is a good thing, but it just means that every voice will be heard, every voice must be heard and in the policymaking process, in the context of ideas it seems to be that it is the loudest and most strident, most emotive voices that carry the day rather than the voice of reason. So I really think that we need to bring a lot more pragmatism into our policymaking as a country, but on the specific case of citing special economic zones regionally in the country, I think that's actually a very pragmatic thing to do. Tobi: I agree with you, there's a case for investment in every state in the country, no doubt, given the overall general level of investment. I guess my point is that there should be room for a variety of approaches. You have Ondo state that is building ports, and you have Ekiti State - I've actually had Akin on the show and he says that they are going with business process outsourcing - they are going with services rather than manufacturing. I just think they should be room for a variety of approaches and that leads me to the next question which is, should decision-making on some of these policies be decentralised, either at the region or at the state or whatever unit of analysis we choose?Femi: Absolutely. There is a very strong case for decentralising as long as we decentralise, we also simplify and streamline the process of making those decisions; so that we don't just decentralise for the sake of it and then we end up getting tangled in even more bureaucracy and more red tape, and more complexity as we decentralise. Certainly, there is a good argument for everyone developing according to their comparative advantage and focusing on where their strengths either lie or potentially could lie if they did the right thing to enable those strengths. So, yes, there must be diversity in approaches because there is no homogeneity in factor endowment anyway.Tobi: Yeah.Femi: Different parts of the countries are blessed differently. And speaking to the case of Ekiti, I think it's actually a very clever thing that the state has done to say it wants to focus on services as a pathway to rapid development and job creation.Tobi: I want to hit you with a bit of a curveball here. How much influence would you ascribe to history in our political economy, generally?Femi: Well, history does play a very important role and there is no doubt that history has shaped the political economy of Nigeria. The evolution of political economy is a historical process anyway so history has shaped it. What I quarrel with is, and I'm sort of adjusting my stance to the curveball that you have thrown. What l quarrel with is our using history as an excuse for our failure to perform, our failure to deliver and the abysmal lack of results, the abysmal lack of progress in certain areas and the abysmal deterioration that we have seen in things like the quality of the public service, in things like the quality of the educational system, in things like the quality of public health. Some of the things that should be the building blocks and part of the engine of the development of the country, we have seen significant damage done to those things. That damage we could say, maybe, was inevitable considering our history, but we can debate that for years. Certainly, I think that with all of its imperfections, one of the things that British colonialists bequeath to us was the Colonial Civil Service which became the Nigerian Civil Service and unfortunately that Nigerian Civil Service is now no longer fit for purpose in terms of its ability to deliver on a sustainable basis the, if you like, the infrastructure and the delivery framework for governance, for policy-making, and policy implementation in Nigeria. Tobi: That's interesting and I'm just going to keep them coming, so another curveball - resource curse: does it really matter? Is it as deterministic as some analysts would have us believe?Femi: Well, just look at [the] Scandinavia, look at the North Europeans who have oil and what they've done with the oil, it doesn't have to be a curse. The resource curse is potentially a curse when you allow it to be. It's almost like saying that you have a genetic predisposition to diabetes or hypertension, now you can beat that by subjecting yourself to the discipline of a certain lifestyle or at least you can delay its onset or mitigate its results. So the resource curse is not the death sentence that some of the influential thinkers in political economy and economic history have made it out to be. There are countries that have beaten it, that proves that it's beatable.Tobi: Yeah, so, corruption. How much weight would you ascribe to that? Some people would argue "well, it doesn't matter". Some will say "oh, it is everything that is wrong with us". What's your reaction to that?Femi: Corruption is huge. Corruption is a huge problem. Corruption reduces the amount of money that is available for the important things that we need to do. Corruption increases the cost of doing business. Corruption compromises our institutions. Corruption is like cancer, but side-by-side with corruption is just the frightening level of [in]competence that you see when you go into the public space. There are some amazing people in public services and there are parts of it that work better than others, and this is not a blanket condemnation but certainly, we do need to strengthen our institutions. We need to strengthen the capabilities of the Civil Service to support the development and implementation of policy, to support government, and to ensure that we achieve the objectives of government. That capacity is almost as important as the cleanliness that we need as well. We need both character and competence.Tobi: What about ideology in our politics - do we need more or less?Femi: I'm not a huge fan of ideology. I think we need to be pragmatic. I think many of those ideological arguments are good for the ivory tower, they're good for the think-tanks, they're good for the luxury of being outside the cold phase of making decision in government, we just have to be pragmatic and put the national interest and the interest of the people first. When you want to develop a country as big and diverse and complicated as Nigeria, and you want to develop within a hurry, you have to put pragmatism before ideology.Tobi: But don't you think that ideology can be useful in terms of competition for dominant ideas? For example, at least, in my own, again, reading of the situation, almost every regime in Nigeria since 1999 regardless of political party or persuasion do protectionism and some form of mixed or closed economy model. So some will argue that if we have ideology enough in our politics there will be competition for some of those ideas and we would actually see better pragmatic policies.Femi: I'm not sure the issue is one of ideology, I think the issue is about the choices that we've made. So the big choices we've made in the political economy are choices that have really not been in our best long-term interest as a people. So if we're talking about ideology, I think the debate around capitalism and communism have been won and lost. I think the debates are really around doing what works and if you look at the economic history of the 20th century in particular, there are some ideas out there that have been proven to work. For countries that are in a hurry to develop, there are some things that you do. You've got to go for aggressive, inclusive growth. You've got to go for job-rich growth. So you select the policies that help you to do that and the question really is is that what we have done? You have to go for significant investment in hard infrastructure, you have to go for significant investment in education, have we done that? And have we done that in a way that is in our best national interest? So I think those are really the issues we should be talking about rather than ideology. I think it's really about the quality of the choices that we've made rather than the ideologies that we have followed. What is Nigeria's ideology? We don't have one. We don't have a national ideology.Tobi: Interesting.Femi: We had our national development plans of the 70s that talked about government controlling the commanding heights of the economy and then went through a process of privatisation after the structural adjustment reforms of the 80s and the 90s and the reality is that everywhere you go, China is a communist country but China practices state capitalism. The Chinese state as elevated capitalism to an art form. Few years ago I was sitting in a seminar at Harvard University and the director of the China Centre was saying that western countries are taking delegations to China to learn from Chinese government officials how to court foreign investments and how to form strong public-private partnerships with private investors. Countries in the west after the last big economic crisis nationalised banks, gave bailout to car companies, gave bailouts to all sorts of companies. We're going through a Covid pandemic now and the countries that can afford to give bailouts are giving bailout to countries [companies]. So there is a role that government plays, there is a role that markets play and what we need to do is really to find what works for us and do it. As opposed to having this, as far as I'm concerned, fairly sterile arguments about ideology.Tobi: That's a lot to think about. One final question which is a bit of a tradition on the show, what's the one big idea you would like to see spread all over Nigeria both publicly [and] privately? What's one idea you're passionate about and you'll like to see spread?Femi: There's a few of them in my mind so I really don't know who wins the competition for first place among those big ideas. Certainly one is that the role of government is to be an enabler of the success of its people, its businesses and its corporations. Government needs to be an enabler rather than a gatekeeper or a gamekeeper or someone that shortens the gains against its people. Government should be opening doors and playing a facilitating and enabling role and helping everyone to actualise their potential and we need to go back to our colonial history and just fix that. It's a big mindset thing but it needs to distilled down into the values and ethos and the way that government works in Nigeria. The Colonial Civil Service was designed to exploit the resources of the country and suppress the citizens for the benefit of the crown. We have replaced the Colonial Civil Service but we really haven't taken that mindset out of government and that's a big thing that we need to do as a country. Another thing that I would like to see us just understand is that technology has given us two pathways to rapid development. It used to be from the economic history of Japan, the Asian Tigers, China, the more recent countries that are industrialising, that industrialisation was a pathway to growth starting from the industrial revolution - what happened in western Europe, what happened in America, what has happened across the world - industrialisation is the pathway to growth, and it creates jobs in their millions and raised people out of poverty and you can do that very quickly. China has done the economic miracle of taking most of its people out of poverty in one generation and that was largely through just doing manufacturing investment. But now we can pursue new economy investment in services in addition to old economy investment in manufacturing. So we have two pathways to growth and we need to exploit them quickly because we have a few hundred million young people that we need to put to work. We have an existential crisis that is brewing. It's already upon us as a country and we are not really treating it as the national emergency that it is. So all of the unrest that we see, all the difficulty that we see, all the killings, all of the social vices that we see are really not happening by accident. We need to create opportunity by the hundreds of millions. We have a crisis but we are continuing with business as usual.Tobi: I do hope people listen. Thank you very much, Femi Edun, it's been fantastic talking to you.Femi: Thanks very much, Tobi, it's been a pleasure talking to you. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at www.ideasuntrapped.com/subscribe

Ebrahim Rahbari, Citi Global Head of FX Analysis, doesn't expect the economy to come out of recession until 2022. George Magnus, University of Oxford Research Associate at the China Centre, says the frosty relationship between the United States and China is chipping away their economic interdependence. Julia Coronado, Macroeconomic Policy President and Founder, says the current U.S. economic shutdown will be longer than anticipated. Randy Kroszner, University of Chicago Professor & Former Fed Governor, says it would take extreme circumstances such as significant deflation for the Fed to consider negative rates. Jason Farley, Johns Hopkins University Professor of Nursing, discusses what we know about the likelihood of becoming reinfected with Covid-19. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Ebrahim Rahbari, Citi Global Head of FX Analysis, doesn't expect the economy to come out of recession until 2022. George Magnus, University of Oxford Research Associate at the China Centre, says the frosty relationship between the United States and China is chipping away their economic interdependence. Julia Coronado, Macroeconomic Policy President and Founder, says the current U.S. economic shutdown will be longer than anticipated. Randy Kroszner, University of Chicago Professor & Former Fed Governor, says it would take extreme circumstances such as significant deflation for the Fed to consider negative rates. Jason Farley, Johns Hopkins University Professor of Nursing, discusses what we know about the likelihood of becoming reinfected with Covid-19.

I met Dr Miriam Driessen at Oxford University where she works at the China Centre. We spoke about her wonderful new book Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). Through unprecedented ethnographic research among Chinese road builders in Ethiopia, Driessen finds that the hope of sharing China’s success with developing countries soon turns into bitterness, as Chinese workers perceive a lack of support and appreciation from Ethiopian laborers and local institutions. The bitterness is compounded by their position at the margins of Chinese society, suspended as they are between China and Africa and between a poor rural background and a precarious urban future. Workers’ aspirations and predicaments reflect back on a Chinese society in flux as well as China’s shifting place in the world. I started our conversation asking a short introduction on her background and the origin of the book. We mentioned the influence on her research of the work by C.K. Lee and particularly the book Against the Law. Miriam explained how she ended studying the Ethiopian case and road construction over other sectors. We then moved to her findings on the resistance and agency of African workers and the ‘hopes and bitterness’ of the Chinese workers. We discussed how it is possible to identify different classes among Chinese workers in Ethiopia (as well as in China) and the varieties of migrants, each with different background, ambitions, working conditions and destiny. We concluded our conversation addressing the controversial topic of China’s presence in Africa and whether this should be defined as neo-colonialism or not. Revealing the intricate and intimate dimensions of these encounters, Driessen conceptualizes how structures of domination and subordination are reshaped on the ground. The book skillfully interrogates micro-level experiences and teases out how China’s involvement in Africa is both similar to and different from historical forms of imperialism. Miriam also told us about her new project as she is about to move to Ethiopia for another year of fieldwork. Thanks to her bright anthropological skills and her ability to communicate in both Amharic and Chinese, it will be yet another amazing scholarly contribution. Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist and a writer of literary nonfiction in English and her native Dutch. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the China, Law and Development Project, hosted by the University of Oxford China Centre. Miriam completed a DPhil at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford (2014/15), and held a fellowship at Peking University (2014–2016). She has also been a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) and a Junior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. Andrea Bernardi is Senior Lecturer in Employment and Organization Studies at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. He holds a doctorate in Organization Theory from the University of Milan, Bicocca. He has held teaching and research positions in Italy, China and the UK. Among his research interests are the use of history in management studies, the co-operative sector, and Chinese co-operatives. His latest project is looking at health care in rural China. He is the co-convener of the EAEPE’s permanent track on Critical Management Studies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I met Dr Miriam Driessen at Oxford University where she works at the China Centre. We spoke about her wonderful new book Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). Through unprecedented ethnographic research among Chinese road builders in Ethiopia, Driessen finds that the hope of sharing China’s success with developing countries soon turns into bitterness, as Chinese workers perceive a lack of support and appreciation from Ethiopian laborers and local institutions. The bitterness is compounded by their position at the margins of Chinese society, suspended as they are between China and Africa and between a poor rural background and a precarious urban future. Workers’ aspirations and predicaments reflect back on a Chinese society in flux as well as China’s shifting place in the world. I started our conversation asking a short introduction on her background and the origin of the book. We mentioned the influence on her research of the work by C.K. Lee and particularly the book Against the Law. Miriam explained how she ended studying the Ethiopian case and road construction over other sectors. We then moved to her findings on the resistance and agency of African workers and the ‘hopes and bitterness’ of the Chinese workers. We discussed how it is possible to identify different classes among Chinese workers in Ethiopia (as well as in China) and the varieties of migrants, each with different background, ambitions, working conditions and destiny. We concluded our conversation addressing the controversial topic of China’s presence in Africa and whether this should be defined as neo-colonialism or not. Revealing the intricate and intimate dimensions of these encounters, Driessen conceptualizes how structures of domination and subordination are reshaped on the ground. The book skillfully interrogates micro-level experiences and teases out how China’s involvement in Africa is both similar to and different from historical forms of imperialism. Miriam also told us about her new project as she is about to move to Ethiopia for another year of fieldwork. Thanks to her bright anthropological skills and her ability to communicate in both Amharic and Chinese, it will be yet another amazing scholarly contribution. Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist and a writer of literary nonfiction in English and her native Dutch. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the China, Law and Development Project, hosted by the University of Oxford China Centre. Miriam completed a DPhil at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford (2014/15), and held a fellowship at Peking University (2014–2016). She has also been a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) and a Junior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. Andrea Bernardi is Senior Lecturer in Employment and Organization Studies at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. He holds a doctorate in Organization Theory from the University of Milan, Bicocca. He has held teaching and research positions in Italy, China and the UK. Among his research interests are the use of history in management studies, the co-operative sector, and Chinese co-operatives. His latest project is looking at health care in rural China. He is the co-convener of the EAEPE’s permanent track on Critical Management Studies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I met Dr Miriam Driessen at Oxford University where she works at the China Centre. We spoke about her wonderful new book Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). Through unprecedented ethnographic research among Chinese road builders in Ethiopia, Driessen finds that the hope of sharing China’s success with developing countries soon turns into bitterness, as Chinese workers perceive a lack of support and appreciation from Ethiopian laborers and local institutions. The bitterness is compounded by their position at the margins of Chinese society, suspended as they are between China and Africa and between a poor rural background and a precarious urban future. Workers’ aspirations and predicaments reflect back on a Chinese society in flux as well as China’s shifting place in the world. I started our conversation asking a short introduction on her background and the origin of the book. We mentioned the influence on her research of the work by C.K. Lee and particularly the book Against the Law. Miriam explained how she ended studying the Ethiopian case and road construction over other sectors. We then moved to her findings on the resistance and agency of African workers and the ‘hopes and bitterness’ of the Chinese workers. We discussed how it is possible to identify different classes among Chinese workers in Ethiopia (as well as in China) and the varieties of migrants, each with different background, ambitions, working conditions and destiny. We concluded our conversation addressing the controversial topic of China’s presence in Africa and whether this should be defined as neo-colonialism or not. Revealing the intricate and intimate dimensions of these encounters, Driessen conceptualizes how structures of domination and subordination are reshaped on the ground. The book skillfully interrogates micro-level experiences and teases out how China’s involvement in Africa is both similar to and different from historical forms of imperialism. Miriam also told us about her new project as she is about to move to Ethiopia for another year of fieldwork. Thanks to her bright anthropological skills and her ability to communicate in both Amharic and Chinese, it will be yet another amazing scholarly contribution. Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist and a writer of literary nonfiction in English and her native Dutch. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the China, Law and Development Project, hosted by the University of Oxford China Centre. Miriam completed a DPhil at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford (2014/15), and held a fellowship at Peking University (2014–2016). She has also been a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) and a Junior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. Andrea Bernardi is Senior Lecturer in Employment and Organization Studies at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. He holds a doctorate in Organization Theory from the University of Milan, Bicocca. He has held teaching and research positions in Italy, China and the UK. Among his research interests are the use of history in management studies, the co-operative sector, and Chinese co-operatives. His latest project is looking at health care in rural China. He is the co-convener of the EAEPE’s permanent track on Critical Management Studies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I met Dr Miriam Driessen at Oxford University where she works at the China Centre. We spoke about her wonderful new book Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). Through unprecedented ethnographic research among Chinese road builders in Ethiopia, Driessen finds that the hope of sharing China’s success with developing countries soon turns into bitterness, as Chinese workers perceive a lack of support and appreciation from Ethiopian laborers and local institutions. The bitterness is compounded by their position at the margins of Chinese society, suspended as they are between China and Africa and between a poor rural background and a precarious urban future. Workers’ aspirations and predicaments reflect back on a Chinese society in flux as well as China’s shifting place in the world. I started our conversation asking a short introduction on her background and the origin of the book. We mentioned the influence on her research of the work by C.K. Lee and particularly the book Against the Law. Miriam explained how she ended studying the Ethiopian case and road construction over other sectors. We then moved to her findings on the resistance and agency of African workers and the ‘hopes and bitterness’ of the Chinese workers. We discussed how it is possible to identify different classes among Chinese workers in Ethiopia (as well as in China) and the varieties of migrants, each with different background, ambitions, working conditions and destiny. We concluded our conversation addressing the controversial topic of China’s presence in Africa and whether this should be defined as neo-colonialism or not. Revealing the intricate and intimate dimensions of these encounters, Driessen conceptualizes how structures of domination and subordination are reshaped on the ground. The book skillfully interrogates micro-level experiences and teases out how China’s involvement in Africa is both similar to and different from historical forms of imperialism. Miriam also told us about her new project as she is about to move to Ethiopia for another year of fieldwork. Thanks to her bright anthropological skills and her ability to communicate in both Amharic and Chinese, it will be yet another amazing scholarly contribution. Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist and a writer of literary nonfiction in English and her native Dutch. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the China, Law and Development Project, hosted by the University of Oxford China Centre. Miriam completed a DPhil at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford (2014/15), and held a fellowship at Peking University (2014–2016). She has also been a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) and a Junior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. Andrea Bernardi is Senior Lecturer in Employment and Organization Studies at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. He holds a doctorate in Organization Theory from the University of Milan, Bicocca. He has held teaching and research positions in Italy, China and the UK. Among his research interests are the use of history in management studies, the co-operative sector, and Chinese co-operatives. His latest project is looking at health care in rural China. He is the co-convener of the EAEPE’s permanent track on Critical Management Studies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I met Dr Miriam Driessen at Oxford University where she works at the China Centre. We spoke about her wonderful new book Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). Through unprecedented ethnographic research among Chinese road builders in Ethiopia, Driessen finds that the hope of sharing China’s success with developing countries soon turns into bitterness, as Chinese workers perceive a lack of support and appreciation from Ethiopian laborers and local institutions. The bitterness is compounded by their position at the margins of Chinese society, suspended as they are between China and Africa and between a poor rural background and a precarious urban future. Workers’ aspirations and predicaments reflect back on a Chinese society in flux as well as China’s shifting place in the world. I started our conversation asking a short introduction on her background and the origin of the book. We mentioned the influence on her research of the work by C.K. Lee and particularly the book Against the Law. Miriam explained how she ended studying the Ethiopian case and road construction over other sectors. We then moved to her findings on the resistance and agency of African workers and the ‘hopes and bitterness’ of the Chinese workers. We discussed how it is possible to identify different classes among Chinese workers in Ethiopia (as well as in China) and the varieties of migrants, each with different background, ambitions, working conditions and destiny. We concluded our conversation addressing the controversial topic of China’s presence in Africa and whether this should be defined as neo-colonialism or not. Revealing the intricate and intimate dimensions of these encounters, Driessen conceptualizes how structures of domination and subordination are reshaped on the ground. The book skillfully interrogates micro-level experiences and teases out how China’s involvement in Africa is both similar to and different from historical forms of imperialism. Miriam also told us about her new project as she is about to move to Ethiopia for another year of fieldwork. Thanks to her bright anthropological skills and her ability to communicate in both Amharic and Chinese, it will be yet another amazing scholarly contribution. Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist and a writer of literary nonfiction in English and her native Dutch. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the China, Law and Development Project, hosted by the University of Oxford China Centre. Miriam completed a DPhil at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford (2014/15), and held a fellowship at Peking University (2014–2016). She has also been a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) and a Junior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. Andrea Bernardi is Senior Lecturer in Employment and Organization Studies at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. He holds a doctorate in Organization Theory from the University of Milan, Bicocca. He has held teaching and research positions in Italy, China and the UK. Among his research interests are the use of history in management studies, the co-operative sector, and Chinese co-operatives. His latest project is looking at health care in rural China. He is the co-convener of the EAEPE’s permanent track on Critical Management Studies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I met Dr Miriam Driessen at Oxford University where she works at the China Centre. We spoke about her wonderful new book Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). Through unprecedented ethnographic research among Chinese road builders in Ethiopia, Driessen finds that the hope of sharing China’s success with developing countries soon turns into bitterness, as Chinese workers perceive a lack of support and appreciation from Ethiopian laborers and local institutions. The bitterness is compounded by their position at the margins of Chinese society, suspended as they are between China and Africa and between a poor rural background and a precarious urban future. Workers’ aspirations and predicaments reflect back on a Chinese society in flux as well as China’s shifting place in the world. I started our conversation asking a short introduction on her background and the origin of the book. We mentioned the influence on her research of the work by C.K. Lee and particularly the book Against the Law. Miriam explained how she ended studying the Ethiopian case and road construction over other sectors. We then moved to her findings on the resistance and agency of African workers and the ‘hopes and bitterness’ of the Chinese workers. We discussed how it is possible to identify different classes among Chinese workers in Ethiopia (as well as in China) and the varieties of migrants, each with different background, ambitions, working conditions and destiny. We concluded our conversation addressing the controversial topic of China’s presence in Africa and whether this should be defined as neo-colonialism or not. Revealing the intricate and intimate dimensions of these encounters, Driessen conceptualizes how structures of domination and subordination are reshaped on the ground. The book skillfully interrogates micro-level experiences and teases out how China’s involvement in Africa is both similar to and different from historical forms of imperialism. Miriam also told us about her new project as she is about to move to Ethiopia for another year of fieldwork. Thanks to her bright anthropological skills and her ability to communicate in both Amharic and Chinese, it will be yet another amazing scholarly contribution. Miriam Driessen is an anthropologist and a writer of literary nonfiction in English and her native Dutch. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the China, Law and Development Project, hosted by the University of Oxford China Centre. Miriam completed a DPhil at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford (2014/15), and held a fellowship at Peking University (2014–2016). She has also been a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) and a Junior Research Fellow of Jesus College, University of Oxford. Andrea Bernardi is Senior Lecturer in Employment and Organization Studies at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. He holds a doctorate in Organization Theory from the University of Milan, Bicocca. He has held teaching and research positions in Italy, China and the UK. Among his research interests are the use of history in management studies, the co-operative sector, and Chinese co-operatives. His latest project is looking at health care in rural China. He is the co-convener of the EAEPE’s permanent track on Critical Management Studies.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tesla’s launch of its cybertruck has sent the hype around electric vehicles into a frenzy –  where are we in reality in terms of the mass take up of electric vehicles – but one thing is certain -  Elon Musk has radically changed our perceptions of the future of transport. Hosts Mustafa Alrawi, assistant editor in chief and The National’s future editor, Kelsey Warner talk to Yunshi Wang (Director of China Centre for Energy and Transportation, UC Davis). They discuss about the EV industry and the Tesla Cybertruck. In this episode:  Kelsey and Mustafa on the Cybertruck & EVs (0m 38s) Yunshi Wang (14m 30s) Headlines (28m 05s) Read more on our website: • Tesla Cybertruck: Elon Musk enters stiff pick-up truck market with electric model (https://www.thenational.ae/business/technology/tesla-cybertruck-elon-musk-enters-stiff-pick-up-truck-market-with-electric-model-1.941049) • Dubai extends free charging for electric cars for a year (https://www.thenational.ae/uae/transport/dubai-extends-free-charging-for-electric-cars-for-a-year-1.941698) • Abu Dhabi receives bids for planned 2GW solar scheme (https://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/abu-dhabi-receives-bids-for-planned-2gw-solar-scheme-1.941472) • Abu Dhabi luxury developer expands Moroccan portfolio with Dh571m mixed-use project (https://www.thenational.ae/business/property/abu-dhabi-luxury-developer-expands-moroccan-portfolio-with-dh571m-mixed-use-project-1.941859) • UAE is most prosperous Arab nation for 13th year, study says (https://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/uae-is-most-prosperous-arab-nation-for-13th-year-study-says-1.942047)

Hoover Institution fellows Misha Auslin and John Yoo welcome one of Britain’s leading experts on China to the podcast: Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, St. Cross College, Oxford University, and the Director of Oxford’s China Centre. Professor Mitter is the author of Forgotten Ally: China’s War with Japan, 1937-45, and A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World. Professor Mitter discusses the student-led demonstrations of the Tiananmen Square Massacre thirty years later and the 100th Anniversary of the May Fourth Movement. We then turn to the changes in China since Tiananmen and the future of Chinese pluralism after the coming to power of Xi Jinping. Did you like the show? You can rate, review, subscribe, and download the podcast on the following platforms: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Spotify | RSS

On this episode, Oxford University's China Centre research associate George Magnus discusses his latest book “Red Flags: Why Xi's China is in Jeopardy.” The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/ep-128-red-flags-in-xis-china-political-economy-with-james-pethokoukis/ (Red flags in Xi's China) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).

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Charles Peabody, President of Portales Partners LLC, on bank earnings and outlook. Danny Blanchflower, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth and former BOE policy maker, on why Theresa May is a dead woman walking. George Magnus, associate at the China Centre at Oxford University and former chief economist of UBS, on China's economic outlook and how this plays into trade negotiations.  Drew Armstrong, U.S. Healthcare team leader for Bloomberg, on Walmart leaving CVS's pharmacy network.

Over the last 40 years, China has changed beyond recognition, becoming a world power following economic reforms made by Deng Xiaoping and others.  President Xi Jinping, perhaps the most powerful leader in China since Mao Tse Tung, has inherited this more prosperous, and complex, economy. Yet, George Magnus, of the China Centre at Oxford University, … Continue reading EP 204 RED FLAGS FOR CHINA

George Magnus, associate at the China Centre at Oxford University and former chief economist of UBS, on the slowdown in China’s economy, and China-U.S. trade relations. Noah Feldman, Harvard Law Professor and Bloomberg Opinion columnist, discusses his column: "Trump’s Tweeting His Post-Presidency Defense Now." Kathleen Gaffney, Co-Director of Diversified Fixed Income at Eaton Vance, on bond markets and her outlook for 2019. Sheryl Connelly, Ford's futurist, discusses 2019 trends in technology and artificial technology. 

Mail bombs are in the headlines, but it's our trade relationship with China that may determine your economic fate. Rick talks with George Magnus, Associate with the China Centre at Oxford University. His book is Red Flags: Why Xi's China is in Jeopardy. You can call in to the show any time at (833) 711-RICK. That's (833) 711-7425.

George Magnus, associate at the China Centre at Oxford University and former chief economist of UBS, on his new book, "Red Flags: Why Xi’s China is in Jeopardy."Matt Chiodi, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at RedLock, on a major U.S. telecom company discovering more manipulated hardware from China’s Super Micro Computer Inc.  Molly Smith, corporate finance reporter for Bloomberg, on Tesla's bonds showing no signs of default anytime soon. Jim Paulsen, Chief Investment Strategist at Leuthold, discusses why concerns that the U.S. economy will overheat and inflation will accelerate is becoming “the prevailing attitude of Wall Street." Hosted by Pimm Fox and Lisa Abramowicz.

On What’d You Miss This Week, Joe Weisenthal, Scarlet Fu and Julia Chatterley had their eyes glued on Capitol Hill as Mark Zuckerberg came face to face with U.S. lawmakers. They broke down the Facebook CEO’s two days of testimony with David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect" and asked where’s all our data going? More importantly, do users even care? George Magnus, China Centre associate at the University of Oxford, also joined to discuss the concern that the tough trade talk between the U.S. and China could escalate to weaponized finance between the world’s two largest economies. But unlike President Trump, he’s not quite convinced China would intentionally devalue the Yuan. Then Alberto Ramos, Goldman Sachs Head of LatAm Economics, came on to talk through Brazil’s economic reality and their complex election on the horizon.

Christopher Hughes speaks at the China Centre on 3 March 2017 This presentation discusses how militarism was used to subordinate the modern idea of citizenship to social and political hierarchy in the transition from late Qing to early Republican China. The role of Japanese militarism in this process is analysed and evidence is drawn from a combination of elite politics and education policy and materials from China and Japan. The implications of this process for Chinese politics today are also explored.

In this episode we get the Chinese perspective on investment into Australia and also discuss a potential new framework for the Australia China relationship with Professor Peter Drysdale from the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy and Professors Liu Shangdong and Lin Jiang from the think tank the China Centre for International Economic Exchange. In our discussion that was recorded in Beijing in October 2017, we get the Chinese view on the complementary nature of Chinese investment into Australia, as well as the need for clarity on investment guidelines and the context of Chinese investment within Australia. We also address the effect ChAFTA has had on the bilateral relationship and ascertain how an Australia China Commission could provide long term stability to the Sino-Australia relationship. In 2016 the ANU and CCIEE collaborated on the report the Australia China Joint Economic Report – the first major independent study of the Australia China relationship, compiled with support from both Beijing and China. The report has subsequently been delivered to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

NB: The first minutes of the presentation were not recorded. Professor Danny Quah speaks at the International Politics of East Asia Seminar Many writers have noted how the international system might be on the cusp of a change, where the "America Century" will no longer describe world order. If, however, the challenge to the established international regime arises from East Asia in general, or from China in particular, the numbers are, at best, ambiguous. Moreover, the conventional narrative ascribes to the established system intangible attributes such as soft power that are difficult to dislodge. This talk develops an alternative approach—of economics, demand and supply, and rationality—to analyse the rise of Asia and its potential disruption to the current world order. Short reference: An Economic Perspective on the International System: Demand, Supply, and a Rational World Order, 16 December 2015 article by Professor Quah. Longer reference, Ordering the World: Truth to Power (2016, incomplete book manuscript). Professor Danny Quah is Professor of Economics and International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at LSE's Institute of Global Affairs. He had previously served as LSE's Head of Department for Economics, and Council Member on Malaysia's National Economic Advisory Council. Quah is Tan Chin Tuan Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, and lectures regularly at Peking University. He studied at Princeton, Minnesota, and Harvard, and was Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at MIT before joining LSE. Quah gave the third LSE-NUS lecture in 2013, TEDx talks in 2014 and 2012, and the Inaugural LSE Big Questions Lecture in 2011. His current research is on an economic approach to world order - global power shift and the rise of the east. This seminar series has been organised in association with the China Centre.

China's 2015 growth data, released this week, provides an opportunity for Beijing to argue that the underlying economy remains sound despite recent stock market chaos. Michael MacKenzie asks George Magnus, an associate at Oxford university’s China Centre and senior economic adviser to UBS, how reliable the data are and what China's leaders need to do to reassure investors and the markets. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor Rana Mitter (Director-Designate of the China Centre) delivers the final part of the lecture "How has globalisation changed perceptions of cultural heritage?".

Professor Rana Mitter (Director-Designate of the China Centre) delivers the final part of the lecture "How has globalisation changed perceptions of cultural heritage?".