Podcasts about Hangzhou

Reading blood work well means resisting the urge to sort everything into simply normal or abnormal. But what happens when the real diagnosis lives in the relationships between markers, not the markers themselves?Dr. Jessica Parker is an acupuncturist and lab-work educator who teaches practitioners to read blood panels through a Chinese medicine lens. In this conversation, she joins Michael to explore the gap between conventional ranges and true optimal health.Listen in as they trace her path from a formative year in Hangzhou, where East and West medicine shared the same pharmacy shelf, to teaching acupuncturists to read cortisol, cholesterol, and thyroid markers as stories of stress and imbalance; how spleen-chi deficiency hides inside ordinary lab numbers; and why cortisol has been unfairly demonized online.

The stealth troops successfully sneak past the enemy lines in dead men's coats. The false flags planted on the hillside fool the city guard. The front gate assault diverts, while the sappers around back bring the walls down. I love it when a plan comes together, every single piece locking in like perfect clockwork... Except… it wasn't really the plan. The city that fell was never the objective – it was merely a diversion… a diversion that would leave 60,000 dead within a week. Time Period Covered: 1860 CE Major Historical Figures: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King [1814–1864] Hong Rengan, the Shield King (Gan Wang), Prime Minister [1822–1864] Li Xiucheng, the Loyal King (Zhong Wang) [1823–1864] Li Shixian, the Attending King (Shi Wang) [1834–1865] Chen Yucheng, the Brave King (Ying Wang) [1837–1862] The Qing: The Xianfeng Emperor [1831–1861] He Chun, Imperial Commissioner, Jiangnan Daying [d. 1860] Zeng Guofan, acting Governor-General of Liangjiang; commander, Hunan Army [1811–1872] Zhang Guoliang, commander, Jiangnan Daying [1822–1860] Zhang Yuliang, commander of the Hangzhou relief column Xu Yuren, Governor of JiangsuMajor Works Cited:Jen, Yu-wen. The Taiping Revolutionary Movement.Michael, Franz, and Chung-li Chang. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vols. I–III. Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate Adie presents stories from Germany on the Alternative für Deutschland party's plans if it takes power in state elections; India's Cockroach party takes on a new fight; inside the factories of China's robotic revolution; how corned beef changed a Uruguayan town and the protesters of the peaceful anti-communist revolution in 1989 who've taken up a new cause.Jessica Parker has followed the campaign of AfD's state leader in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, and heard more about the plans to reform the culture and education systems to make them more patriotic - and what locals are making of them.Geeta Pandy has visited rural schools in Faridabad - which are poorly staffed and in a dilapidated condition. It's a situation replicated across India and the subject of a new campaign by the Cockroach Janata Party, as she discovers.In China, Laura Bicker has visited factories in Chengdu, Hangzhou and Beijing - as well as the World Humanoid Olympics - to witness the robot revolution underway. More than two million robots work in the country's factories and she encounters the industrial robots working alongside humans - and the young people being encouraged to embrace the advances.Sara Wheeler has been in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos, and learns how corned beef along with other beef products once changed the fortunes of the region and the country.And Anne McElvoy reflects on her time as a student in communist East Germany, and then as a reporter of the anti-communist protests in 1989 - and finds some of those who took to the streets back then have redirected their sense of national pride to embrace a new cause: support for the AfD.Series Producer: Serena Tarling Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill Editor: Justine Lang

Plus: Alibaba to raise $10.2 billion for AI investment with share placement. And the Justice Department and TikTok reach $400 million settlement over children's privacy suit. Julie Chang hosts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, we were LIVE(ish) again from Hangzhou, China at the 2026 World ParaVolley Sitting World Championship. We welcomed U.S. Men's Sitting National Team libero Travis Ricks to the show (1:00 - 38:30). We caught up with Travis following competition at Worlds, and he talks about the results of the Men's team and the team qualifying for LA28, as well as shares about his experience competing in China. Travis talks about his journey in volleyball, starting out as a multisport athlete, finding sitting volleyball and coming back to competition after retiring and so much more! Text us!

Unitree, a Hangzhou-based robot maker, surged 542 percent on its Shanghai debut, according to CNBC. The move highlights strong domestic investor interest in advanced manufacturing and robotics in China. The listing adds to Asia's varied robotics funding paths, alongside UBTech Robotics' 2023 Hong Kong IPO and Boston Dynamics' private status under Hyundai Motor Group. U.S. founders may face faster product cycles and pricing pressure as Chinese peers scale manufacturing and iterate quickly. Buyers in energy, logistics, and public safety will assess reliability, cybersecurity, and vendor origin before deploying quadrupeds. A headline debut may reset valuation comps and spur M&A, but execution discipline and service coverage remain critical for hardware operators.Learn more on this news by visiting us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Sinica, I sit down with the writer Pallavi Aiyar — at her own dining table in Beijing, where in recent months I've been the lucky beneficiary of her and her husband Julio's legendary hospitality. Pallavi first arrived in Beijing in 2002 to teach at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute and went on to spend the better part of a decade as The Hindu's China correspondent — for much of that time, the only Chinese-speaking Indian foreign correspondent in the country. That period produced Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, still one of the very few sustained attempts to look at China through Indian eyes. After 16 years away — years spent in Brussels, Jakarta, Tokyo, and Madrid — she's back in Beijing, and turning her gaze inward with her latest book, Travels in the Other Place: Pursuing the Self in Eight Acts. She writes the wonderful Substack The Global Jigsaw, which I recommend without reservation.Our conversation is built around her recent essay for Noema Magazine, “The Real Problem Underlying India-China Tensions,” which argues that the deepest problem in the relationship isn't the border or the trade imbalance but the distorting lenses through which each side reads the other: China reads India through the lens of colonial subordination, while India reads China through the lens of betrayal. We talk about the ugly etymology of an ethnic slur, the partial historical memories each country mistakes for the whole picture, her serialized interviews with the Chinese India-watcher Mao Keji, the aporia-inducing impossibility of explaining either country to outsiders — and how her answer to the question she first posed in 2008, “Would I rather be born Indian or Chinese?”, has changed, painfully, in the years since.4:35 – Beijing, 2002: an ad in That's Beijing, gandhi@hotmail.com, and becoming The Hindu's correspondent10:03 – “Beijing and I grew up together”: the aughts as a shared coming-of-age12:16 – The asymmetry of obsession: why India watches China, but not the reverse16:39 – The unacknowledged third vertex: Western discursive power in the India-China relationship18:08 – Back after 16 years: the Liangma River, blue skies, and the panopticon21:35 – Walks in the park and the “buddy system”: what access looks like now25:43 – Where did all the foreigners go?29:59 – The scene at CCG: candor, offense, and the register of truth33:10 – “Asan”: the etymology of a slur, Sikh policemen, opium fortunes, and China's colonial lens40:10 – 1962 and India's betrayal lens42:15 – Aporia: the foolhardy task of explaining India or China47:22 – Shame and indignation: explaining a place you love versus a place you merely know52:29 – The big question, 2008: born Indian or Chinese?55:44 – The 2026 answer: “It hurts”1:00:08 – Kaiser pushes back: cherry-picked comparisons, and can this essay's very existence complicate its conclusions?1:04:43 – Twin nations of the exam1:06:57 – Cognitive empathy: what it would take for ordinary Indians and Chinese to actually see each otherPaying It ForwardYaqi Li, a young Chinese international relations scholar recently returned to China after a year in Singapore — Pallavi admires the rare self-reflectiveness of his memoir-inflected IR writing on his Substack, New China Literacy, and notes that he makes an interesting case for AI-assisted writing as a way for second- and third-language English speakers to find their voice.RecommendationsPallavi: Flashlight by Susan Choi — a novel spanning Japan, the U.S., and North Korea, built around the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s. Also This Is Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin — the first novel from her favorite Pakistani writer, a sprawling, Chekhovian portrait of feudalism and politics in modern Pakistan.Kaiser: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner — beautiful at the sentence level, painted on a small canvas: two couples who meet as young academics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and their friendship across the decades. Emotionally rich despite the absence of grand drama.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Autonomy Signals presented by KPMG, Grayson Brulte and Rob Grant discuss Uber fully exiting its equity position in Serve Robotics as the delivery partnership ends, CaoCao launching robotaxi operations in Hangzhou, and Boeing offloading Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu to Archer Aviation in a deal that trades equity for cash flow.Uber recently liquidated its entire remaining stake in Serve Robotics, as Serve announced on their Q2 2026 earnings call that the company will not be renewing its delivery partnership when the contract expires in 2027, exposing the pitfalls of being reliant on a demand aggregation platform.While Uber and Serve prepare to part ways, CaoCao launched public road testing without a safety driver in Hangzhou's Binjiang District with a fleet of roughly 100 vehicles, backed by parent Geely's manufacturing might and a purpose-built EvaCab robotaxi with a sub $35,000 BOM cost targeting 100,000 units by 2030.As China's robotaxi industry grows, Boeing exited autonomy by selling Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu to Archer Aviation for a 19.75% equity stake, immediately re-anchoring Archer's valuation on defense cash flow rather than eVTOL speculation while pushing autonomous certification down the line.Episode Chapters0:00 KPMG Sponsor Introduction01:32 Signal 1: Uber and Serve Robotics Get Divorced31:40 Signal 2: CaoCao Vertically Integrates Robotaxis1:00:10 Signal 3: Boeing Exits Autonomy with Archer Aviation DealFollow The Road to Autonomy Indices--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy is the leading applied intelligence platform covering the convergence of automation, autonomy, and the Autonomy Economy.™.Through our podcasts, newsletter, and proprietary applied intelligence, we set the narrative for institutional investors, industry executives, and policymakers navigating the convergence of automation, autonomy, and economic growth.Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what's next.Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I welcome back Evan Osnos of The New Yorker, whose marvelous new essay, “The Future, Made in China,” chronicles a tech-focused return trip to Beijing, where he lived from 2005 to 2013 — first for the Chicago Tribune, then as The New Yorker's China correspondent. Evan is the author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, which won the National Book Award, as well as Wildland: The Making of America's Fury and The Haves and Have-Yachts.His essay is far more than another breathless account of China's advances in robotics and electric vehicles. It's a meditation on what China's technological ascent means for the United States, for how both societies are organized, and for the rest of us, whose futures increasingly seem to be wagered by two small circles of powerful men in Beijing and Washington. We talk about the Xiaomi Hyperfactory, “Chinamaxxing,” the export control debate, and the deeper contest Evan identifies: not democracy versus authoritarianism, but humanism versus scientism.3:04 – Walking Beijing's streets again: quieter, richer, more surveilled11:26 – The Xiaomi Hyperfactory: choreography, awe, and what's actually real18:10 – Doomed to coexist: Evan's message for the American reader24:15 – Schrödinger's China: joke or juggernaut?27:16 – The limits of knowability in an increasingly opaque system31:56 – Threat narratives vs. “Chinamaxxing”: America's two China conversations43:20 – “Thank Trump”: America's self-inflicted wounds47:29 – Revisiting the Sullivan doctrine and export controls53:10 – Mankind 2000: humanism, scientism, and rival oligarchies1:02:48 – Convergence: arriving at dystopia from opposite directions1:07:21 – Self-strengthening redux: Levenson and America's meum-verum gap1:17:53 – The other Sputnik moment: the backlash against tech oligarchyPaying It ForwardYi-Ling Liu, author of The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet — Evan admires how her work grapples with the competition between scientism and humanism across national borders.Chang Che, who writes for The New Yorker and The Guardian — watching China's technological developments up close, “creating history in real time.”RecommendationsEvan: How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University by Theo Baker — the youngest-ever Polk Award winner on how a rising generation at Silicon Valley's feeder school perceives its opportunities and obligations. Also True Grit by Charles Portis — splendid, sentence-savoring dialogue.Kaiser: Butcher's Crossing by John Williams, author of Stoner — a Western with the same sentence-level craft; for fans of Melville and Cormac McCarthy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chinese robot maker Unitree Robotics on Monday opened subscriptions for its initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's sci‑tech innovation board, or STAR Market, following a preliminary offline price inquiry that indicated strong investor demand.中国机器人企业宇树科技周一启动上海证券交易所科创板新股申购，此前开展的初步线下询价显示投资者认购需求旺盛。The Hangzhou‑based company is offering 40.446434 million shares at 150.80 yuan (about $22) each, representing 10 percent of its post‑offering share capital. The offering is expected to raise about 6.10 billion yuan in gross proceeds.这家总部位于杭州的企业本次发行 4044.6434 万股，发行价每股 150.80 元人民币（约合 22 美元），占发行后总股本的 10%。本次发行预计募集毛资金约 61.0 亿元。After invalid bids and the highest‑priced portion of proposed subscriptions were excluded, the remaining proposed offline subscriptions totaled 71.463 billion shares, 2,760.67 times the initial offline offering size before adjustment for strategic placement, according to the issuance announcement.根据发行公告，剔除无效报价和最高报价部分申购后，剩余线下有效申购总量达 714.63 亿股，为战略配售调整前初始线下发行规模的 2760.67 倍。According to its prospectus, Unitree mainly develops, produces and sells high‑performance general‑purpose humanoid and quadruped robots, robot components and embodied intelligence models. On its official website, Unitree describes itself as a civilian robotics company with leadership in core robot parts, motion control, robot sensing and other comprehensive fields.据招股书披露，宇树科技主要研发、生产及销售高性能通用人形机器人、四足机器人、机器人零部件以及具身智能模型。宇树科技在官网中将自身定位为民用机器人企业，在机器人核心零部件、运动控制、机器人感知等综合领域具备行业领先水平。The prospectus shows that from 2023 to 2025, Unitree sold 33,294 quadruped robots and 5,632 humanoid robots. Its humanoid robot shipments exceeded 5,500 units in 2025, excluding wheeled dual‑arm robots.招股书显示，2023 至 2025 年间，宇树科技累计销售四足机器人 33294 台、人形机器人 5632 台。2025 年，剔除轮式双臂机器人后，其人形机器人出货量超 5500 台。China's securities regulator approved Unitree's IPO registration application in a decision dated July 1.中国证券监管机构于 7 月 1 日作出批复，核准宇树科技首次公开发行股票注册申请。subscription /səbˈskrɪpʃn/n. 申购；认购prospectus /prəˈspektəs/n. 招股说明书quadruped /ˈkwɒdrəped/n. 四足动物；四足机器人regulator /ˈreɡjuleɪtə(r)/n. 监管机构；监管者

Typhoon Dolphin made double landfall in East China's Zhejiang province on Sunday evening, bringing strong winds, high waves and heavy rain.台风 “白海豚” 于周日晚间在华东浙江省二次登陆，带来狂风、巨浪与强降雨。The typhoon is expected to weaken as it moves inland and northward, reaching North China in the coming days.该台风向内陆北上过程中将逐步减弱，未来数日将抵达华北地区。Dolphin, the 13th typhoon of the year, made its first landfall in Kanmen subdistrict of Yuhuan, Taizhou, at around 5:30 pm as a strong typhoon, with the maximum sustained wind speed at its center exceeding 150 kilometers per hour, according to the National Meteorological Center.据国家气象中心消息，今年第 13 号台风 “白海豚” 以强台风级别，于下午 5 时 30 分左右在台州玉环坎门街道首次登陆，中心最大持续风速超每小时 150 公里。The typhoon then made a second landfall in Yueqing, Zhejiang, about 70 minutes later.约 70 分钟后，该台风在浙江乐清完成二次登陆。Ahead of its arrival, coastal cities across Zhejiang scaled up their emergency response systems.台风来临前，浙江各沿海城市提升应急响应等级。Wenzhou, Taizhou and Ningbo activated Level I responses, the highest in China's four‑tier system, while Hangzhou activated Level II.温州、台州、宁波启动我国四级应急体系中的最高等级 Ⅰ 级应急响应，杭州启动 Ⅱ 级应急响应。In Taizhou, all 3,815 fishing vessels were berthed in safe waters, and work was suspended at 29 coastal water‑related projects.台州 3815 艘渔船全部回港避风，29 个涉海沿海项目停工。Wenzhou imposed citywide suspension of classes, work, production, transportation and business operations.温州全市实行停课、停工、停产、停运、停业。The National Meteorological Center issued a red typhoon alert, its highest‑level warning, on Sunday morning.国家气象中心周日早晨发布台风红色预警，为最高级别预警。It was the second such alert this year, following one for Typhoon Noul in late July.这是继 7 月底台风 “红霞” 之后，今年第二次发布台风红色预警。The storm caused widespread travel disruptions across the Yangtze River Delta.这场风暴造成长三角地区大范围交通受阻。More than 1,000 flights were canceled on Sunday, while some railway services and ferry routes were suspended.周日千余架次航班取消，部分铁路班次与轮渡航线停运。Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport canceled 388 inbound and outbound flights, mostly scheduled for the afternoon.杭州萧山国际机场取消 388 架次进出港航班，大部分为下午时段航班。Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao airports canceled more than 1,300 flights, nearly 60 percent of scheduled services.上海浦东、虹桥两大机场取消 1300 余架次航班，占计划航班量近六成。Authorities also moved people living in vulnerable areas to safety.相关部门也将居住在风险区域的群众转移至安全地带。In Hangzhou's Xiaoshan district, for example, a shelter at Jinshan Junior High School had become a temporary home for 231 construction workers by Sunday afternoon.例如，截至周日下午，杭州萧山区金山中学安置点已接纳 231 名建筑工人临时避险。On Saturday evening, authorities in Zhejiang evacuated some 390,000 people in Taizhou.周六晚间，浙江台州转移安置约 39 万名群众。Authorities in Shanghai evacuated more than 30,000 people from risk‑prone areas.上海相关部门从风险区域转移 3 万余人。Dolphin's impact is expected to last for days.“白海豚” 带来的影响预计将持续数日。Dong Lin, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, said its circulation spans about 1,300 kilometers, contributing to a broad and prolonged wind and rain impact.国家气象中心首席预报员董林表示，该台风环流范围约 1300 公里，将造成大范围、长时间的风雨影响。Through Monday, heavy rainfall is expected mainly in areas south of the Yellow and Huaihe rivers, including parts of Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Henan and Shandong.截至周一，强降雨主要集中在黄淮以南部分地区，涵盖浙江、上海、江苏、安徽、湖北、河南、山东局部。The rain belt is expected to move northward beginning Tuesday as Dolphin's residual circulation moves inland.随着 “白海豚” 残余环流深入内陆，雨带预计自周二起向北推移。According to the Beijing Meteorological Service, the Beijing‑Tianjin‑Hebei region is forecast to see heavy rainfall from Monday night through Friday.北京市气象台消息，京津冀地区预计自周一夜间至周五将迎来强降雨。landfall /ˈlændfɔːl/n.（台风）登陆circulation /ˌsɜːkjəˈleɪʃn/n. 环流；环流圈evacuate /ɪˈvækjueɪt/v. 疏散；转移forecaster /ˈfɔːkɑːstə(r)/n. 预报员

Heute sprechen wir über den Leapmotor B10, da wollte ich doch mal wissen, was der Name bedeutet. Also Leapmotor. Da konnte mir auch die KI nicht weiterhelfen, immerhin wusste sei, dass Leapmotor ein chinesischer Hersteller von Elektrofahrzeugen mit Sitz in Hangzhou ist, der 2015 gegründet wurde und ein Joint Venture mit dem Autokonzern Stellantis hat. Ein Englisch – Deutsch Übersetzungstool sagt, es hieße übersetzt „Sprungmotor“. Angesichts der Beschleunigung könnte das sogar stimmen. Wieso der Begriff aus dem Westfriesischen kommen soll, ist mir aber ein Rätsel! Darum geht es diesmal!Ab und zu sticht mich bei der Erstellung meiner Fahrberichte der Hafer, dann kann ich mir einen Gag nicht verkneifen. Also: Stellen Sie sich mal vor, Ihnen kommt auf der B10 ein B10 entgegen. Das erste B10 steht für eine ca. 240 Kilometer lange Bundesstraße im Südwesten Deutschlands. Das zweite für ein Elektrofahrzeug aus dem Hause Leapmotor. Und da man bei Elektroautos immer über die Reichweite spricht, folgt später noch eine amüsante Rechnung.  Das Outfit!Das elektrische C-SUV wurde von Leapmotor für Europa konzipiert, sein Exterieur ist ausdrucksstark. Es vereint elegante Kurven und klare, dynamische Linien zu einem markanten, modernen und jungen Look. Mit einer Länge von 4,51 Meter, einer Breite von 1,88 Meter und einer Höhe von 1,65 Meter ist der B10 perfekt für europäische Straßen geeignet. Testfahrten auf dem renommierten italienischen Testgelände Balocco haben das untermauert.  Power und Drive!    Kommen wir zum B10 auf der B10 und zu der besagten Rechnung zurück.  Wenn besagter Leapmotor B10 mit einer kleinen Batterie ausgestattet ist, schaffen Sie die B10 einmal hin und ein ganzes Stück zurück mit einer Ladung. Mit der großen Batterie fehlt nur ein kleines Stück beim Rückweg. In Zahlen ausgedrückt sprechen wir von Reichweiten von 361 bzw. 434 Kilometern WLTP-Reichweite. Der B10 wird immer von einem hocheffizienten Elektromotor mit 160 kW (218 PS) angetrieben, der den Wagen aus dem Reich der Mitte in nur 8 Sekunden von 0 auf 100 km/h und auf eine Höchstgeschwindigkeit von 170 km/h beschleunigt. Leapmotor hat ihn unter anderem mit 17 ADAS-Funktionen und einem 360°-Kamerasystem ausgestattet. ADAS steht übrigens für Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, zu gut Deutsch: fortschrittliche Fahrerassistenzsysteme.Die Kosten!Der Leapmotor B10 steht ab 29.900, -- Euro mit der 56,2 kWh Batterie und 361 km Reichweite (WLTP) beim Händler.  Mit einer Batteriekapazität von 67,1 kWh steigt die Reichweite auf bis zu 434 km (WLTP), der Preis auf 32.400 – Euro. Das ist ein gutes Angebot! Alle Fotos: © Leapmotor/Stellantis    Diesen Beitrag können Sie nachhören oder downloaden unter:

Photographer Yue Sun joins Michael Chovan-Dalton from the 2026 Chico Review to discuss His work from Inner Mongolia and the transition of his hometown from coal mining to tourism.https://www.yuesunphoto.comhttps://www.instagram.com/__4le_/b. 1998, Wuhai, Inner Mongolia, ChinaBased in Shanghai, China‍Yue Sun is a self-taught Chinese photographer, currently working as a freelance-architect in Shanghai.BA Architecture(ARB/RIBA Part I), Architecture Association School of ArchitectureGroup Exhibitions2026 - Gui Qu Lai Xi, FujiFilm X-Space, Hangzhou, China2025 - 6th Lanzhou International Image Biennale This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at:https://charcoalbookclub.com

In this episode, we were LIVE(ish) from Hangzhou, China, at the 2026 World ParaVolley Sitting World Championship. We welcomed Paralympic gold medalist and U.S. Women's Sitting Team athlete Jillian Coffee to the show (1:00 - 42:28). We caught up with Jillian before competition started at Worlds, and she shares what it would take for her and the team to win this event, as well as shares about competing in China. She talks about her journey in volleyball, being a mother and National Team athlete, and coming back to competition after having a child. She also talks about her foundation, hunting and so much more! Text us!

SPORTS: PH to surpass Hangzhou Asiad 4-gold haul | July 26, 2026Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net Follow us: Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital Check out our Podcasts: Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcherTune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein#TheManilaTimes#KeepUpWithTheTimes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Im aktuellen Gespräch habe ich Stefan Lundin zu Gast, den Chief Communications Officer von Geely Holding Europe. Stefan ist seit elf Jahren im Geely-Kosmos tätig und kennt den Konzern aus so vielen Perspektiven wie kaum jemand sonst - vom Forschungszentrum über den Campus-Aufbau in Göteborg bis hin zur heutigen Arbeit an der Markenstrategie für Europa. Wir starten mit einer Frage, die simpel klingt, aber alles andere als einfach zu beantworten ist: Was ist Geely eigentlich? Chinesisches Unternehmen? Globaler Konzern? Stefan bringt es auf den Punkt - "ein globaler Konzern, der in China geboren wurde" - und erklärt, warum selbst intern je nach Standort eine andere Antwort kommt. In Göteborg sieht man Geely als weit entfernten Investor, in Hangzhou denkt man bei "Geely" an etwas ganz anderes. Dann gehen wir die Marken durch - und zwar strukturiert. Volvo Cars und Polestar als westliche Marken mit langer europäischer Geschichte. Lynk & Co und Zeekr, die in Göteborg erfunden wurden, aber mit chinesischer Führung und Produktion. Geely Auto als ursprünglich chinesische Marke, die jetzt nach Europa drängt. Dabei räumt Stefan auch mit einem verbreiteten Missverständnis auf: Plattform und Architektur sind nicht dasselbe - und das hat praktische Konsequenzen dafür, wie viel die Modelle wirklich teilen. Ein zentrales Thema ist die Frage der Markenkannibalisierung. Stefan spricht offen über eine Phase, in der Wachstum über Klarheit ging. Die Taizhou-Deklaration von Li Shufu markiert hier einen Wendepunkt: Zeekr, Lynk & Co und Geely Auto werden unter der Geely Auto Group zusammengeführt, mit klarer Segmentierung von Volumen bis Premium. Zum Schluss geht es um die Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie des Konzerns - und darum, warum Geely gleichzeitig auf CO2-Neutralität bis 2045 zielt und in Methanol-Hybride investiert. Stefans Antwort ist globaler als erwartet: Wer nur auf Europa und China schaut, sieht nur einen Teil des Bildes.

This week on Sinica, a rare treat: an in-person recording from Beijing with two dear friends who happen to be two of the very best in the business on technology and China — Samm Sacks and Paul Triolo, fresh off the exhibition floor of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. We dig into Xi Jinping's first in-person WAIC appearance and his most extensive statement on AI to date, the launch of the World AI Cooperation Organization, Moonshot's release of Kimi K3, the Trump administration's reported push to shut Chinese open-weight models out of the U.S. market, the coming age of agents, the untranslatable problem of ānquán, and what to expect from the first U.S.-China AI dialogue in September.8:51 – The view from the floor: heat, humidity, robot boxing grandmas, WeChat-gated free water, and the "AI+" vibe — why WAIC 2026 felt less like an AI conference than a sector-by-sector snapshot of China's entire economy being supercharged with AI, with attendance swelling to some 200,000 tickets16:32 – Why Xi showed up: what the leader's first in-person WAIC appearance and his most extensive AI statement to date signal, and why domestic drivers matter as much as geopolitics18:01 – Chapter and verse: which phrases from the speech will be put to work in the system — "secure and orderly development" and the governance of agents, and Xi's strikingly extensive language on AI safety after China was frozen out of the Paris process22:26 – The ānquán problem: one word meaning both "safety" and "security," the three buckets of AI risk, and how China's safety community has moved from bias and deepfakes toward CBRN and loss-of-control concerns — Black Mirror versus Star Trek28:14 – Shanghai's baby: how WAIC's ownership structure differs from the CAC-run World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Chen Jining's very visible host duties, and whether the center of gravity in AI policy is shifting to the Yangtze River Delta30:05 – WAICO: what the new World AI Cooperation Organization with its 29 founding members is actually for, Xi's concrete deliverables for the Global South — 5,000 AI training slots, regional cooperation centers, the MAZU early-warning system — and healthy skepticism about follow-through34:39 – Kimi K3: what's technically significant in Moonshot's big new model, why it's the fourth arguably frontier-class Chinese release in a single month, the two-way traffic in distillation accusations, and what it all says about the state of the frontier gap four years into export controls40:33 – Washington reacts: the reported menu of options for shutting Chinese open-weight models out of the U.S. — entity listings, a draft executive order, supply-chain security authorities — and why none of the tools actually fit the problem49:36 – Strange bedfellows: David Sacks versus the "closed lab duopoly," the FUD strategy, why some 80% of Andreessen Horowitz portfolio companies reportedly run on Chinese open models, and how gating U.S. frontier models while Chinese weights flow freely supercharges the AI sovereignty argument worldwide54:55 – The model is infrastructure, the agent is the product: the ByteDance–ZTE agentic phone, the CAC's new initiative on agent trust and interoperability, and why agents fused into operating systems upend both super-app walled gardens and China's data protection regime1:02:27 – An exegesis of kěkòng: the many meanings of "controllable," the long history of ānquán kěkòng in Chinese tech policy, and the unanswered question of who — CAC, NDRC, or somebody new — actually owns AI safety in either system1:08:54 – The road to September: what to expect from the first U.S.-China AI dialogue, why Mythos tops the Chinese grievance list, the securitization feedback loop that starves trust-and-safety advocates of resources on both sides, and why recursive self-improvement makes this feel like a last, best chancePaying It ForwardPaul nominates Tony Peng, whose Substack RecodeChinaAI offers sharp, well-written analysis of the application side of China's AI industry — part of an impressive new generation of independent China tech writers. Samm gives a shout-out to Professor Zhu Yue of Tongji University Law School, published in Science and doing pioneering work at the intersection of disability law and AI law.RecommendationsSamm: The Land and Its People by David Sedaris — laugh-out-loud funny, especially the "Enough is Enough" chapter; Transcription by Ben Lerner, a perfect small novel about fathers, sons, memory, and technology as enabler or disabler of connection; and Didion and Babitz, on Joan Didion and Eve Babitz and the 1970s California rock scene.Paul: The Party's Interests Come First by Joseph Torigian — dense but beautifully written, and essential for understanding the current Chinese leadership.Kaiser: A fiction-only summer! Stoner by John Williams, a small life told most grandly in some of the most beautiful sentence-level writing anywhere; Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, an epistolary novel dense with distilled wisdom from a dying Iowa minister; and Wang Xiaobo's The Golden Age (黄金时代) in Yan Yan's excellent new translation — bawdy, hilarious, and super Beijing-y despite its Cultural Revolution setting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Preserving Legacy: A Tea House Tale of Love and Memory Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-07-23-22-34-01-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 杭州的夏天，空气中弥漫着一股茶香。En: In the summer of Hangzhou, the air is filled with the scent of tea.Zh: 一家古老的茶馆坐落在西湖边，绿意盎然。En: An ancient tea house is nestled by West Lake, surrounded by lush greenery.Zh: 明宇和丽华走进茶馆。En: Mingyu and Lihua enter the tea house.Zh: 他们是兄妹，来自北京，最近因为爷爷的事来到杭州。En: They are siblings from Beijing, recently arrived in Hangzhou due to their grandfather's affairs.Zh: 爷爷不久前去世，留下了许多事情需要处理。En: Their grandfather passed away not long ago, leaving many matters to be settled.Zh: 明宇是兄长，性格务实。En: Mingyu is the older brother, pragmatic by nature.Zh: 他想尽快处理完爷爷的遗物，返回工作。En: He wants to swiftly sort out their grandfather's belongings and return to work.Zh: 然而，丽华更为感性。En: Yet Lihua is more sentimental.Zh: 她想细致地保留爷爷的记忆。En: She wishes to meticulously preserve the memories of their grandfather.Zh: 兄妹俩意见不一，特别是在茶馆的处理上。En: The siblings disagree, especially regarding the handling of the tea house.Zh: 这一天是七夕节，茶馆内挂了红灯笼。En: On this day, it's the Qixi Festival, and the tea house is adorned with red lanterns.Zh: 丽华在整理爷爷的物品时，发现了一张神秘的照片。En: While sorting through their grandfather's belongings, Lihua discovers a mysterious photograph.Zh: 照片上的女子陌生而亲切。En: The woman in the photo is unfamiliar yet familiar.Zh: 丽华对这张照片产生了浓厚的兴趣，想要知道更多背后的故事。En: Lihua develops a strong interest in the photo, wanting to learn more about the story behind it.Zh: “明宇，我们不能这么快卖掉茶馆。”丽华说。En: "Mingyu, we can't sell the tea house so hastily," Lihua said.Zh: “这或许是爷爷留下的宝贵回忆。”En: "This might be a precious memory left by Grandpa."Zh: “丽华，我理解你的感情，但我们还有其他事情要做。”明宇坚持他的计划。En: "Lihua, I understand your feelings, but we have other matters to attend to," Mingyu insisted on his plan.Zh: 但丽华没有放弃。En: But Lihua did not give up.Zh: 她决定找当地的历史学者，希望能揭开照片的秘密。En: She decided to find a local historian, hoping to uncover the secret of the photo.Zh: 几天后，丽华成功地发现，爷爷年轻时曾与一位女子有过一段隐秘的爱情。En: A few days later, Lihua successfully discovered that their grandfather had a secret love affair with a woman when he was young.Zh: 这段故事感人至深，从未被家族提及。En: This touching story had never been mentioned by the family.Zh: 得知这个消息后，明宇沉默了。En: After learning this news, Mingyu fell silent.Zh: 他开始理解丽华的坚持。En: He began to understand Lihua's persistence.Zh: 回忆不仅是过去的纪念，更是生活的一部分。En: Memories are not only a commemoration of the past but also a part of life.Zh: “也许我们可以重新翻修茶馆，保留爷爷的回忆。”明宇提议。En: "Perhaps we can renovate the tea house and preserve Grandpa's memories," Mingyu suggested.Zh: 丽华点头，眼中闪烁着泪光。En: Lihua nodded, her eyes brimming with tears.Zh: 兄妹决定不卖掉茶馆，而是保留它，作为对爷爷的纪念。En: The siblings decided not to sell the tea house but to keep it as a tribute to their grandfather.Zh: 几个星期后，茶馆焕然一新，迎接着新的客人。En: Weeks later, the tea house had a completely new look, welcoming new guests.Zh: 明宇和丽华从这次经历中学到了珍惜记忆的重要和务实的必要。En: Mingyu and Lihua learned from this experience the importance of cherishing memories as well as the necessity of practicality.Zh: 他们在茶馆门口挂上了一块新的牌匾，上面写着“忆缘茶馆”。En: They hung a new plaque at the tea house entrance, reading "Yiyuan Tea House."Zh: 茶香依旧，故事继续。En: The scent of tea remains, and the story continues. Vocabulary Words:scent: 茶香ancient: 古老nestled: 坐落sibling: 兄妹affairs: 事情pragmatic: 务实sort out: 处理sentimental: 感性meticulously: 细致地disagree: 意见不一adorned: 挂mysterious: 神秘unfamiliar: 陌生hastily: 这么快precious: 宝贵historian: 历史学者uncover: 揭开secret: 隐秘affair: 爱情commemoration: 纪念renovate: 翻修tribute: 纪念brimming: 闪烁new look: 焕然一新cherish: 珍惜necessity: 必要plaque: 牌匾entrance: 门口preserve: 保留lush: 盎然

TRACKLIST : Sen-Sei & Col lawton - Play good jazz (Arturo Garces remix) Marco Weber - Pot holes (Em Pathik remix) Simone Cristini - Claptomania Alann M - Street Ario - Flat top Brett Lawrence - I'll be good! Antonio Grassia - Mandrillo Osadon - Move ya body Tony Romanello - Biomorph Magnvm! - Satellite kid Tim Paris & Foremost Poets - That boy (Red Axes remix) Jaques Le Noir - Take me where I wanna go

【欢迎订阅】 每天早上5:30，准时更新。 【阅读原文】 标题：The Californication of middle-class Chinese diets正文：DAI JIANJUN, an organic restaurateur in the eastern city of Hangzhou,was ahead of his time. For more than 20 years his buyers have obsessively sourced ingredients, paying farmers in Zhejiang province above- market rates not to use chemical fertilisers or pesticides. The trouble paid off: his Dragon Well Mano restaurant has a Michelin star. His grandmother believed that the first rich generation buys homes, the second knows how to dress and the third knows how to eat.知识点：restaurateur n. /ˌrestərəˈtɜːr/a person who owns or manages a restaurant 餐馆老板；餐厅经营者· As a successful restaurateur, she now runs three Michelin-starred venues in Shanghai. 作为一位成功的餐厅老板，她如今在上海经营着三家米其林餐厅。· The young restaurateur built her reputation by insisting on farm-to-table sourcing. 这位年轻的餐厅老板凭坚持" 从农场到餐桌"的采购理念，赢得了口碑。【节目介绍】 《早安英文-每日外刊精读》，带你精读最新外刊，了解国际最热事件：分析语法结构，拆解长难句，最接地气的翻译，还有重点词汇讲解。 所有选题均来自于《经济学人》《纽约时报》《华尔街日报》《华盛顿邮报》《大西洋月刊》《科学杂志》《国家地理》等国际一线外刊。 【适合谁听】 1、关注时事热点新闻，想要学习最新最潮流英文表达的英文学习者 2、任何想通过地道英文提高听、说、读、写能力的英文学习者 3、想快速掌握表达，有出国学习和旅游计划的英语爱好者 4、参加各类英语考试的应试者（如大学英语四六级、托福雅思、考研等） 【你将获得】 1、超过1000篇外刊精读课程，拓展丰富语言表达和文化背景 2、逐词、逐句精确讲解，系统掌握英语词汇、听力、阅读和语法 3、每期内附学习笔记，包含全文注释、长难句解析、疑难语法点等，帮助扫除阅读障碍。

This week on Sinica, in a special episode recorded at the Davos On Air booth at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, I sat down with Angela Huyue Zhang, professor of law at USC's Gould School of Law and author of High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, and S. Alex Yang, professor of management science and operations at London Business School. Angela and Alex — who are also married, and who arrived at this collaboration from opposite ends of the academy — have developed what I think is one of the most useful new mental models for understanding China's political economy: the platform state. Their argument is that we should think of the Chinese state less as a central planner or owner and more as a platform company like NVIDIA or Apple, one that builds architecture, sets standards, and governs an ecosystem within which fiercely competitive private firms fight it out. Value accrues at the system level rather than as firm profit, and the payoff may decide who wins the race to put AI to work across an entire economy.5:37 – Three puzzles the framework is built to solve: profitless dominance in solar, EVs, and batteries; why the "grabbing hand" hasn't strangled Chinese innovation; and how China is attempting both zero-to-one invention and one-to-hundred scaling at once7:57 – The platform state thesis: why the Chinese government behaves like a platform company, how nurturing an ecosystem of private firms solves the information deficit that cripples command-and-control, and why over-entry, involution, and consolidation are a repeated pattern — from EVs to the 140-plus humanoid robot companies operating today16:13 – The aha moment: how a paper on the legal infrastructure of physical AI became the platform state idea over the Zhang-Yang dinner table, and whether this is a new species of political economy or the East Asian developmental state in new clothes20:44 – State conditions: why state capacity and domestic scale are the two preconditions for the model, and why an ambitious Vietnam — which has the top-down capacity — may still find the Chinese playbook impossible to replicate23:39 – Profitless dominance by design: harvesting versus extracting, the Uber analogy, overshooting as a control-theory strategy for nudging sectors, and how the anti-involution campaign and the 60-day supplier payment mandate show the state moderating the very competition it engineered30:33 – Organized chaos: from the bike-sharing graveyards of the O2O wars to today's disciplined market, the exit of more than 400 EV makers since 2018, and why the survivors of China's "Premier League" of competition are now turning profitable32:59 – The 3Gs playbook: growing markets by solving the cold-start problem, from Liuzhou's EV test drives to Beijing's green license plates, and how subsidy is only one lever among many38:36 – Governing the ecosystem like Apple runs its App Store: why Beijing regulates generative AI with a light touch but physical AI is a different species entirely, law as the sixth layer of the AI stack, why robotaxis scale faster in China than in the U.S., and the state-convened standard-setting that's driving down humanoid robot costs46:54 – Two flywheels: the familiar data-and-cost flywheel and the deeper state capacity flywheel, and how the National AI Fund's small but voting stake in DeepSeek aligns a complementor with the domestic stack — tilting the ecosystem toward Chinese chips53:28 – Guarding the moat: automotive data rules and Tesla's stalled FSD ambitions, the unwound Manus sale, China's own small yard and high fence, and the closing provocation — that America could build the smartest frontier models and still lose the diffusion race to "artificial good-enough intelligence." Plus: the case for coopetition, and what policymakers should (and shouldn't) borrow from the platform stateLinks from the episodeAngela's paper on law as the sixth layer of China's AI stack:The Sixth Layer: The Legal Infrastructure for Physical Artificial Intelligence in China (SSRN)Three Project Syndicate op-eds on the platform state idea:The Rise of the Chinese Platform State by S. Alex Yang & Angela Huyue ZhangAre Government Stakes the Key to AI Sovereignty? by Angela Huyue ZhangOvercapacity Is China's Biggest AI Advantage by Angela Huyue ZhangTwo Management Science papers on commercial platforms:Crowd-Judging on Two-Sided Platforms: An Analysis of In-Group BiasImproving Dispute Resolution in Two-Sided Platforms: The Case of Review BlackmailSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hangzhou, c'est la ville du thé. Amélie marche jusqu'aux rizières, assiste à une dégustation de Longjing où les Chinois s'installent deux heures pour choisir leurs feuilles, les font emballer avec soin pour le retour. Un autre rythme. Shanghai, c'est la skyline, le Bund au coucher du soleil, la tour de verre avec sol transparent. C'est aussi les playgrounds des centres commerciaux, où on laisse son enfant jouer sous surveillance vidéo pendant qu'on fait ses courses. Et la statistique qu'Amélie cite : en Chine, la reconnaissance faciale retrouverait une personne disparue en moyenne en sept secondes. Une information qui invite à se demander où s'arrête la sécurité et où commence la surveillance.Pour écouter l'épisode en entier2 mois en Chine avec un enfant de 3 ans - le voyage en famille qu'Amélie ne voulait pas faire-----------Si l'épisode vous a plu, laissez-moi une note 5 ⭐️ ou un commentaire sur Apple Podcasts ou Spotify

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Winning Hearts on Dragon Boat Festival: Ming's Courageous Leap Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-07-03-07-38-19-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 夏天的阳光洒在杭州寄宿学校的校园内。En: Summer sunshine bathed the campus of a boarding school in Hangzhou.Zh: 校园满是绿树和鲜花，空气中弥漫着粽子的香味。En: The campus was full of green trees and flowers, with the air filled with the aroma of zongzi.Zh: 端午节就要到了，同学们都在为这一天的活动紧张准备。En: The Dragon Boat Festival was about to arrive, and the students were busy preparing for the day's activities.Zh: 明坐在湖边的长椅上，手心里捏着一张写满心里话的小纸条。En: Ming sat on a bench by the lake, holding a small piece of paper filled with his innermost thoughts.Zh: 明是一个腼腆的学生，平时话不多。En: Ming was a shy student who didn't talk much.Zh: 他喜欢丽娜已经很久了，但一直不敢表达。En: He had liked Lina for a long time but never dared to express his feelings.Zh: 丽娜是个活泼开朗的女孩，朋友很多，她的身边总是热闹非凡。En: Lina was a lively and outgoing girl with many friends, always surrounded by a bustle of activity.Zh: 最近学校里流传着一个谣言，说丽娜和另一个学生在交往，这让明很困惑。En: Recently, there was a rumor circulating in the school that Lina was dating another student, which left Ming feeling perplexed.Zh: 明望着湖水，心里想着：“我该怎么办？要是谣言是真的怎么办？”他叹了口气，心中充满犹豫。En: Staring at the lake, Ming thought, "What should I do? What if the rumor is true?" He sighed, filled with hesitation.Zh: 终于到了端午节，学校在湖边举行了热闹的庆祝活动。En: Finally, the Dragon Boat Festival arrived, and a lively celebration was held by the school beside the lake.Zh: 大家都在欢笑，赛龙舟的声音此起彼伏。En: Everyone was laughing, and the sound of dragon boat racing echoed nonstop.Zh: 明决定趁人多的时候找丽娜谈谈。En: Ming decided to take the opportunity during the crowd to talk to Lina.Zh: 他走向丽娜，脚步有些沉重。En: He walked towards Lina, his steps somewhat heavy.Zh: 丽娜正在和朋友们说笑，看到明靠近，向他招了招手：“嗨，明！”En: Lina was chatting and laughing with her friends. Seeing Ming approach, she waved at him, "Hi, Ming!"Zh: 明深吸一口气，说：“丽娜，我能和你聊聊吗？”En: Taking a deep breath, Ming said, "Lina, can I talk with you?"Zh: 丽娜点点头，两人走到一旁。En: Lina nodded, and the two of them walked aside.Zh: 明的心跳得很快，他说：“学校里有谣言，说你在和别人交往。真的吗？”En: Ming's heart was racing as he said, "There's a rumor going around school that you're dating someone else. Is it true?"Zh: 丽娜笑了：“我听说了那些谣言，但它们不是真的。我还单身呢！”En: Lina laughed, "I heard those rumors, but they're not true. I'm still single!"Zh: 明松了一口气，紧张的心情略微放松。En: Ming let out a sigh of relief, his nervousness slightly easing.Zh: 他鼓起勇气，说：“其实，我喜欢你很久了，但一直不敢说。”En: He gathered his courage and said, "Actually, I've liked you for a long time but never dared to say it."Zh: 丽娜有些惊讶，但随即笑得更灿烂：“谢谢你的诚实和勇气，明。我们可以一起走走，我也想多了解你。”En: Lina was a bit surprised, but quickly smiled more brightly, "Thank you for your honesty and courage, Ming. We can take a walk together; I also want to learn more about you."Zh: 两人慢慢走在湖边，夕阳的余晖洒在湖面上，波光粼粼。En: The two of them slowly walked along the lakeside, the glow of the setting sun glistening on the water.Zh: 明心情平静了许多，他明白有时面对面交流，比猜测和传闻更有效。En: Ming felt much more at peace, realizing that face-to-face communication was more effective than guessing and rumors.Zh: 了解真相，让他学会了勇敢。En: Learning the truth taught him to be brave.Zh: 从此，他不再畏惧表达自己的心声。En: From then on, he was no longer afraid to express his true feelings.Zh: 端午节的微风中，明感受到了一份新的希望。En: In the breeze of the Dragon Boat Festival, Ming felt a new sense of hope. Vocabulary Words:bathed: 洒aroma: 香味innermost: 心里话shy: 腼腆lively: 活泼outgoing: 开朗surrounded: 围绕bustle: 热闹非凡rumor: 谣言perplexed: 困惑hesitation: 犹豫celebration: 庆祝echoed: 此起彼伏opportunity: 机会approach: 靠近nodded: 点头racing: 跳得很快single: 单身relief: 松了一口气nervousness: 紧张courage: 勇气sun glistening: 余晖洒realizing: 意识到effective: 有效afraid: 畏惧breeze: 微风hope: 希望

Recorded live from the Davos on Air booth at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, this special episode of Sinica tackles the "pacing problem": the widening gap between how fast AI moves and how slowly regulation can catch up. I sit down with Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University and one of the architects of China's concept of "agile governance," to unpack what that term means in practice. He traces China's regulatory evolution from the 2017 AI plan through the generative AI rules and the 2021 tech crackdown, compare Chinese, American, and European approaches, and ask whether Beijing's adaptive style can travel to other political systems — including liberal democracies.00:09 – Live from Dalian: the “pacing problem” and why AI has turned it into a chasm03:18 – Introducing Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College and architect of “agile governance”04:34 – Why AI's pace makes it uniquely hard to regulate06:01 – Defining agile governance: mindset, partnership over adversary, and light-touch tools11:54 – From the 2017 AI plan to today: China's two-track approach to tech and governance20:07 – Balancing development and security amid the US-China AI race23:24 – Revisiting the 2021 tech crackdown: failure of the model, or agility of a different kind?26:14 – The “DeepSeek moment,” open-weight models, and regulatory uncertainty by design37:10 – EU comprehensiveness vs. US patchwork vs. China's modular, adaptive approach46:59 – Can agile governance travel to liberal democracies? Finding common ground on global AI riskSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last week in Brussels, EU leaders held their first sustained debate on China policy in three years, and were so wary of Beijing's reaction they wouldn't print the word “China” on the agenda. The trigger: a goods-trade deficit closing in on 360 billion euros, and, for the first time ever, all 27 member states in the red. Recorded at Summer Davos in Dalian, I sat down with economic historian Adam Tooze to ask why the panic, and why now. Polanyi, the Plaza Accord, “glut shaming,” a $1.2 trillion surplus, and what Europe and China each most need to understand about the other.04:26 – Why the alarm now? Imbalances are decades old, so what changed—and the shift from China slotting into Western supply chains to climbing the value chain07:04 – Karl Polanyi, the “double movement,” and how the European working-class question becomes the politics of right-wing populism11:21 – Autos as the core of the fight—12 million jobs—and why the Ukraine alignment gives the whole thing its moral charge for von der Leyen14:14 – “Glut shaming”: the accusation of illegitimacy baked into the Western framing, and how it lands on a Chinese ear18:16 – Wěiqu (委屈)—the swallowed sense of being wronged and why the EU should exercise a bit of cognitive empathy20:14 – Merz reaches for the 1985 Plaza Accord, and the empathy gap that lets a German politician miss what that signals in Beijing22:00 – The currency-manipulation argument, Germany's own history with the euro, and why Switzerland is the real manipulator25:49 – The $1.2 trillion surplus—”nothing we've ever seen before”—and the consumption China refuses to do26:12 – Sorting the sectors: solar, batteries, and EVs where resistance is futile, versus steel and shipbuilding as “Polanyi double-movement as cosplay”32:04 – The Draghi report and the house of mirrors: is China the cause of Europe's malaise or just the thing exposing a homegrown one?36:27 – If Tooze had von der Leyen's ear: investment-linked talks, phased protection with a clear exit, and “investment, investment, investment”41:16 – The October clock on the U.S.–China truce, and why this autumn could get very ugly43:09 – Closing advice: what Europe and Beijing each most need to understand if this ends in managed rebalancing rather than a trade warSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica I'm joined by Robert Wright, author of The Moral Animal, Nonzero, and The Evolution of God, for a conversation that runs a little outside our usual beat, though China sits closer to its center than you'd expect. The occasion is his new book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning, which reads the AI revolution as the latest turn in a story going back billions of years. We get into the French Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin's "noosphere," Bob's argument that we evolved large language models rather than engineered them, the cognitive empathy we've both long preached, and the two-word talking point — "But China!" — that Bob thinks is most likely to lead us astray.6:56 – Teilhard de Chardin, the noosphere, and why a planetary "global brain" has become necessary14:49 – Directionality without the mysticism: complexification, teleology, and the "cell's-eye view" worry21:57 – The God Test: is moral progress really the price of governing AI, and is that hopeless on a short clock?28:33 – Why Bob says we evolved large language models rather than built them, and the sycophancy problem that follows35:19 – Open weights and open source: a real safety argument, or competitiveness in safety's clothing?40:03 – Cognitive empathy as the master key, and the same capacity as an engine of deception48:06 – Arms-race fatalism and its limits: cheetahs, gazelles, and the rival who can pick up the phone53:40 – "But China": fear of Beijing, Anthropic and Amodei, Jeff Ding, and the chip-control backfire1:10:48 – Nonzero: game theory, common threats, and the takeoff scenarios that worry Bob most1:23:22 – Attribution error and projection, Ed Fredkin's old warning, and the actual first movePaying It Forward: Garrison Lovely, author of the forthcoming Obsolete (Nation Books) and the Substack of the same name on the AI race.Recommendations:Bob: Pantheon, the animated series on uploaded minds and emergent superintelligence; and the Crowded House song "Don't Dream It's Over."Kaiser: Kyle Chan's High Capacity podcast, especially his episode with Carnegie's Matt Sheehan, "Is China Getting Worried About AI?"; and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The critical importance of cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation was underscored at the 18th Straits Forum in Xiamen, Fujian province, as participants from both sides of the Taiwan Strait gathered over the weekend, overcoming obstructions from island authorities.第十八届海峡论坛在福建省厦门市举行，周末期间，两岸与会人士克服台湾当局的阻挠齐聚一堂，凸显了两岸交流合作的极端重要性。The annual forum, which started in 2009, serves as a platform to promote mutual understanding and integration between the mainland and Taiwan, emphasizing the shared cultural and economic interests binding both sides.这一始于 2009 年的年度论坛是促进大陆与台湾相互了解与融合的平台，彰显了联结两岸的共同文化与经济利益。Addressing the main conference on Saturday, Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, called for resolute opposition to "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and external interference, urging joint efforts to advance peaceful cross-Strait relations and national reunification.中共中央政治局常委、全国政协主席王沪宁周六在大会上发表讲话，呼吁坚决反对 "台独" 分裂活动和外部干涉，共同推动两岸关系和平发展与国家统一。He emphasized that the mainland stands ready to share development opportunities with Taiwan compatriots, noting that the country's blueprint for the ongoing 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period will open up broader space for cross-Strait integration.他强调，大陆愿与台湾同胞分享发展机遇，我国 "十五五" 规划（2026-2030 年）蓝图将为两岸融合发展开辟更广阔空间。At a meeting on Saturday on advancing the development of the demonstration zone for integrated development across the Taiwan Strait, Wang urged greater progress in advancing such integration during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.王沪宁周六在推进海峡两岸融合发展示范区建设座谈会上，要求在 "十五五" 时期推动两岸融合发展取得更大进展。He called for supporting Fujian in exploring new mechanisms, pathways and models for cross-Strait integrated development. He also urged closer people-to-people and cultural exchanges.他要求支持福建探索两岸融合发展的新机制、新路径、新模式，同时深化两岸民间和文化交流。Under the theme of expanding people-to-people exchanges, this year's Straits Forum featured 58 diverse events covering grassroots, youth, cultural and economic exchange sectors.本届海峡论坛以 "扩大民间交流" 为主题，举办了 58 场涵盖基层、青年、文化、经济等交流领域的多元化活动。Earlier, Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party authorities elevated restrictions by banning island officials from attending the event, marking the first time the island's grassroots officials were blocked from participation.此前，台湾民进党当局升级限制措施，禁止岛内官员出席本届论坛，这是首次禁止台湾基层官员参与海峡论坛。Addressing the forum despite these bans, Chang Jung-kung, vice-chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, said that despite twists and turns, the Straits Forum has always been committed to promoting exchanges and playing a critical role in cross-Strait relations.中国国民党副主席张荣恭出席论坛并表示，尽管历经曲折，海峡论坛始终致力于推动交流，在两岸关系中发挥着关键作用。During the forum, mainland enterprises signed agreements with various businesses and trade associations from Taiwan, buying signature agricultural goods including atemoya and pomelos, as well as tea and fishery products from counties such as Taitung, Yunlin and Nantou.论坛期间，大陆企业与台湾多家企业和行业协会签署协议，采购台东、云林、南投等县的释迦、柚子等特色农产品以及茶叶和渔产品。The contracts serve as a major step forward in implementing the 10 follow-up exchange policies introduced following the landmark cross-Strait meeting between leaders of the CPC and KMT in April, focusing on the practical livelihood needs of grassroots families and small business operators.这些协议是落实 4 月国共两党领导人历史性会晤后推出的 10 项后续交流政策的重要举措，聚焦基层家庭和小微企业经营者的实际民生需求。Yao Ching-ling, magistrate of Taitung county, said via a live video link that the purchase agreements were an immense encouragement to local farmers. "Agricultural and fishery products carry the core livelihoods of countless Taiwan families," she said.台东县县长饶庆铃通过视频连线表示，采购协议对当地农民是极大的鼓舞，她说："农渔产品承载着无数台湾家庭的核心生计。"A range of prominent figures and grassroots representatives also stepped onto the stage during the conference to share their stories of cross-Strait integration.多位知名人士和基层代表也在大会上登台，分享他们参与两岸融合发展的故事。Su Heng, a Taiwan political commentary vlogger, said grassroots perspectives and livelihood statistics best reflect the truth that artificial barriers can never block the shared enthusiasm of compatriots from both sides.台湾时政评论博主苏恒表示，基层视角和民生数据最能说明一个事实：人为障碍永远阻挡不了两岸同胞的共同热情。A massive number of Taiwan residents still crossed the Strait for markets, business cooperation and career opportunities, Su added.她补充道，仍有大量台湾同胞跨越海峡寻找市场、寻求商业合作和职业发展机遇。Lai Tsai-ta, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence pharmaceutical startup Metis TechBio Co, shared his journey on the mainland since 2019. Backed by over 10 million yuan ($1.48 million) in subsidies and startup services in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, his company grew into a recognized unicorn before listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May.人工智能制药初创企业迈帝思生物科技有限公司联合创始人兼首席执行官赖财达分享了他自 2019 年以来在大陆的发展历程。在浙江省杭州市超过 1000 万元（约合 148 万美元）的补贴和创业服务支持下，他的公司成长为知名独角兽企业，并于今年 5 月在香港证券交易所上市。"The mainland offers sincere hospitality, strong policy backup, and a welcoming environment," Lai said, encouraging Taiwan youth to combine their professional skills with local industrial advantages to find their own perfect stage.赖财达表示："大陆有真诚的礼遇、有力的政策支持和友好的发展环境"，他鼓励台湾青年将专业技能与当地产业优势相结合，找到属于自己的理想舞台。underscore /ˌʌndəˈskɔː(r)/ v. 强调，凸显obstruction /əbˈstrʌkʃn/ n. 阻碍，障碍reunification /ˌriːjuːnɪfɪˈkeɪʃn/ n. 统一，重新统一integration /ˌɪntɪˈɡreɪʃn/ n. 融合，一体化

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Unlocking Hearts: A Poetic Day at Hangzhou's Hanmo Ge Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-06-10-07-38-19-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 在杭州的一个五月午后，阳光透过茶馆的雕花窗投下斑驳光影。En: In an afternoon in May in Hangzhou, sunlight filtered through the carved windows of the teahouse, casting dappled shadows.Zh: 这里是一个古色古香的茶馆，名字叫翰墨阁。En: This was a teahouse with an ancient charm, named Hanmo Ge.Zh: 嗅到空气中飘散的淡淡茶香，仿佛能让人心神宁静。En: The faint fragrance of tea wafting through the air seemed to calm the mind.Zh: 活动开始了，今天的龙舟节诗会由秋主持。En: The event began; today's Dragon Boat Festival poetry gathering was hosted by Qiu.Zh: 她是茶馆的一名热心服务生，也是一位热爱诗歌的策划者。En: She was an enthusiastic server at the teahouse and a passionate organizer of poetry.Zh: 她邀请了很多热爱文学的人前来参加。En: She had invited many literature lovers to attend.Zh: “欢迎大家来诗会，”秋微笑着说，“今天，希望大家能在这里找到灵感。”En: "Welcome everyone to the poetry gathering," Qiu said with a smile, "Today, I hope everyone can find inspiration here."Zh: 梅林坐在靠窗的角落，她穿着质朴的旗袍，手中捧着自己的诗稿。En: Meilin sat in a corner by the window, dressed in a simple qipao, holding her poetry manuscript in her hands.Zh: 她心中忐忑，不知道自己能否有勇气朗读这些表达内心真实情感的诗句。En: She felt nervous, unsure if she had the courage to read these poems that expressed her genuine emotions.Zh: 她的梦，是能有一天将诗歌分享给更多的人。但羞怯常常让她却步。En: Her dream was to one day share her poetry with more people, but shyness often held her back.Zh: 此时，甲浩走进了茶馆。En: At this moment, Jiahao walked into the teahouse.Zh: 他是位年轻的设计师，为了找寻创作灵感，总会在不同的地方流连。En: He was a young designer who often lingered in different places in search of creative inspiration.Zh: 他一眼就看到了梅林，注意到这个女孩的沉静和她面前放着的那本诗稿。En: He immediately noticed Meilin, her tranquility, and the poetry manuscript in front of her.Zh: “你好，”甲浩微笑着坐下，“你也是来参加诗会的吗？”En: "Hello," Jiahao said with a smile as he sat down. "Are you here for the poetry gathering too?"Zh: 梅林微微一愣，抬起头来。“是的，但我不太敢上台。”她的声音很轻。En: Meilin was slightly startled and looked up. "Yes, but I'm not very brave about going on stage," she replied softly.Zh: “没关系，如果你的诗能感动一个人，那就值得去尝试。”甲浩随意地说道，目光如暖阳般温暖。En: "No worries, if your poems can move just one person, it's worth a try," Jiahao said casually, his gaze warm like sunshine.Zh: 诗会进行得很顺利，气氛融洽。En: The poetry gathering proceeded smoothly, and the atmosphere was harmonious.Zh: 秋先展示了自己的作品，逐渐带动大家分享出自己的创作。En: Qiu first presented her work, gradually encouraging everyone to share their creations.Zh: 终于，轮到梅林决定是否上台的时刻，En: Finally, it was Meilin's turn to decide whether to go on stage.Zh: 她看向甲浩，对方鼓励的眼神给了她莫大的勇气。En: She looked at Jiahao, whose encouraging eyes gave her immense courage.Zh: 慢慢地，梅林走上了台。En: Slowly, Meilin walked to the stage.Zh: 她深吸一口气，用清澈却坚定的声音开始朗读她的诗。En: She took a deep breath and began to read her poems with a clear yet steadfast voice.Zh: 诗句流淌，仿佛讲述着一个个细腻的心灵故事。En: The verses flowed, telling delicate stories of the heart.Zh: 台下的人都安静地倾听，尤其是甲浩，他眼中闪烁着赞赏的光芒。En: The audience listened quietly, especially Jiahao, whose eyes sparkled with appreciation.Zh: 诗毕，茶馆里爆发出热烈的掌声。En: When she finished, the teahouse erupted in applause.Zh: 梅林下台时，心情豁然开朗，如释重负。En: As Meilin stepped down from the stage, she felt relieved and liberated.Zh: 甲浩走过来，诚恳地对她说：“你的诗很棒，希望将来有更多人能看见它们。”En: Jiahao approached her sincerely and said, "Your poetry is amazing. I hope more people will see it in the future."Zh: 梅林微笑着回应，“谢谢，我会继续努力的。”En: Meilin responded with a smile, "Thank you, I will keep striving."Zh: 这时的她，仿佛已不再害怕面向人群了。En: At that moment, she seemed no longer afraid of facing the crowd.Zh: 他们决定再找时间交流彼此的创作。En: They decided to find another time to discuss each other's creations.Zh: 从那一刻起，两颗心在这座茶馆里找到了共鸣，新的故事在这个温暖的春日开始萌芽。En: From that moment on, in this teahouse, two hearts found a resonance, and a new story began to germinate on this warm spring day. Vocabulary Words:filtered: 透过carved: 雕花dappled: 斑驳wafting: 飘散faint: 淡淡enthusiastic: 热心gathering: 诗会qipao: 旗袍nervous: 忐忑manuscript: 诗稿courage: 勇气linger: 流连tranquility: 沉静startled: 微微一愣harmonious: 融洽steadfast: 坚定delicate: 细腻resonance: 共鸣sparkled: 闪烁appreciation: 赞赏applause: 掌声relieved: 豁然开朗liberated: 如释重负germinate: 萌芽inspiration: 灵感hosted: 主持brave: 不太敢worth: 值得immense: 莫大的striving: 努力

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Serendipity Among Tea Leaves: A Tale of Healing and Hope Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-06-10-22-34-01-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 茶园的空气清新宜人，微风轻拂着茶树枝叶，En: The air in the chayuan is fresh and pleasant, with a gentle breeze lightly brushing the tea tree branches and leaves.Zh: 远处的西湖在阳光下波光粼粼。En: In the distance, Xihu sparkles under the sun.Zh: 杭州市郊的这个茶园，是一个让人放松的好地方。En: This tea garden on the outskirts of Hangzhou is a perfect place for relaxation.Zh: 在这里，明宇和琳花两个人同期来寻找孤独。En: Here, Mingyu and Linhua both came to seek solitude at the same time.Zh: 明宇是一个内向的作家，他正在寻找灵感。En: Mingyu is an introverted writer searching for inspiration.Zh: 他的心中有个未完成的小说，而写作的灵感却如茶园中的雨雾般难以抓住。En: There is an unfinished novel in his mind, yet the inspiration for writing is as elusive as the misty rain in the tea garden.Zh: 琳花则是个活泼的茶爱好者，她刚经历了一场失恋，希望在茶香中找到心灵的宁静。En: Linhua, on the other hand, is a lively tea enthusiast who just went through a breakup and hopes to find peace of mind amidst the fragrance of tea.Zh: 明宇坐在茶园里，手里捧着一本空白的笔记本。但他毫无头绪，只是看着远处发呆。En: Mingyu sits in the tea garden holding an empty notebook, but he is at a loss, just staring blankly into the distance.Zh: 琳花远远地注意到这个沉思的男子，心里生出一丝同情。En: From afar, Linhua notices this contemplative man and feels a tinge of sympathy.Zh: 他们是在茶园的一次偶遇中正式认识的。En: They officially met during an encounter in the tea garden.Zh: 琳花轻声走到明宇身边，笑着打招呼：“你好，你也是来这边放松的吗？”En: Linhua softly approached Mingyu and greeted him with a smile, "Hello, are you here to relax as well?"Zh: 明宇抬起头，看着琳花的笑脸，点了点头。En: Mingyu looked up at Linhua's smiling face and nodded.Zh: 随着交谈的深入，明宇坦承了他的写作瓶颈。而琳花，也悄悄分享了她关于失恋的心情。En: As their conversation deepened, Mingyu confessed his writing block, and Linhua quietly shared her feelings about her breakup.Zh: 他们互相理解，各自的疏离和痛苦因而被打破。En: They understood each other, breaking through their individual loneliness and pain.Zh: 不久，茶园里迎来了热闹的端午节庆祝活动。En: Soon, the tea garden welcomed the lively Duanwu Festival celebration.Zh: 龙舟赛的鼓声在湖面远远传来，人们的欢笑声充满了空气。En: The sound of the dragon boat race drums could be heard from afar across the lake, and laughter filled the air.Zh: 明宇和琳花在庆典上，一起包起了粽子，感受到了节日的温暖。En: Mingyu and Linhua wrapped zongzi together at the festival, feeling the warmth of the occasion.Zh: 就在那时，他们的目光相遇了。En: At that moment, their eyes met.Zh: 明宇突然意识到，他的故事里缺失的，是人与人之间的情感，而琳花的出现正好弥补了这个空白。En: Mingyu suddenly realized that what was missing from his story was the emotion between people, and Linhua's presence filled this void perfectly.Zh: 琳花则发现，明宇带来了她一直期待的陪伴和理解。En: Linhua found in Mingyu the companionship and understanding she had been longing for.Zh: 他们共同度过的时光，像是为他们的心灵注入了活力。En: The time they spent together seemed to revive their spirits.Zh: 当春天的气息渐渐融入夏天，明宇的小说终于写出了新章节，灵感纷至沓来，而琳花也在茶香之间找到了久违的平和。En: As the scent of spring gradually merged into summer, Mingyu's novel finally saw new chapters, with inspiration flowing in, and Linhua found the long-sought peace among the tea aromas.Zh: 他们决定保持联系，也许有机会发展出更深的关系。En: They decided to keep in touch, perhaps opening the door to a deeper relationship in the future.Zh: 在茶园的最后一个夜晚，明宇对琳花说：“谢谢你带给我的灵感和希望。”En: On the last evening in the tea garden, Mingyu said to Linhua, "Thank you for bringing me inspiration and hope."Zh: 琳花微笑着回答：“谢谢你让我重新相信，有值得期待的明天。”En: Linhua smiled and replied, "Thank you for making me believe again that tomorrow is worth looking forward to."Zh: 就这样，他们彼此启发，共同迎来新的开始。En: In this way, they inspired each other, welcoming a new beginning together. Vocabulary Words:introve rted: 内向的inspiration: 灵感elusive: 难以抓住的fragrance: 香味blankly: 发呆地tinge: 一丝contemplative: 沉思的solitude: 孤独confession: 坦承bottleneck: 瓶颈loneliness: 疏离pain: 痛苦drums: 鼓声zongzi: 粽子warmth: 温暖emotion: 情感companionship: 陪伴revive: 注入活力chapters: 章节peace: 宁静deeper: 更深的encounter: 偶遇sparkles: 波光粼粼outskirts: 郊外breeze: 微风loneliness: 孤独transcend: 超越admission: 承认belief: 信念anticipation: 期待

The summit in Beijing produced a "constructive strategic stability" framework and a warming of tone between the two presidents. But heads of state can announce a multi-year horizon; somebody else has to operationalize it. Does the United States have the people — the linguists, the regional experts, the long-haul institution-builders — to do that work?This week, I chatted with two Texans answering that question from very different directions. David Firestein is the inaugural president and CEO of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations in Houston. A career State Department officer who served four administrations and spent five years in Beijing, he's one of the few Americans concurrently affiliated with both a Republican and a Democratic presidential legacy institution. Eddie Conger is a retired Marine major and the founder and superintendent of International Leadership of Texas (IL Texas) — a public charter network of 26 campuses serving 26,000 K-12 students and now the largest K-12 Chinese language program in the country. In January, IL Texas became the first-ever K-12 recipient of the Bush China Foundation's George H.W. Bush Award for Educational Excellence in U.S.-China Relations, joining past honorees including Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger.The conversation tackles what David calls the Texas paradox: the same state that just forced its cities to dissolve their sister-city ties with China, that pioneered the closure of Confucius Institutes, and that has restricted Chinese land purchases is also where the country's deepest K-12 Mandarin pipeline is taking root — and where the most institutionally Texan China foundation has chosen to plant its flag. David and Eddie talk through engagement honestly (no straw-man Jeffersonian-democracy fantasies), the erroneous strategic assumptions undergirding U.S. China policy, what real national-language capacity would look like operationally, what they each saw in the Trump–Xi summit, and what 5,000 IL Texas graduates are already doing in the world.05:40 — Eddie's path: Marine infantryman to fifth-grade math teacher to the country's largest K-12 Mandarin program09:12 — David on when the Nixon-through-Obama engagement consensus broke (fall 2017) and how the lexicon shifted13:30 — Engagement honestly defined: what its architects actually believed vs. the Jeffersonian-democracy straw man18:30 — The Texas paradox: HB 128, sister cities, Confucius Institutes — and the country's biggest Mandarin program in the same state31:26 — Texas business, Tim Dunn, faith, and the gap between political rhetoric and where Texans actually are41:54 — The Defense Department safety/security story: when one Chinese word ate an entire bilateral agreement46:16 — David's six (or seven) erroneous strategic assumptions: China doesn't want to be us, and it has benefited more than anyone from the current order52:28 — What real national-language capacity would actually look like: NSLI, WALARA, and why the pipeline still runs through one Marine major in Texas01:06:07 — Reading the Beijing summit: the warmth, the "constructive strategic stability" framing, and whether Trump's Taiwan call could blow it all up01:17:10 — Where 5,000 IL Texas graduates are now — White House interns, service academies, doctors, entrepreneurs, and one high-schooler who pulled a stranger out of the surfPaying it ForwardEddie: Carlos Carrasco; Emily, who is heading to Taiwan this fall on a one-year high-school program; and another student bound for the University of Texas at Austin who will be sent to South Korea for a semester as a freshman — a rarity at UT. And he closes with Miles, a high-school senior and Marine scholarship recipient who, just weeks ago at a national competition in Florida, heard someone screaming for help in the ocean, called for a boogie board, and swam out to save a drowning swimmer while a crowd of adults stood on the beach. "Others before self," as Eddie puts it — the IL Texas mission statement made flesh.David:Frank Zhou, who just graduated from Harvard and chaired the Harvard College China Forum; Selina Gong, a recent graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School involved in its annual China conference; and Dean Dai, a recent graduate of Columbia's SIPA who has been deeply involved in many of the most significant student-run China conferences in the country — and who, as it turns out, was one of the organizers of the University of Chicago U.S.-China Economy and Business Summit where Kaiser spoke earlier this month.Recommendations:Eddie: John Pomfret, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present (Henry Holt, 2016)David: Stephen Roach, Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives (Yale, 2022)Kaiser: David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (Doubleday, 2023)Also mentioned: Stephen R. Platt, The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II (Knopf, 2024) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lao president Thongloun Sisoulith has visited tech companies in Hangzhou, the first stop of his five-day state visit to China (01:04). Hostilities between the US and Iran have flared up, pushing bilateral negotiations into a stalemate (09:54). Beijing has warned that the Democratic Progressive Party authorities in Taiwan could face consequences for seeking support from external forces at the expense of national interests (18:53).

The Lao president has begun a five-day state visit to China, starting in the eastern city of Hangzhou (01:08). Iran has reportedly halted indirect talks and peace deal negotiations with the United States, while Washington says talks with Tehran are continuing (12:04). Officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have confirmed more Ebola cases (24:30).

C dans l'air spécial, dimanche 31 mai 2026 - IA : pour le meilleur... et pour le pire ?Jamais une technologie ne s'est imposée aussi vite, aussi profondément, dans autant de dimensions de nos sociétés. L'intelligence artificielle n'est plus une promesse abstraite : elle est dans nos usines, nos hôpitaux, nos champs de bataille. Elle supprime des emplois, réécrit les règles de la démocratie et redessine les rapports de force mondiaux.Mais derrière cette révolution technologique se cache une guerre. « Celui qui deviendra le leader dans le domaine de l'IA sera le maître du monde » déclarait Vladimir Poutine en 2017. Aujourd'hui, deux empires s'affrontent : les États-Unis et la Chine. Une bataille non pas de missiles, mais d'algorithmes, de puces et de data centers, dont l'issue décidera qui maitrisera l'infrastructure de l'intelligence, et avec elle, la hiérarchie du monde.Jusqu'où ira la course à l'intelligence artificielle ? Qui contrôlera l'IA ?Des data centers géants de Virginie aux usines de robots de Hangzhou, de la Silicon Valley aux terres dévastées de Gaza, C dans l'air vous propose une soirée spéciale consacrée à la bataille la plus décisive de notre siècle. Enquête sur un basculement planétaire en marche, éclairée par les experts de C dans l'air et enrichie d'entretiens exclusifs menés par Caroline Roux. Nos experts :- Thierry BRETON - Ancien commissaire européen au Marché intérieur et ancien ministre de l'Économie, des Finances et de l'Industrie, auteur de « Les dix renoncements qui ont fait la France » - Philippe DESSERTINE - Directeur de l'Institut de Haute finance, auteur de « L'Horizon des possibles »- Raphaelle BACQUÉ - Grand reporter au Monde, auteure de « Nos nouveaux maîtres »- Bruno PATINO - Président d'Arte France, auteur de « Le Temps de l'obsolescence humaine »

This Day in Legal History: The First Act of CongressOn this day in 1789, President George Washington signed the first statute ever enacted by Congress under the new Constitution — “An Act to Regulate the Time and Manner of Administering Certain Oaths,” codified at 1 Stat. 23. The substance was modest: the law prescribed the form of the oath that members of Congress, federal judges, and executive officers were to take to support the Constitution, and gave the states a window in which to swear in their own officials. But the symbolism was enormous. It was the first time the new federal government did the thing governments actually do, which is to pass a law and require people to obey it, and the choice of subject was telling.Before Congress regulated commerce, levied taxes, or built courts, it bound its own officers to the Constitution by oath. The oath clauses in Article II and Article VI have been doing quiet doctrinal work ever since: they ground the Supremacy Clause, they undergird Marbury's claim that judges are bound to follow the Constitution as supreme law, and they sit at the center of the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3 disqualification debate that the Supreme Court took up in Trump v. Anderson just two years ago. The Oath Act of 1789 is not the kind of statute that gets quoted on bar exams, but it is the original instance of Congress speaking in legal form, and everything the federal government has done since rests on top of it.Uber went after one of its own bellwether plaintiffs Friday in the sprawling multidistrict litigation over alleged passenger sexual assaults, asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros in the Northern District of California to impose sanctions on plaintiff B.L. and her counsel at Wagstaff Law Firm for what Uber called “pervasive bad faith” in discovery.The headline accusation, made by Kirkland & Ellis's Michael Vives for Uber, is that B.L.'s privilege log cites cases that don't exist — what Vives suggested may be “hallucinated case law” generated by an AI tool — and Vives floated that as an independent basis for sanctions on top of the alleged document withholding, redactions, and undisclosed witnesses Uber catalogued in its April motion.he legal vehicle here is Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37, which gives a federal court a tiered menu of sanctions for discovery misconduct — fees and costs at the low end, adverse-inference instructions and claim preclusion at the high end — and Uber is asking the court to throw B.L.'s case out of the next bellwether wave entirely. Judge Cisneros noticed during the hearing that what struck her about the briefing was the pattern, not any single incident; she pointed to one example where the plaintiff identified a person as a “friend” and only later produced a fuller set of text messages showing the person was actually a therapist.The judge ordered the plaintiff to file a sur-reply by Thursday before ruling, which means a sanctions order is now teed up. The case sits within In re Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation (MDL No. 3084) before Judge Charles R. Breyer, and any sanctions ruling will set the tone for how the rest of the bellwether pool conducts discovery. If the hallucinated-caselaw piece sticks, this also becomes one of the first real Rule 11 / Rule 37 hybrid sanctions vehicles for generative AI misuse in the MDL context — and the bar will be reading it closely.‘Pervasive Bad Faith': Uber Targets Sex Assault MDL Plaintiff | Law360The Seventh Circuit on Friday told the Northern District of Illinois that the now-standard practice of serving Chinese e-commerce defendants by email in “Schedule A” trademark cases doesn't fly under the Hague Service Convention — at least not when the convention applies, which is a question the district court has to actually answer first. The dispute came up in Kangol LLC v. Hangzhou Chuanyue Silk Import & Export Co., No. 25-2205, where the hat-maker Kangol sued more than twenty Chinese vendors for trademark infringement and identified them on a sealed “Schedule A” exhibit attached to the complaint — the same procedural pattern that drives the enormous Schedule A docket in Chicago's federal court.Kangol got a default judgment after serving the defendants by email, but one defendant, Hangzhou Chuanyue, appeared and moved to vacate, arguing that the Hague Convention prohibits email service in China and that the convention applies because Hangzhou's address is discoverable. The legal hook is Article 10(a) of the Hague Service Convention, which permits service “by postal channels” only when the destination state has not objected — and China has affirmatively objected to Article 10(a), full stop.The Seventh Circuit, citing the Supreme Court's 2017 decision in Water Splash, Inc. v. Menon, held that whether or not email counts as a “postal channel,” Article 10(a) is unavailable in China, so email service in this case was improper if the convention applied at all. The panel — Judges Thomas Kirsch, Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, and Doris Pryor — reversed the denial of Hangzhou's motion to vacate and sent the case back for the threshold question the district court skipped: did Kangol make reasonably diligent efforts to find Hangzhou's address, which would have triggered the convention.The practical fallout will reach hundreds, possibly thousands, of pending Schedule A cases in Chicago that rely on email service as a matter of course, and plaintiff firms in this space will be scrambling to redo their service strategy.7th Circ. Revives Chinese IP Defendants' Email Service Case | Law360The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Thursday transferred Randall King's proposed class action — the vehicle for a proposed $7.25 billion Roundup settlement with Monsanto — into the Northern District of California MDL before Judge Vince Chhabria, despite vehement objections from absent class members who want the case to stay in Missouri state court.The case-within-a-case is unusual: the King action was filed and preliminarily settled in Missouri state court, then a group of objectors (represented by Keller Postman) removed it to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act, and the JPML then tagged it for transfer to the consolidated Roundup MDL. The legal hook here is 28 U.S.C. § 1407, the JPML's transfer authority — paired with CAFA's removal rules, which the settling plaintiffs argue were misused because the objectors aren't “defendants” within the meaning of § 1453 and so cannot remove.The objectors counter that the $7.25 billion deal “launders a liability-management scheme through the courts” by funneling claims of Roundup cancer victims through a Missouri state-court class that an MDL judge would never approve, and they want federal-court scrutiny under Rule 23 and the standards Judge Chhabria has spent years developing in the Roundup litigation. Monsanto, for its part, is on the objectors' side of the venue question — at least tactically — telling Law360 that the case should go back to Missouri state court and it will move to oppose the transfer order.The whole fight is also tied up with the Supreme Court's pending decision in a separate Monsanto case that will determine whether the deal survives at all, because the proposed $7.25 billion is structured around what the Court does there. Whichever way this remand/transfer fight comes out, it is going to be cited in every future class-settlement-jurisdiction tug-of-war for the rest of the decade.$7.25B Roundup Deal Sent To Calif. MDL | Law360A U.S. district judge in Florida said Saturday she will take a closer look at the settlement the Trump administration has reached with itself — or more precisely, with President Trump in his personal capacity — over a long-running IRS lawsuit, scheduling further proceedings to examine whether the deal can stand.The procedural posture is what makes this one interesting: the case involves a federal agency under the President's control settling claims with the President personally, which raises immediate questions about whether anyone is actually adverse to anyone, and whether the resulting consent decree or stipulation can carry the legal weight a normal settlement does. The legal mechanism the judge appears to be invoking is the federal court's inherent supervisory authority over consent decrees and settlements involving the federal government, an authority that runs through cases like Local No. 93 v. City of Cleveland and that the Tunney Act formalizes for antitrust settlements — though here there is no Tunney Act, just the general principle that a federal court doesn't have to rubber-stamp a settlement when there are serious questions about whether the United States was actually represented in the negotiation.The hearing on the issue was set for late May in Miami, with the judge reportedly skeptical that the deal can be approved without further factual development. The political stakes are obvious, but the legal stakes are arguably bigger: if the court can refuse to approve the settlement on the ground that the executive branch was not adverse to itself in any meaningful way, it would create a precedent that constrains every future administration's ability to make its own personal litigation go away through agency action. Expect this one to generate appellate motion practice within weeks.US judge orders review of Trump's IRS lawsuit settlement | Reuters This is a public episode. 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C dans l'air spécial, dimanche 31 mai 2026 -Chine/ USA, la guerre de l'IAUn film de Marie Lorand et Barbara Stec.Présentation et entretiens menés par Caroline Roux.Produit par Stéphanie Gillon.Jamais une technologie ne s'est imposée aussi vite, aussi profondément, dans autant de dimensions de nos sociétés. L'intelligence artificielle n'est plus une promesse abstraite : elle est dans nos usines, nos hôpitaux, nos champs de bataille. Elle supprime des emplois, réécrit les règles de la démocratie et redessine les rapports de force mondiaux.Mais derrière cette révolution technologique se cache une guerre. « Celui qui deviendra le leader dans le domaine de l'IA sera le maître du monde » déclarait Vladimir Poutine en 2017. Aujourd'hui, deux empires s'affrontent : les États-Unis et la Chine. Une bataille non pas de missiles, mais d'algorithmes, de puces et de data centers, dont l'issue décidera qui maitrisera l'infrastructure de l'intelligence, et avec elle, la hiérarchie du monde.Jusqu'où ira la course à l'intelligence artificielle ? Qui contrôlera l'IA ?Des data centers géants de Virginie aux usines de robots de Hangzhou, de la Silicon Valley aux terres dévastées de Gaza, C dans l'air vous propose une soirée spéciale consacrée à la bataille la plus décisive de notre siècle. Enquête sur un basculement planétaire en marche, éclairée par les experts de C dans l'air et enrichie d'entretiens exclusifs menés par Caroline Roux. PRESENTATION : Caroline Roux - PRODUCTION DES PODCASTS: Jean-Christophe ThiéfineRÉALISATION : Nicolas Ferraro, Bruno Piney, Franck Broqua, Alexandre Langeard, Corentin Son, Benoît LemoinePRODUCTION : France Télévisions / Maximal ProductionsRetrouvez C DANS L'AIR sur internet & les réseaux :INTERNET : francetv.frFACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/Cdanslairf5TWITTER : https://twitter.com/cdanslairINSTAGRAM :https://www.instagram.com/cdanslair/

Eric Olander on how the Global South is reading the Beijing summitsThis week I'm joined again by Eric Olander, founder of the China Global South Project, which runs the most indispensable English-language operation going for understanding China's engagement with Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.I came in with a plan: map, region by region, how the capitals of the Global South were reading the back-to-back Trump and Putin visits to Beijing — relief at a steadier U.S.-China modus vivendi, or foreboding at a G2 condominium squeezing shut their room to maneuver. Eric dismantled the premise within ten minutes. The honest answer, he warned me, is that most of the Global South simply isn't watching the way we are — and the disappointment turned out to be the most interesting thing in the room. What looked like the absence of a story was the story. I'd built my questions around one assumption about what mattered; Eric had built his answers around another, and I cop to being schooled.Once you set the summit framing aside, what Eric's contributors are actually seeing comes into focus: Japan racing to recenter an Asia-Pacific security architecture, a region quietly de-risking from an unreliable United States, fresh cracks in the BRICS, Justin Yifu Lin's “three moves” for Chinese manufacturing, Latin America's “find out” phase, and a Gulf where the Chinese setback so many in Washington insist must exist simply isn't there. We get into all of it — and close on the summit as a remarkable piece of theater, the first since 1945 at which no one quite knew who the most powerful person in the room was.04:27 — The dominant mood: pro forma coverage, exhaustion, and bigger problems at home08:15 — Breaking news: the paused $14B Taiwan arms package and the canceled Colby trip11:15 — The dog that caught the truck: China and the costs of a receding U.S. umbrella13:00 — "Constructive strategic stability" — new equilibrium or just choreography?28:23 — The snub: Beijing sends only an ambassador to the BRICS meeting in New Delhi37:56 — Africa: tariff-free access, the trade imbalance, and Kenya's "collapsed" exports44:34 — Justin Yifu Lin's "three moves": move up-market, localize, move south51:00 — Latin America's "find out" phase in Panama, and very low China literacy57:35 — The Gulf after the war on Iran: who really won?Paying it Forward:Boston University's Global Development Policy (GDP) Research CenterRecommendationsEric: A “rabbit hole” of books on Xi Jinping, currently Party of One by Chun Han Wong (after Kevin Rudd's On Xi Jinping).Kaiser: Angine de Poitrine, a “microtonal math rock” duo from Quebec — think Frank Zappa meets King Crimson — possibly the thing to breathe new life into progressive rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Bridging Tradition and Modern Medicine in Hangzhou's Fields Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-05-24-07-38-19-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 阳光洒在杭州市郊的稻田上，微风轻拂，绿油油的稻杆在微风中轻轻摇晃。En: Sunshine sprinkled over the rice fields on the outskirts of Hangzhou, with a gentle breeze lightly swaying the lush green stalks.Zh: 梅林正跪在田垄上，耐心地拔去田里的杂草。En: Meilin was kneeling in the ridges, patiently weeding the fields.Zh: 她抬头望向远处的山脉，心里却想着母亲莲的病情。En: She looked up at the distant mountains, but her mind was occupied with thoughts of her mother Lian's illness.Zh: 端午节快到了，家家户户忙着准备过节的食材和装饰。En: The Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, and every household was busy preparing festive ingredients and decorations.Zh: 然而，莲最近总是打喷嚏，眼睛红红的，像被花粉刺激了一样。En: However, Lian had been sneezing constantly, her eyes red as if irritated by pollen.Zh: 她的过敏愈发严重，让梅林非常担心。En: Her allergies were getting worse, making Meilin very worried.Zh: 父亲健是个传统的农民，他坚持使用祖传的草药来缓解莲的症状。En: Her father, Jian, was a traditional farmer and insisted on using ancestral herbal remedies to relieve Lian's symptoms.Zh: 可是不管用，莲的过敏越来越重。En: But they were ineffective, and Lian's allergies worsened.Zh: 农田的工作一大堆，父亲也忙不过来。En: There was already a mountain of farm work, and father was overwhelmed.Zh: 梅林很想帮助母亲，她决定偷偷去找当地的医生。En: Meilin wanted to help her mother, so she decided to secretly seek out the local doctor.Zh: 下午，梅林找了个借口溜出了家。En: In the afternoon, Meilin found an excuse to slip out of the house.Zh: 医生是一位和蔼的老太太，她用现代的医疗知识为梅林提出了一些建议。En: The doctor was a kind elderly lady who provided Meilin with some advice using modern medical knowledge.Zh: 梅林带着这些新知识回到了家，心里却有一丝不安。En: Meilin returned home with this new knowledge, feeling a twinge of unease.Zh: 几天后，稻田里繁忙的日子中，莲突然呼吸困难，险些倒下。En: A few days later, in the midst of busy days in the rice field, Lian suddenly had difficulty breathing and almost collapsed.Zh: 梅林急忙跑过去抱住母亲，心跳加速。En: Meilin rushed over and embraced her mother, her heart racing.Zh: 看到母亲痛苦的样子，梅林再也不能隐瞒，她对父亲说出了她的秘密。En: Seeing her mother in pain, Meilin could no longer keep the secret; she told her father about her actions.Zh: 在那个紧急时刻，健终于明白女儿的良苦用心。En: In that urgent moment, Jian finally understood his daughter's good intentions.Zh: 他没有责怪梅林，而是听取了医生的建议，与梅林一起努力帮助莲控制过敏。En: He didn't blame Meilin but instead heeded the doctor's suggestions, working together with Meilin to help Lian manage her allergies.Zh: 从那以后，莲的情况有所好转。En: Since then, Lian's condition improved.Zh: 端午节那天，家人们围坐在一起包粽子，笑声不断。En: On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, the family sat together making rice dumplings, laughter flowing continuously.Zh: 梅林觉得自己找到了勇气，不仅可以追求成为医生的梦想，也能与家人沟通心中的想法。En: Meilin felt she had found the courage not only to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor but also to communicate her thoughts with her family.Zh: 变化带来了新的可能性，田间地头的每一个微小决定，都成为了连结传统与现代的纽带。En: Change brought new possibilities, and each small decision in the fields became a link between tradition and modernity.Zh: 梅林看着母亲开心的笑脸，知道自己正走在正确的道路上。En: Watching her mother's joyful smile, Meilin knew she was on the right path. Vocabulary Words:sprinkled: 洒breeze: 微风stalks: 稻杆weeding: 拔去杂草ridges: 田垄occupied: 想着approaching: 快到了sneezing: 打喷嚏allergies: 过敏ancestral: 祖传的remedies: 草药symptoms: 症状ineffective: 不管用overwhelmed: 忙不过来excuse: 借口elderly: 老太太knowledge: 知识twinge: 一丝unease: 不安embrace: 抱住intentions: 良苦用心blame: 责怪manage: 控制laughter: 笑声pursue: 追求communicate: 沟通thoughts: 想法possibilities: 可能性link: 纽带path: 道路

This week on Sinica, I speak with Andrew Seth Meyer, professor of history at CUNY Brooklyn College and the author of a remarkable new book from Oxford University Press, To Rule All Under Heaven: A History of Classical China from Confucius to the First Emperor. Sixteen years in the making, it's the first proper one-volume narrative history of the Warring States in English aimed at a general reader — a gap in the field that Andy has now decisively filled. We talk about why this period — the roughly 260 years between Confucius's death and Qin's unification in 221 BCE — really is the deepest layer of Chinese political history that still genuinely matters, and we try together to find the line between responsible historical reasoning about modern China and the kind of lazy essentialism that reaches for Han Feizi every time Xi Jinping makes a speech. Along the way we get into the displacement of the hereditary aristocracy by the shi, the Lüshi Chunqiu as a piece of political genius, why the standard caricature of “Legalist” Qin is wrong, and what it means that the Chinese state is still, in some real sense, running on operating software written in the 4th century BCE.8:14 – The 16-year gestation, why no general-reader Warring States book existed in English, and what made Andy think he could be the one to write it11:06 – The romanization headaches: Wei vs. Wey, King Zhao of Qin vs. King Zhao of Yan, and the special agonies of writing about early China for an English audience14:31 – Why he organized the book by state rather than strictly chronologically — and what that structure lets him do18:14 – The relevance question: how to take the deep continuity of Chinese political life seriously without falling into the orientalist “eternal China” trap25:52 – Why the Warring States is properly called a revolution: the destruction of Zhou-era hereditary aristocracy and the rise of the shi33:15 – Fukuyama's claim that Qin built the world's first genuinely modern state — is “modern” the right word?36:30 – Qin's 38 commanderies, why the radical version lasted only 15 years, and the Han retreat: aristocracy or regional autonomy?39:46 – Reading the Hundred Schools as embedded political actors rather than tidy textbook categories — and the Jixia Academy as ancient Brookings44:06 – The Lüshi Chunqiu as a brilliant piece of political propaganda, and what its tripartite cosmological structure was actually arguing52:31 – Why the cartoon-legalist version of the Qin is wrong: the 70 erudites, the Taishan stelae, and what the book-burning episode really was57:05 – The axial age question: pattern-matching or something real?1:00:40 – What the Warring States actually has to teach us about China in 2026: zhong guo as aspiration, not description1:05:08 – How the Warring States is taught in China and Taiwan today, and what archaeology is doing to the field1:08:36 – Constant self-reinvention as the real Chinese legacy, and why no plausible future China fully repudiates the CCPPaying it forward:Avital Rom (postdoc at Cambridge, early Chinese cultural history, editor of a forthcoming volume on disability and impairment in early China)Liang Cai (Notre Dame, new book on Han-era jurisprudence and legal traditions)Recommendations:Andy: Hadestown on Broadway — and Anaïs Mitchell's original concept albumKaiser: To Say Nothing of the Dog: or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last by Connie Willis (audiobook especially recommended)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Spring Serenity: Finding Love and Strength in Hangzhou Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-05-18-22-34-01-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 茶园的春天清晨，阳光温柔地洒在杭州的茶树上。En: In the spring morning of the tea plantation, the gentle sunlight softly fell on the tea trees in Hangzhou.Zh: 轻风拂过，带来淡淡的茶香。En: A light breeze blew through, carrying with it a faint tea fragrance.Zh: 美玲漫步在绿油油的茶园中，心中有些沉重。En: Meiling strolled through the lush green tea plantation, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted.Zh: 她的新诊断像一片乌云，常常在心中挥之不去。En: Her new diagnosis felt like a dark cloud, often lingering in her mind.Zh: 但她希望这片美丽的茶园可以给她一些平静和力量。En: But she hoped this beautiful tea plantation could offer her some peace and strength.Zh: 一旁的凉亭里，健正在仔细地泡茶。En: In the nearby pavilion, Jian was carefully brewing tea.Zh: 他是这里的茶艺师，曾经是美玲大学时期最好的朋友。En: He was a tea master here, and had been Meiling's best friend during their university days.Zh: 看到美玲的身影，他的心微微一动。En: Seeing Meiling's figure, his heart stirred slightly.Zh: 他想要上前安慰她，却不知道如何开口。En: He wanted to go up and comfort her, but didn't know how to begin.Zh: "姐姐，你看！这里的茶叶好新鲜，"欢喊着跑向她，试图用欢快的语气缓解美玲的忧虑。En: "Sister, look! The tea leaves here are so fresh," Huan shouted, running towards her, attempting to ease Meiling's worries with a cheerful tone.Zh: 他还提到端午节快到了，他们可以一起准备龙船比赛，尝粽子。En: He also mentioned that the Duanwu Festival was coming up, and that they could prepare for the dragon boat race and taste zongzi together.Zh: 这让美玲微微一笑，暂时忘却了一些烦恼。En: This made Meiling smile slightly, momentarily forgetting some of her troubles.Zh: 在接下来的几天里，美玲决定活在当下。En: In the following days, Meiling decided to live in the moment.Zh: 她邀请健一起和欢参加品茶活动。En: She invited Jian to join her and Huan in attending a tea tasting event.Zh: 一边品着香茗，一边互相交流，让她逐渐感受到人与人之间爱的连结。En: As they sipped fragrant tea and conversed, she gradually began to feel the connection between people through love.Zh: 在这些闲暇时光中，美玲和健之间的距离慢慢拉近，但她始终没有对他提及自己的病情。En: During these leisurely times, the distance between Meiling and Jian slowly narrowed, but she never mentioned her illness to him.Zh: 终于，在一个温暖的春夜，茶树下花香四溢，美玲决定敞开心扉。En: Finally, on a warm spring night, with the floral fragrance spreading under the tea trees, Meiling decided to open her heart.Zh: 她告诉健自己的恐惧和希望，希望找到生活的新意义。En: She told Jian about her fears and hopes, wishing to find a new meaning in life.Zh: 健静静地听，然后温柔地握住她的手，坦承自己对她的感情。En: Jian listened quietly, then gently held her hand, confessing his feelings for her.Zh: 他的心意像一股暖流，流入美玲心中。En: His affection, like a warm current, flowed into Meiling's heart.Zh: 美玲感受到从未有过的轻松。En: Meiling felt an unprecedented lightness.Zh: 她不再觉得孤单，明白即使面临疾病，她还有深爱她的家人和朋友。En: She no longer felt alone, understanding that even in the face of illness, she had a family and friends who loved her deeply.Zh: 故事的最后，美玲坐在岸边，看着健和欢忙碌地准备龙船。En: In the story's ending, Meiling sat by the shore, watching Jian and Huan busily preparing the dragon boat.Zh: 她忽然明白，尽管生活有起伏，但在关爱与支持的包围中，她充满力量。En: She suddenly understood that although life has its ups and downs, surrounded by care and support, she was full of strength.Zh: 她微笑着，接受了这一切，心中无比平静。En: She smiled, accepting it all, feeling incredibly serene inside. Vocabulary Words:plantation: 茶园gentle: 温柔breeze: 轻风strolled: 漫步lush: 绿油油diagnosis: 诊断pavilion: 凉亭brewing: 泡comfort: 安慰cheerful: 欢快worries: 忧虑festival: 节dragon boat: 龙船zongzi: 粽子tasting: 品fragrant: 香conversed: 交流leisurely: 闲暇narrowed: 拉近floral: 花香confessing: 坦承affection: 感情unprecedented: 从未有过serene: 平静shore: 岸边support: 支持faint: 淡淡strength: 力量hesitant: 犹豫understanding: 明白

This week I'm sharing the fourth and final installment from the day-long conference convened by the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) at Johns Hopkins SAIS on April 3rd in Washington — “The China Debate We're Not Having: Politics, Technology, and the Road Ahead.” The first three episodes featured Jessica Chen Weiss's opening remarks and the panels on what China wants, what the United States wants, and tech rivalry and competing visions of the future. This final installment is a fireside conversation between Henry Farrell and Alondra Nelson, followed by Jessica's closing remarks.Once again, my deep thanks to Jessica Chen Weiss, ACF's inaugural faculty director, for organizing this terrific conference and for so generously letting me share this audio with Sinica listeners.Henry Farrell, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute Professor of International Affairs at SAIS, sits down with Alondra Nelson — Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study and former Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy — for what turns out to be the day's most generative reframing of the AI race. Henry begins by asking how it is that ideas once confined to 1980s science fiction — the singularity, AGI, brains-in-vats — have come to anchor mainstream American AI policy discourse. Alondra traces the genealogy back to the “Californian ideology” and the long history of outré thinking in Silicon Valley, but her real point is that something has shifted: U.S. negative sentiment around AI has been climbing and plateauing high since 2022, even as adoption has spread — the opposite of the usual technology-acceptance curve, and the opposite of what's happening in China, Nigeria, or Brazil.From there the conversation opens up into what I found to be its richest vein: the contrast between a Cartesian, disembodied American conception of AI — “we're working on the brains,” as Sam Altman put it when OpenAI shut down its robotics team in 2022 — and a more embodied approach that integrates the cognitive and the physical, which is part of what's powered China's advances in advanced manufacturing and robotics. Alondra is sharp on the costs of the brain-in-a-vat framing: it treats AI as a state of exception in which existing laws and institutions somehow don't apply, and it lets us float aspirational claims (”AI will cure cancer”) that elide all the clunky institutional stewardship actually required to get from aspiration to outcome.She also offers an incisive reading of the Trump administration's AI policy — which, she argues, is misleadingly described as “deregulatory.” Between export controls, the golden share in Intel, immigration restrictions on STEM talent, and the administration's tight stewardship of who wins and who loses in the AI ecosystem, this is industrial policy by another name — and a narrowing of democratic input over decisions of enormous infrastructural consequence.The conversation closes with Henry asking what a small-d democratic successor administration ought to do, and Alondra's answer is bracingly practical: get rid of the state of exception, take the material supply chain of AI seriously (data centers, electricity, critical minerals, communities), let state-level policy generate evidence about what works, and aim for high-watermark aspirations — North Stars, in the spirit of the AI Bill of Rights — rather than pretending the technology itself will deliver our values.Jessica then offers her closing remarks, thanking the panelists, previewing the ACF Insights Series, and putting out the call for new junior fellows at the Institute.Participants:Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study; former Director, White House Office of Science and Technology PolicyHenry Farrell, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute Professor of International Affairs, Johns Hopkins SAISClosing remarks: Jessica Chen Weiss, David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies and Inaugural Faculty Director, ACFSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I chat with Ali Wyne, Senior Research and Advocacy Adviser for U.S.-China at the International Crisis Group, just hours after President Trump's plane left Chinese airspace at the end of a three-day state visit to Beijing. We dig into the new framework Xi Jinping put on the table — what Beijing is calling 中美建设性战略稳定关系, a "constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability" — and ask whether it's a genuine doctrine of mutual restraint or a rhetorical tripwire that future American moves can be characterized as having violated. Ali and I work through Foreign Minister Wang Yi's morning-after media briefing, including his striking claim that the U.S. side now "does not accept" Taiwan independence — a notable shift from the standard American formulation. We talk about what Trump actually said on Taiwan in his Air Force One press gaggle, the gap between Trump's account of Xi's private remarks on Iran and what Beijing is willing to say publicly, and whether AI can serve as a durable basis for cooperation coming out of the summit. We also turn to the American domestic side: the bind Democrats find themselves in trying to critique Trump's China engagement without out-hawking him, the generational data showing a striking gap in American attitudes toward China that transcends partisan division, and the question of when that shift in mass opinion actually starts to bite on policy.Full podcast page with timestamps and links forthcoming! Just wanted to get this out quickly.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Tea House Bonds: The Journey from Doubt to Triumph Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-05-14-07-38-20-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 杭州有一家古老的茶馆，小街隐秘，空气中弥漫着茉莉花的香气。En: In Hangzhou, there's an ancient tea house hidden in a small alleyway, with the air filled with the scent of jasmine.Zh: 外面是熙来攘往的街道，里面却安静温馨，飘着茶香。En: Outside, the streets are bustling, but inside, it's quiet and cozy, the air rich with the fragrance of tea.Zh: 这里是梅、姐和欢的学习基地。En: This is Mei, Jie, and Huan's study base.Zh: 梅是个勤奋的大学生，她有一个目标：通过期末考试，取得高分，以便申请夏季实习。En: Mei is a diligent college student with a goal: to pass her final exams with high scores so she can apply for a summer internship.Zh: 然而，她却常常怀疑自己的能力。En: However, she often doubts her abilities.Zh: 和她形影不离的姐，总是乐于助人，但总是爱拖延。En: Her inseparable friend, Jie, is always willing to help but tends to procrastinate.Zh: 最让梅感到压力的是欢，一个才华横溢但沉默寡言的同学，热衷于传统茶道。En: The pressure on Mei comes from Huan, a talented but taciturn classmate who is passionate about traditional tea ceremonies.Zh: 梅望着欢，心里有些自惭形秽，觉得自己远不如他聪慧。En: Mei looks at Huan and feels slightly ashamed, believing she isn't as brilliant as he is.Zh: 梅决定努力备考。En: Mei decides to study hard for her exams.Zh: 她需要欢的帮助，特别是在那些她觉得困难的科目上。En: She needs Huan's help, especially in subjects she finds difficult.Zh: 姐也想参与，但她好像对聊天更感兴趣。En: Jie wants to join in but seems more interested in chatting.Zh: 于是，在茶馆的竹窗旁，三人开始了一场特别的复习。En: Thus, by the bamboo windows of the tea house, the three of them start a special study session.Zh: “梅，我们来试试欢的茶道技艺怎么样？”姐提议，试图缓和紧张的气氛。En: "Mei, why don't we try Huan's tea ceremony skills?" Jie suggests, trying to ease the tension.Zh: 欢微微一笑，点头同意。En: Huan smiles slightly and nods in agreement.Zh: 他开始介绍茶的历史和文化，边泡茶边讲解，手法娴熟。En: He begins to introduce the history and culture of tea, brewing tea while explaining with skillful techniques.Zh: 梅突然意识到，学习不必那么枯燥。En: Mei suddenly realizes that learning doesn't have to be so dull.Zh: 通过与欢的互动，她了解到许多书本上没有的知识。En: Through interacting with Huan, she learns many things that aren't in the books.Zh: 姐在一旁插科打诨，但她的幽默让学习的氛围轻松愉快。En: Jie chimes in with jokes, but her humor makes the study atmosphere light and enjoyable.Zh: 时间过得飞快，通过几周的共同努力，梅不再感到自卑。En: Time flies, and through weeks of joint effort, Mei no longer feels inferior.Zh: 她发现，欢虽然聪明，却也有害羞的一面。En: She discovers that although Huan is smart, he also has a shy side.Zh: 姐虽然爱拖延，但在最后时刻，总是能给予最大的支持。En: Jie, despite her procrastination, always manages to provide the greatest support at the last moment.Zh: 终于考试来临，梅拿出了最好的一面。En: Finally, the exams arrive, and Mei presents her best side.Zh: 成绩发布那天，她取得了理想的高分，不仅通过了考试，还顺利拿到了实习机会。En: On the day the results are released, she achieves ideal scores, not only passing the exams but also securing the internship opportunity.Zh: 在茶馆的一角，三人再次聚集在一起。梅笑着说：“谢谢你们的帮助，我学到了一个重要的道理——合作可以创造奇迹。”En: Gathering once more in a corner of the tea house, Mei smiles and says, "Thank you for your help. I've learned an important lesson—collaboration can create miracles."Zh: 在杭州的春天里，三人对未来充满期待。En: In the Hangzhou spring, the three are full of anticipation for the future.Zh: 梅更加自信，姐继续以笑声影响他人，而欢则找到了分享自己热爱的方式。En: Mei is more confident, Jie continues to influence others with her laughter, and Huan finds a way to share what he loves.Zh: 每个人都在这段过程中收获了成长。En: Each of them has grown throughout this journey.Zh: 茶馆的门外，茉莉花依旧盛开，茶香依然浓郁，而他们的友谊却愈加牢固。En: Outside the tea house, the jasmine blossoms are still blooming, the scent of tea is still strong, and their friendship has become even stronger. Vocabulary Words:ancient: 古老alleyway: 小街bustling: 熙来攘往fragrance: 香气diligent: 勤奋procrastinate: 拖延taciturn: 沉默寡言ceremonies: 茶道inferior: 自卑interact: 互动brewing: 泡茶techniques: 手法chimes: 插科打诨humor: 幽默atmosphere: 氛围ideal: 理想securing: 顺利拿到anticipation: 期待confident: 自信laughter: 笑声scent: 香味jasmine: 茉莉花cozy: 温馨ashamed: 自惭形秽subject: 科目ease: 缓和realizes: 意识到dull: 枯燥miracles: 奇迹firm: 牢固

This week on Sinica, in a special episode recorded as a live joint webcast with NYRB/Poets and Equator Magazine, I sit down with Eleanor Goodman — poet, scholar, research associate at Harvard's Fairbank Center, and one of the most accomplished translators working between Chinese and English — to talk about the extraordinary Sichuan-born poet Zheng Xiaoqiong (郑小琼).Born in 1980 in a mountain village, trained as a nurse, Zheng joined the great tide of internal migration in her early 20s, ending up on the assembly line of a hardware factory in Dongguan in the Pearl River Delta. She picked up a pen after a workplace injury — part of her finger taken off by a lathe — and what came out across poems, essays, and reportage has made her one of the most singular voices in contemporary Chinese literature. Her trajectory from the assembly line to the editorial desk of an official literary magazine is, as far as I know, essentially without parallel.Eleanor has been translating Zheng since around 2013, and the partnership they've built has given Anglophone readers access to a body of work that defies easy categorization — at once intimate and historical, ethnographic and lyric, tender and unsparing. We talk about how they met, about Zheng's resistance to the "migrant worker poet" label, about the bodily feminism that runs through her verse, about her unmoralizing portraits of sex workers, about lost youth and the way the body keeps the ledger of factory time. Eleanor reads Zheng's poem "Woman Worker: Youth Pinned to a Workstation" (女工: 被固定在卡桌上的青春) in both Chinese and her English translation — and it is, every time, devastating.Huge thanks to Abigail Dunn at NYRB Poets and Ratik Asokan at Equator for organizing this conversation and for inviting me to host it, to Eleanor for her generosity and her brilliance, and most of all to Zheng Xiaoqiong, whose voice — even when she cannot be with us in person — comes through with absolute clarity.Eleanor's translation of Zheng Xiaoqiong's In the Roar of the Machine is available from NYRB Poets. The Equator selections, drawn from Zheng's long-form prose, are available at Equator Magazine.05:07 — How Eleanor and Zheng met in 2013, and why a book had to happen08:14 — Navigating the awkward proposition of China for the Western left10:50 — Zheng's trajectory: from a Sichuan village to the assembly line to the editor's desk16:29 — Resisting the "migrant worker poet" (打工诗人) label20:47 — Conventions of the genre: exhaustion, iron, lost identity, the screw in the machine24:58 — Who gets translated into English, and why28:34 — The translator's ethics: how do you render a factory poem honestly?32:42 — Eleanor reads "Woman Worker, Youth Pinned to a Workstation" (女工被固定在卡桌上的青春) in Chinese and English37:14 — Zheng's bodily feminism: irregular periods, a different way of caring40:37 — Lost youth and the passage of time44:36 — Sex work and women's labor: portraits without moralizing49:59 — Whose work actually counts in Chinese urban discourse?52:45 — Why Zheng Xiaoqiong wasn't able to join us, and how censorship really works54:44 — Rose Courtyard and what's next: classical allusions, ancestral homes, embroidering grandmothers57:39 — Audience Q&A: American worker poets, the WeChat communities of migrant writers, and Zheng's standing in Chinese lettersSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week I'm sharing the third installment from the day-long conference convened by the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) at Johns Hopkins SAIS on April 3rd in Washington — "The China Debate We're Not Having: Politics, Technology, and the Road Ahead." The first two episodes featured Jessica Chen Weiss's opening remarks and the panels on what China wants and what the United States wants. This week's panel — "Tech, Rivalry, and Competing Visions of the Future" — turns to the domain that, more than any other, has come to define how Washington thinks about the U.S.-China relationship: technology, and especially AI. Once again, my deep thanks to Jessica Chen Weiss, ACF's inaugural faculty director, for organizing this terrific conference and for so generously letting me share this audio with Sinica listeners. Moderator Kat Duffy of the Council on Foreign Relations opens by interrogating the very framing of the panel: is "rivalry" actually the right word for what's going on between the U.S. and China in tech? The panelists give a range of answers — from "yes, because both sides believe it is" to Samm Sacks's pithy rejoinder that "rivalry serves specific actors and specific interests." From there the conversation ranges across the FCC's recent move to bar most foreign-made routers, the pitfalls of framing AI competition as a sprint to AGI rather than what Jeff Ding calls a "diffusion marathon," the many internal Chinas that get flattened in DC discourse, the cybersecurity reciprocity problem (Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, and what President Trump tellingly admitted about all of it), and what it would actually mean for the U.S. to compete by being its best self — what one panelist memorably calls "Americamaxxing." There's a lot of substance packed into this hour, and a lot of generative pushback against received DC wisdom. The audience Q&A at the end takes up the role of race and xenophobia in the discourse — a topic that, as one questioner pointedly notes, had been conspicuously absent from the day's earlier discussions. Panelists:— Samm Sacks, Senior Fellow, New America and Yale Law School— Jeff Ding, Assistant Professor of Political Science, George Washington University— Mieke Eoyang, Visiting Professor, Carnegie Mellon University; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy— Selina Xu, Lead for China and AI Policy, Office of Eric Schmidt Moderator: Kat Duffy, Senior Fellow for Digital and Cyberspace Policy, Council on Foreign RelationsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrapped up his fourth visit to China in as many years last week, and this one may be the most consequential yet. It comes at a moment when Spain has emerged, almost improbably, as the most outspoken voice in Europe challenging the direction of American foreign policy — closing its airspace to U.S. military aircraft involved in the war in Iran, denying Washington the use of the Rota and Morón bases, recognizing Palestine, and getting expelled from the U.S.-led Gaza Coordination Center for its "anti-Israel obsession." Against that backdrop, Sánchez delivered a remarkable speech at Tsinghua University — a speech I wrote about in detail on the Sinica Substack (PM Pedro Sánchez's Tsinghua Speech: A Masterclass in Diplomatic Rhetoric) — defending multilateralism, calling the EU-China trade deficit unsustainable, and naming China "a country rebuilding its greatness."To help make sense of it, I'm joined by Mario Esteban Rodríguez, full professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, director of its Center for East Asian Studies, and senior fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute. Mario is the scholar most frequently quoted in Spanish and European media coverage of Spain-China relations, and the author most recently of China's Vertical Multilateralism and the Global South (Routledge, 2026). We discuss whether Sánchez is running an updated Merkel playbook or something qualitatively new, how much of the pivot is really about Trump, the sectoral politics of EVs and Iberian pork, the Chery plant in Barcelona, Spain's role as a gateway to Latin America, and whether Madrid is now a trailblazer for a broader European — and transatlantic — reorientation toward Beijing.06:33 — Sánchez's China strategy: pragmatism, consistency, and political capital08:35 — Domestic politics: the PSOE–PP consensus, Vox, and the regional contradiction12:40 — Merkel's playbook vs. Sánchez's: COVID, Ukraine, and the macroeconomic imbalance15:55 — The Tsinghua speech: Matteo Ricci, multipolarity, and the human rights omission28:17 — The Trump factor: Iran, Gaza, and the limits of overestimating the American effect35:48 — Trade, EV tariffs, pork, and Chinese investment in Spain (the Chery plant in Barcelona)47:04 — Agricultural constituencies and the paradox of Vox voters who benefit from China trade49:01 — Spain's influence in Brussels and the conditions for other member states to follow53:09 — Spain as gateway to Latin America, and the wider European (and Canadian) turn to BeijingPaying it Forward: The European Think-Tank Network on China (ETNC) — a network providing country-specific insights on EU member states' approaches to China, including the granular differences and nuances that non-European analysts often miss.RecommendationsMario Esteban: A trip, rather than a book — New Zealand, which he's visiting this summer with his family to mark the 25th anniversary of the release of The Fellowship of the Ring. A nod to his love of Tolkien and tabletop role-playing games (conducted, he is careful to note, in his own basement — not his parents').Kaiser Kuo: CONG — a new large-format magazine published out of Hong Kong (the title is pronounced Kong, though its ambiguous Pinyin-like spelling invites a second reading), now preparing its third issue. Beautifully produced on glossy and textured paper, with broad coverage of the art, culture, and design scene across East and Southeast Asia. Check it out online here: https://www.serakai.studio/congSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week I'm sharing the next installment from the terrific day-long conference convened by the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) at Johns Hopkins SAIS on April 3rd in Washington — "The China Debate We're Not Having: Politics, Technology, and the Road Ahead." Last week's episode featured Jessica Chen Weiss's opening remarks and the first panel, "What China Wants." This week, I've got the companion panel — "What Does the United States Want?" — which I think pairs beautifully with that first session, and which takes up a question that's arguably harder and more uncomfortable to answer. The panel is moderated by SAIS Dean James Steinberg, who served as Deputy National Security Advisor in the Clinton administration and Deputy Secretary of State under Obama — and who keeps this moving with real sharpness. He's joined by Matt Duss, Executive Vice President at the Center for International Policy, who starts things off with a bracing observation: the United States does not know what it wants. The old foreign policy consensus has shattered, he argues, and neither the Trump administration nor the Democratic establishment has produced a coherent replacement. He locates the most interesting thinking in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, where he hopes the 2028 primary will force some of these hard questions into the open. Katherine Thompson, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute who previously served in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, brings a military-strategic lens. She makes a sharp case that the new National Defense Strategy, for all its imperfections, at least opens the door to an honest conversation about trade-offs — something Washington has been allergic to. If you're going to prioritize deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, she argues, you have to actually give things up elsewhere, and the Iran situation is making that tension impossible to ignore. Jonas Nahm, the Andrew W. Mellon Associate Professor at SAIS who served in the Biden administration, reframes economic competition with China in refreshingly concrete terms. Rather than abstract great-power framing, he identifies three specific buckets — affordability and energy, technological catch-up, and manufacturing competitiveness — where Chinese capacity could actually help solve American problems, if we had the political imagination to let it. And Leslie Vinjamuri, president and CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, brings striking new polling data showing a 40-percentage-point swing in American favorability toward China since 2024 — now at 53 percent — driven largely by Democrats but with movement among Republicans too. She situates this in the fading of pandemic-era hostility and the absence of sustained anti-China rhetoric from the current administration, and adds an invaluable perspective on how utterly confused America's allies are about what Washington actually expects of them. The conversation ranges across Taiwan and strategic ambiguity, whether allies arming up in the Indo-Pacific helps or hurts, the collapse of U.S. credibility on human rights, the future of dollar dominance, and whether the 2028 election will finally force a reckoning with these questions. It's a rich, candid discussion — and a reminder that the hardest debates in U.S.-China policy may not be about China at all. Panelists:— Matt Duss, Executive Vice President, Center for International Policy— Katherine Thompson, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute— Jonas Nahm, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins SAIS— Leslie Vinjamuri, President and CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs Moderator: James Steinberg, Dean, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International StudiesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Opening Remarks & Session 1: What China WantsJohns Hopkins SAIS ACF Conference, April 3, 2026This week's episode features audio from a day-long conference hosted by the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs (ACF) at Johns Hopkins SAIS, held on April 3rd in Washington, DC. The conference, titled "The China Debate We're Not Having: Politics, Technology, and the Road Ahead," brought together a wide range of scholars, former officials, and analysts to interrogate some of the foundational assumptions underlying US policy toward China — a conversation I found compelling enough to share directly with Sinica listeners, with the full blessing of the organizers.You'll hear two segments in this episode.Opening Remarks — Jessica Chen WeissACF's inaugural faculty director Jessica Chen Weiss opens the conference by framing its central provocation: that much of the prevailing US policy discourse assumes an intrinsically zero-sum competition with China, and that this assumption has not been adequately examined. She argues for a more rigorous, evidence-based conversation — one that takes seriously the possibility that American and Chinese interests are competitive but not necessarily adversarial, and that may even leave room for complementarity in some domains. She previews the day's three thematic sessions — on what China wants, what the United States wants, and the stakes of technological and AI rivalry — and situates the whole enterprise in what she describes as a hinge moment in world history.Session 1: What China WantsModerated by Demetri Sevastopulo of the Financial Times, the first panel takes up the deceptively simple question of what China is actually trying to achieve on the world stage — and whether its ambitions are as expansive as much US policy discourse assumes.Jessica Chen Weiss argues that China's core objectives remain relatively modest and sovereignty-focused: security, development, and legitimacy within an order long dominated by the United States. She pushes back on the idea that China is eager to assume the burdens of global leadership, noting that Chinese interlocutors are acutely aware of the domestic overextension that has constrained American power. Sevastopulo coins — with Weiss's amusement — the term "China-first" to describe Beijing's orientation.Dan Taylor, drawing on his decades in the Defense Intelligence Agency, urges the audience to take Chinese leadership statements seriously rather than projecting worst-case intentions onto them. He notes that Beijing still sees itself as a developing nation with enormous domestic work ahead, and that its articulated goals leave considerable room for interpretation before one arrives at the conclusion that China seeks to displace the United States as global hegemon.Arthur Kroeber adds an economic dimension, tracing how China's export-driven model has generated massive global surpluses — and why the resulting tensions with trading partners are, in his view, a structural problem rather than evidence of strategic malice. He argues that much of what looks like geopolitical aggression is better understood as the consequence of an economic model operating at enormous scale with insufficient domestic demand to absorb its own output.Shao Yuqun, speaking from her perch at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, offers the most pointed challenge to the panel's relatively sanguine framing. She argues that the United States' own behavior — erratic policy, withdrawal from multilateral commitments, and the disruptions of the Trump era — has itself destabilized the order that American strategists claim to be defending. She is measured but direct, and her presence gives the conversation a texture that too many Washington panels lack.The discussion ranges across China's Iran diplomacy, the prospects for a US-China summit, the question of whether Beijing is exploiting Trump-era tensions to deepen ties with traditional US allies, and — in a lively closing exchange — who the next generation of Chinese leadership looks like (with Kroeber's deadpan answer, "Xi Jinping," getting the biggest laugh of the session).Guests:Jessica Chen Weiss, David M. Lampton Professor of China Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS; Inaugural Faculty Director, ACFDan Taylor, Adjunct Researcher, Institute for Defense Analyses; Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins SAIS ACFArthur Kroeber, Founding Partner, Gavekal DragonomicsShao Yuqun, Director, Institute for Taiwan, Hong Kong & Macao Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International StudiesModerator: Demetri Sevastopulo, US-China Correspondent, Financial TimesRemaining sessions from the conference — on what the United States wants, tech rivalry and competing visions of the future, and a fireside chat between Henry Farrell and Alondra Nelson on the AI race reconsidered — will be released over the coming weeks.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Economic historian Adam Tooze returns to Sinica fresh from the China Development Forum and his second extended visit to Beijing in under a year. In this wide-ranging conversation, Adam and I cover the 15th Five-Year Plan — what it signals about Beijing's development priorities and whether it represents a genuine shift away from investment-led growth — and the extraordinary scale of China's renewable energy buildout, which Adam argues may be bringing us to the global peak of CO2 emissions right now.They discuss the concept of the “big green state,” why Western analysts keep dancing around the role of the CPC in driving China's environmental transformation, and what the “Chinamaxxing” phenomenon says about a slow but real reckoning in Western public consciousness. From Europe's evolving posture toward China — caught between EV anxieties and transatlantic rupture — to China's role in the Global South's energy future, the conversation moves through coal transitions, Indonesian nickel zones, African microgrids, and the collapse of the flying geese model.The episode closes with a frank exchange on the Iran war, the postponed Trump-Xi summit, the stunning political silence on American campuses, and what Beijing is most likely doing: sitting pretty and waiting it out. Adam also offers a preview of his forthcoming book on the energy transition — which turns out to be another massive one — and recommends Tim Sahay and Wang Hui as essential reading.02:44 – Adam's Chinese language study: HSK3, the Confucius Institute curriculum, and the joys of chasing characters09:41 – The jìhuà/guīhuà distinction and what the shift in nomenclature from the 11th Five-Year Plan onward actually signals12:01 – The 15th Five-Year Plan: green energy tinkering, sci-tech ambitions, and the human development dimension18:10 – Does Beijing genuinely mean to shift from investment-led growth? Reading “high quality development” and “common prosperity”22:38 – The Great Reckoning: has Western intellectual and policy consciousness actually moved on China?29:45 – Environmental authoritarianism, the CPC as mobilizing institution, and why Xi's “petty bourgeois environmentalism” deserves to be taken seriously33:39 – Persistent misperceptions of China in Western discourse; the “jaundiced American” trench perspective39:16 – European neuralgia: EV overcapacity, Ukraine, and whether transatlantic rupture opens a window for China45:02 – China and the Global South: the end of the flying geese model, African microgrids, Indonesian nickel zones, and BRI record lending59:32 – Mark Carney's “age of rupture”: does the framing capture something real, or does it flatter the West?01:05:18 – What Beijing sees from its windows: Iran, Venezuela, the postponed Trump-Xi summit, and a five-point plan for Chinese hegemony (that won't happen)01:14:55 – Preview of Adam's forthcoming book on the energy transition and the “second world” thesisPaying It Forward: Tim Sahay (PolyCrisis / Phenomenal World)Recommendations:Adam: Wang Hui's The End of the RevolutionKaiser: The Chinese series Shēng mìng shù (Born to Be Alive)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Sinica, I welcome journalist and former colleague Chang Che. His recent New Yorker piece "How China Learned to Love the Classics" generated enormous attention. We explore one of the more surprising cultural phenomena in contemporary China: a growing, state-backed enthusiasm for the Greco-Roman classics. We dig into what's actually driving this revival, from the genuine intellectual curiosity of scholars like He Yanxiao, who fell in love with the Odyssey as a Chinese high school student and went on to earn a Chicago PhD, to what might be the more deliberate strategic ambitions of figures like Politburo member Li Shulei and the shadow of philosopher Liu Xiaofeng's Straussianism. We also compare Chang's warmly enchanted 2022 China Project piece on Austrian classicist Leopold Lieb to the politically sharper New Yorker piece four years later — and ask what that shift in tone tells us about what's actually changed. This is an episode about civilizational discourse, soft power, and the strange fate of scholarship when the state decides it finds your obscure passion useful.00:32 – Kaiser introduces the episode from Beijing and reflects on the asymmetry in how the West covers Chinese intellectual curiosity 04:08 – Civilizationist discourse: Spengler, Huntington, and The Civilization Trap 10:56 – Introducing Chang Che and the evolution from his 2022 China Project piece to the New Yorker 15:38 – How Chang first got drawn into the subject: Latin classes, Charlottesville, and young Chinese classicists returning from American PhDs 21:38 – What changed in four years: the state moves from background to foreground 25:28 – Inside the institutional push: what China's "classics departments" actually look like, and who controls the definition of "classics" 31:13 – Xi Jinping's letter to Greek scholars and the move, perhaps, to sever ancient Greece from the modern West 39:57 – Liu Xiaofeng, Leo Strauss, and why Strauss fever gripped Chinese intellectuals after 1989 47:03 – The Padilla Peralta "incident" and the strange porousness between American and Chinese discourse communities on the classics 52:13 – Chenchen Zhang's framework: civilizationist discourse claims difference internationally while enforcing homogeneity domestically 57:30 – He Yanxiao, K-pop, and the idea of "Chinatown classics" 01:07:13 – Where will China's classics revival be in ten years?Paying It Forward: Dongxian Jiang (Fordham) and Simon Luo (Nanyang Technological University)Recommendations: Chang recommends House of the Dragon; Kaiser recommends the Ah-Q Arkestra, led by trombonist Matt Roberts, whose latest album Méiyǒu yìjiàn is on Spotify.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.