Podcasts about Shenzhen

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.

In dieser Folge spreche ich mit Syed Haseeb Hassan, Automotive- und E-Mobility-Berater bei eTechvolution. Haseeb hat mehr als zehn Jahre Erfahrung in der Automobilbranche, war unter anderem bei Schaeffler und ABB tätig und analysiert heute auf LinkedIn regelmäßig, wie sich Elektromobilität weltweit entwickelt. Sein Fokus liegt dabei auf dem Vergleich zwischen China und Europa - und genau das macht unsere Unterhaltung so interessant. Haseeb war kurz vor dieser Aufnahme auf der Auto Show in China, hat sich Peking, Shenzhen und Chengdu angeschaut und bringt konkrete Beobachtungen mit. Eine davon: In Shenzhen gibt es seit 2015 faktisch keine freien Verbrenner-Kennzeichen mehr. Wer eines will, zahlt heute umgerechnet mehrere Tausend Euro. Ein E-Auto-Kennzeichen dagegen ist kostenlos und sofort verfügbar. Kombiniert mit staatlich kontrollierten Strompreisen hat das eine Dynamik in Gang gesetzt, die China beim Thema Elektromobilität in eine andere Liga gebracht hat. Beim Laden zeigt sich ein ähnliches Bild - nur mit überraschenden Details. Während in Deutschland 300- bis 400-kW-Schnelllader als Standard gelten, dominieren in China noch immer Ladepunkte mit 30 bis 120 kW. Der Ausbau passierte schnell und pragmatisch, ohne große Regularien. Gleichzeitig laden chinesische Serienfahrzeuge wie das Denza-Modell schon heute mit bis zu 1100 kW - was hierzulande noch als Prototypen-Meilenstein gilt. Wir sprechen außerdem darüber, was der Einstieg chinesischer Ladeinfrastrukturanbieter wie X-Charge in Europa bedeutet. Haseeb sieht das als gesunden Wettbewerb - und erklärt, warum europäische Hersteller wie Alpitronic oder ABB den Preiskampf weder gewinnen können noch führen sollten. Ihr Vorteil liegt bei Service, Zuverlässigkeit und Total Cost of Ownership über viele Jahre. Und dann ist da noch die Preistransparenz. Deutschland hat mehr als 200.000 öffentliche Ladepunkte - rein quantitativ kein schlechter Wert. Aber je nach Karte oder App kann derselbe Ladepunkt beinahe doppelt so viel kosten. In China lag der Unterschied zwischen Abo- und Normaltarif bei einem Anbieter bei acht Prozent. Das ist der Maßstab, an dem wir uns messen lassen müssen. Eine zweite Folge ist bereits geplant - mit tieferem Blick auf Preismodelle und einem Vergleich mit dem US-Markt.

Depuis 1978, la Chine mène l'un des plus vastes projets de reboisement jamais engagés. Baptisé « Grande Muraille verte », ce programme devait à l'origine ralentir l'avancée des déserts du Gobi et du Taklamakan. Près d'un demi-siècle plus tard, environ 66 milliards d'arbres ont été plantés. Pékin prévoit d'en ajouter 34 milliards supplémentaires d'ici le milieu du siècle.Une étude conduite par des chercheurs de l'Université de Pékin à Shenzhen montre aujourd'hui que ces forêts artificielles développent leur feuillage beaucoup plus rapidement que les forêts naturelles. Les scientifiques se sont appuyés sur des observations satellitaires pour mesurer l'indice de surface foliaire. Cet indicateur permet d'évaluer la densité de la canopée, autrement dit la quantité de feuilles présentes, et donc la capacité des arbres à capter du dioxyde de carbone. Selon leurs résultats, la surface foliaire des forêts plantées progresse 66 % plus vite. L'âge explique une grande partie de cet écart : les arbres issus des campagnes de reboisement sont généralement plus jeunes et traversent donc une phase de croissance intense.Mais cette différence ne disparaît pas complètement lorsque l'on compare des arbres du même âge. Les plantations conservent alors un avantage de 4,6 %, particulièrement marqué dans les forêts mixtes et les peuplements sempervirents, composés d'arbres qui gardent leurs feuilles toute l'année. Cette croissance plus rapide tient notamment au choix d'espèces comme les peupliers ou les eucalyptus, mais aussi à l'entretien des parcelles. Fertilisation, suppression de la végétation concurrente et suivi régulier permettent aux arbres de profiter davantage de l'augmentation du CO₂ atmosphérique. Cet avantage atteint toutefois son maximum entre 30 et 40 ans, avant de diminuer. Ces résultats confirment que le reboisement peut absorber rapidement du carbone. Mais les plantations ne remplacent pas les forêts naturelles. Celles-ci croissent plus lentement, tout en stockant le carbone sur une durée plus longue et en résistant mieux aux changements environnementaux. Les chercheurs appellent donc à améliorer les modèles climatiques et les politiques forestières. Planter beaucoup ne suffit pas : l'âge des arbres, les essences choisies et les méthodes de gestion déterminent largement l'efficacité climatique d'une forêt. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

In this episode, Jeff Brines and Charlie Sponsel explore the fascinating history and rapid rise of DJI, the Chinese tech giant known for drones and now e-bikes under the Avinox name. They analyze the cultural, geopolitical, and industrial factors that have shaped DJI's success and its implications for the cycling industry. Jeff and Charlie explore the rapid advancements in e-bike technology, the strategic moves of industry giants like DJI, and the evolving regulatory landscape. They analyze how these changes could reshape the future of the bike industry over the next five years.Chapters00:00 Introduction to the BS Podcast and DJI06:05 DJI's Early Struggles and Breakthroughs11:50 The Rise of DJI and Market Dynamics17:58 The Geopolitical Context of DJI's Growth45:45 The Impact of Economic Policies on Subsistence Farming51:32 Shenzhen as China's Silicon Valley57:05 Perceptions of Chinese Manufacturing01:02:44 The Importance of Urban Agglomeration01:09:40 Collectivism vs Individualism in Chinese Society01:17:42 Speculations on DJI's Corporate Structure and How Avinox Fits In01:23:21 The Competitive Landscape of the E-Bike Market01:29:10 The Future of Amflow: A Proof of Concept?01:39:10 The Gearbox Revolution in E-Bikes01:52:20 The Future of E-Bike Technology and Regulations02:05:07 The Future of E-Bikes and Innovations02:12:21 The Role of Major Players in E-Bike Technology02:18:11 Navigating E-Bike Regulations and Trail Access02:35:25 The Impact of DJI on the Bike Industry

“A place that doesn't have great philosophers will not have great technologists either.” — Mehran Gul on Europe's inexplicable underperformance The digital revolution, we were promised, would mean the end of geography. From Beijing to Birmingham to Berlin to Barcelona, anyone could invent anything anywhere, and so the geography of innovation would no longer matter. But that's not the way it has worked out. At least according to the Geneva-based innovation geographer Mehran Gul. Gul's acclaimed The New Geography of Innovation is a travelogue of innovation. But what he finds on his journey around the world in search of innovation is the end of the end of geography. Yes, Gul reports, there's innovation in Beijing and in Birmingham (USA) — but not in Birmingham (England), Berlin or Barcelona. All the important invention is in China and the US. There simply isn't much radical stuff going on anywhere else. Gul began his journey expecting to find ten or twelve countries able to innovate competitively with the United States and China. But what he discovered is either niche players or, in the case of South Korea, Israel, and India, just an extension of the US-centric system. Europe — as renters rather than owners of American technology — comes off worst. When PayPal went public, it minted 160 millionaires who went on to help build SpaceX, Tesla, LinkedIn and Palantir; when Skype exited at about the same value, it minted 11. And if you put London aside, the rest of the UK is now poorer per capita than Mississippi. And the AI boom has only compounded all this, with half of last year's key research papers coming from China, 40% from America, and just 4% from Europe. So really the new geography of innovation is the old geography. Only with China replacing Europe as the only serious competitor to American innovation. Oh lord, oh lord. As a Mississippi bluesman might summarize Europe's predicament. Five Takeaways •       Golden Shares: The Two Systems Are Converging. OpenAI offering Washington a 5% stake, the US government owning Intel — these are Chinese moves, and Gul argues the two models are becoming more alike than either admits. But he pushes back on the lazy version of the China story: its tech sector rose despite the state, not because of it. Jack Ma exiled to Japan, Didi hit with a billion in fines, entire sectors decapitated overnight in 2021 under the banner of common prosperity. In a country with no independent media and no opposition parties, the only rival to centralized power is the tech sector — and the party knows it. •       Two Countries — and Everyone Else. Gul started writing expecting to find ten or twelve countries punching at America's level; the honest answer turned out to be two. Only China has broad-based competence across technologies and a genuinely competitive relationship with the US. The middle powers — South Korea, Israel, India — are extensions of the American system, not rivals to it. That finding surprised the author as much as anyone: it's not the book he set out to write. •       Europe: Renters, Not Owners. After the Fable 5 and Mythos bans, Europe woke up to being a renter of American technology — foundation models, NVIDIA GPUs, all of it. Its best companies keep leaving: DeepMind to Google, Arm to a New York listing, Hugging Face from Paris to Manhattan — while Volvo, Supercell, and KUKA sold to China. Gul's diagnosis is institutional, not cultural: European employees own half as much of their startups as American ones, so there is no European PayPal mafia. His fixes: a European Nasdaq to replace 41 competing capital markets, and pension funds unleashed into venture capital. •       The Question Nobody Is Asking. Since 1990, America's share of global GDP has held at 25% while China's multiplied tenfold — the loser is Europe. The top ten American tech companies are worth $27 trillion, more than the GDP of every country on earth except America itself. Tech is not one industry among many; it is the foundation of all of them — the new cars came from Tesla, not GM. Gul's message to the skeptical Spaniard enjoying long lunches: the last sixty years of American platform dominance skewed power across the Atlantic, and the next sixty will add China to the bill. •       The Rest of the Map: Anti Case Studies. Japan tops the freedom indexes, has the technical schools, and still never escaped the keiretsu — disproving Matt Ridley's claim that innovation is simply the child of freedom. Taiwan's relevance comes down to one company and Morris Chang's missed promotion at Texas Instruments. Singapore is an inspiration, not a model — a one-party city-state that invoices NVIDIA's chips and banks ASEAN's venture capital. India underperforms while Indians excel — 56 notable American foundation models last year, 35 Chinese, barely one Indian. And Switzerland reminds us innovation isn't only venture-backed: a train network running on renewables since the 1960s. About the Guest Mehran Gul writes about technology and business. He is the winner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize, from which The New Geography of Innovation grew. He attended Yale as a Fulbright Scholar, Fox International Fellow, and Teaching Fellow, has been a Lead for the Digital Transformation of Industries at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and served as an expert on entrepreneurship and industrial policy at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Vienna. Born in Pakistan, he lives in Switzerland. The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster), a Financial Times Book of the Year, is his first book, out in paperback this month in the US and UK. References: •       The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies by Mehran Gul (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster). The Wall Street Journal: “An ambitious tour of technological innovation.” •       Sebastian Mallaby — author of The Power Law, which argues China's tech rise owes more to American-style risk capital arriving in Shanghai and Shenzhen than to the state; recently on the show discussing his biography of Demis Hassabis. •       Kai-Fu Lee — author of AI Superpowers, cited by Gul as the classic account of tech written through a Chinese lens. •       Matt Ridley — author of How Innovation Works, whose thesis that innovation is “the child of freedom and the parent of prosperity” Gul tests against the anti case study of Japan. •       Andrew Keen — author of How t...

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.

"These are problems on the one hand. On the other hand, you can also turn it around and say: 'Okay, if that is a given, how would we have to organise it that it actually works better?'"Are you interested in finding the real problem of the urban fabric? What do you think about robustness vs antifragility? How can we improve our feedback loops in the building industry? Interview with Markus Appenzeller, Founder and Director of MLA+. We will talk about his vision for the future of cities, sequence for finding the real problems, urban evolution, rethinking cities, city regions, and many more. Markus Appenzeller advises governments and private clients on complex urban transformations, delivering integrated strategic advice that combines spatial planning, policy, law, economics, and governance. His unusual background in architecture, urbanism, law, and banking enables him to bridge the worlds of ministers and developers with ease. He serves as Chief Technical Adviser to the UNDP, where he leads the reform of Saudi Arabia's entire national planning system. Markus was Professor & Dean at leading design schools in Shenzhen and Amsterdam, and he is the Founder & Director of MLA+, a Fellow of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Board Member of ISOCARP, and author of The Daily Urban Dose.Find out more about Markus through these links:Markus Appenzeller on LinkedIn@markusappenzeller as Markus Appenzeller on InstagramThe Daily Urban Dose blogMLA+ websiteMLA+ on LinkedIn@mlaplus as MLA+ on InstagramISOCARP websiteConnected episodes you might interested in:No.420 - Interview with Josh Dorfman about solving a local problem having a global impactNo.430 - Interview with Alain Bertraud about the Greater Bay AreaNo.434 - Interview with Keith Cooke about housing affordability and capacityNo.443R - Enhancing resilient sustainable cities: public perspectives of urban resilient designWhat was the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WTF4Cities⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wtf4cities.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ website where the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shownotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are also available.I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in.Episode generated with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Descript⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ assistance (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠affiliate link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠).Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lesfm ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay

Chinese memory-chip-related stocks surged on Monday, led by Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co Ltd, partly as investors reacted to the impending US listing of South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix.周一，存储芯片板块相关个股全线大涨，深圳江波龙电子股份有限公司领涨，部分原因是投资者对韩国存储芯片巨头 SK 海力士即将赴美上市作出提前反应。Longsys jumped as much as 13 percent in early trading before consolidating gains to close at 681.8 yuan ($100) in Shenzhen. Other memory chip stocks followed suit. CECport hit the daily upside limit, while companies such as JCET advanced.江波龙早盘最高涨幅达 13%，随后涨幅收窄，最终在深交所收报 681.8 元（折合 100 美元）。其余存储芯片个股同步走强，华天科技封住涨停，长电科技等企业股价走高。The sector's momentum was amplified by SK Hynix's upcoming Nasdaq debut. The chipmaker is set to debut on Friday, raising approximately $29 billion in what could be the largest-ever US IPO by a foreign company, Bloomberg reported.彭博社消息，SK 海力士即将登陆纳斯达克进一步推升板块热度。这家芯片企业定于本周五挂牌上市，募资规模约 290 亿美元，有望创下境外企业赴美 IPO 融资规模历史新高。The listing, to be conducted through American Depositary Receipts, or ADRs, under the ticker "SKHY," aims to bridge the valuation gap with US rival Micron Technology.本次上市将以美国存托凭证（ADR）形式开展，股票代码 SKHY，此举意在缩小其与美国竞品美光科技之间的估值差距。The timing coincides with explosive growth in the memory chip market. Market research firm Gartner said global chip sales are expected to approach 9 trillion yuan in 2026, up 64 percent year-on-year, with memory chip sales estimated at around 4.3 trillion yuan.此次上市恰逢存储芯片市场爆发式增长周期。市场研究机构高德纳表示，2026 年全球芯片销售额有望接近 9 万亿元，同比增长 64%，其中存储芯片市场规模约 4.3 万亿元。Market researcher TrendForce's latest memory pricing survey said the DRAM market will see extremely tight supply in the third quarter, with contract prices expected to rise 13 to 18 percent quarter-on-quarter. NAND Flash contract prices are likely to increase 10 to 15 percent quarter-on-quarter.集邦咨询最新存储芯片报价调研显示，三季度 DRAM 市场供给将极度紧张，合约价格环比预计上涨 13% 至 18%；NAND 闪存合约价格环比涨幅预计在 10% 至 15% 区间。DRAM and NAND are key memory chips widely used in smartphones, PCs, tablets and other digital products.DRAM 与 NAND 是核心存储芯片，广泛应用于智能手机、个人电脑、平板及各类数码产品。While artificial intelligence inference and data center deployments continue to drive demand, price increases have moderated from previous quarters as consumer PC and smartphone customers reach their affordability limits, TrendForce said.集邦咨询称，人工智能推理与数据中心建设持续拉动需求，但消费级电脑、手机市场购买力见顶，芯片涨价幅度相较前几个季度有所放缓。"AI remains the core driver," TrendForce added. Memory suppliers are shifting capacity toward higher-margin server products, constraining supply for consumer segments and keeping prices elevated even as PC and smartphone demand weakens.集邦咨询补充道：“人工智能仍是核心增长动力。” 存储厂商正将产能转向利润率更高的服务器芯片产品，压缩消费级芯片供给，即便电脑、手机需求走弱，芯片价格仍维持高位。The global supply shortage and surging AI demand for high-bandwidth memory have fueled the memory supercycle. Meanwhile, China's domestic memory industry is making strides, though a gap with Western leaders persists, experts said.专家表示，全球供给短缺叠加人工智能对高带宽存储芯片需求激增，催生存储超级上行周期；国内存储产业虽取得长足进步，但与海外头部企业仍存在差距。CXMT Corp, China's largest manufacturer of DRAM chips, is expected to launch its IPO later this year, while the listing plan of Yangtze Memory Technologies, China's only company capable of end-to-end 3D NAND flash chip manufacturing, has also received approval.国内最大 DRAM 厂商长鑫存储预计今年晚些时候启动 IPO；国内唯一具备全流程 3D NAND 闪存制造能力的长江存储，其上市方案也已获批。Shen Meng, director of Chanson & Co, a boutique investment bank, said market watchers are closely monitoring SK Hynix's Nasdaq performance as a potential reference for the two Chinese IPOs.精品投行香颂资本董事沈萌表示，市场密切关注 SK 海力士在纳斯达克的表现，将其作为上述两家国内存储企业上市的重要参考标的。Roger Sheng, vice-president of research at Gartner, said that Chinese memory chip firms have made significant progress, but there remains a significant gap in both advanced technologies and production capacities between Chinese memory leaders and their global counterparts, pointing to substantial room for expansion.高德纳研究副总裁盛凯表示，国内存储芯片企业已实现重大突破，但国内头部厂商与国际同行在先进技术、产能规模方面仍存在明显差距，产业发展提升空间广阔。surge /sɜːdʒ/v. 暴涨，激增semiconductor /ˌsemikənˈdʌktə(r)/n. 半导体capacity /kəˈpæsəti/n. 产能；容量valuation /ˌvæljuˈeɪʃn/n. 估值

Sam Altman, grote roerganger van Open AI, heeft wel een hele bijzondere manier gevonden om de Amerikaanse regering te paaien. Hij wil 5 procent van de aandelen afstaan. Met die miljardengift wil Open AI de onvoorwaardelijke steun van Trump en consorten krijgen. Apple gooit het dan weer over een hele andere boeg. Dat heeft zo'n last van de chiptekorten dat het uitwijkt naar China. Het wil chips kopen van bedrijven die op de zware lijst van de VS staan. Apple zegt dat het niet anders kan, want anders moeten de prijzen nóg verder omhoog. Deze aflevering hebben we het over die wanhoopsdaden. Wat zegt dit over Open AI (dat binnenkort naar de beurs wil) en wat zegt dit over de huidige status van Apple, dat ook nog even vijf nieuwe iPhones wil introduceren. Over introduceren gesproken: de Frans-Duitse tankbouwer KNDS wordt toch niet geïntroduceerd op de Franse en Duitse beurs. De beursgang is van de baan! Door toedoen van de Duitse regering, blijkt nu. Ook in dit beurstheater: Tesla verkoopt veel meer dan verwacht (25 procent) maar wordt gedumpt In China gaat een beursbedrijf 150 procent omhoog op eerste beursdag De VEB verliest een belangrijke bondgenoot in de OCI-soap Google moet een miljardenboete betalen Te gast: Han Dieperink, CIO bij Aureus BNR Beurs is een journalistiek onafhankelijke productie, mede mogelijk gemaakt door Saxo. Over de makers: Jelle Maasbach is presentator van BNR Beurs en freelance financieel journalist. Zijn favoriete aandeel om over te praten is Disney, maar daar lijkt hij de enige in te zijn. Sinds de eerste uitzending van BNR Beurs is 'ie er bij. Maxim van Mil is presentator van BNR Beurs en journalist bij BNR, waar hij zich focust op de financiële markten en ontwikkelingen in de tech-wereld. Je krijgt hem het meest enthousiast als hij kan praten over ASML, of oer-Hollandse bedrijven zoals Ahold of ABN Amro. Jorik Simonides is presentator van BNR Beurs, economieredacteur en verslaggever bij BNR. Hij wordt er vooral blij van als het een keer níet over AI gaat. Je hoort hem ook in de BNR-podcast Moerdijk: dorp van de rekening. Milou Brand is presentator van BNR Beurs, freelance podcastmaker en columnist bij het Financieele Dagblad. Jochem Visser is presentator van BNR Beurs, maakt Beursnerd XL en is redacteur bij de podcast Onder Curatoren. Vraag hem naar obscure zaken op financiële markten en hij vertelt je waarom het eigenlijk nóg leuker is dan je al dacht. Over de podcast: Met BNR Beurs ga je altijd voorbereid de nieuwe beursdag in. We praten je in een kleine 25 minuten bij over alle laatste ontwikkelingen op de handelsvloer. We blijven niet alleen bij de AEX of Wall Street, maar vertellen je ook waar nog meer kansen liggen. En we houden het niet bij de cijfers, maar zoeken ook iedere dag voor je naar duiding van scherpe gasten en experts. Of je nu een ervaren belegger bent of net begint met je eerste stappen op de beurs, de podcast biedt waardevolle inzichten voor je beleggingsstrategie. Door de focus op zowel de korte termijn als de lange termijn, helpt BNR Beurs luisteraars om de ruis van de markt te scheiden van de essentie.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam Altman, grote roerganger van Open AI, heeft wel een hele bijzondere manier gevonden om de Amerikaanse regering te paaien. Hij wil 5 procent van de aandelen afstaan. Met die miljardengift wil Open AI de onvoorwaardelijke steun van Trump en consorten krijgen. Apple gooit het dan weer over een hele andere boeg. Dat heeft zo'n last van de chiptekorten dat het uitwijkt naar China. Het wil chips kopen van bedrijven die op de zware lijst van de VS staan. Apple zegt dat het niet anders kan, want anders moeten de prijzen nóg verder omhoog. Deze aflevering hebben we het over die wanhoopsdaden. Wat zegt dit over Open AI (dat binnenkort naar de beurs wil) en wat zegt dit over de huidige status van Apple, dat ook nog even vijf nieuwe iPhones wil introduceren. Over introduceren gesproken: de Frans-Duitse tankbouwer KNDS wordt toch niet geïntroduceerd op de Franse en Duitse beurs. De beursgang is van de baan! Door toedoen van de Duitse regering, blijkt nu. Ook in dit beurstheater: Tesla verkoopt veel meer dan verwacht (25 procent) maar wordt gedumpt In China gaat een beursbedrijf 150 procent omhoog op eerste beursdag De VEB verliest een belangrijke bondgenoot in de OCI-soap Google moet een miljardenboete betalen Te gast: Han Dieperink, CIO bij Aureus BNR Beurs is een journalistiek onafhankelijke productie, mede mogelijk gemaakt door Saxo. Over de makers: Jelle Maasbach is presentator van BNR Beurs en freelance financieel journalist. Zijn favoriete aandeel om over te praten is Disney, maar daar lijkt hij de enige in te zijn. Sinds de eerste uitzending van BNR Beurs is 'ie er bij. Maxim van Mil is presentator van BNR Beurs en journalist bij BNR, waar hij zich focust op de financiële markten en ontwikkelingen in de tech-wereld. Je krijgt hem het meest enthousiast als hij kan praten over ASML, of oer-Hollandse bedrijven zoals Ahold of ABN Amro. Jorik Simonides is presentator van BNR Beurs, economieredacteur en verslaggever bij BNR. Hij wordt er vooral blij van als het een keer níet over AI gaat. Je hoort hem ook in de BNR-podcast Moerdijk: dorp van de rekening. Milou Brand is presentator van BNR Beurs, freelance podcastmaker en columnist bij het Financieele Dagblad. Jochem Visser is presentator van BNR Beurs, maakt Beursnerd XL en is redacteur bij de podcast Onder Curatoren. Vraag hem naar obscure zaken op financiële markten en hij vertelt je waarom het eigenlijk nóg leuker is dan je al dacht. Over de podcast: Met BNR Beurs ga je altijd voorbereid de nieuwe beursdag in. We praten je in een kleine 25 minuten bij over alle laatste ontwikkelingen op de handelsvloer. We blijven niet alleen bij de AEX of Wall Street, maar vertellen je ook waar nog meer kansen liggen. En we houden het niet bij de cijfers, maar zoeken ook iedere dag voor je naar duiding van scherpe gasten en experts. Of je nu een ervaren belegger bent of net begint met je eerste stappen op de beurs, de podcast biedt waardevolle inzichten voor je beleggingsstrategie. Door de focus op zowel de korte termijn als de lange termijn, helpt BNR Beurs luisteraars om de ruis van de markt te scheiden van de essentie.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Android sauve des vies au Vénézuela • Apple augmente fortement les prix de ses Mac et iPad • Meta lance des lunettes connectées bon marché • Tesla conteste un accident attribué à son Autopilot • L'Europe avance sur l'euro numérique • Les cyberarnaques profitent de la Coupe du monde • Des innovations pour la transition énergétique récompensées par les Prix EDF Pulse⭐️ Découvrez Frogans, l'innovation française qui réinvente le Web : cliquez ici===============Des smartphones Android qui sauvent des vies lors du séisme au VenezuelaLe double séisme qui a frappé le Venezuela a montré l'efficacité du système Android Earthquake Alerts de Google. Des millions d'utilisateurs Android ont reçu une alerte quelques secondes avant les secousses grâce aux accéléromètres intégrés dans les smartphones, capables de détecter les premières ondes sismiques. Une démonstration spectaculaire du potentiel des technologies mobiles au service de la sécurité civile.Apple augmente brutalement le prix de ses Mac et de ses iPadFace à la crise mondiale des semi-conducteurs, Apple revoit les tarifs de presque toute sa gamme informatique. Les Mac voient leur prix grimper de 100 à 700 euros selon les modèles, tandis que les iPad prennent jusqu'à 150 euros. Seuls les iPhone échappent, pour l'instant, à cette hausse, conséquence directe de la pénurie de mémoire vive alimentée par l'explosion de la demande liée à l'intelligence artificielle.Meta démocratise les lunettes connectéesMeta lance une nouvelle génération de lunettes connectées à environ 300 dollars, moins chère que les modèles développés avec Ray-Ban. Elles intègrent caméra, micros, haut-parleurs, traduction instantanée et assistant IA Meta, tout en conservant une approche plus accessible pour accélérer l'adoption des wearables intelligents.Tesla : l'Autopilot mis en cause… mais l'enquête nuance les accusationsUne famille américaine poursuit Tesla après un accident mortel au Texas impliquant une Model 3. Le conducteur affirme que l'Autopilot était activé, mais les données enregistrées par le constructeur indiqueraient au contraire que le conducteur avait repris la main quelques instants avant l'impact. Une nouvelle affaire qui relance le débat sur les limites des systèmes d'aide à la conduite.Waymo rappelle 4 000 robotaxisLes véhicules autonomes de Waymo ont été surpris à plusieurs reprises sur des autoroutes fermées pour travaux. L'entreprise rappelle près de 4 000 véhicules afin de corriger un défaut d'interprétation des zones de chantier. Malgré ce sixième rappel, Waymo poursuit son expansion aux États-Unis et à l'international.Le supercalculateur chinois Line Shine devient numéro un mondialLa Chine reprend la tête du classement Top500 avec Line Shine, installé à Shenzhen. Cette machine de plus de 2 000 exaflops, entièrement basée sur des processeurs chinois, dépasse désormais le supercalculateur américain El Capitan et confirme les ambitions technologiques de Pékin dans le calcul haute performance.Euro numérique : l'Europe accélèreDans le Débrief transatlantique, Bruno Guglielminetti (Mon Carnet) revient sur l'avancée du projet d'euro numérique. La future monnaie numérique de la Banque centrale européenne vise à renforcer la souveraineté européenne face aux géants américains du paiement tout en promettant un haut niveau de protection de la vie privée. Le Canada réfléchit également à un dispositif comparable, même si le sujet suscite d'importantes interrogations.Les lunettes IA de Meta : au service de l'accessibilitéINTERVIEW - Matthew Sanders, directeur de l'accessibilité et de l'impact pour les wearables IA chez Meta, explique pourquoi les lunettes intelligentes sont appelées à compléter le smartphone plutôt qu'à le remplacer. Il détaille les progrès réalisés en matière d'accessibilité grâce à l'IA, notamment pour les personnes malvoyantes, ainsi que les défis techniques liés à l'autonomie, la miniaturisation et la protection de la vie privée.Cybercriminalité : les escrocs profitent de la Coupe du mondeINTERVIEW [PARTENARIAT] - Benoît Grunemwald, expert cybersécurité chez ESET, alerte sur la multiplication des arnaques liées à la Coupe du monde de football : faux sites de billetterie, faux produits dérivés, IPTV frauduleuses et campagnes de phishing. Il explique également comment les cybercriminels développent désormais des outils capables de neutraliser les logiciels de sécurité, rendant indispensable une surveillance permanente des systèmes.EDF Pulse 2026 : six innovations pour accélérer la transition énergétiqueINTERVIEW [PARTENARIAT] - Julien Villeret, directeur de l'innovation d'EDF, présente les lauréats des Prix EDF Pulse 2026. Au programme : des vêtements rafraîchissants pour les travailleurs exposés aux fortes chaleurs, des solutions de stockage thermique pour l'industrie, le reconditionnement de batteries, l'inspection industrielle assistée par IA, un dirigeable électrique pour surveiller les infrastructures et un drone élagueur destiné à sécuriser les réseaux électriques. Autant d'innovations appelées à accompagner la transition énergétique.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

The day her BYD rideshare driver told her the dashboard screen was a “national secret” … that's when Wall Street Journal correspondent Yoko Kubota knew China had really changed, and maybe it was time to think about leaving.What does the world lose when fewer foreign journalists are reporting from inside China? In this episode, hosts Ray Powell (35-year military veteran) and Jim Carouso (former senior U.S. diplomat) sit down with Yoko Kubota, who spent eight years in Beijing before leaving China and writing a striking farewell column about a society growing alarmingly suspicious of outsiders.From that small, telling BYD moment, Yoko traces how a tightening espionage law, national-security messaging, and rising nationalism seeped into everyday life. As a Japanese reporter for an American paper, she also describes the anti-Japanese sentiment she and her family encountered, from a parents' school chat group to the phrases her young son began repeating, and how the 2024 attacks on Japanese children in Suzhou and Shenzhen deepened her fears.The conversation also digs into her business beat:Why on-the-ground reporting from inside China still matters and what we lose as it dries upWhy China can be both increasingly confident and deeply wary of outside scrutinyHow China's EV industry went from a punchline to a global powerhouse, and the "zombie" carmakers left in its wakeWhy the race for self-driving cars may come down to regulation as much as technologyWith the press corps thinning – underscored by the recent expulsion of New York Times reporter Vivian Wang – this is an on-the-ground account of an increasingly inaccessible country that still, as Yoko puts it, "won't go away from our lives."Subscribe for your weekly Indo-Pacific briefing.Follow Yoko Kubota on her page at the Wall Street Journal, on LinkedIn or on X, @Kubota_Yoko Follow us on X, @IndoPacPodcast, LinkedIn, or FacebookFollow Ray Powell on X, @GordianKnotRay, or LinkedIn, or check out his maritime transparency work at SeaLightFollow Jim Carouso on LinkedInSponsored by BowerGroupAsia, a strategic advisory firm that specializes in the Indo-Pacific

Imaginez un monde où votre porte s'ouvre à votre approche, où vos vitres se nettoient seules, et où un humanoïde gère l'énergie de votre maison. Ce futur n'est pas dans 20 ans, il est déjà là, et notre invité du jour en orchestre la distribution à grande échelle avec un groupe à 342 millions d'euros de CA.Dans cette nouvelle interview exclusive de 40 Nuances de Next, plongez au cœur de la révolution de la robotique humanoïde et de l'intelligence artificielle appliquée. Notre invité, fort de 25 ans d'expérience dans la tech, démonte les clichés : non, les robots actuels ne sont pas encore autonomes ; ils apprennent à comprendre notre monde physique grâce à des bibliothèques de mouvements et des data factories mondiales.Ce que vous allez apprendre dans cette vidéo :• L'Art du Pivot Radical : Comment couper des activités historiques à gros volume pour sauver ses marges et propulser sa croissance.• Guerre Tech Europe vs Chine vs USA : Pourquoi l'Europe a perdu la bataille du hardware mais possède une carte maîtresse sur le software et les algorithmes.• Le Piège de l'Open Source : Comment protéger ses brevets et sa propriété intellectuelle face aux géants industriels de Shenzhen.• Le Business de la Maison du Futur : Les chiffres clés d'un marché en hyper-croissance (+192% sur le pôle robotique).À l'animation :Thomas Benzazon, cofondateur de FeuilleBlancheUn podcast conçu et produit par FeuilleBlanche, producteurs de médias, podcasts et récits stratégiques pour les marques.À vos écouteurs

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.

China's LineShine computer in Shenzhen displaced top-ranked US computer El Capitan on the TOP500 ranking, marking the first time since 2017 that a Chinese computer has topped a list sometimes viewed as a measure of a nation's technological prowess.

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 Pentagon's decision to add multiple Chinese companies — including e-commerce giant Alibaba, search engine Baidu and electric vehicle manufacturer BYD — to its updated Section 1260H list of alleged "Chinese military companies" is a groundless suppression of Chinese enterprises that severely harms their legitimate rights and interests.美国五角大楼更新所谓 "中国军方公司" 第 1260H 条款清单，将电商巨头阿里巴巴、搜索引擎百度、电动汽车制造商比亚迪等多家中国企业列入其中。这是对中国企业的无端打压，严重损害了中国企业的合法权益。The misleading designation mainly restricts Pentagon procurement and serves as a warning signal to investors and government agencies. The US administration is using the list to target China's technology companies by means of weaponized trade restrictions.这份误导性的清单主要用于限制五角大楼采购，同时向投资者和政府机构发出警示。美国政府正将贸易限制武器化，借这份清单打压中国科技企业。As a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday in a statement on the US Department of Defense's decision, the US side has ignored the consensus reached during the meeting between the heads of state of the two countries in Beijing, disregarded the overall interests of bilateral economic and trade relations, continuously generalized the concept of "national security" and abused state power to unjustifiably suppress Chinese enterprises.中国商务部发言人周六就美方决定发表声明。发言人指出，美方无视两国元首北京会晤达成的共识，不顾双边经贸关系大局，不断泛化 "国家安全" 概念，滥用国家权力无端打压中国企业。The Pentagon's list now extends far beyond enterprises traditionally associated with weapons production and increasingly encompasses sectors that sit at the center of the global digital economy and high-tech innovation.如今，五角大楼这份清单的覆盖范围早已超出传统军工企业，越来越多地伸向全球数字经济和科技创新的核心领域。In the eyes of the US administration, technologies once regarded as commercial — semiconductors, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, batteries, robotics and advanced manufacturing — have become strategic assets with military implications. The distinction between civilian and military technology is fading. This shines a light on the US administration's reliance on sanctions as a sop for the US' growing anxiety about the loss of its competitiveness in advanced technology.在美国政府眼中，半导体、人工智能、云计算、电池、机器人、先进制造这些原本的民用技术，都成了带有军事意义的战略资产，军民技术的界限正在被刻意模糊。这充分暴露了一个事实：美国对自身先进技术竞争力的流失越来越焦虑，只能靠制裁来缓解这种焦虑。The US administration's increasingly expansive use of "security" instruments targeting Chinese companies suggests a superpower grappling with the uncomfortable reality that the US' technological leadership can no longer be taken for granted. So the Pentagon's latest action can be interpreted as part of a broader strategy aimed at "decoupling" from China's supply chains and weakening its high-tech competitiveness.美国针对中国企业越来越频繁地动用 "安全" 工具，恰恰说明这个超级大国正在面对一个难以接受的现实：美国的技术领先地位，早已不是理所当然。五角大楼此次的最新举动，就是其对华供应链 "脱钩"、削弱中国高科技竞争力这一整体战略的一部分。In practice, the US move is forcing the formation of parallel technological systems. In doing so, it is seriously disrupting the international economic and trade order, undermining the stability of global industry and supply chains, and dramatically increasing the operating costs of the world economy and global trade.美方此举实际上是在强行推动两套技术体系并行。这严重扰乱了国际经贸秩序，破坏了全球产业链供应链稳定，大幅推高了世界经济和全球贸易的运行成本。The outcomes achieved by China and the US under mechanisms such as bilateral economic and trade consultations should also be understood and assessed within this broader context of the cumulative effect of the US administration's export controls, investment restrictions, entity listings and military-company designation.中美通过双边经贸磋商等机制取得的所有成果，都要放在这个大背景下评估。美方不断出台出口管制、投资限制、实体清单、军方认定等措施，其累积效应正在持续侵蚀双方合作的基础。The danger is that the US side is forcing China-US economic relations to become trapped in a self-reinforcing cycle. Washington always sees "security threats" and imposes restrictions. That leaves Beijing no choice but to take corresponding countermeasures.更危险的是，美方正迫使中美经贸关系陷入恶性循环：华盛顿总能找到 "安全威胁" 的借口实施限制，北京则不得不采取相应反制措施。China urges the US side to stop its wrong practices, revoke the relevant measures, return to the right track of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability, and provide fair, just and nondiscriminatory treatment to Chinese companies, said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce of China.中国商务部发言人表示，中方敦促美方立即停止错误做法，撤销相关措施，回到构建具有战略稳定性的中美建设性关系的正确轨道，为中国企业提供公平、公正、非歧视的营商环境。Otherwise, China will take resolute and strong countermeasures, and all consequences and responsibilities arising therefrom shall be borne by the US side, the spokesperson added.发言人强调，否则中方将采取坚决有力的反制措施，由此产生的一切后果和责任，完全由美方承担。Neither the trend of economic globalization nor the laws of the market will allow the US to use political force to impose parallel technological systems on the world without causing significant harm — both globally and to itself. The global economy remains deeply intertwined, and the technologies of the future depend on complex international supply chains that stretch from Silicon Valley to Shenzhen.经济全球化的大势不会逆转，市场规律也不会以人的意志为转移。美国不可能动用政治力量强行在全球推行两套并行的技术体系而不付出代价 —— 这种伤害既针对全世界，最终也会反噬美国自身。全球经济早已深度融合，未来的技术发展，离不开从硅谷到深圳这条完整的国际供应链。If the US president's first visit to China in nine years last month was intended to stabilize relations, the Pentagon's latest move does the opposite. While the Chinese side has made clear its willingness to steady bilateral ties through cooperation and exchanges, the US side seems intent on demonstrating its readiness to further embed what it sees as Sino-US strategic competition in commerce, technology and finance.如果说上月美国总统九年来首次访华是为了稳定两国关系，那么五角大楼此次的举动，完全是在背道而驰。中方已经明确表态，愿意通过合作交流稳定双边关系，但美方却执意要将所谓的中美战略竞争，进一步嵌入经贸、科技、金融的方方面面。And once "national security" becomes the organizing principle of economic policy, every company risks being used as a soldier. The Pentagon's latest blacklist suggests that such a future might already have arrived.一旦 "国家安全" 成为经济政策的最高原则，每家企业都可能沦为大国博弈的棋子。五角大楼这份最新的黑名单告诉我们：这样的未来，或许已经到来。suppression /səˈpreʃn/ n. 打压，压制decoupling /diːˈkʌplɪŋ/ n. 脱钩countermeasure /ˈkaʊntəmeʒə(r)/ n. 反制措施sanction /ˈsæŋkʃn/ n. 制裁

How do startups actually beat established incumbents? In this episode of the BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast, Jeremy Au reframes the classic David vs Goliath story to explain why startups are not underdogs. They are operators who choose the right weapon, then go for the kill shot of category creation. Break down the David vs Goliath Reframe, where the slingshot was equivalent to a pistol and David won not by luck but by choosing speed over armor. Walk through Startup Case Studies including Oatly building a billion-dollar oat milk category from nothing in 1994, and Hon Lik inventing the vape in Shenzhen for himself, as examples of how startups experiment where incumbents cannot. Wrap up with Jeffrey Bussgang's Jungle, Dirt Road, Highway framework, using Jeff Bezos's transition from finance to Amazon as the canonical startup lifecycle example. Tune in to find out why category creation comes from experimentation, not optimization, and why startups should invent rather than compete. Watch, listen or read the full insight at https://www.bravesea.com/blog/invent-the-category  WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakR55X6BIElUEvkN02e TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyau Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyauz Twitter X : https://x.com/jeremyau LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bravesea English: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts Bahasa Indonesia: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts Chinese: Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts

In this episode of PING we're hearing about secure Internet Routing and its data distribution problem from Job Snijders who has been on PING before talking about his measurements in BGP and RPKI. We caught up at IETF125 in Shenzhen where Job presented to the SIDROPS working group on a new protocol he's been designing, called Erik. The Erik protocol was named in honour of Erik Bais who died in May 2024. Erik was a stalwart of the RIPE routing community. He was a chair of the Address policy working group, and active in the Dutch cloud community and the data center association. RPKI, the principal mechanism for determining secure inter domain routing intent (hence SIDR) depends on every relying party (or RP) validating the data collecting all the signed statements from all the publication points, worldwide. This is a time consuming process which inherently serialises behind the sequence of bytes fetched to form a given repository state at a publication point, and how the protocol works out whats changed since the last fetch by this user, and what to send. It's not very efficient and it's not scaling as well as we'd like as the amount of data rises, and the number of validators or RPs are fetching the data. Job's “Erik” protocol is designed to improve significantly on the two mechanisms defined at present, the RSYNC protocol, originally designed in the mid 1990s for filesystem synchronisation, and RRDP, a SIDR specific delta protocol which was designed to improve on rsync, using experience gained from the NRTM mechanism used to copy data in the RIR WHOIS databases. Job has been able to find why RPKI fetch is slow, and design a protocol using the Merkle Tree mechanism which can significantly improve the collection delay, as well as allow for intermediaries such as CDN providers to host services in the cloud.

El programa 2885 de Radiogeek repasa las novedades tecnológicas más importantes de la semana: cambios en YouTube Shorts y Google One, 200 vulnerabilidades corregidas por Microsoft, conflictos laborales en TP-Link, novedades en Instagram y la paradoja de Anthropic en Washington. El episodio 2885 de Radiogeek arrancó con una noticia que podría pasar desapercibida pero que afecta a millones de usuarios: YouTube Shorts reemplazará el clásico botón de "Me gusta" —el pulgar hacia arriba— por un corazón, siguiendo una tendencia que ya adoptaron otras plataformas de video vertical. En el frente de la ciberseguridad, Microsoft lanzó su Patch Tuesday de junio de 2026 con la corrección de 200 vulnerabilidades, uno de los paquetes de parches más voluminosos de los últimos tiempos. Un recordatorio puntual de la importancia de mantener los sistemas actualizados. Desde el ecosistema de networking, TP-Link anunció importantes despidos en su sede de Shenzhen, una movida que refleja la creciente presión competitiva que ejercen Huawei y Xiaomi en el mercado de hardware de conectividad. En el ámbito de las redes sociales, Instagram finalmente habilitó la posibilidad de arrastrar y soltar publicaciones para reorganizar el perfil, una función que los usuarios reclamaban desde hace tiempo y que competidores como TikTok ya ofrecían. Por el lado de Google, el gigante de Mountain View modificó las reglas de Google One, incorporando una nueva tarifa que ofrece más espacio de almacenamiento a un precio considerablemente más bajo, lo que reordena el panorama de los servicios de almacenamiento en la nube. El cierre del programa estuvo reservado para la nota más llamativa del episodio, que da nombre al título: Anthropic figura en la lista negra del Pentágono y, simultáneamente, es utilizada por la NSA. Una contradicción que ilustra a la perfección las tensiones entre la regulación de la inteligencia artificial y su uso operativo por parte de agencias gubernamentales. Haz lo que yo digo, no lo que yo hago. Toda esta información la pueden encontrar desde nuestra web www.infosertec.com.ar o bien desde el canal de Telegram/Whastapp, o Instagram. Esperamos sus comentarios.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Small-Cap Spotlight, Ning Ding, Chairman and CEO of ZJK Industrial, joins WTR's Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer and equity analyst Eric Goldstein to unpack the company's record 2025 results, its expanding role in the AI infrastructure supply chain, and a multi-year plan to scale production globally — including a new Vietnam facility and a planned U.S. R&D and testing center.ZJK Industrial (NASDAQ: ZJK) is a Shenzhen-based precision metal parts manufacturer with one of the most technically demanding portfolios in global manufacturing — supplying AI infrastructure, liquid cooling for high-performance computing, electric vehicles, aerospace, medical devices, and advanced electronics.

We talk with Pete Staples, founder of Blue Clover Devices, about the often-overlooked challenge of flashing firmware in production. Pete shares insights from running a contract manufacturing operation in Shenzhen and explains why the handoff from engineering to manufacturing is more like "hucking it over a fence" than a smooth relay race. We explore the gap between engineers' assumptions about factory capabilities and the dusty reality of production floors. Pete discusses security challenges, the complexity of modern microcontroller programming, and how Blue Clover's Production Line Tool addresses the middle ground between expensive custom automation and ad-hoc bench setups. We also touch on provisioning, calibration workflows, and why the engineer who designs the product must also define how it's tested. Key Topics [02:30] The reality of factory firmware flashing - dusty PCs, hot glue, and cables everywhere [06:15] Security challenges: managing sensitive firmware and the "glass room" solution [09:45] The gap between engineer assumptions and factory reality - no, they don't have better equipment than you [14:20] In-circuit testing and bed-of-nails fixtures explained [22:30] The Production Line Tool: standardizing hardware and software across engineering and factory [28:00] Recording what matters: firmware versions, hardware serial numbers, and test results per device [31:45] Provisioning and security: webhooks, cloud databases, and managing secrets in production [38:20] The Test Agent: a companion device for running third-party software and complex programming workflows [43:00] Who should write the test plan? Why engineers must define "good enough" before production Notable Quotes "Engineers assume that the factories are a lot more sophisticated than they really are. In reality, it's a lot more like just hucking it over a fence and just hoping there's somebody there waiting." — Pete Staples "They show you their pick-and-place machine and 10-zone reflow oven, and you're like, 'wow, these guys are tipped off.' And then rarely do they say, 'oh, and here's where we do firmware flashing.' It's normally another floor of the building, dimly lit, dusty old PCs." — Pete Staples "The engineer responsible for the product has to not only engineer the product, but how it's tested. They can't just say, 'here's a bunch of design files, build it and let's see what happens.'" — Pete Staples Resources Mentioned Blue Clover Devices - Pete's company specializing in factory firmware flashing solutions Embedded World (Nuremberg) - Annual trade show in March where Blue Clover exhibits Embedded World North America (Anaheim) - North American version of Embedded World, September 22nd Kinetic (San Francisco) - Hardware-focused event put on by Hardware FYI You can find Jeff at https://jeffgable.com.You can find Luca at https://luca.engineer.Want to join the agile Embedded Slack? Click hereAre you looking for embedded-focused trainings? Head to https://agileembedded.academy/Ryan Torvik and Luca have started the Embedded AI podcast, check it out at https://embeddedaipodcast.com/

Shenzhen Jisu Technology Co., Ltd. v. The Entities And Individuals Identified In Annex A

Humanoid robots performing martial arts, robotic dogs demonstrating their agility and robots dancing to foreign folk music have become some of the more unusual scenes on foreign leaders' trips to China this year.今年，外国领导人访华途中出现了一些不同寻常的场景：人形机器人打太极、机器狗灵活跳跃、机器人随外国民族音乐翩翩起舞。Behind the eye-catching moments is a broader trend: China's vast market and technological strength are drawing visiting leaders beyond formal talks in Beijing.这些引人注目的时刻背后，是一个更大的趋势：中国广阔的市场和技术实力正吸引着来访的领导人走出北京的外交会场。The latest is Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao president, who is currently making a five-day state visit to China.最新一位是正在对中国进行为期五天国事访问的老挝人民革命党中央总书记、国家主席通伦·西苏里。During a trip to DEEP Robotics in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, shortly after his arrival in China on Tuesday, Thongloun operated a robotic dog and praised it as "very good" and "very flexible".通伦6月2日抵华后不久便前往浙江省会杭州，参观了杭州云深处科技有限公司。他亲自操作了一只机器狗，称赞其“很好”、“非常灵活”。He also visited the headquarters of Chinese tech company Alibaba Group, where he learned how e-commerce platforms help Lao products reach consumers across the Chinese market.他还参观了中国科技公司阿里巴巴集团总部，了解了电商平台如何帮助老挝产品触达中国市场各地的消费者。Thongloun is not alone. Earlier this year, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also included Zhejiang in their China itineraries.通伦并非个例。今年早些时候，塞尔维亚总统亚历山大·武契奇、巴基斯坦总理夏巴兹·谢里夫和德国总理弗里德里希·默茨也都在访华行程中安排了浙江。The province, long seen as an important window on China's reform and opening-up, is also one of the first places where the country's digital economy took root and flourished.浙江长期被视为中国改革开放的重要窗口，也是我国数字经济最早生根发芽并蓬勃发展的地区之一。Observers said the visits are more than lighthearted moments or technology showcases on packed diplomatic itineraries. Against the backdrop of global industrial transformation, the trips reflect a conscious choice by countries to embrace China's innovation drive and connect with its strengths in the digital economy, they said.观察人士指出，这些访问不仅仅是紧张外交行程中的轻松时刻或技术展示。在全球产业转型的背景下，这些行程反映出各国主动对接中国创新驱动发展战略、借力中国数字经济优势的明确选择。Zhejiang has become one of the most visible stops in this process because it allows visiting leaders to see, in one place, how digital platforms, artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced manufacturing are being applied in real industries.浙江之所以成为这一过程中最受瞩目的站点之一，是因为它能令来访的领导人实地看到，数字平台、人工智能、机器人及先进制造等技术如何在实际产业中落地应用。Jian Junbo, a researcher with the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said the visits reflect foreign leaders' recognition of China's high-tech development, as well as their countries' desire to work with China and benefit from the momentum of its technological progress.复旦大学国际问题研究院研究员简军波表示，这些访问反映出外国领导人对中国高新技术发展的认可，也体现了他们与中国开展合作、借助中国技术进步势头获益的愿望。"They hope to carry out deeper and broader cooperation with China in areas such as sci-tech innovation, education and the application of technological achievements," Jian said.“他们希望与中方在科技创新、教育以及科技成果应用等领域开展更深层次、更广范围的合作，”简军波说。"The main purpose, and also their expectation, is to help drive the growth and development of their own domestic economies," Jian added.“其主要目的和预期，是希望能借此推动自身国内经济的增长与发展，”简军波补充道。Li Xiaopeng, a professor at Hangzhou City University, said: "Effective home-ground diplomacy is not just about meetings, group photos and signing ceremonies. It also requires letting guests see things for themselves — to see a country's development, its capabilities and where its future is heading."浙大城市学院教授李晓鹏表示：“有效的主场外交不仅是会谈、合影和签约，还需要让客人亲眼看一看——看看这个国家的发展、能力以及未来的走向。”Taking Hangzhou as an example, Li said the city has become a highly concentrated example of Chinese modernization. In 2025, Hangzhou's GDP exceeded 2.3 trillion yuan ($340 billion), while the added value of its core digital economy industries reached 678 billion yuan, official data shows.以杭州为例，李晓鹏表示，这座城市已成为中国式现代化的高度浓缩样本。官方数据显示，2025年杭州GDP突破2.3万亿元人民币（合3400亿美元），数字经济核心产业增加值达6780亿元。Behind the figures is an ecosystem that includes platform companies, robotics enterprises, AI startups and advanced manufacturers, forming a broader industrial chain that allows visiting leaders to see more than individual companies, Li said.李晓鹏说，这些数字背后是一个涵盖平台企业、机器人企业、人工智能初创公司及先进制造商的生态系统，形成了更长的产业链，使来访领导人看到的远不止单个企业。Zhejiang is not the only place where such out-of-capital trips have taken place.浙江并非外国领导人离京参访的唯一目的地。Foreign leaders visiting China have also traveled to places such as Shanghai, an international financial center; Xiong'an New Area in Hebei province; and Fujian, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces — places that showcase Chinese modernization, coordinated regional development, poverty reduction and connectivity.访华的外国领导人还到访了上海这座国际金融中心、河北雄安新区，以及福建、陕西和四川等省份——这些地方展示着中国式现代化、区域协调发展、脱贫攻坚及互联互通建设成就。Jian, the researcher, said that in-person visits by foreign leaders play an irreplaceable role in helping them better understand the reasons behind China's economic success and its future development trends.复旦大学国际问题研究院研究员简军波表示，外国领导人亲身实地参访，在帮助他们更好地理解中国经济成功的原因及未来发展走向方面，发挥着不可替代的作用。"Such visits help them see China more objectively, dispel the interference of certain Western narratives, and put aside prejudice and stereotypes about China," he said.“这些实地参访有助于他们更客观地看待中国，排除某些西方叙事的干扰，摒弃对中国的偏见和刻板印象，”他说。While the Lao top leader was visiting Zhejiang, Yvette Cooper, the United Kingdom's foreign secretary, traveled to Shenzhen, the technology hub in South China's Guangdong province, on Wednesday for a trip focused on science and technology, after meetings in the Chinese capital.就在老挝最高领导人访问浙江期间，英国外交大臣伊薇特·库珀结束了在北京的会谈后，于6月3日前往华南科技重镇广东深圳，进行以科技为重点的参访。If Beijing is where diplomacy is conducted, Shenzhen is where China's industrial innovation takes shape on the ground, experts said.专家表示，如果说北京是开展外交活动的地方，那么深圳就是中国产业创新落地生根的地方。"Shenzhen now stands in the global spotlight, as it will host an important international meeting this year," said Cui Hongjian, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University's Academy of Regional and Global Governance.北京外国语大学区域与全球治理高等研究院教授崔洪建表示：“深圳目前备受国际关注，因为今年它将主办一场重要的国际会议。”The city is set to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in November.今年11月，深圳将主办亚太经合组织（APEC）经济领导人会议。Cui said that Cooper's visit to the city and to technology companies shows that Britain's diplomacy toward China has a clear and targeted agenda — to make economic diplomacy a main thread of its China policy.崔洪建指出，库珀访问深圳及科技企业，表明英国对华外交有明确而具体的议程——让经济外交成为其对华政策的主线。draw /drɔː/吸引itinerary /aɪˈtɪnərəri/行程sci-tech innovation /ˈsaɪ tek ˌɪnəˈveɪʃən/科技创新Chinese modernization /tʃaɪˈniːz ˌmɒdənaɪˈzeɪʃən/中国式现代化international financial center /ˌɪntəˈnæʃənəl faɪˈnænʃəl ˈsentə/国际金融中心coordinated regional development /kəʊˈɔːdɪneɪtɪd ˈriːdʒənəl dɪˈveləpmənt/区域协调发展poverty reduction /ˈpɒvəti rɪˈdʌkʃən/脱贫攻坚dispel /dɪˈspel/消除narrative /ˈnærətɪv/叙事economic diplomacy /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪk dɪˈpləʊməsi/经济外交main thread /meɪn θred/主线

Hoofdeconoom van denktank Etion Geert Janssens trok met 25 bedrijfsleiders door fabrieken en onderzoekscentra in Beijing, Guangzhou en Shenzhen. Hij kwam terug met één hardnekkige vraag: wat gaan wij in Europa straks nog produceren? Het gesprek loopt langs Trumps mislukte charmeoffensief in Peking, de Hormuzcrisis als gemiste kans voor de energietransitie, en het Draghirapport dat na twee jaar vooral een pletwals van bureaucratie blijft. Meer nieuws en duiding vind je op onze site Trends.be en in de app Mijn Magazines. Host: Laurens Bouckaert Expert: Geert Janssens Productie: Jens Leen Trends is een podcastkanaal van de redactie van Trends.--- --- Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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.

The UK just passed a radical ban: no tobacco for anyone born after 2008. Meanwhile, Chinese cities like Shenzhen and Hong Kong are using AI and other technologies to police public smoking, all in the name of clean air. Gen Z is becoming the first "nicotine free generation." But even if laws really can kill addiction, where do we draw the line between protecting health and policing choice? On the show: Steve, Yushan & Yushun

Tencent said on Wednesday that United States users of PayPal will be able to pay at tens of millions of Weixin Pay merchants across China by scanning QR codes, marking one of the most extensive integrations yet between China's mobile payment ecosystem and foreign digital wallets.腾讯周三发布消息称，美国贝宝用户可通过扫码，在国内数千万家微信支付合作商户完成付款。这也是中国移动支付生态与境外数字钱包迄今规模最大的一次对接合作。The integration between Tencent's cross-border platform TenPay and US fintech firm PayPal marks one of the first large-scale international applications of China's unified cross-border QR code gateway system.腾讯旗下跨境支付平台财付通与美国金融科技企业贝宝完成对接，这也是我国统一跨境二维码网关系统首批大规模落地的国际应用场景之一。Under the partnership, US PayPal users visiting China will be able to pay directly at Weixin Pay merchants nationwide using familiar PayPal wallet accounts, without opening Chinese bank accounts. The service will initially launch for US PayPal users before expanding to other markets in phases, Tencent said.腾讯表示，来华的美国贝宝用户可直接使用原有账户，在全国微信支付商户消费付款，无需开立中国境内银行账户。该服务率先面向美国用户上线，后续将逐步拓展至其他地区。The partnership will run through China's unified cross-border QR code gateway — a payment infrastructure system designed to standardize links between domestic and overseas wallets.本次合作依托我国统一跨境二维码网关开展。该基础设施旨在统一境内外电子钱包的对接标准。Otto Williams, senior vice-president of PayPal and regional head for PayPal World's Middle East and Africa, said: "China is home to one of the world's most sophisticated digital payment ecosystems, and for international travelers, the ability to pay seamlessly is integral to the experience of being here. Through PayPal World's partnership with TenPay Global, we are committed to ensuring international visitors can enjoy seamless payments using a wallet they already know and trust."贝宝高级副总裁、贝宝环球中东及非洲区域负责人Otto Williams表示：“中国拥有全球成熟度领先的数字支付生态。对入境游客而言，顺畅支付是出行体验的重要一环。借助贝宝环球与财付通国际版的合作，我们将全力保障境外游客使用常用且信赖的钱包，实现便捷支付。”Tencent said the launch is part of a broader inbound payment service enhancement initiative built around product upgrades, overseas wallet integration and multilingual services ahead of the upcoming APEC.腾讯表示，此次服务上线，是亚太经合组织会议召开前夕，入境支付服务升级工作的重要一环。相关升级涵盖产品优化、境外钱包对接、多语种服务等多个方面。Daniel Hong, vice-president of Tencent's fintech group, announced a series of measures including a 90-day waiver of the 3 percent international card transaction fee for first-time users linking overseas bank cards, covering daily spending of up to 1,000 yuan ($139).腾讯金融科技事业部副总裁洪丹毅宣布多项便民举措。首次绑定境外银行卡的用户，90天内可免收3%的国际卡交易手续费，单日减免额度上限为1000元人民币，折合139美元。Tencent also said Weixin Pay's in-app payment guidance has been expanded into 16 languages including English, Korean, Thai, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, while multilingual offline service desks have been established at Shenzhen, Guangdong province, airports, border checkpoints, hotels and major commercial districts.腾讯介绍，微信支付端内支付指引现已支持英语、韩语、泰语、俄语、西班牙语、阿拉伯语等16种语言。广东深圳的机场、口岸、酒店及核心商圈，也已设置多语种线下服务窗口。Tencent said overseas transactions through Weixin Pay rose nearly 80 percent year-on-year between January and April.数据显示，今年1至4月，微信支付境外交易规模同比增长近八成。Dong Ximiao, chief economist at Merchants Union Consumer Finance and deputy director of the Shanghai Institution for Finance and Development, described the coordination of the two major payment platforms' services as a landmark moment for China's cross-border payments infrastructure.招联首席经济学家、上海金融与发展实验室副主任董希淼表示，两大支付平台实现业务互通，是我国跨境支付基础设施建设的标志性事件。"The launch of Weixin Pay support for PayPal users in China, beginning with US users, is a symbolic event in the interconnection of China's cross-border payment systems," Dong said.董希淼称，微信支付率先向美国贝宝用户开放服务，是我国跨境支付体系互联互通进程中的标志性进展。He said the unified cross-border QR code gateway, which launched trial operations in July 2025 under guidance from China's central bank and other authorities, solved a longstanding fragmentation problem in China's digital payments sector.他表示，在央行等部门指导下，统一跨境二维码网关于2025年7月启动试运行，有效解决了国内数字支付行业长期存在的体系割裂问题。Previously, overseas wallets and Chinese payment systems had to negotiate and connect individually, resulting in high technical costs and inconsistent standards, Dong said.董希淼介绍，以往境外钱包与国内支付系统需逐一洽谈对接，不仅技术成本高昂，对接标准也难以统一。"The PayPal integration marks a substantive shift from simple interconnection toward actual interoperability in China's cross-border payment infrastructure," he added.他补充道，本次与贝宝完成对接，意味着我国跨境支付基础设施，从基础联通迈入了深度互操作的全新阶段。

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.

Erst Trump, dann Putin bei Xi: In Peking zeigt sich, wie selbstverständlich China inzwischen als Machtzentrum auftritt. Die USA suchen Deals, Russland sucht Rückhalt und Peking verhandelt ruhig und klug mit beiden. Frank Sieren und Florian Harms sprechen über Chinas Blick auf die Welt, Pekings Rolle im Iran-Konflikt und Shenzhen als Zukunftslabor: mit Robotern, Drohnen, E-Autos und KI, aber auch mit Überwachung und Kontrolle. Was bedeutet Chinas Aufstieg für Europa? Und was kann Deutschland lernen, ohne chinesische Verhältnisse zu kopieren? Haben Sie eine Anmerkung oder Frage zu dem Gespräch im Podcast? Schreiben Sie uns unter podcasts@t-online.de oder schicken Sie eine Sprachnachricht per WhatsApp an die 0151 239 694 97. Transkript: Alle Folgen der Diskussion am Wochenende finden Sie in einer Playlist auf Spotify hier: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1d0dXXtJNcYAF7jQ3oRPg9?si=0f24794f3fe14a27 Den „Tagesanbruch“-Podcast gibt es immer montags bis samstags gegen 6 Uhr zum Start in den Tag – am Wochenende in einer längeren Diskussion. Verpassen Sie keine Folge und abonnieren Sie uns bei Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/3v1HFmv3V3Zvp1R4BT3jlO?si=klrETGehSj2OZQ_dmB5Q9g), Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/de/podcast/t-online-tagesanbruch/id1374882499?mt=2), Amazon Music (https://music.amazon.de/podcasts/961bad79-b3ba-4a93-9071-42e0d3cdd87f/tagesanbruch-von-t-online) oder überall sonst, wo es Podcasts gibt. Wenn Ihnen der Podcast gefällt, lassen Sie gern eine Bewertung da.

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.

In this insightful interview, Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of Starkware, shares his journey from academia to blockchain innovation, discusses the significance of ZK-Starks in blockchain scalability and security, and explores the urgent need for quantum-resistant cryptography. Discover how these technologies are shaping the future of digital trust and privacy.Zero Knowledge, Infinite Trust book isn't just about math; it's a story about people, freedom, and the personal journeys that shaped the blockchain revolution.

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.

Hong Kong's talent market has been stress-tested like no other—and emerged with a new identity.   The old playbook - expat packages, regional hub prestige, English-only operations - now guarantees mediocrity. Yet for those who understand the new dynamics, Hong Kong offers something rare: a gateway to mainland opportunity with international legal frameworks, a financial center pivoting hard into tech and green finance, and a talent pool that spans Greater China and Southeast Asia. It's more complex, more competitive, and more rewarding for employers who adapt. This webinar delivers the intelligence you need to hire effectively in Asia's most transformed talent market.   10 Critical Shifts Reshaping Hiring in Hong Kong   • The Talent Diaspora & Return Dynamics – Who left, who stayed, who's returning, and why the "new Hong Kong" professional has different loyalty drivers, risk appetites, and career expectations than pre-2020 cohorts   • Mainland Integration Realities – How increasing economic and professional interchange with Shenzhen and Guangdong is reshaping language requirements, compensation benchmarks, and career mobility patterns   • Financial Services Reinvention – Beyond traditional banking: capturing talent in fintech, virtual assets, green finance, and family office services where Hong Kong is aggressively positioning against Singapore   • The Trilingual Imperative – Why "English + Mandarin + Cantonese" capability is now table stakes for client-facing and leadership roles, and how to assess proficiency beyond self-reported fluency   • Visa & Mobility Restructuring – Navigating the Top Talent Pass Scheme, General Employment Policy shifts, and the new competitive landscape for global talent attraction against Singapore and Dubai   • Compensation Compression & Expectation Shifts – Addressing the end of expat premium packages, localized salary structures, and the rising importance of housing allowances, schooling support, and tax optimization in total rewards   • Startup Ecosystem Maturation – Tapping into Hong Kong's evolving tech scene—where government investment, university commercialization, and mainland venture capital are creating new talent competition outside traditional sectors   • Work Culture Hybridization – Balancing international professional norms with evolving local expectations around hierarchy, work-life boundaries, and organizational loyalty in a post-transition environment   • Regulatory & Compliance Complexity – Hiring within Hong Kong's distinct legal framework while managing cross-border data, employment law changes, and increasing mainland regulatory influence on business operations   • Employer Branding in a Polarized Environment – Crafting authentic value propositions that resonate across diverse political and cultural perspectives without alienating key talent segments   We're on Thursday 14th May, 10am BST. Register by clicking on the green button to save your spot. And follow the channel here (recommended) to be notified whenever we go live.

【欢迎订阅】 每天早上5:30，准时更新。 【阅读原文】 标题：Why China's exports will keep on risingOur new analysis shows how the country shrugged off the effects of Donald Trump's tariffs正文：DING LEI, a purchasing manager at a chip-trading company in Shenzhen, is having a good year. Among other kinds of semiconductors, his company is selling IGBTs, a type of transistor used to regulate electrical power. Customers include motorbike-makers in Spain, manufacturers in Romania and clients across South-East Asia. His optimism about sales prospects is understandable. In the first three months of 2026,China's exports of transistors jumped by 26% in dollar terms compared with the same period of 2025.知识点：purchasing manager n. /ˈpɜːtʃəsɪŋ ˌmænɪdʒə/a person responsible for buying goods or materials for a company 采购经理• The purchasing manager negotiated a bulk discount with the supplier. 采购经理与供应商谈下了一笔批量折扣。• As a purchasing manager, she travels frequently to source high-quality raw materials. 身为采购经理，她频繁出差采购优质原材料。获取外刊的完整原文以及精讲笔记，请关注微信公众号「早安英文」，回复“外刊”即可。更多有意思的英语干货等着你！ 【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。

Amazon's new Shenzhen warehouse is shaking up the cost floor for sellers everywhere. Neil Twa dives into how this pre-export staging point gives Chinese sellers a structural edge, allowing them to move inventory closer to Amazon's infrastructure before it even leaves China. This episode breaks down the mechanics of this change and what it means for sellers at every level. Take, for example, a home organization brand doing $40K a month with modular drawer organizers. Despite good reviews and a solid brand presence, they're facing the same challenge as sellers doing $1M+. Neil outlines three actionable moves to counter this shift. First, run a competitive cost audit on your top three SKUs. Amazon frames the Shenzhen facility as a fulfillment innovation, but the real impact is on your margins. Full transparency: this is about survival. The High Voltage Business Builders Podcast is here to help you navigate these changes.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Brewed Inspiration: Creativity Blossoms in Shenzhen Café Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-05-08-07-38-19-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 春天的深圳，高科技城市的街道充满了活力。En: In the springtime of Shenzhen, the streets of this high-tech city are full of vitality.Zh: 在这里，一家名为“创新咖啡”的咖啡馆吸引了许多年轻的专业人士。En: Here, a café named Inno Coffee attracts many young professionals.Zh: 咖啡馆的落地窗外，可以俯瞰城市高楼与绿色植被交织的美丽风景。En: Outside the café's floor-to-ceiling windows, one can overlook the beautiful scenery of skyscrapers interwoven with greenery.Zh: 空气中弥漫着新鲜咖啡的香气，四周尽是轻快的交谈声。En: The air is filled with the aroma of fresh coffee, surrounded by the sounds of lively conversation.Zh: 这一天是五一劳动节，节日的气氛还未散去。En: This day is May 1st Labor Day, and the festive atmosphere still lingers.Zh: 咖啡馆里，李伟选择了一个角落座位，开始心不在焉地画画。En: Inside the café, Li Wei chooses a corner seat and begins absentmindedly sketching.Zh: 他是一名软件开发者，平时喜欢在空闲时间画画。En: He is a software developer who enjoys drawing in his spare time.Zh: 然而，他总觉得自己的画作不够好，从不敢与别人分享。En: However, he always feels his artwork is not good enough and never dares to share it with others.Zh: 就在此时，小明走进了咖啡馆。En: At that moment, Xiao Ming walks into the café.Zh: 她是一名平面设计师，正为新项目寻找灵感。En: She is a graphic designer looking for inspiration for a new project.Zh: 她环顾四周，视线被李伟手中的素描本吸引住了。En: She glances around and her attention is caught by the sketchbook in Li Wei's hands.Zh: “你画得真好！En: "You draw really well!"Zh: ”小明忍不住夸奖道，打破了李伟的注意力。En: Xiao Ming can't help but praise, breaking Li Wei's concentration.Zh: 李伟有些犹豫，试图把本子合上，却被小明的眼神阻止了。En: Li Wei is a bit hesitant, trying to close the book, but Xiao Ming's gaze stops him.Zh: 小明微笑着说：“我正在找灵感，你的作品很有创意。En: Smiling, she says, "I'm looking for inspiration; your work is very creative."Zh: ”两人开始聊起天来。En: The two start chatting.Zh: 李伟告诉小明，他正在寻找一个灵感点，想要开展自己的科技艺术项目。En: Li Wei tells Xiao Ming that he is seeking a spark of inspiration to start his own tech art project.Zh: 而小明则表达了她在项目设计中遇到的瓶颈。En: Meanwhile, Xiao Ming shares the bottleneck she's encountering in her project design.Zh: 两人自然而然地发现，彼此的创意竟可以完美结合。En: Naturally, they discover that their creative ideas can be perfectly combined.Zh: 梅玲，这家咖啡馆的常客，也是小明的朋友，碰巧经过。En: Mei Ling, a regular at this café and a friend of Xiao Ming, happens to pass by.Zh: 她笑着打趣道：“看来你们俩找到了共同的话题。En: She teasingly remarks, "Looks like you two have found a common topic."Zh: ”随着对话的深入，小明突然提议：“我们一起合作怎么样？En: As the conversation deepens, Xiao Ming suddenly suggests, "How about we collaborate?Zh: 你的素描给了我很多灵感。En: Your sketches have given me a lot of inspiration."Zh: ”李伟有些惊讶，但也被这突然的提议所吸引。En: Li Wei is somewhat surprised, but also intrigued by this sudden proposition.Zh: 他慢慢地点了点头，心中涌起一丝信心。En: He slowly nods, a surge of confidence welling up within him.Zh: 从这一刻起，两人决定一起工作，利用彼此的长处创造一些与众不同的东西。En: From that moment on, the two decide to work together, utilizing each other's strengths to create something unique.Zh: 随着时间的推移，他们的合作渐入佳境，项目变得越来越有趣。En: As time passes, their collaboration hits its stride, and the project becomes increasingly interesting.Zh: 同时，两人之间的感情也悄然升温。En: Meanwhile, the feelings between them quietly grow.Zh: 李伟从一个不敢展示画作的人，变成了愿意分享创意的自信青年。En: Li Wei transforms from someone afraid to show his drawings into a confident young man willing to share his creativity.Zh: 而小明也从中找到了设计的灵感与激情。En: Xiao Ming finds inspiration and passion for design in the process.Zh: 这个春天，正如深圳的天空般清新明亮，小明和李伟都迎来了属于自己的一段崭新关系。En: This spring, as fresh and bright as the skies over Shenzhen, Xiao Ming and Li Wei both embrace a new phase in their relationship.Zh: 两人在创新之路上携手并行，而这段关系正如那一杯浓香的咖啡般，温暖而充实。En: They walk hand in hand on the path of innovation, and this relationship is as warm and fulfilling as a cup of rich coffee. Vocabulary Words:springtime: 春天vitality: 活力overlook: 俯瞰aroma: 香气absentmindedly: 心不在焉地sketching: 画画software developer: 软件开发者hesitant: 犹豫gaze: 眼神bottleneck: 瓶颈proposition: 提议confidence: 信心utilizing: 利用stride: 佳境transforms: 变成embrace: 迎来innovation: 创新phase: 阶段fulfilling: 充实interwoven: 交织linger: 未散去creative: 创意combined: 结合sparks: 灵感点collaboration: 合作surge: 涌起design: 设计uniquely: 与众不同passion: 激情bright: 明亮

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.

Is the wholesale distribution industry heading toward another economic reset, or a new era of AI-powered growth?In this episode of Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution, Kevin Brown and Tom Burton break down the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, geopolitical volatility in the Strait of Hormuz, tariff refund uncertainty, Amazon's China-to-U.S. logistics expansion, and the rising cost of AI compute. This episode explores how macroeconomics, supply chain disruption, autonomous AI agents, and B2B buying behavior are reshaping manufacturers, distributors, and the global wholesale supply chain.What You'll Learn:Why the Federal Reserve's split vote signals potential instability for capital investment and expansion planningHow oil volatility and Panama Canal congestion impact freight costs, inventory carrying costs, and distributor marginsWhat Amazon's new Shenzhen-to-U.S. warehouse pipeline means for private label brands, importers, and traditional intermediariesThe real barrier to autonomous AI agents in wholesale distribution: compute costs, governance, and infrastructure readinessWhy the “dark funnel” is accelerating, and how B2B buyers are researching before ever calling your sales teamEpisode Highlights:03:05 – The stock market's momentum vs. economic uncertainty: what it means for distributors10:44 – The Fed holds rates with four dissents, political independence or internal division?26:55 – War Powers Act, Iran, and oil volatility: why fuel prices matter to wholesale margins31:52 – Tariffs explained: who actually pays and why refunds won't be evenly distributed46:20 – Amazon's China-to-U.S. logistics expansion and what it signals for supply chain disintermediation54:30 – AI compute costs, token consumption, and why fully autonomous agents aren't practical—yet1:20:21 – The dark funnel in B2B buying: why customers are researching without your sales teamTools, Frameworks, and Concepts Mentioned:Enterprise Growth Platform strategy (LeadSmart Technologies)AI-enabled CRM and customer intelligenceAgentic AI and autonomous procurementThe Dark Funnel in B2B salesAI governance and agent sprawlCompute infrastructure and token economicsClosing Insight:“An autonomous agent running your entire business is probably not as soon as we would like.”Wholesale distribution is not facing a single disruption, it's navigating economic volatility, supply chain risk, AI acceleration, and changing buyer behavior simultaneously.Leave a Review: Help us grow by sharing your thoughts on the show.Learn more about the LeadSmart AI B2B Sales Platform: https://www.leadsmarttech.com/Join the conversation each week on LinkedIn Live.Want even more insight to the stories we discuss each week? Subscribe to the Around The Horn Newsletter.You can also hear the podcast and other excellent content on our YouTube Channel.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.

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.

A major Amazon Ads payment update has been delayed to August 1st, 2026. Amazon now has a solution for reducing storage fees and how to identify keywords that Amazon's algorithm considers relevant to your products. We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's Senior Brand Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.   Update on Amazon advertiser payments https://advertising.amazon.com/library/news/update-on-advertiser-payments/ Identify untapped product opportunities with Discover Unmet Demand https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHM0FLQzhBUFBTQk40RzhN Introducing Global Warehousing & Distribution — now available in Shenzhen, China https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHWUQ5WVI1RjRSVkJIUlBX TikTok Shop is expanding in Europe: Poland and the Benelux countries will follow soon https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/general/tiktok-shop-is-expanding-in-europe-poland-and-the-benelux-countries-will-follow-soon/ In episode 513 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Shivali covers: 00:00 - Introduction 00:42 - MAJOR advertising payment updates delayed to August 1st, 2026 02:35 - Understand customer preferences with Review Insights on TikTok 06:34 - Identify market opportunities with NEW Discover Unmet Demand feature 08:56 - Identify keywords Amazon's algorithm thinks is relevant for your products 13:40 - Reduce storage costs with Amazon GWD in Shenzhen 16:11 - Is TikTok Shop finally expanding to more European countries?   Enjoy this episode? Want to be able to ask questions to Leo Sgovio live in a small group with other 7 and 8-figure Amazon sellers?  Join the Helium 10 Elite Mastermind and get quarterly workshops, monthly training, and networking calls with Leo at h10.me/elite Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our podcast!  

1. Anne Stevenson-Yang recounts China's transition from a poverty-stricken Maoist culture to an export-driven economy. Deng Xiaoping initiated this shift to acquire hard currency, establishing Special Economic Zones like Shenzhen. This era birthed an elite class of well-connected officials who began separating capital from traditional ministries. (1)1903

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.

An 8-figure seller in China reveals what US sellers get wrong about Chinese competition, black-hat tactics, global expansion, and the data-driven moves behind his Amazon growth. ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Helium10SeriousSellersPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft What is really happening behind the scenes with top Chinese Amazon sellers? In this episode, Bradley travels to Shenzhen, China, to sit down with Bennett, an eight-figure seller who shares a rare inside look at how serious Amazon sellers in China are building and scaling brands. Helping guide the conversation is Freeman Cui from Helium 10's Shenzhen office, who serves as Bennett's translator throughout the interview. From launching his first cleaning product in 2017 to growing one brand to $15 million in annual sales, Bennett breaks down the mindset, systems, and strategies behind his success. One of the most eye-opening parts of the conversation is Bennett's take on black hat tactics. He confirms that those tactics still exist but says Amazon is making it harder for bad actors to survive in the long term. His belief is that the future belongs to compliant sellers who focus on quality products, strong branding, and long-term stability. That alone makes this episode a must-listen for sellers who assume all Chinese competitors play the same game. Bennett also opens up about how his team uses data to make smarter decisions across product research, market expansion, keyword strategy, and advertising. He shares how Helium 10 tools like Market Tracker 360, Search Query Analyzer, Cerebro, and Helium 10 Ads help his team spot trends, avoid bad opportunities, optimize PPC, and launch products with more precision. He also walks through how they research trends from Amazon, Etsy, customer feedback, and even physical retail stores. This episode is packed with practical insights on global expansion, AI-driven advertising, and product launches, but it also gives listeners something more valuable: perspective. Bennett explains why Brazil could be one of the biggest untapped Amazon opportunities, why patience is one of his company's unfair advantages, and why his team is aiming to grow from $15 million to $50 million in the coming years. If you want to understand how elite Chinese sellers actually think, this episode pulls back the curtain. In episode 742 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Bennett, and Freeman discuss: 00:00 - Why Chinese Sellers Envy US And European Sellers 00:41 - Meeting Bennett In Shenzhen, China 01:04 - Bennett's Background And First Amazon Product 02:17 - Building A $15 Million Cleaning Brand 02:52 - How He Uses Market Tracker 360 To Find Opportunities 04:12 - A Product Win And A Market Shift That Saved Money 05:50 - The Truth About Black Hat Tactics In China 07:48 - How Search Query Analyzer Changed His PPC Strategy 10:07 - Three Unique Strategies Behind His 8-Figure Growth 12:28 - Why Brazil Is His Top Expansion Market 14:02 - How He Uses AI Advertising And Where It Still Falls Short 17:53 - His New Product Launch Strategy And $50 Million Goal

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.