This week on Sinica, Iza Ding, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University and author of The Performative State: Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China, joins to share her ideas on how American academia has framed and problematized authoritarianism, especially when it comes to China. A deep and subtle thinker, she offers thought-provoking critiques of some of the assumptions that have become nearly axiomatic in political science and other social sciences in their approach to understanding politics in China. 3:13 – Iza Ding’s concept of “authoritarian teleology” 15:31 – The concept of authoritarian resilience  19:58 – The question of regime legitimacy  24:09 – The question of whether authoritarianism is an ideology  26:24 – The China model?  30:58 – Finding a balance between generalizability and the sui generis, and striving toward cognitive empathy and “Verstehen”  42:04 – The state of area studies and avoiding essentialism  49:32 – Iza Ding’s advice on how to become a better writer  Recommendations: Iza: The Wife of Bath: A Biography by Marion Turner — the story of Alison, the Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales  Kaiser: the guitarist Kent Nishimura, especially his recordings of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police, and “Hey Nineteen” by Steely Dan  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'm delighted to welcome Dá Wēi (达巍), one of China’s foremost scholars of China’s foreign relations and especially relations with the U.S. Da Wei is the director of the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and is a professor in the department of International Relations at the School of Social Science at Tsinghua. Before September 2017, Professor Da served as the Director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a leading think tank in Beijing. He was at CICIR for more than two decades and directed the Institute of American Studies from 2013 to 2017. We discuss the state of Chinese understanding of the United States: how China’s strategic class assesses the state of the relationship, what brought it to this point, and what the future might hold. 2:52 – American attitudes toward the U.S.-China relationship 5:32 – The focus of academic think tanks and strategic communities in the U.S. versus China  11:13 – The Chinese strategic community’s understanding of American domestic politics with respect to the upcoming U.S. presidential election   15:08 – The Chinese strategic community’s understanding of why and how the current state of relations developed, and why China changed its trajectory   23:12 – The Chinese strategic community’s perspectives on American policy: Do they see a difference between the parties? 27:02 – Da Wei’s concept of “Sullivanism”  33:41 – The question of mutual misunderstanding  38:37 – The role and influence of China’s think tanks in the policymaking process 43:29 – The idea of cognitive empathy — aka strageic empathy, or intellectual empathy — and how it could aid mutual understanding and the policymaking process 52:30 – The Chinese perspective on Russia and the war in Ukraine  57:37 – The Chinese perspective on China’s other international relations and the global context of the U.S.-China relationship  1:04:19 The issue of Taiwan and the question of the “status quo”  1:13:52 The importance of building people-to-people ties  1:16:51 – Da Wei's personal anecdote about an experience that influenced his understanding the U.S.-China relationship Recommendations: Da Wei:  Lust for Life by Irving Stone — a biography of Vincent van Gogh; Pablo Casals’s recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites; the films Cinema Paradiso (1988) and Forrest Gump (1994).   Kaiser: The Sopranos (1999-2007) TV series and The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco, written by Allen Rucker with recipes by Michele Scicolone.  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, a discussion of Netflix's adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem (or more accurately, Remembrance of Earth's Past). Joining me to chat about the big-budget show is Cindy Yu, host of The Spectator’s “Chinese Whispers” podcast, one of the very best China-focused podcasts; and Christopher T. Fan, who teaches English, Asian American Studies, and East Asian Studies at U.C. Irvine and is a co-founder of Hyphen magazine. Cindy and Chris both wrote reviews of the show and a bunch of other folks answered the call and contributed their thoughts as well. 6:46 – 3 Body Problem as Chinese IP and audience reception  14:44 – The pros and cons of a more faithful adaptation, comparisons with Tencent’s adaptation, [and the Netflix production (process) (? Or keep it separate, 20:17)] 23:44 – How the show portrays its Chinese characters and China and audience responses 38:14 – Allegorical interpretations and real-world (political?) connections  48:11 – What to look forward to in (possible?) future seasons  51:14 – Chenchen Zhang’s humanity/autocracy binary and the 工业党 gōngyè dǎng  57:02 A win for Chinese soft power?  Recommendations: Cindy: The Overstory by Richard Powers  Chris: Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park Kaiser: Kaiser: Run and Hide by Pankaj Mishra; other novels by Pankaj Mishra, including Age of Anger: A History of the Present and From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia; and other novels by Richard Powers, including Galatea 2.2, Operation Wandering Soul, and The Gold Bug Variations  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 wandered the halls at the Association for Asian Studies Conference in Seattle and talked to 14 participants and asked them all the same question: What has become clear to you about our field recently? The fantastic diversity of areas of inquiry and of perspectives was really energizing. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did! 02:25 Michael Davidson from UC San Diego on working towards climate change goals 04:22 Timothy Cheek from University of British Columbia on the importance of continuing to study China despite political tensions  06:51 Chen Zifeng from LSE on Chinese propaganda that surrounds everyday life  11:08 Clyde Yicheng Wang (Wang Yicheng) from Washington and Lee University on Chinese propaganda and its spread into social media  16:57 Jeff Wasserstrom from UC Irvine on connections between events in China and the world 18:26 Ian Johnson from CFR on researching China from afar and the importance of online databases  21:01 Daniel Leese from the University of Freiburg on the work of digitizing Chinese sources  24:06 Tyler Harlan from Loyola Marymount University on opportunities for cooperation in the environmental field  25:41 Abby Newman from the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies on the importance of spaces for conversation within the field 27:55 Sophie Loy-Wilson from the University of Sydney on studying violence and war in Asia with more sympathy  33:45 Joe Dennis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the changes he has witnessed in Chinese studies at the university level  36:49 Ed Pulford from the University of Manchester on China’s differing perspective on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine  39:49 Emily Matson from Georgetown University on the importance of Marxist and Mao thought in analyzing modern Chinese history and World War II 42:14 Jan Berris from the National Committee on United States-China Relations on redirecting the U.S. government’s focus  Recommendation: The musical, poetic, and comedic work of Elle Cordova (formerly Reina Del Cid), on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook; and the Led Zeppelin tribute band "Presence," fronted by singer Tamar Boursalian. (Alas, the band, which is new, has no online presence. See them if you're in Seattle!) 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 speak with veteran China analysts Thomas Fingar and David M. Lampton — Mike Lampton — about a paper they published in the Winter 2024 edition of the Washington Quarterly. It's an excellent overview of how and why the bilateral relationship took such a bad turn roughly 15 years ago, citing mistakes both sides made and the reasons why China shifted around that time from one of its two basic behavioral modes — more open, tolerant, and simpatico in its foreign policy — to the other mode, which is both more internally repressive and externally assertive. Thomas Fingar is Shorenstein APARC Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He was Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. He served as the first deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and as chairman of the National Intelligence Council — and he’s the author of many books, including most recently From Mandate to Blueprint: Lessons from Intelligence Reform. Mike Lampton is Professor Emeritus and former Hyman Professor and Director of SAIS-China and China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute. Mike was also formerly President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. 05:04 – The problem with the use of the term "autocracy" to describe China's system 09:18 – Analysis of the motivation behind China's actions, questioning the assumption that all decisions are solely for perpetuating the Communist Party's power. 10:25 – Rethinking Xi Jinping's personal influence over China's policy decisions: the checks on his power within the Chinese political system. 15:58 – Critique of deterministic theories in political science regarding state behavior, particularly concerning China's foreign policy and domestic policy actions. 19:13 – The importance of avoiding oversimplified and deterministic explanations for Chinese behavior on the global stage. 23:43 – Discussion on the perception of China as an unstoppable juggernaut and the consequences of such a view for international relations and domestic policies in the U.S. 24:41 – Analysis of the notion that China seeks to recreate an imperial tribute system in its foreign relations and regional strategy. 28:09 – Introduction of the concept of two strategic constellations that have historically guided China's policy focus: national/regime security and economic/social development. 33:11 – Exploration of factors leading to China's shift from prioritizing economic and social development to focusing more on national and regime security. 37:38 – Examination of the internal and external dynamics contributing to China's policy shifts and the impact of globalization on societal and political tensions. 48:47 – Reflection on the post-9/11 period as a time of relatively smooth U.S.-China relations and speculation on the role of international crises in shaping bilateral dynamics. 52:59 – Discussion on the challenges and opportunities for the U.S. and China to adjust their policies and rhetoric to manage tensions and avoid further exacerbating the bilateral relationship. Recommendations:  Tom: The novels of Mick Herron (author of Slow Horses); the novels of Alan Furst, including Night Soldiers and The Polish Officer. Mike: Philip Taubman, In the Nation’s Service (a biography of George Schultz); and Liz Cheney, Oath and Honor Kaiser: The Magician, by Colm Tóibín — an unconventional novelized biography of Thomas Mann 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 the Sinica Podcast, a show taped in Salzburg, Austria, at the Salzburg Global Seminar with Kerry Brown of King's College, London, on the prolific author's latest book, China Incorporated: The Politics of a World Where China is Number One. 05:22 – Chinese worldview and historical perceptions 07:51 – The unease with China's rise 10:42 – Chinese exceptionalism vs. Western universalism 17:30 – Parallels between American domestic unease and perceptions of China 22:27 – Discussion on China's competing belief system 33:56 – China's raw form of capitalism 40:36 – What the West wants from China 46:10 – The internet as a reflection of Chinese power and limitations 51:17 – China's syncretism and its impact today 55:00 – The narrative of Chinese success and its PR challenges 1:05:32 – Revising Western narratives on China's development A complete transcript of this podcast is available at sinica.substack.com. Join the community on Substack and get not only the transcript but lots of other writing and audio to boot! Recommendations: Kerry: Civilization and Capitalism by Fernand Braudel Kaiser: Empire of Silver: A New Monetary History of China by Jin Xu; and re-reading Hilary Mantel's masterful Wolf Hall trilogy (Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Historian Rana Mitter joins Sinica this week in a show taped live in Salzburg, Austria at the Salzburg Global Seminar, in which he discusses efforts by Party ideologists to create a Confucian-Marxist synthesis that can serve as an enduring foundation for a modern Chinese worldview in the self-proclaimed “new era.” 01:28 – Is China a revisionist power? 02:16 – Right-sizing China's global ambitions 09:27 — How China utilizes historical narratives to support political ends 10:43 – Marxism and China's Historical Understanding 17:07 – China's "New Era" and Party history 28:38 – The Confucian-Marxist Synthesis  56:58 – China's ability to reinvent itself 1:02:15 – What’s the next big question? A complete transcript is available at the Sinica Substack. Recommendations:  Rana: Eliza Clark, Boy Parts Kaiser: Anthony Kaldellis, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade  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, the winners of the 2023 Schwarzman Capstone Showcase. Two individuals and one team were selected as the best research projects after review of their projects and presentation of their findings. Their work is first-rate — and if you don’t factor in the very young age of the Schwarzman Scholars in competition. You’ll meet Shawn Haq, who won for his work on U.S. and Chinese expert perspectives on Taiwan; Corbin Duncan, who looked at the impact of the One Child Policy on the economic and social circumstances of only children in China; and the duo of Kelly Wu and Manthan Shah, part of a larger team that studied decarbonization efforts in Shandong province in steel, aluminum, chemical, and cement production. All three of these research efforts yielded fascinating insights. 2:15 – Introducing the Schwarzman Capstone Showcase: topics, judges, and process 4:41 – Self-introductions from Shawn Haq, Corbin Duncan, Kelly Wu, and Manthan Shah 15:07 – Shawn Haq: U.S.-China Expert Perspectives on Cross-Straits Relations 29:09 – Corbin Duncan: Only Children and Contemporary China 48:12 – Kelly Wu and Manthan Shah: Decarbonization of Shandong Province’s Materials Sector 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, a special taping of an online event I moderated on February 22, just two days shy of the second anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The session was titled “The Ukrainian Factor in China’s Strategy,” and it was organized by the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, and featured that organization’s chairperson, Vita Golod; Bartosz Kowalski, senior analyst at the Center for Asian Affairs at the University of Lodz; Lü Xiaoyu of Peking University’s School of International Studies; and Klaus Larres, distinguished professor of history and international affairs, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Please support Sinica by becoming a subscriber at sinica.substack.com. Please note that I have discontinued Patreon, and ask all supporters to help out over on Substack.  2:42 – Introducing the guests 6:19 – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s meeting with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi 12:19 – What do Ukraine and its allies want from China? 16:59 – What inducements might Ukraine’s Western allies offer China? 21:51 – How has China’s position changed over the course of the last two years? 29:52 – The space for expression of pro-Ukraine voices in China 32:08 – Ukrainian and Chinese popular opinion  36:44 – Does the diplomacy of sanctimony work on a realist power? 48:00 – China’s 12-Point Position 51:48 – Does Russian economic dependency on China translate into leverage? 54:04 – The overlap between China’s 12 points and Zelenskyy’s 10 points 57:42 – How reliable is America as a partner in this election year? 1:08:53  – How will this war end? What compromises are the sides willing to make? 1:21:32 – Lü Xiaoyu’s trip to Ukraine and his meeting with President Zelenskyy There’s a complete transcript to this episode available at sinica.substack.com. Sorry, no recommendations this week, but here’s one from me: The new remake of James Clavell’s epic novel Shògun, which is out on Hulu and FX. It’s pretty mind-blowing! 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'm delighted to bring you a live conversation with writer Peter Hessler, recorded at Duke University's Nasher Auditorium in Durham, North Carolina on November 10, 2023. The event was sponsored by the Duke Middle East Studies Center and the Asian Pacific Studies Institute, and was titled "Modern Revolutions in Ancient Civilizations." Peter, known for both his trilogy of books written in China — Rivertown, Oracle Bones, and Country Driving — as well as for his reporting for The New Yorker, talks about how his years in China gave him perspective when living in Cairo and writing about Egypt during the Arab Spring. His book on Egypt, The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution, was made richer for me by the comparisons and contrasts with China threading throughout. Special thanks to Griffin Orlando of the Middle East Study Center and Alex Nickley from the Asia Pacific Studies Institute, and Ralph Litzinger from Duke Anthropology. 6:27 – What Peter’s China experience brought to his writing on China — and vice-versa 9:45 – Contrasting the Chinese and Egyptian revolutions 18:37 – Revolution in thinking in Egypt and China 35:49 – Peter on his approach to the craft of reporting and writing 51:47 – Peter’s work in China as a longitudinal cohort study — and what it reveals so far 58:03 – A preview of Peter’s forthcoming book, Other Rivers Recommendations: Peter: Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals is one of the books Kaiser: Kenneth W. Harl’s book Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sinica is proud to present historian James Carter's column "This Week in China's History," one of the most popular offerings from the late great China Project. I'm delighted to be able to bring this back and to narrate it. You can expect a new column every other week, and we'll be publishing on Fridays. This week, Jay looks at the last Qing emperor, Puyi's, abdication in February 1912, marking the end not only of the Qing Empire but of imperial Chinese history. Please enjoy! The music on this episode is from the song "Between the Mountains and the Sea" (山海间) by my old band, Chunqiu. This song was written and performed by Yang Meng. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sinica is back, and on this first post-China Project show, Kaiser chats with TCP’s ex-editor-in-chief and Sinica’s co-founder and former co-host, Jeremy Goldkorn. They chat about the Beijing that was, their theories as to why things changed as they did, and share some of their favorite precepts for understanding contemporary China. 03:15 – What’s new with Sinica in the post-TCP era 04:34 – Jeremy reflects on the history of Sinica and of The China Project 20:25 – Jeremy’s characterization of how his approach to China differs from Kaiser’s 25:01 – How our China experiences shaped our perspectives 26:44 – Jeremy’s long, fraught relationship with the media biz in China 36:47 – What brought on the end of the golden years of liberalization in China? 47:45 – How China changed our politics 1:08:44 – Jeremy’s reveals (some of) his big plans 1:10:15 – Gen X China-watchers and what made them special Recommendations:  Jeremy: The Ghosts of Evolution by Connie Barlow Kaiser: Ma in All Caps by Jay Kuo (the audiobook version, read by Kaiser); and the Captain Alatriste novels by Arturo Pérez-Reverte Support Sinica by subscribing to the new Substack at https://sinica.substack.com, or on Patreon — same content — at https://Patreon.com/Sinica. 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, a live recording from New York on the eve of the 2023 NEXTChina Conference. Jeremy Goldkorn joins Kaiser as co-host, with guests Maria Repnikova of Georgia State University, who specializes in Chinese soft power in Africa and on Sino-Russian relations, and Eric Olander, co-founder of the China Global South Project and co-host of the excellent China Global South Podcast and China in Africa Podcast. This show is unedited to preserve the live feel! Recommendations: Jeremy: Empire podcast William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, about how empires rise, fall, and shape the world around us Maria: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall Eric: Eat Bitter, a documentary by Ningyi Sun, a filmmaker from China, and Pascale Appora Gnekindy, from the Central African Republic Kaiser: Wellness, an ambitious novel by Nathan Hill about a Gen X couple in Wicker Park, Chicago; and the NOVA documentary Inside China's Tech Boom, of which Kaiser is correspondent, narrator, and co-producer. 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, we're running an interview with Jeffrey Bader from early last year. We learned on Monday morning that Jeff had died, and we dedicate this interview to his memory. ___ This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Jeff Bader, who served as senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council during the first years of the Obama presidency, until 2011. Now a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute, Jeff was deeply involved in U.S.-China affairs at the State Department from his first posting to Beijing back in 1981 continuously for the next 21 years, through 2002. He later served as U.S. ambassador to Namibia and was tapped to head Asian Affairs at the NSC after Obama took office. Jeff is the author of a fascinating book on Obama’s China policy, Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy. In this conversation, he offers a candid critique of the Biden China policy to date. Note that this conversation was taped in mid-February — before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, and before the Department of Justice announced the end of the “China Initiative.” Note that this conversation was taped in mid-February — before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, and before the Department of Justice announced the end of the “China Initiative.” 3:23 – How viewing China over 40 years of rapid development has shaped the way Jeff thinks about China 8:54 – Jeff Bader’s critique of the Biden administration’s China policy 19:40 – Is it important to have a China strategy? 24:55 – Right-sizing China’s ambitions: Is Rush Doshi right? 31:17 – Defining China’s legitimate interests 38:31 – Has China already concluded that the U.S., irrespective of who is in power, seeks to thwart China’s rise? 43:16 – How can China participate in the rules-based international order? 47:52 – Is it still possible for Biden to change his tune on China? 52:57 – How much room does Biden have politically? Can he exploit to electorate’s partisan divide on China? 59:54 – What is the “low-hanging fruit” that Biden could pluck to signal a lowering of temperature? 1:12:09 – Jeff Bader’s precepts for better understanding of — and better policy toward — China Recommendations Jeff: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, a book by Stephen Platt about the Taiping Civil War focusing on Hong Rengan. Kaiser: Re-recommending two previous guests’ recommendations: Iaian McGilchrists’s The Master and his Emissary recommended by Anthea Roberts; and Unfabling the East: The Enlightenment’s Encounter with Asia by Jurgen Osterhammel, recommended by Dan Wang. 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, a live recording from October 10 in Chicago, Kaiser asks Chang-Tai Hsieh of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, Damien Ma of the Paulson Institute’s think tank MacroPolo, and our own Lizzi Lee, host of The Signal with Lizzi Lee, to right-size the peril that the Chinese economy now faces from slow consumer demand, high youth unemployment, a troubled real estate sector, and high levels of local government debt. This event was co-sponsored by the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute, the Paulson Institute, and The China Project.  06:32 – What is the current state of the Chinese economy? 11:14 – The origins of China’s crisis in comparison to crises from 1990 in Japan and 2008 in the U.S. 14:25 – Real estate sector’s role in the crisis and possible solutions 22:51 – The significance of able management during times of crisis. Is this a crisis of confidence or expectations? 29:34 – The question of the general direction of the Chinese economy  43:33 – What does an actual debt crisis look like in China? 48:00 – The right  U.S. policy towards China in light of current affairs The complete transcript of the show is now in the main podcast page for the episode! 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 the Sinica Podcast: a lecture by Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center's Kissinger Institute, delivered last year to D.C.-based Faith & Law at their Friday Forum. The lecture, titled "Is Our Foreign Policy Good? American Moral Absolutism and the China Challenge," is a powerful and thought-provoking talk. Kaiser follows up with a long conversation with Robert about the themes raised in the talk, and then some. Enjoy. 03:04 – A talk by Robert Daly from June 24th, 2022, given at Faith & Law’s Friday Forum 45:49 – What is lacking in the mainstream dialogue about American policies on China-related issues? 49:37 – Over-willingness to turn towards a military approach in the U.S.-China relationship in recent years 1:00:48 – The missionary aspect of the American approach in dealing with China 1:05:02 – The differences and commonalities between Chinese and American exceptionalism 1:17:42 – Are we in a state of Cold War with China? 1:23:54 – The question of moral standing in light of whataboutism 1:27:08 – Comparing American intentions with Chinese realities and the issue of moral absolutism 1:44:50 – What a “Just Cold War” would involve? 1:51:34 – Can the U.S. imagine a world in which it is not a hegemonic power? A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com. Recommendations:  Robert: The House of Sixty Fathers (a Newbury Award-winning book) by Meindert DeJong with illustrations by the late Maurice Sendak Kaiser: Wolf Hall: A Novel by Hilary Mantel Anda Union (Inner Mongolian band) 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, Kaiser is joined by Jason McLure, a correspondent for a new investigative reporting outfit called The Examination, and reporter Jude Chan, who writes for Initium Media. The two worked with two other reporters on a fascinating expose, funded by the Pulitzer Center, of China's tobacco monopoly, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (or China Tobacco), and how it has managed to be both the biggest seller of tobacco in the world — and also the effective regulator of tobacco laws in China. 06:41 – The origins and mission of The Examination  09:24 – An overview of the tobacco industry in China  12:17 – What is the true power China Tobacco holds in the Chinese tobacco industry? 14:34 – The history and inner workings of China Tobacco 20:30 – China Tobacco - a manufacturer or a regulator? 28:42 – The current situation of anti-smoking advocacy in China 31:47 – The role of smoking in the Chinese culture and the gender discrepancy within the custom of smoking 39:09 – How does China Tobacco manage to prevent the implementation of smoking bans in Chinese cities? 48:07 – What was the reason behind the faltering of promising initiatives regarding smoking control? 55:33 – The approach of Chinese youth towards the unequal fight with China Tobacco? A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com. Recommendations: Jude: Zhang Chunqiao: 1949 and Beyond by Zheng Zhong Jason: Top Boy (British crime drama on Netflix) Kaiser: The music of Florence Price, and especially Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 3 recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra 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, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1950 concert tour of China by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973, Kaiser chats with Matías Tarnopolsky, the orchestra’s president and chief executive; Alison Friedman, executive and creative director of Carolina Performing Arts; and virtuoso guzheng player and composer Wu Fei about the legacy of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s China tour, their continuing connection with China, and their concert performances in Chapel Hill, performed to the day on the two closing nights of that historic tour 50 years ago.07:00 – The China connection in the overall identity of the Philadelphia Orchestra 11:32 – 缘分 [yuánfèn] and the serendipity of the commemorative concert in Chapel Hill 14:19 – What can we learn from the original Philadelphia Orchestra members? 19:49 – Has the interest in the China-U.S. culture exchange started to fall off in recent years? 25:04 – Music as the common ground in the light of worsening relations with China 28:02 – “What’s the orchestra of today?” - as the leading theme for the commemorative concert  31:10 – The significance of Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 to the orchestra’s history in China 33:41 – The inspiration for Hello Gold Mountain and its connection to the Jewish history in China  A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com. Recommendations: Matias: Soave sia il vento (the trio from Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte) Alison: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (podcast) Shanir Blumenkranz’s music Fei: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (avant-garde metal band) Kaiser: Good Harvest 大丰收 (restaurant)  Matteo Mancuso (Sicilian guitar virtuoso) 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, Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran journalist Ian Johnson, now a senior China fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Kaiser to discuss his new book, Sparks" China's Underground HIstorians and their Battle for the Future. Profiling both prominent and lesser-known individuals working to expose dark truths about some of the grimmest periods of the PRC's history, including the Great Leap Forward famine and the violence of the Cultural Revolution, Johnson argues that the efforts of China's "counter-historians" have managed to survive the stepped-up efforts of Xi Jinping to control the historical narrative completely. 03:27 – Is the obsessive control of historical narratives a particularly Chinese phenomenon? 07:19 – The life of Ai Xiaoming and the creation of a collective memory as one of the main themes in the book 21:46 – The story of Jiang Xue, citizen journalist 25:22 – Journalistic stubbornness of Tan Hecheng 28:39 – Cheng Hongguo and the Zhiwuzhi salon 30:26 – Common traits shared by many Chinese regime critics 37:17 – Is there a link between dissent in China and Christianity? 39:53 – Historical nihilism and sensitive topics for the Chinese Communist Party 47:08 – Are counter-historians especially noteworthy because they’re exceptional, or representative? 57:36 – The most important insight the book adds to our understanding of regime critics in China A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com. Recommendations: Ian: The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal Beckerman Unofficial Chinese Archives  Kaiser: Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann, translated by Joachim Neugroschel 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, Kaiser speaks with Representative Rick Larsen of the Washington 2nd District, the co-founder and continuously serving Democratic co-chair of the bipartisan U.S.-China Working Group. Last month, he published a white paper outlining his recommendations for how the U.S. can more effectively compete. That paper and its recommendations are the focus of this week's show. 02:35 – The origins of the U.S.-China Working Group 04:44 – Updated version of the white paper: new priorities and recommendations in response to the new reality 07:42 – What is the danger of bifurcating the world into blocs in Biden's administration? 11:16 – Four guiding principles behind a four-point strategy. 16:09 – Five issue areas mainly affected by the four-point strategy: national security, development, diplomacy, technology, and education. 18:38 – What should be the approach we take toward China’s Belt & Road Initiative? 29:40 – The ideas for changes in education investment in the U.S. and the role of China 34:08 – The response to the paper from the members of Congress as well as the general public  37:53 – Is there a bigger change happening regarding the relations with China? A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com. Recommendations:  Rep. Larsen: Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss Kaiser: The Driftless Area (a topographical and cultural region in the Midwestern United States) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.