A weekly discussion of current affairs in China with journalists, writers, academics, policymakers, business people and anyone with something compelling to say about the country that's reshaping the world. Hosted by Kaiser Kuo.
China’s recent AI boom manifests as a "vibe coding" movement in Liangzhu, where displaced tech workers and entrepreneurs form tight-knit, living-room-based communities to navigate economic uncertainty. Unlike Western resistance to AI infrastructure, Chinese youth often embrace AI as a necessary tool for upward mobility...
China’s healthcare system has undergone a radical transformation, evolving from a reliance on "barefoot doctors" and generic drug manufacturing to becoming a global leader in complex biologics and cancer therapies. This shift is driven by a confluence of demographic pressures, crisis-induced regulatory reforms, long-te...
China’s evolving global vision centers on a transition from participant to architect, aiming to reshape the international political order around sovereign equality and the global majority while hollowing out liberal democratic norms. Beijing currently operates under a "strategic stalemate," characterized by deliberate,...
The India-China relationship suffers from a profound lack of cognitive empathy, driven by a mutual reliance on Western-mediated narratives and historical baggage. India views China through the lens of the 1962 border conflict, while China perceives India through a colonial-era framework of subordination. This asymmetry...
China’s rapid technological evolution and its geopolitical implications for the United States define the current era of great power competition. Rather than a simple clash of democratic and authoritarian systems, this rivalry reflects a race between concentrated power structures in Beijing and Washington. While China’s...
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai signals a shift in China’s AI strategy, characterized by Xi Jinping’s direct emphasis on both technological advancement and AI safety. Chinese AI labs are rapidly closing the frontier gap, evidenced by the release of powerful models like Moonshot AI’s Kimi...
The Chinese state functions as a "platform company" rather than a traditional command economy, utilizing a "grow, govern, and guard" playbook to foster industrial dominance. By creating infrastructure, setting standards, and managing ecosystem interactions, the state incentivizes private firms to compete fiercely, driv...
Agile governance offers a framework for managing rapidly evolving technologies like artificial intelligence by prioritizing iterative, adaptive regulation over rigid, comprehensive legal structures. This model, central to China’s policy approach, relies on three core pillars: a flexible mindset, collaborative partnersh...
Escalating trade tensions between the European Union and China stem from a fundamental shift in China’s industrial development, moving from subordinate supply chain integration to direct competition in high-value sectors like electric vehicles. Economic historian Adam Tooze characterizes this friction as a classic "dou...
Artificial intelligence represents a new evolutionary stage that demands a transition toward a global community to manage existential risks. Robert Wright, author of The God Test, argues that large language models evolve through selection by consequences, yet the current US-China arms-race dynamic forces developers to ...
The United States lacks the human and institutional infrastructure necessary to manage its complex relationship with China, a deficiency exacerbated by a decade of adversarial political rhetoric. David Firestein, CEO of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, and Eddie Conger, founder of International...
The recent high-level summitry in Beijing, featuring visits from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, has prompted significant speculation in Western capitals, yet the reaction across the Global South remains largely muted and pragmatic. Rather than focusing on great-power choreography, developing nations are prioritizing ...
AI policy in the United States currently suffers from a "Cartesian" bias, prioritizing disembodied, speculative existential risks over the material, infrastructural realities of the technology. This focus obscures critical societal challenges, including algorithmic discrimination, labor displacement, and data privacy. ...
The recent U.S.-China summit, while lacking significant diplomatic breakthroughs or trade deals, established a crucial sense of power parity and a positive tone for future engagement. Beijing’s proposed "constructive strategic stability" framework signals a shift toward managing mutual vulnerabilities and interdependen...
Zheng Xiaoqiong’s poetry documents the visceral realities of China’s industrial workforce, capturing the physical and emotional toll of assembly-line labor. Translator Eleanor Goodman highlights Zheng’s trajectory from a rural migrant worker to a prominent literary figure, noting her deliberate resistance to the reduct...
The U.S.-China technology relationship, particularly regarding AI, is often framed as a zero-sum rivalry, yet this perspective frequently obscures opportunities for necessary cooperation. Shifting the focus from a technological sprint to a "diffusion marathon" highlights that long-term economic leadership depends on ho...
Spain’s evolving relationship with China reflects a strategic shift toward pragmatism and consistency under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has visited Beijing four times in four years. Mario Esteban Rodríguez, a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and senior fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute, explain...
The United States currently lacks a coherent grand strategy regarding China, as the post-Cold War consensus has fractured into competing ideological and political factions. While the National Defense Strategy prioritizes deterrence by denial in the Indo-Pacific, policymakers struggle to reconcile this focus with compet...
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