China Corner Office

This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks to Craig Allen, President of the US-China Business Council (USCBC), about the future outlook of different business sectors in 2023, in part based on his visit to China in late 2022. While Craig is optimistic about the rapid growth of the agriculture, energy, manufacturing, and consumer goods and services sectors, he noted that the aerospace and tech sectors are a different story. They discussed U.S.-China positioning in the tech sector and the recent establishment of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, the first select committee directed against a foreign political party. Craig pointed out that both countries should seek to de-risk rather than de-couple, in order to harness the benefits of interconnection between the world’s two largest economies while managing the risk of interdependence. They concluded with the topic of student exchange, an area they both deemed critical to foster conversation between the U.S. and China.

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis discusses information control with Jeremy Wallace, associate professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Jeremy is the author of the new book Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarian Rule in China. Jeremy discusses how a communist party came to justify itself through GDP statistics and why they have shifted away from this focus recently. Also discussed is how and why cadres falsify data and the techniques researchers use to identify manipulated statistics. Jeremy also reflects on the centralization and personalization of Xi’s power and the recent COVID protests, connecting the contemporary issues he studies with a rich set of historical cases including the Great Leap Forward, the Democracy Wall Movement and the Tian’anmen protests.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis discusses environmental governance in China with Iza Ding, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh and author of the recent book The Performative State: Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China. Iza explained how performative and substantive governance can diverge and discussed her on-the-ground research both in China and beyond. Iza provided an overview of the trajectory of China’s environmental protection efforts and the effects of the recent COP27 meeting. She also gave her assessment of the current state of environmentalism in China. The discussion concluded with Iza providing her thoughts on how the economic slowdown and the outcome of the 20th Party Congress will affect the future of China’s environmental governance.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks to Ashley Yablon, the former general counsel for the Chinese technology company ZTE. Ashley discusses how he uncovered an illegal scheme at ZTE to sell billions of dollars worth of surveillance equipment to embargoed countries, and provided other details of his experience which were recently featured in his book Standing Up to China: How a Whistleblower Risked Everything for His Country. Also in the show is the effect of the current political climate on Chinese tech companies, with Ashley commenting on the CHIPSand Science Act and the legal approach of Chinese state-owned tech companies such as Huawei and ZTE. The episode concludes with Ashely offering legal advice on how to safeguard U.S. interests when interacting with Chinese companies.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis discusses Chinese tech companies and their global expansion with Guoli Chen, Professor of Strategy at INSEAD, and Jianggan Li, founder and CEO of Momentum Works. They discussed the challenges that result from the protective nature of the Chinese ecosystem, as well as the solutions and recommendations from their new book on the topic Seeing the Unseen. Also featured in this show is an in-depth discussion of how Chinese history, especially Mao’s enduring influence, functions as a double-edged sword for contemporary Chinese business culture and leadership styles. We also discuss the recent crackdowns on tech firms and the tightening of regulations. We conclude with Guoli and Jianggan providing valuable suggestions to Chinese companies wishing to expand into foreign territory in this era of political and economic uncertainty.

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In August, the Biden administration finally passed a semiconductor subsidy bill. The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 achieved rare bipartisan support and promises funding of more than $200 billion over the next five years with the goal of re-establishing the U.S. as a global center of semiconductor manufacturing. To understand the bill and its impact, this week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis discusses the CHIPS Act with Rory Murphy, Vice President of Government Affairs at the U.S.-China Business Council; and Paul Triolo, Senior VP for China and Technology Policy Lead for Albright Stonebridge Group. Highlights of the show include a general overview and the history of the CHIPS Act, the political significance to U.S.-China relations, and challenges in industrial policy and export controls. Also discussed is how Taiwan has been and will be in the spotlight of the global supply chain with U.S. and China competing in the semiconductor industry. They concluded with an emphasis on the need for U.S. and Chinese companies to adapt to the new rules and regulations.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks to Mona Chung, a bicultural business leader and expert on doing business in and with China. The discussion focused on the challenges and strategies to navigate cultural factors for foreign companies. Mona shared some common differences that might create tensions between Chinese and foreign businesses, especially in areas like pricing, branding, marketing, and cross-cultural management. A few highlights of the show include the lessons learned from Foster’s withdrawal from the Chinese beer market, how to read Ren Zhengfei’s recent memo addressing Huawei’s employees that paints a gloomy picture of the company’s future, and the lasting impacts of Maoism on contemporary Chinese society and business. The discussion concluded with Mona giving three valuable suggestions about cultural communications and negotiations that western companies should follow when wishing to enter the Chinese market under the current climate.

A transcript of this interview is available on TheChinaProject.com.

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This week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis is joined by George Shen from IBM, a tech exec and thought leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and Cloud technologies, spanning the U.S. and China.

George provides background on the general development of AI, and the similarities and differences between the strategies of China and the U.S. While China’s whole nation approach led to the country’s 2017 National AI strategy, in the U.S, AI development is more fragmented across the private and public sectors.

Also discussed is the AI report from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, which predicted that China will overtake America in AI by 2025. Finally, we also discuss differences in public reaction to the mass adoption of AI in China and the U.S., and the emerging field of AI ethics in the two countries.

A transcript of this interview is available on TheChinaProject.com.

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The U.S. Senate recently passed a bill that would ban Chinese investment in U.S. agribusiness, in response to a proposal by China-based Fufeng Group to build a corn milling operation in Grand Forks, North Dakota. To understand the significance and implications of such investment, this week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis talks with Brandon Bochenski, the mayor of Grand Forks. Brandon provides helpful context on a number of topics including how such deals take place, the impact of the corn mill under question, and also sources of the political opposition. He also provides some suggestions to local leaders who face similar dilemmas when international investment meets rising nationalism.

A transcript of this podcast is be available at TheChinaProject.com.

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There is significant uncertainty about how companies can deal with the sweeping UFLPA which just went into effect in late June. To understand this policy and how it is being enforced, this week on China Corner Office, Chris Marquis discusses the UFLPA with Craig Allen, President of the US-China Business Council, and Jon Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. Unlike prior trade policy which assumes importers are “innocent until proven guilty”, the UFLPA places the onus on manufacturers and importers to ensure their supply chains are free of forced labor. Key topics discussed include how companies are working to meet this requirement and how will it be enforced by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Also discussed are China’s response and Craig and Jon provide some advice to companies on how to cope with the compliance challenges and what to anticipate in the future.

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

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