ChinaEconTalk

It's been a wild few weeks with President Trump threatening to shut WeChat and TikTok out of the U.S. market and rip them out of the app stores. There have been lawsuits, a preliminary injunction—and a sudden deal to purchase TikTok and moot the issue out. To chew it all over, Benjamin Wittes hosted a discussion with Lawfare co-founder Bobby Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, and me, Jordan, the voice behind ChinaTalk. We talked about how we got here, whether the threat from these companies is real or whether this is more Trump nonsense, and whether the deal to save TikTok will actually work.

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Outtro Music: 淡 水 鱼 - Yowaii & 徐奇 Feat. 袁子安

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Why would Xi invade and is the Taiwanese military up to the challenge? Paul Huang, freelance journalist, Fletcher School grad and fellow at the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation joins to discuss.

Please consider supporting ChinaTalk and/or offering me gainful employment! If you want to get in touch, just email at [email protected] or message me on twitter. 

Intro Music: 【青春不留白】莒光園地 (Taiwanese military broadcast music)

Outtro Music: 陳嫺靜 - 輕輕 (Taiwanese R&B artist)

Check out some more here: https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/the-next-wave-of-taiwanese-hip-hop-artists

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Adam Tooze is my favorite economic historian. After writing a handful of books on the 1920s and Nazi economics, he's now turned his eye to the present day, taking on the financial crisis and US-China relations. In this conversation, we get into

• What we can learn from the diplomatic and economic modes of 1920s and 30s
• Why Nazi legal theory resonates so well in China today
• How modes of understanding Nazi Germany can help illustrate China
• How Xinjiang camps echo the logic of Soviet gulags
• Whether the US in fact lost the Cold War
• Adam's dream bureaucracies to work it

Matt Klein, author of the recent Trade Wars are Class Wars, guest hosts. 

Intro and outtro music are both hit songs from 1928, the year of the Kellogg-Briand Pact which tried to outlaw war.

Intro music: Pine Top's Boogie Woogie

Outtro music: Blind Willie McTell, Statesboro Blues

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Turning a beloved movie of female empowerment into a dull endorsement of the patriarchy, autocracy and mass forced labor is no easy feat, but Disney Magic is one hell of a drug. Think tanker Rui Zhong and novelist/meme goddess Xiran Jay Zhao join to discuss.

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Intro music: Reflections by Christina Aguilera (Tojou Remix)

Outtro music: I'd be impressed if you made it to the end of this podcast and didn't know this song, but here's the link 

If you're looking for more Disney remixes, this one of the Lion King's Circle of Life is perfect.  

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Mister Softee, the famed northeastern American ice cream brand, in Suzhou, China? Yes, that was a thing. Turner Sparks, rising from humble beginnings as just another English teacher making his way in the world, achieved fame and fortune thanks to a catchy jingle and some tasty mango-flavored soft serve. Yet his vision of China-wide ice cream domination dissolved amid a deluge of backstabbing regulators, slashed tires, and stolen cones. Listen here to learn about the circumstances that finally melted Turner’s ice cream dream.

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In 1927, Mao wrote that "In a very short time...several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back." During the 40s and 50s, he was able to realize this vision to disastrous effect. On this show, Tulane Professor Brian DeMare joins the show to discuss the history and legacy of the land reform movement, including forays into the role of Xi's father and William Hinton's Fanshen.

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Intro Music: 没有共产党没有新中国

Outtro Music: 听妈妈讲过去的故事

(hip hop felt out of place this week...not to worry we'll be back with more in the next episode)

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Tanner Greer of the blog Scholarstage joins the show in a wide-ranging discussion touching on Xi's ideology, incentives in western China-watching, Mormons in China, why it's worth studying classical Chinese history, and AI-assisted writing. 

ChinaTalk has hit its 100th episode! That's two and a half full workweeks of informed, respectful, and hopefully entertaining conversation on everything China. As the media industry has cratered, spaces for intelligent and open discussion on China that live outside of paywalls basically don't exist anymore. Since COVID has locked me out of China and forced me to move to the US, my living expenses have gone up, and spending dozens of hours on this podcast is looking increasingly unsustainable. Right now, I make less than $5 an hour producing this show. If you'd like to see ChinaTalk continue to come out weekly,

Please consider supporting me at glow.fm/chinatalk

I'm also thinking about launching some member rewards, like live zoom, tapings of episodes where audience members can ask questions as well as a book club. Thanks so much!

Outtro music: 功夫胖 KUNGFUPEN 🔥🔥🔥 热得冒烟

Jordan

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How do you even go about answering that question? Is there a consensus in Washington on how to confront China and does that consensus make any sense? Ali Wyne and Jessica Chen Weiss come on to discuss. 

Currently, I make $4/hr from donations adding up all the time it takes to prep, record, and edit the show. This is the 99th episode of ChinaTalk. If you'd like to see the show continue production at the same frequency of one episode per week, please consider donating to support ChinaTalk at https://glow.fm/chinatalk.

Intro music: Oddisee - Skipping Rocks

Outtro music, what mumble rap sounds like in Mandarin in 2020: JelloRio 李佳隆 ：还没离开

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Lingling Wei and Bob Davis of the WSJ discuss their new book Superpower Showdown. We dive deep into the personal dynamics within the Xi and Trump administrations as well as what the twists and turns over the past few years reveal about the US-China relationship.

Please consider supporting ChinaTalk. This show took me 10 hours of reading, 2 hours of script-writing, an hour of recording, and four hours of editing. Right now, I receive $50 in donations per episode, meaning my work on this podcast earns me $3/hr. I'm coming up on my 100th episode and of late have been reflecting on how much time I'm spending on something that brings in so little financially. If you have the means and would like to put ChinaTalk on more stable footing, do consider showing your support. 

Donate at https://glow.fm/chinatalk/

Intro music: Madlib, Distant Land

Outtro music: Senior PRC official Liao Min recording back in the early 1990s during his days as a PKU grad student, 流动的青春

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Should the US ban TikTok? What role does open source play in the tech ecosystem and the Chinese government's plans for self-reliance? Why does tech occupy such a unique role in the US-China tech cold war? And what can Kanye teach us about foreign policy?

Today's guest is Kevin Xu, author of the interconnected newsletter.

Click this link to support ChinaTalk. 

Intro Music: Kanye's Runaway. 

Exit Music: 2019 New Blood DBC Cypher. 

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