ChinaTalk

By Jordan Schneider

Conversations exploring China, technology, and US-China relations. Guests include a wide range of analysts, policymakers, and academics. Hosted by Jordan Schneider.

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How many episodes does ChinaTalk have?

The podcast currently has 435 episodes available.

ChinaTalk episodes:

February 19, 2025Innovation Emergency: The Role of IP
How do patents influence emerging technology innovation? How far could AI and DOGE push our current IP regime? Does it matter that China issues way more patents than the US does?
To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Andrei Iancu, who served as the director of the US Patent Office under the first Trump administration. Andrei has degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering, and worked at the legendary Hughes Aircraft Company before going to law school. He is currently in private practice at Sullivan and Cromwell.
Co-hosting today is ChinaTalk editor and second year law student at Duke, Nicholas Welch.
We get into…
The mounting evidence that China's patent system now dominates America’s, and whether these indicators constitute an emergency in the innovation ecosystem,
Why some US companies now prefer Chinese courts for patent enforcement,
The fundamental tension between private rights of inventors and public access to innovations,
What congressional inaction on patent eligibility means for AI innovation, and the bills that congress could pass to immediately jumpstart emerging tech investment,
What the current administration could do to help USPTO juice the economy,
Controversy surrounding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and whether DOGE could put PTAB on the chopping block,
How Trump will approach patent law and intellectual property rights, including perspectives on appointments and potential reforms.
Thanks to CSIS for partnering with us to bring you this episode, the first in a three-episode CSIS Chip Chat series.
Outtro Music: Lil Green, I'm Going to Copyright Your Kisses (1941) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ye39JuJZ4k&ab_channel=LilGreen-Topic
Nellie Hill, I'm Gunna Copyright Your Kisses (1951) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3OcMdxpWas&ab_channel=krobigraubart

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1h 9min
February 13, 2025China's Great Power Wars: Lessons from Imperial History for Today
How has Chinese hegemony shaped power relations in East Asia? Why did imperial China conquer Tibet and Xinjiang but not Vietnam or Korea? Can learning from history help maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait?
Today’s interview begins with one shocking truth — while medieval Europe suffered under near-constant war, East Asia’s Middle Ages were defined by great power peace.
To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Professor David C. Kang, director of the Korean Studies Institute at USC and co-author of Beyond Power Transitions: The Lessons of East Asian History and the Future of U.S.-China Relations.
We discuss…
How East Asian nations managed to peacefully coexist for centuries,
Why lessons from European history don’t always apply in non-European contexts,
Why wars begin and how they can be avoided,
How to interpret outbreaks of violence in Asia — including conflicts with the Mongols, China’s meddling in Vietnam, and Japan’s early attempts at empire,
State behaviors that cannot be explained by power transition theory alone,
Whether the Thucydides trap makes U.S.-China war inevitable,
Old school methods for managing cross-strait relations.

Co-hosting today is Ilari Mäkelä of the On Humans podcast.
Outro music: 荒城の月 "The Moon over the Ruined Castle" by 滝廉太郎 Rentarō Taki (Youtube link)
Cover photo of a Song Dynasty axe-wielding god https://dragonsarmory.blogspot.com/2016/12/song-chinese-armor-in-religious.html

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1h 30min
February 07, 2025 SemiAnalysis + Asianometry on the AI Mandate of Heaven
Dylan Patel and Doug O'Laughlin (SemiAnalysis), Jon from Asianometry and I have way too much fun talking hyperscaler capex, the AI mandate of heaven tier list, and Tim Cook succession plans.

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37min
February 05, 2025Anthropic's Dario Amodei on AI Competition
Dario Amodei is the CEO of Anthropic. In today’s interview, we discuss…
Whether an AI innovation race is inevitable between the US and China,
How the US should update export controls in light of DeepSeek’s R1 release,
DeepSeek’s willingness to generate information about bioweapons,
Technical defenses against model distillation and AI espionage,
How advanced AI could eventually impact democracy,
Whether there is tension between export controls and the belief that AI will broadly increase human flourishing.

Dario's blogposts:
Machines of Loving Grace: https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace
On DeepSeek and Export Controls: https://darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-and-export-controls
Outro Music: Lykke Li, I Follow Rivers (Magician Remix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS6wfWu0JvA&ab_channel=LykkeLi

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45min
January 30, 2025DeepSeek: What It Means and What Happens Next
Kevin Xu of Interconnected and Interconnected Capital and I knock it out of the park with a roundup episode exploring:
What DeepSeek does and doesn't illustrate about Chinese innovation
Tensions between open-source cosmopolitanism and nationalism built into DeepSeek and the broader Chinese tech community
DeepSeek's organizational and talent management strategy, parallels to OpenAI, and what the fame will mean for the firm and Chinese AI policy
What DeepSeek should and may mean for the future of export controls and broader US innovation policy

The JS Tan article referenced: https://www.chinatalk.media/p/deepseeks-secret-to-success
Dario's first article on our happy AI future: https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace
Dario's second article on why America needs to export control China: https://darioamodei.com/on-deepseek-and-export-controls
Outtro Music: Dizkar, 愛縂時刻盛開 https://open.spotify.com/track/1rXneAS9Djts7fwRGHUeG5?si=b2b29714802948de

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1h 12min
January 24, 2025 EMERGENCY POD: DeepSeek R1 and the Future of AI Competition with Miles Brundage
Miles Brundage, a six year OpenAI vet who ran its Policy Research and AGI readiness arms, discuss why all your deepseek takes are so terrible.
Outtro music: The Departure, Max Richter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R5Ppb9wqjY

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33min
January 24, 2025Patents and National Power
What makes some countries more innovative than others? What role do intellectual property rights play in building national power? Does Elon Musk really give competitors free access to Tesla’s patents?
To find out, ChinaTalk interviewed Adam Mossoff, professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
We discuss…
How the patent system has shaped American society since independence,
The extent to which patent policy caused the great divergence between the West and China,
Whether Elon’s misunderstanding of patents will become the dominant attitude of the second Trump administration,
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and other threats to the U.S. innovation ecosystem,
How to reconcile China’s IP theft with its robust domestic patent law,
What the U.S. can do to facilitate innovation while competing with China in emerging technology.

Outro Songs from the American Revolution:
Liberty Song (Arthur F. Schrader rendition), and the Tory retort, Come Shake Your Dull Noodles (Arthur F. Schrader rendition)
Thanks to the Innovation Alliance for sponsoring this episode. The Innovation Alliance is a coalition of research and development-based technology companies representing innovators, patent owners, and stakeholders who believe in the critical importance of maintaining a strong patent system that supports innovative enterprises of all sizes.

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56min
January 22, 2025 ChinaTalk in the Year of the Dragon + What Comes Next
Here's a best-of playlist for 2024: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3yexkG2kvPlq68B22pjOWw?si=da3d1cf64dfe4a2ci
Outtro Music: Дили-дили (Dili-dili) Artist: Гюлли Чохели (Gyulli Chokheli), 1967

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35min
January 21, 2025Noah Smith: Trump 2.0's Impact on Asia + The New Tech Right
Our guest today is economist Noah Smith, who made time for an in-person interview during his recent trip to Taiwan. He runs the Noahpinion substack and is the author of an upcoming book on the revival of the Japanese economy.
We discuss…
The goals of Silicon Valley's pro-Trump constituency, from deregulation, to tariffs, to China policy,
Whether Elon is standing up for Taiwan behind closed doors,
Whether Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Poland need their own nuclear weapons,
How Taiwan could bargain for independence with China’s leaders post-Xi,
National health insurance as a potential solution to China’s aggregate demand problem,
A Georgist perspective on China’s real estate problem,
Why China’s demographic issues are overstated,
Recommendations for Taiwan’s economic development.

To hear more of Noah's musings, check out Econ 102, a podcast by Turpentine.
Outtro music: Wifey by Dizzy Dizzo 蔡詩芸 (Youtube Link)
Cover art: 清冷枚梧桐双兔图

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1h 10min
January 16, 2025 yup, more export controls....foundry, DRAM, and reflections
Greg Allen of CSIS and I are tired! We go through today's new export controls to stop TSMC from fabbing Huawei chips, some DRAM revisions, and discuss the past two years of Biden BIS policy and where we could all be going next.
Outtro music: 大雨 - deca joins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFALDn1yGQ

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35min

FAQs about ChinaTalk:

How many episodes does ChinaTalk have?

The podcast currently has 435 episodes available.

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