ChinaTalk

By Jordan SchneiderNews Technology Government Politics

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ChinaTalk episodes

April 17, 2024Japan's Resurgent Tech Scene
Ryan Takeshita is the Chief Global Editor at PIVOT, a new media outlet in Japan focused on the emerging startup scene.
We get into:
A stroll through recent economic history leading to today's 'boom times'
Why more people are looking to leave traditional occupations for insurgent firms
Challenges around demographics and immigration

Outtro Music:
Idol by Yaosobi https://open.spotify.com/track/1hAloWiinXLPQUJxrJReb1?si=36552bdc34cb4a73
Matsuri No Genzo by Hideo Shiraki and 3 Koto Girls https://open.spotify.com/track/6eTteH1zyZeQKZ2Mu7VC5d?si=230b3d1739d5417e

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47 min
April 10, 2024Japan's Economic Security Renaissance
To learn about Japan’s new economic national security policy, export controls, chip policy, lessons from history, and even space policy, we interviewed Kazuto Suzuki.
Suzuki-san is a professor at the University of Tokyo. He serves as an advisor to Japan’s Ministry of the Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) as well as advising Japan’s space program. He served on the UN Security Council's Iran Sanctions Panel, and he also recently established the Institute of Geoeconomics at the International House of Japan.
We get into…
What Japan’s new economic national security law does, and what it means for global semiconductor supply chains;
The state of multilateral export controls;
Nippon steel, the US election, and cooperation between East Asian democracies;
Historical examples of economic coercion, from the Qing Dynasty to FDR vs imperial Japan to the Senkaku islands;
Japan’s goals for space commercialization;
… and more!
Co-hosting today is Arrian Ebrahimi, student at Yenching academy and author of the Chip Capitols Substack.
Outtro Music: Every Breath You Take/Theme from Peter Gunn as featured on the Sopranos The Sopranos - Every Breath You Take (youtube.com)
Cover photo: Toyohara Kuniteru III | Illustration of the Imperial Diet House of Commons with a Listing of all Members | Japan | Meiji period (1868–1912) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)

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1 hr 23 min
April 04, 2024A Gut Check on Intel and Nvidia with Asianometry, Fabricated Knowledge, and SemiAnalysis
Just minutes after the Taiwan earthquake yesterday, Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis, Doug O'Laughlin of Fabricated Knowledge, Jon of Asianometry and yours truly had a brief hang where we got into:
Intel's process progress and rocky financial road ahead
Reflections out of GTC
Jensen's galaxy brain

Photo of the woman who saved Intel, Dr. Ann Kelleher, General Manager of Foundry Technology Development.
Outtro music: YELLOW黃宣 & 9m88 - 怪天氣 Strange Weather https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n_i0JupwRA

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34 min
April 02, 2024Amb. Rahm Emanuel on China and Japan
Straight from Tokyo, Japan: an exclusive with Amb. Rahm Emanuel.
Before his current posting as US ambassador to Japan, Rahm served as a senior advisor to Bill Clinton, multiple terms in the US House of Representatives, Obama’s first chief of staff, and the mayor of Chicago.
If nothing else, you can count on his gloves-off, no-holds-barred approach to politics — and he’s been no different when it comes to China. Notwithstanding reports that even officials in Biden’s NSC have told him to stop “taunting” China, Rahm has been consistently, uniquely willing to say out loud what virtually every other high-ranking US official doesn’t.
Of course, the ambassador — or, as his desk placard during his chief-of-staff days read, “Undersecretary for Go Fuck Yourself” — may take issue with that framing. His comments aren’t “critical,” Rahm says, but “truthful.”
This interview covers a ton of ground. On China:
How the Biden administration is closing the chapter on “hub and spokes,” what tomorrow’s “latticework” architecture will look like, and what Asia-Pacific alliances might look like under a second Trump administration;
The future of Japan-Korea, and a peek behind the curtain on how the historic Camp David summit materialized;
Rahm’s “3 Cs” for China — calm, conflict, charm — and how US foreign-policy leaders should reckon the mutual inconsistencies among those three;
And roads not taken by Xi: why Rahm thinks China’s entrepreneurial culture has taken a nosedive, and what China’s government today is most scared of.
And on politics and life:
Why “diplomacy” and “politics” are the same thing — and why that’s a good thing;
Whether the State Department suffers from a personality deficit, and what makes for a good ambassador;
How to heal America’s body politic — post-Trump, post-Recession, post-GWOT;
Why Rahm thinks “quality time” with kids is “BS,” and thoughts on raising kids as a time-crunched politician;
And what Rahm thinks the biggest emerging threat to the world is.
I really enjoyed my trip to Japan, and I’d love a financial excuse to continue recording shows on the country. If you work at JETRO, METI, The Japan Foundation, Mitsubishi, Rakuten, etc. and are interested in seeing more deep coverage of Japan and US-China-Japan relations on this podcast, do reach out!
Outtro music: Tadao Hayashi Japanese Harp Trio's 1977 take on I Could Have Danced All Night Tadao Hayashi Harp Trio – The Impossible Dream 1977 (youtube.com)
Also from 1977, Tokai by Kaeko Onuki Tokai (youtube.com)

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59 min
March 25, 2024Biotech 101
Biotech. What is it? Why should you care? Does biotech really matter for national security? What are China’s biotech ambitions?
To find out, ChinaTalk interviewed Jason Kelly, the Chair and Vice Chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology. Jason is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, a publicly traded firm that provides a horizontal platform for cell programming. Michelle Rozo is currently Vice President of Technical Capabilities at In-Q-Tel, and she previously held positions in Biden’s NSC, the Department of Defense, and on the Hill.
Co-hosting today is Chris “CRISPR” Miller, author of Chip War.
We get into:
The powerful science behind genetic engineering ;
How the US government turned biotechnology into a $1 trillion industry over the course of the last fifty years;
Why generative AI is destined to revolutionize synthetic biology;
And whether China’s national biotech champions can leapfrog the US.

Outtro music: Suite Bergamasque: Clair de Lune, No. 3 (youtube.com)

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1 hr 46 min
March 14, 2024 EMERGENCY POD: TikTok Ban!?
Is Congress for real this time?
To discuss the US domestic politics of the dramatic rollout and broader social, national, and geopolitical implications of the House's passage of a bill that would force Bytedance to divest from TikTok US, Ben Smith of Semafor joins the podcast.
Outtro music:
Olivia Rodrigo - Deja Vu 【Sped Up & reverb】 (youtube.com)
The Platters - Only You - Lyrics - YouTube

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48 min
March 13, 2024Matt Clifford on China, AI Safety, and Entrepreneurship
How do you stand up an effective national AI project? Is the world prepared for the Reformation-level societal change AI could bring?
Matt Clifford, according to Politico Britain’s most powerful tech adviser, joins ChinaTalk to discuss! He served as Prime Minister Sunak's sherpa for the UK AI Summit, chairs ARIA, the UK's answer to DARPA, and co-founded Entrepreneur First, a startup incubator with a strong presence throughout Europe and Southeast Asia.
We get into:
Tech Diplomacy & the UK AI Safety Summit: How countries are waking up to the watershed moment at the advent of powerful new AI, and the surprising commonalities in China’s perspectives on AI safety.
Organizational Design at ARIA: What are the challenges creating a world-class science project in government? How can you attract the best people and create the right organizational culture for success?
Open Source AI and the Global AI Race — How should we evaluate the approaches to AI across different countries and private actors? What’s the verdict on open source models?
Preparing for monumental changes — and why history cautions against expecting business as usual, and how fiction can open our mind to the possibilities.

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2 hr 15 min
March 10, 2024Doomscrolling Chinese Twitter
Chinese Doomscroll, which faithfully records happenings from the wild west that is Weibo (China’s Twitter/X equivalent), won the ChinaTalk award for best China-focussed Substack on 2023. Today we have on the brain behind the newsletter: Molly, who’s been doomscrolling for us since early 2023. We discuss:
Why Weibo keeps Molly up at night;
Chinese elementary school kids’ academic prowess;
How social issues gain attention on the trending list;
Terrible bots;
And what makes microblogging uniquely compelling.
Outtro music is 演员 by Joker Xue 薛之谦: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKuL5xaKZHM

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25 min
March 04, 2024AI + The State Department
How can AI change diplomacy?
To discuss the State Department’s options for AI integration, we interviewed the State Department's Deputy Chief Data and AI Officer, Garrett Berntsen. He served as an officer during two tours in Afghanistan and recently rotated off the NSC. He's optimistic diplomacy can be more effective with comprehensive, timely, and accurate data-driven analysis, and that AI will be part of achieving that mission.
We get into:
How AI can streamline bureaucratic busy work
The value of data-driven negotiation prep in diplomatic contexts
The benefits of transparency in a democratic society
What level of risk is appropriate for the civil service
How close he is to getting ChatGPT into State
The balance between transparency and secrecy in the age of big data
How the Snowden leaks changed the State Department’s relationship with technology
What the State Department can and can't import from the private sector

Thanks to the Hudson Institute and Andrew Marshall Foundation for supporting this podcast.
Outtro music: 國蛋 GorDoN - White Noise ft. 蛋堡 Soft Lipa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ZM440owzw

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1 hr 15 min
February 25, 2024India's Chip War
Why can India design chips with the best of them but has completely failed to develop fabs, much less a broader electronics industry? To discuss, I have on Pranay Kotasthane, former chip designer at TI and Qualcomm who now works at the Takshashila Institution and is the author of the new book When the Chips are Down.
Chris Miller of Chip War cohosts.
We get into:
How the political economy of technology in India led to world class software and services but underwhelming manufacturing
Why India was slower to the uptake than China that socialism really sucks at getting your country rich
What it takes to design a chip.
Outtro music: Ye Jo Des Hai Tera https://youtu.be/4tiVPuLbbHg?feature=shared
Image: spectacular Mughal painting of an elephant currently on at the Met. that I prompted with semiconductor alot https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/825607?pkgids=906

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1 hr 14 min

About ChinaTalk

From the publisher's feed

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