Sino-American relations have been blown off course after the downing of a Chinese balloon. 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and our senior China correspondent, Alice Su, explore whether China and America are heading towards a stand-off and what needs to be done to avoid any escalation.

The historian John Delury unearths the roots of distrust between the two superpowers. And, Da Wei, director of Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, weighs up whether Xi Jinping and Joe Biden are serious about managing their relationship.

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It’s been a year since Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin announced the “no-limits” friendship between China and Russia, but is it one between equals? In the second episode of a two-part series, The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and our senior China correspondent, Alice Su, explore the rocky past of Sino-Soviet relations with historian Joseph Torigian, and hear from locals in Heilongjiang, a border province, about whether the war in Ukraine has changed their view of Russia. Plus, Alexander Gabuev, of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, and The Economist’s Arkady Ostrovsky, discuss the power dynamic between Mr Xi and Mr Putin, and what Mr Xi stands to gain from the conflict. 

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It’s been a year since Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin announced the “no-limits” friendship between China and Russia. What drives the relationship and which side benefits from it more?

In the first episode of a two-part series, The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, assess how the relationship between Mr Xi and Mr Putin has evolved over the past year and ask whether the friendship has any boundaries.

They also speak to Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University, about how China sees Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whether that view has changed over the course of this year.

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China is celebrating the lunar new year. The Ministry of Transport predicts that by February 15th over 2bn journeys will be made by Chinese heading to their home towns–and for some migrant workers, it'll be the first time they've returned since the start of the covid-19 pandemic three years ago. The Economist's Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, has a standing ticket for a train ride that’s part of the biggest annual human migration on the planet. He asks passengers on a two-day train from Guangzhou to Urumqi about the economic and emotional challenges involved in going home. He and Alice Su, our senior China correspondent, also hear from Han Dongfang, founder of the China Labour Bulletin, about a pay problem that's gripping the country's most vulnerable workers.

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The recent surge in covid-19 cases has exposed the gulf between China's urban and rural healthcare system. How vast is the gap and what is being done to bridge it? 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, hear how doctors in cities and villages are coping with the rise in covid infections. Winnie Yip, professor of the practice of global health policy and economics at Harvard School of Public Health, assesses the Chinese government’s plans to revitalise healthcare. 

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Since the zero-covid policy was scrapped, the virus has spread across China at a blistering pace. The medical system and crematoria are overwhelmed, but official data on infections and deaths is hazy. With so little transparency, is it possible to discover the true scale of the crisis? And, could this latest wave have been prevented?

The Economist’s Beijing bureau, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, speak to our China correspondent, Gabriel Crossley, who’s visited a hospital struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses why Chinese authorities continue to put politics above science.

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“Spring Landscape”, a poem written over 1,000 years ago, remains one of China’s most celebrated literary works. Composed by the 8th Century Tang dynasty poet Du Fu, it is still memorised by every schoolchild in the country. Why is the poem still so resonant today? 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, consider whether the ambiguity of classical Chinese makes it ideal for poetry. Our deputy editor Edward Carr explores how close he can get to the poem in translation. Nicolas Chapuis, a former ambassador to China who is translating Du Fu’s complete works into French, examines the meaning of one particular couplet of the poem. And Eileen Chengyin Chow of Duke University takes us outside China’s poetry canon. 

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China’s energy security concerns are undermining its ambitious climate pledges. We try to understand the contradiction from the perspective of China’s leaders. And, in a country where activism can be dangerous, we find out how environmentalists are working within the system. Is China serious about climate change? 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, talk to Ma Jun from the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, an NGO. Our environment editor Catherine Brahic talks to Li Shuo of Greenpeace East Asia.

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The zero-covid policy, a source of pride for Xi Jinping, has sparked protests across China. Public frustration is growing, covid cases are rising, and confusion reigns. How did zero-covid turn into a trap? How can China escape it? 

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, talk to Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University, about the lessons from the omicron wave there.

We hope you enjoy listening to this podcast as much as we enjoy making it. We're always thinking of ways to improve and to do that we would like to know more about our listeners. Please help us by filling out this short questionnaire. 

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Protests in cities across China show there is real anger over the zero-covid policy and the party's intrusion into every corner of people's lives. A neighbourhood surveillance system is mobilising people to police one another. Could public unrest threaten Xi Jinping’s plans for total control?

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, hear from somebody who has lived through street-level surveillance in China's most tightly policed region of Xinjiang. 

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