This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang welcomes Stephen D. Mull, who is Vice Provost for Global Affairs at the University of Virginia (UVA) and has served in a broad range of U.S. national security positions, most recently as Acting Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

Mull introduces the members and business objectives of the delegation of the UVA to Shanghai and shares his insights into the importance of people-to-people exchanges between the U.S. and China in the post-pandemic era, the academic realm’s even larger obligation of communication during challenging U.S.-China relations, and UVA’s very own pingpong diplomacy.

Highlights:

04:39 - The members and business objectives of the delegation of the UVA to Shanghai

08:41 - The UVA is eager to welcome back Chinese students and undertake people-to-people exchanges

13:58 - The UVA's very own pingpong diplomacy

17:54 - The importance of U.S.-China academic cooperation in climate change and global health.

Recommendations:

Latest album by Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You

Movies by Chloé Zhao, Nomadland and The Rider

A complete transcript of this podcast is available here.

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang welcomes Dr. Henry Huiyao Wang, who is the Founder and President of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading non-governmental think tank in Beijing. Wang shares his insights into China's post-pandemic diplomacy and Chinese think tanks' Track Ⅱ diplomacy, including China's potential role in helping medicate the Russia-Ukraine conflict, CCG's efforts to bridge the "cognitive gap" between China and the West after COVID, the Taiwan issue, the comeback of communications between China and the EU, data security hype and the stance of China, China's think tanks boom and much more.

Highlights:

05:27 - "Cognitive gap" as a result of COVID and CCG's efforts to bridge it

16:31 - How CCG may have contributed to the reverse of zero-COVID

22:06 - CCG's engagement in Russia-Ukraine conflict and proposal of a Seven-Party Talk

30:12 - CCG advocating for the G3 concept and the comeback of communications between China and the EU

37:54 - Bridging China and the U.S. with non-binary political thinking

46:25 - Data security hype and the stance of China

52:38 - Difference between Chinese and Western think tanks

57:44 - CCG's cooperation with famous Chinese entrepreneurs

1:03:21 - A typical day for Wang Huiyao

1:06:59 - CCG in partnership with Semafor on the “China and Global Business” initiative

Recommendations:

Dr. Henry Huiyao Wang: CCG Global Dialogues, and Soft Power and Great-Power Competition

Jiang Jiang: The East is Read, a CCG newsletter offering frequent briefings on China drawing mostly from Chinese mainland sources.

A complete transcript of this podcast is available here.

This week on Ginger River Radio, Ivy Yang, who writes an op-ed column called “Discourse Power” or 话语权时代 for FT China and has written for The China Project, shares her insights into the recent restructuring of Alibaba and TikTok's dilemma in the US. Ivy has worked in strategic communications and in corporate comms for more than a decade, including two years at Alibaba Group. She follows topics from TikTok to cross border e-commerce to the effects of the CHIPS Act and much more.

Highlights:

On TikTok

4:56 - How the TikTok hearing has been received in the U.S. and China

10:03 - Factors on the way out of the TikTok dilemma

12:57 - The possible outcome of TikTok situation

17:28 - The generation gap among TikTok users

21:27 - The impact of TikTok hearing and the question about TikTok's identity

On Alibaba

24:36 - How the Alibaba breakup has been received in the U.S. and China

27:40 - Winners and losers of the breakup

30:46 - Combat the "Big Company Syndrome"

33:51 - Alibaba's mid-platform strategy

35:41 - History of Alibaba and other Chinese tech companies' expansion in the US

39:40 - Ivy's recommendations for Chinese companies expanding overseas

45:29 - Blog recommendation: The Marginalian by Maria Popova

Recommendations:

Ivy Yang: The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings)

Jiang Jiang: An op-ed by Ivy on Temu, Chinese e -commerce juggernaut Pinduoduo's overseas e-commerce platform, which can be found on Zichen Wang's Substack newsletter Pekingnology, now part of the portfolio of Center for China and Globalization (CCG).

Inside TikTok, Zhang Yiming's great voyage through the waves by Ms. 张珺 Zhang Jun

A complete transcript of this podcast is available here.

This week on Ginger River Radio, Jiang Jiang, the founder of GRR newsletter, welcomes Yihan Zhou, an AI scientist for Mind AI, a South Korean company which uses new approaches and data structures to complement Generative AI such as GPT. Now based in Shenzhen, China's Silicon Valley, Yihan shares his firsthand insights into ChatGPT and discusses with Jiang Jiang on topics including Chinese companies' efforts and challenges in closing the gap with OpenAI, the limitations of ChatGPT, tips on better utilizing GPT-like tools and prospects of GPT-5 and GPT-10.

Highlights:

5:13 - What is GPT?

11:30 - Three key elements for developing ChatGPT and GPT-4

17:13 - Yihan's views on New Bing and Microsoft 365 Copilot

20:50 - Chinese companies’ efforts to close the gap: Baidu’s Ernie Bot, Huawei, etc.

33:54 - How will ChatGPT-like products update China's tech industries: Douyin, e-commerce, NEV

40:07 - Impact of Chinese government's regulation

44:35 - Mind AI's business solutions

49:44 - Yihan's views on Shenzhen and the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area

54:18 - Different innovation patterns in China, the U.S. and South Korea

1:00:43 - Can AI understand human language? An interesting experiment that shows the limitation of ChatGPT

1:15:44 - Suggestions on utilizing GPT-like tools

1:21:40 - Prospects of GPT-5 and GPT-10

1:29:00 - Book recommendation: Life 3.0: Being human in the age of artificial intelligence

Recommendations:

Yihan Zhou: Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark

A complete transcript of this podcast is available here.

This week on the first episode of the Ginger River Radio (GRR) podcast, Jiang Jiang (JJ), the founder of GRR, chats with Robert Wu, CEO of BigOne Lab, one of the leading alternative data companies in China. Robert shared his firsthand insights into China's data economy, including the country's most recent data governance regulation, the country's economic recovery from COVID, the tech landscape, online and offline consumption trends, the challenges facing the Chinese data industry, and a comparison of data-driven businesses in China and the United States.

Highlights:

6:46 - China's economic recovery from COVID

10:30 - How BigOne Lab collects data

14:27 - Is the online business recovering as fast as the offline?

17:42 - Changes in the tech landscape of China

24:16 - The popularity of the app Xiaohongshu, or “Little Red Book”

25:24 - The outdoor trends

28:03 - China's NEV sector & Tesla in China

34:05 - What the "20 measures" on data regulation and data economy mean for the data industry

40:35 - Challenges facing the China data industry

45:55 - Comparison of data-driven businesses in China and the United States

48:42 - The Three-Body Problem TV series

Recommendations:

Robert Wu: The Three-Body Problem TV series directed by Yang Lei. The show premiered simultaneously in China and on the American streamer Rakuten Viki. The show is also available on Youtube.

A complete transcript of this podcast is available here.