In this episode we chat with Shanghai-based author and editor Jacob Dreyer, a China watcher who writes with great insight and nuance about the shifting landscape of China-US relations. We touch on questions such as: Is the China model of governance outperforming Western liberal democracy? Is China winning the AI and technology wars? (Spoiler alert: That ship has sailed.) How do the architecture and logic of surveillance and information control systems differ between the U.S. and China? Is the current China-US geopolitical chill drifting toward a hot war? And finally, we unpack the question posed in Jacob’s guest op-ed in the New York Times: Is Trump’s America beginning to look more like China?

Recent Articles from Jacob Dreyer:

Trump's America is beginning to look more like China, New York Times, July 1, 2025

The Industrial Party, The Ideas Newsletter, March 30, 2025

Why China's Innovation Model is Thriving, Nature, Volume 642, June 26, 2025

AI, China's Invisible Scaffolding, The Ideas Newsletter, July 10, 2025

China in 2035, NOEMA, June 11, 2024