In this special episode from China Field Notes from CSIS, host Scott Kennedy speaks with Chen Dongxiao, the President of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). He discusses how China's shifting role to the center of global politics and economics has shaped his career, and he offers a frank assessment of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship during the late-Biden and early Trump administrations. The discussion concludes with a strong defense of the value of U.S.-China track-2 dialogue for thinking creatively about the world's most important challenges and offering reforms to global institutions.

Original interview published on April 3, 2025.

In this special episode from The Truth of the Matter from CSIS, host Andrew Schwartz speaks with Scott Kennedy, CSIS senior adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics, to discuss the latest in the U.S.-China trade war, including China’s technological capabilities, new export controls, and the possibility of future decoupling.

Original interview published on April 17, 2025.

In this episode of Pekingology from January 2023, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Martin K. Dimitrov,  a professor of political science at Tulane University, to discuss his recent book, ‘Dictatorship and Information’: Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Communist Europe and China.

In this episode of Pekingology which aired in February 2022, Jude Blanchette is joined by Xuezhi Guo, the Lincoln Financial Professor of Political Science at Gilford College, to discuss his book, The Politics of the Core Leader in China: Culture, Institution, Legitimacy, and Power.

In this episode of Pekingology from June 2022, Jude Blanchette is joined by Victor Shih, associate professor and Ho Miu Lam Chair in China and Pacific Relations at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego. They discuss his book, Coalitions of the Weak: Elite Politics in China from Mao’s Stratagem to the Rise of Xi.

In this episode of Pekingology which aired on July 6, 2023, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a fellow for international political economy at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the book Sovereign Funds: How the Communist Party of China Finances Its Global Ambitions. 

In this episode of Pekingology from March 2023, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Dr. Lynette H. Ong, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, jointly appointed to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy’s Asian Institute and also a Faculty Fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. They discuss her recent book Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China.  

With the removal of the only term limit on office in March 2018, Xi Jinping stands to rule indefinitely. But what happens if he suddenly dies in office? How will China's political and economic system respond? In this episode from September 2020, Jude Blanchette is joined by Michigan State University's Erica Frantz to discuss her co-authored paper, "When Dictators Die." 

In this episode of Pekingology which originally aired on June 17, 2021, Freeman Chair in China Studies Jude Blanchette is joined by Wang Yuhua, the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University, to discuss how rulers in Imperial China maintained -- and lost -- political power. 

In this episode of Pekingology, originally released on April 8, 2021, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Jessica Teets, then an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Middlebury College (now Professor at Middlebury College and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science), to discuss her work on China's evolving governance system.