Yoghurt bowls. Lululemon leggings. Ugg slippers. More young Chinese women embrace what they identify as the "white woman aesthetic" as an antidote to the pressures of high maintenance beauty standards and material achievement. As more Chinese women question the grind and settle for less, is the "white woman aesthetic" really an innocent social media fad or a deeper awakening of class consciousness? 

Chapters 
3:15: Introduction to the "White Woman aesthetic"
12:00 Chinese middle class anxiety
14:31 Defining the Chinese middle class
21:05 Morality and responsibility of the Chinese middle class
27:32 Limitations of the Chinese middle class
37:08 Conclusions

Support the show

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

This is part 2 of 3. In this episode we discuss the gaokao exam, the toll it takes on young people, and the increasing divide between those from richer, more developed areas and students from the margins of society.

In part 1 we explored life for middle schoolers racing to the top of an increasingly steep hill: https://youtu.be/hg86rP15eOE

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources
The Mental Health Camp Treating China’s Troubled ‘Gaokao’ Kids, Sixth Tone

Choice of Higher Education Institutions: Perspectives of Students from Different Provinces in China, Ashraf et al.

Fairness in Admission: Voices from Rural Chinese Female Students in Selective Universities in Chinese Mainland, Ma and Wang

Access to Higher Education in China: Differences in Opportunity, WANG Houxiong

Higher education expansion and inequality in educational opportunities in China, Lingli Wu & Kun Yan & Yuqi Zhang

Rural students’ evolving educational aspirations and the sense of ‘ft’ in the changing context of China’s higher education: a life history approach, Jiexiu Chen

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

After reading an article on mother's who sacrifice everything to make sure their children get into middle school in China, I was inspired to take a deep dive and learn more about one of the world's biggest school systems. Why has China's education system become so fiercely competitive? How is this impacting children? And who are the people making huge profits from parental anxiety?

This is part 1 of at least 2 episodes (potentially 3)!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources

Education Development in China: Education Return, Quality, and Equity, by Guo, Huang and Zhang

Exploring Compulsory Education Policy of Rural and Urban Area in China, by Yizhong Mao

Hopes and Hurdles: Rural Migrant Children’s Education in Urban China, by Gu and Yeung

The education of China’s migrant children: The missing link in China’s education system, Lai et al.

A Studied Sacrifice: Why China’s Moms Bet All on Education, Sixth Tone 

China Is Cracking Down on ‘Hidden’ Tutoring Schools, Sixth Tone

China’s anxious parents turn to tutoring black market after Xi Jinping’s crackdown, FT

China Tried to Ban Private Tutoring. It Created a Huge Black Market. Sixth Tone

China’s TikTok Launches Campaign to Protect Parents From ‘Anxiety Marketing’ During Summer, Sixth Tone

Zhongkao, Not Gaokao, Now the Make-or-Break Exam, Parents Say, Sixth Tone

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

#china #socialism #xijinping #communism 

Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a phrase that comes up when discussing Chinese politics. It's a cornerstone of Chinese political theory and heavily relied on by leadership when formulating new internal policies and deciding the direction the country is headed.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics is an evolving theory that encapsulates the thoughts of China's major leaders, and is the lens through which the country sees itself and the party sees its mission. It includes concepts like economic prosperity, territorial integrity, social stability, and the continued political leadership of the CCP.

Link to the Youtube poll to vote for the next episode: https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx_LM44S61UAXDi7zJT-X44KsO-je_K_EU?lc=Ugz2EJGLmmQ6YHZTcip4AaABAg&lc=Ugz2EJGLmmQ6YHZTcip4AaABAg 

The Zhao Ziyang biography that I mention is called Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang

Intro
Definition 1:20
Deng era (1980-1992) 7:52
Jiang Zemin era (90s) 18:12
Hu Jintao era (00s) 22:12
Xi Jinping era (10s-20s) 24:30
Policy application 33:10
The 14th 5 year plan 40:22
Outro 44:45

*My voice changes noticeable at around 21:25. Had to stop recording and restart after a break after which point my cold was significantly worse. Apologies!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources

2012 Full Text of Hu Jintao's Report at 18th Party Congress

2018 Backgrounder_ Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era - Xinhua 

China’s Plan for Economic and Social Development - Jun Yin and Jia Xu

Chinese Economic Statecraft from 1978 to 1989 The First Decade of Deng Xiaoping’s Reforms - Priscilla Roberts eds

Constructing Political Economy with Chinese Characteristics - Fang Cai and Xiaojing Zhang

Socialism with Chinese Characteristics - Roland Boer

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

Every nation has to deal with the horrifying issue of human trafficking in one way or another, but the nature of human trafficking in China is relatively unique. While China does have problems with kidnapping and sex trafficking, it also has a black market where women and children are sold and bought by desperate families by middlemen posing as matchmakers or pseudo-adoption agencies.

What is the nature of the trafficking of children and women in China? How does this market interact with Chinese culture and Confucian society? How does the prevalence of social media affect how these cases are dealt with by authorities?

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:30 Background cases: Liu Xuezhou & Xiao Huamei
10:30 Trafficking of Women
24:30 Trafficking of Children
32:00 Justice for victims in the social media age
43:20 Next episode

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources

Child Trafficking in China, Quanbao Jiang and Jesús J. Sánchez-Barricarte

Child trafficking in the Yunnan and Guangdong provinces of China, Songcai Yang , Ling Han & Yingxi Bi

Evidence of Son Preference in the Child Trafficking Market for Illegal Adoption in China, Wanru Xiong

Female Perpetrators in Internal Child Trafficking in China: An Empirical Study, Anqi Shen

Mapping Trafficking of Women in China: Evidence from Court Sentences, Yiwei Xia, Yisu Zhou, Li Du & Tianji Cai

Marriage Trafficking: Demand, Exploitation, and Conducive Contexts—A Study in China–Vietnam Border Areas, Xiaochen Liang

Easy Prey: Illicit Enterprising Activities and the Trafficking of Vietnamese Women in China, Weidi Liu & Geping Qiu & Sheldon X. Zhang

Chained woman case: Six jailed in trafficking case that horrified China, BBC

Liu Xuezhou: Outrage over death of 'twice abandoned' China teen, BBC

China’s Human Trafficking Problem Goes Far Beyond the ‘Chained Woman’, Sixth Tone

As a Long-Lost Son is Found, a Dilemma: Arrest His Other Parents?, Sixth 
Tone

Policymakers, lawmakers respond to opinion voiced online, China Daily

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

China's housing market has been shaken by a series of crises in recent years, with events such as the Evergrande default scandal threatening to bring the whole system crashing down. But the truth is the property market in China was built on shaky foundations, and the government has trapped itself in a presale system from which it may not be able to escape. 

Will China's housing bubble pop, bringing the economy down with it? Or will the government and CCP be able to find a solution to a system riddled with corruption and bad practices? More importantly, will those who bought homes through the presale system ever actually get a house to live in?

Check out the previous episode on urbanisation in China: https://youtu.be/LQptYyczH64

Chapters
00:00 Intro
03:03 Boom
14:30 Bust & Evergrande 
22:48 Future
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources
Can China Fix Its Broken Housing Market?, Sixth Tone https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1011103

“China’s real estate market”, Chang Liu and Wei Xiong

'No Way Out’: Why China’s Mortgage Strikers Refuse to Back Down, Sixth Tone https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1011767/no-way-out-why-chinas-mortgage-strikers-refuse-to-back-down 

China property recovery will be slow and unevenly distributed amid income insecurity, distrust of debt-laden developers, analysts say, SCMP, https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3215956/china-property-recovery-will-be-slow-and-unevenly-distributed-amid-income-insecurity-distrust-debt?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=article&utm_source=Twitter

Real estate supports rapid development of China's urbanization, Zhaoyang Cai, , Qing Liu, Shixiong Cao

Real Estate Bubble Resolution with Chinese Characteristics: Integrate Fragmented Vacant
Resources, Guangze Wang

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

Guanxi can be loosely understood as instrumental social relationships that form a network to be used by individuals for their personal benefit. Guanxi is a long-enduring part of Chinese society, but how is it used in a modern context. Is it still important for doing business? How should foreigners understand guanxi? And is guanxi now doing more harm than good in modern world?

Chapters
00:00: Intro
2:18: Definitions  of Guanxi
11:39: Origins of Guanxi
19:03: Building Guanxi Relationships
31:51: Guanxi in China's Business World
40:58: Guanxi goes abroad?
44:27: Negative Societal Effects of Guanxi
49:Negative Societal Effects of Guanxi

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources
- Guanxi: How China Workds, Yanjie Bian, 2019
- Chinese Guanxi: An Integrative Review and New Directions for Future Research, Chao C. Chen,  Xiao-Ping Chen, and Shengsheng Huang, 2013
- Cultivating Guanxi as a Foreign Investor Strategy, John A. Pearce II and Richard B. Robinson, Jr., 2000
- Cultural and Organizational Antecedents of Guanxi: The Chinese Cases, Liang-Hung Lin, 2011
- Entering Guanxi: A Business Ethical Dilemma in Mainland China?, Chenting Su and James E. Littlefield, 2001
- Guanxi Networks in China: Its Importance and Future Trends, Jin Ai, 2006
- Guanxi's Consequences: Personal Gains at Social Cost, Ying Fan, 2002
- The Culture of Guanxi in a North China Village, Yunxiang Yan, 1996
- Whither guanxi and social networks in China? A review of theory and practice, Jane Nolan & Chris Rowley, 2020
- What Happens When the ‘Gaokao’ Rewards Who, Not What, You Know, Sixth Tone, https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005924
- Qinghai Official Died After Sharing Seven Bottles of Baijiu, Sixth Tone, https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1012818
- Bank Worker Slapped, Insulted for Not Drinking With Colleagues, Sixth Tone, https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006093
- Businesses benefiting from political connections harm China’s economic growth, https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/businesses-benefitting-from-political-connections-could-harm-chinas-economic-growth/

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

I was gifted a copy of The Decisive Decade by Jonathan Ward and this is my review! 

Read the first half of the review here: https://sinobabble.substack.com/p/book-review-the-decisive-decade-by

Description of the book from Amazon:

In The Decisive Decade, Dr. Jonathan D.T. Ward―China scholar and founder of the Atlas Organization, a consultancy focused on US-China global competition―offers a comprehensive framework for how the United States can, and must, defeat China on the world stage economically, diplomatically, militarily, and ideologically. International security and American supremacy are at stake―and now is the time for the US to take action.

China’s global power and influence grows every day. Working from a deep sense of national identity, the Chinese Communist Party is leading its country toward what it deems “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation,” and executing a long-term Grand Strategy to topple over its chief adversary, the United States. As China becomes increasingly repressive domestically and aggressive overseas, it threatens to upend America’s global dominance at every turn.

Ward provides novel and practical strategies that our government, as well as our businesses and our citizens, can utilize to undermine our adversary. Exhaustive campaigns in the economic, diplomatic, military, and ideological arenas, he argues, must be taken to achieve victory.

With expert analysis of the history of US-China relations, as well as insight into how the Russia-Ukrainian war can inform our strategic thinking, The Decisive Decade presents a unique toolkit for our triumph over China. We can succeed, but it won’t be easy; it will take all of our nation’s ingenuity, confidence, and willpower to win.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Decisive-Decade-Americas-Strategy-Triumph/dp/1635768454

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

China's urbanisation is often described as a unique process, but how different is it from the urban development of other countries? How close is China to becoming a 'modern urban nation'? What factors play a major role in the way China's cities have formed? How has the hukou and Special Economic Zones contributed to China's urban-rural divide? And what problems are we starting to see in the formation of Chinese cities?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00:00 Intro
01:47 Background to Urbanisation in China
03:45 Urbanisation under Mao
16:35 Post-Mao Urbanisation
19:30 The development of Special Economic Zones
25:00 Chinese city tiers
33:56 The Hukou
42:44 Ghost cities

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
China urbanizes, Consequences, strategies and policies, Yusuf and Saich eds.

China's 'Ghost Cities', Yu Hong

Denationalization of urban physical development, Jieming Zhu

Evaluating cities' vitality and identifying ghost cities in China Jin et al 2017

Is Chinese Urbanisation unique? Hamnett, 2020

What attracts young talents? Understanding the migration intention of
university students to first-tier cities in China, Jin et al

Urban planning in socialist China, Yichun Xie and Frank J. Costa

Urbanisation in China, Zhang Xing Quan 1991

China’s City-Tier Classification: How Does it Work?, China Briefing https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-city-tier-classification-defined/

China’s tiered city system explained, SCMP https://multimedia.scmp.com/2016/cities/

Reforms to China’s hukou system will not help migrants much, The Economist https://www.economist.com/china/2022/09/22/reforms-to-chinas-hukou-system-will-not-help-migrants-much

China's 'ghost towns' come to life thanks to urbanization and policies, Global Times https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1211265.shtml

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod

**APOLOGIES FOR THE BAD AUDIO, IT'S BEEN UPDATED NOW**

Peter Zeihan is a famous American geopolitical who recently appeared on episode 1921 of The Joe Rogan Experience (full episode here https://open.spotify.com/episode/406fOiiKMU0ot5AS1AIwve). He talks about a lot of topics, but I want to discuss what he says about China and specifically what he gets wrong. Zeihan is keen to predict China's collapse, and his supporters are clearly even keener for his predictions to come true. But I'm not so sure Zeihan can see the future, as his grasp on the present (and past) seems shaky at best.

Let's talk demographic collapse, technological development, and labour efficiency in China!

Chapters
00:00 Intro
03:30 The Accidental Superpower
09:55 Impending Demographic Doom
20:50 China's lack of technological advancement
28:10 Chinese labour is inefficient
30:39: Bits and bobs
34:23 Summary and Conclusion: I disagree

Sources
The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder Kindle Edition - Peter Zeihan

Challenging Myths About China’s One-Child Policy, by Whyte, Feng and Cai, 2015

 Ogawa, N., & Retherford, R. D. (1993). The Resumption of Fertility Decline in Japan: 1973-92.

The Global Competitiveness Report, World Economic Forum, 2019

The Chinese Talent Behind Your Favorite Generative AI Product, Macro Polo, April 2023

China shows its dominance in surveillance technology, The Financial Times, December 2019 

Sign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442

Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/

Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod