2025 marks 50 years since Vietnam's reunification. A great moment to reflect on the country's remarkable transformation. Since launching major economic reforms four decades ago, Vietnam has achieved one of the world’s fastest growth rates, attracting global investment as companies shift production from China.

Today, it's a lower middle-income nation with bold ambitions to become a developed, high-income country by 2045. But, as Vietnam looks ahead, it faces significant challenges, from how to unleash more human creativity and reforming institutions to getting badly needed investments in infrastructure off the ground.

And like every other country, Vietnam cannot escape dealing with a fragmenting world order, that will challenge its famed bamboo diplomacy, where Hanoi works to be friends with everyone. Something that might no longer suit a geopolitical environment that incereasingly demands chosing sides.

In this episode, hear dr. Hai Hong Nguyen discuss all these points, and more. He's a senior lecturer in politics, social change, and international relations at VinUniversity in Hanoi.

This conversation is part of our long-running web series A Closer Look and available as video on the Asia Society YouTube channel.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.
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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 16 - Published: July 8, 2025
Host/Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

South Korea is heading to the polls to elect a successor to impeached President Yoon, whose failed attempt to put the country under martial law back in December laid bare the deep divisions and gloom that plague Korean society.

We talk about all this with Eunwoo Lee in Seoul, from where he writes for The Diplomat.

Want more Korea? Join us in Zurich on June 25 for an evening with stellar Korean author Bora Chung. More info and tickets on our website.

A solid analysis of the challenges South Korea faces as it heads to the polls, from Carnegie's Chung Min Lee is here.

More on the exhibition Hallyu! which runs through August 17 at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.
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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 15 - Published: May 27, 2025
Host/Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

The defining characteristic of the environment in China has been its pace of change. And that has its impact on the latest generation of Chinese entrepreneurs who need to innovate to meet the tough demands of Chinese consumers.

The message is: adapt or get washed away. It's like constantly swimming with piranhas, says Zak Dychtwald, our guest on this episode. The skill to adapt to people's always evolving demands, is increasingly making Chinese companies globally competitive.

Zak is the founder and CEO of Young China Group, a consultancy decoding China's market, workforce, and geopolitical shifts. Fluent in Mandarin and based in Shanghai, he brings over a decade of firsthand experience to his work as the author of Young China and a contributor to Harvard Business Review. A sought-after speaker invited to events on six continents, Zak combines data-driven research with deep cultural insight to help leaders navigate China's future.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.
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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 14 - Published: May 13, 2025
Hosts: Serena Jung, Nico Luchsinger, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

Bich Tran, a senior fellow at Verve Research, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a nonresident fellow at We Protect our Seas, discusses Vietnam's strategies at navigating geopolitical turmoil, while the country celebrates fifty years since its 1975 reunification. Why is the country rapidly increasing and intensifying its diplomatic ties around the world? Can it overcome the challenges and cement its place as Asia's next economic powerhouse, as the government is hoping for?

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.
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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 13 - Published: April 29, 2025
Host: Remko Tanis, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

Asia Society Switzerland's Manuela Coldesina (live from Tokyo), Serena Jung, Nico Luchsinger, and Remko Tanis try to discuss everything that happened thus far in 2025 and the insights many experts shared with us over these months in events and podcasts.

Impossible? Let's find out.

Full recaps and recordings of all our events are available on our website, and on the Asia Society YouTube channel.

Stay up-to-date on all future events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.
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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 12 - Published: April 22, 2025
Host: Remko Tanis, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

Selina Ho, Associate Professor in International Affairs and Co-Director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, discusses the Southeast Asia trip of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, why she labels China's foreign policy as both assertive and insecure, and why China is using the Korean War of the 1950s to rally its population behind the country's leaders in the current trade war with the United States.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.
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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 11 - Published: April 15, 2025
Host: Remko Tanis, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

China's patent applications have surpassed every other country for over a decade and the speed with which technology out of China impresses the world has picked up in the last few years. Its factories churn out cutting-edge electric vehicles packed with futuristic features – so advanced that European carmakers are now partnering with Chinese firms to gain access to their technology. A complete reversal of the old playbook. In renewable energy and green tech, China has leapfrogged to become the world leader in both production and innovation.

Then came the DeepSeek moment: an AI breakthrough from a little-known Chinese company, proving that China can build models on par with America's best – at a fraction of the cost. And all this despite restrictions on high-tech imports from the West. 

Time and again, China’s innovations catch businesses, governments, and analysts in Europe and the U.S. off guard. With massive investments in quantum computing, biotech, and nuclear technology, what's next?

On April 7, we hosted an Oxford Debate LIVE on the motion: Innovation Made in China Will Change the World. Hear clear-cut arguments in support and against from:

• James Kynge, a writer on Chinese technology, the economy and geopolitics, who spent 28 years reporting on China for the Financial Times.
• John Lee, 2025 TOY Senior Fellow at Asia Society Switzerland and Director of East West Futures, a consultancy specializing in China's high-tech industries, political economy, military capabilities, and international diplomacy.
• Antonia Hmaidi, Senior Analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, working on the geopolitics of technology, China's pursuit of tech self-reliance, China's cybersecurity and hacking campaigns.
• Yuka Kobayashi, a British Academy Global Innovation Fellow in DGAP's Center for Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, and Technology. She is on leave from SOAS, University of London where she is senior lecturer of China and international politics.

The full debate, including a conversation in which the debaters delve deeper into their arguments, is available to watch on Asia Society's YouTube channel here.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 10 - Published: April 8, 2025
Host: Remko Tanis, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

Switzerland was one of the first western nations to recognize the People's Republic of China, in 1950, and one of the first to reach a free trade agreement with Beijing as well, in 2013. Historian Ariane Knüsel explores the special bond between China and Switzerland in Die Schweiz und China, a book she co-authored with Ralph Weber.

Ariane spoke at an event in our Talk at the Library series. More info, and her bio, is available here.

More on the book Die Schweiz und China is available from the publisher.

Join us at the Oxford Debate LIVE, on April 7, 2025, in Zurich. The question up for debate: will innovation made in China change the world? All information on our website. Or click here to secure your tickets right away.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 9 - Published: March 18, 2025
Hosts: Rebecca Farner and Remko Tanis, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

Semiconductors, EVs, AI, TSMC, BYD, DeepSeek...

In a time when trade, technology, and global power dynamics are more interconnected and in flux than ever before, we turn to an expert on all those things on this episode: John Lee, a leading voice on high-tech industries in China and the region, and on how they impact foreign relations.

John is the 2025 TOY Senior Fellow at Asia Society Switzerland, which means he'll be around frequently this year to explore key global challenges, geopolitics, and the impact of technological advances on it all.

He has also been named a Fellow at Asia Society's Center for China Analysis. The TOY Senior Fellowship is made possible through the generous support of Max and Monique Burger & the "Thinking of Yves" Family, Hong Kong.  He will provide analysis on a range of technology and political issues including semiconductors, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, national security matters, and the evolving role of technology in geopolitics.

John Lee will be one of four debaters at our Oxford Debate LIVE, on April 7, 2025, in Zurich. The question up for debate: will innovation made in China change the world? Find all information on this live event on our website. Or click here to secure your tickets right away.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.
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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 8 - Published: March 4, 2025
Hosts: Nico Luchsinger and Remko Tanis, Asia Society Switzerland
Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland

For years, for most of us, news on global trade mostly hid out in the pages of The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times. Not anymore. as the U.S. is threatening and hitting friend and foe with punitive tariffs. The rules-based system that has been governing global trade seems to be evaporating in front of our eyes.

What does that mean for consumers, companies, and governments in Europe and Asia? Hear insights from both continents. Renowned trade policy experts Deborah Elms, Head of Trade Policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, try to make sense of the rapid changes.

The conversations were recorded as part of the latest episode of our online series A Closer Look. That video is available on our website.

Stay up-to-date on all events and activities at Asia Society Switzerland: subscribe to the newsletter and support our work by becoming a member.

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STATE OF ASIA is a podcast from Asia Society Switzerland. 
Season 8, episode 7 - Published: February 18, 2025
Host/Editor: Remko Tanis, Managing Editor, Asia Society Switzerland