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s China an alternative to capitalism?
Economist Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order and Escape from Capitalism, professor of economics at The University of Tulsa, and a co-founder of FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation), joins Roughly Chinese to discuss austerity, wage labor, market dependence, and the political control of capital. From the United States to China, we ask why capitalist societies treat the economy as inevitable—and whether China shows that another logic of development is possible.

00:00 – 03:10: intro
03:10 – 08:52: why Clara started Forum for Real Economic Emancipation
08:52 – 15:30: why austerity is a tool to maintain capitalism, not to generate growth?
15:30 – 23:47: what does an alternative to capitalism look like?
23:47 – 40:05: is China is an actual existing alternative to capitalism?
40:05 – 43:59: how is Chinese economy tied to Chinese politics?
43:59 – 49:25: why the “golden age of capitalism” is not an aspiration?
49:25 – 52:24: what does the China alternative offer to the global south?

For more news and stories about China, pls visit: https://thechinaacademy.org/
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Prof. Clara Mattei's FREE: https://www.freefreeforum.org

#china #capitalism #roughlychinese

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3If you have been following the latest trends on the Internet, the CHINA-MAXXING is hard to miss: people are celebrating the "chinese moments" in their life. But why is China becoming so attractive on the Internet all in a sudden? In this episode of Roughly Chinese, we are happy to have our friend Cyrus Janssen, a YouTube content creator, an investor, and an OG China-Maxxer, who had spent more than a decade in China, to explain to us: what's all the China trends about?

00:00 - 01:10: intro
01:10 - 30:10: when Cyrus moved to China
30:10 - 36:10: does China feel like an old or a young country?
36:10 - 45:56: why some of the most anti-China voices are from overseas Chinese? 
45:56 - 54:09: do Chinese people talk about politics and policing?
54:09 - 59:00: what do Cyrus’s children think about China?
59:00 - 1:05:07: do Americans and Chinese think about freedom differently?

#china #chinamaxxing #trends #roughlychinese

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Are sanctions really a peaceful alternative to war — or are they part of how U.S. power is enforced?
Professor Maryam Jamshidi joins Thinkers Forum to discuss how U.S. sanctions rely on private actors such as banks, corporations, lawyers, plaintiffs, and compliance departments. We explore the fusion of sanctions and national security, the Iran conflict, corporate power, and how countries like China, Iran, and Brazil can resist U.S. economic coercion.

We discuss:

00:00-02:50: intro
02:50: the roles of private actors in U.S. sanctions regime
13:32: tariffs as sanctions policies
20:22: history of “peacetime” U.S. sanctions
31:04: Iran conflict through the lens of U.S. sanctions and Iranian resilience
40:24: how countries can resist U.S. sanctions

40:24-54:47: hope for the future?

Maryam Jamshidi is a professor at the University of Colorado Law School. Her work focuses on national security, sanctions, international law, political economy, and U.S. power.

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Why Does Chinese Fashion Still Look Western? | with Gracia Ventus of ROSEN

China has 5,000 years of civilizational history — so why do Chinese people still dress in the visual language of Western modernity?

In this episode, Yunpeng sits down with Gracia Ventus, designer and writer behind ROSEN / The Rosenrot, to talk about fashion as culture, class, labor, and everyday life. Why do suits, jeans, sneakers, puffers, and luxury brands feel “normal,” while Chinese historical references often feel like costume? And what would it take to make Chinese aesthetics genuinely wearable again?

For more news and stories about China, pls visit: https://thechinaacademy.org/

00:00 - 02:40: Intro
02:40 - 12:45: How Gracia became a designer
12:45 - 16:35: How to design clothing that transcends culture?
16:35 - 25:15: Clothes vs Cultural Relics
25:15 - 38:45: Fashion conglomerates’s influence on consumers
38:45 - 45:49: Why should we care about clothes?
45:49 - 52:11: Custom or clothes?

For podcast, search Wave Media whenever you get your podcast!

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The Roughly Chinese POD is BACK! In this episode, our host Mimi Zhu and Yunpeng Zhang sat down for Trump's China visit memes circulating on both Chinese and English social media! Why did Chinese people "celebrate" Trump in Beijing on the Internet? What were Chinese people thinking about when Trump was in Beijing? How was the Chinese Internet bantering Elon Musk and Jensen Huang? 
ALL in this episode!

00:00 Intro
01:30 Memes break down
39:45 Stories from the Chinese Internet
47:55 Summit summary
59:00 HOT TAKES

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Historian Marie Favereau joins Thinkers Forum to explain why the Mongols were not just conquerors — but builders of a mobile, connected Eurasian world that still changes how we think about China, Central Asia, and the Silk Road.

We discuss:

02:38: why the story of the Mongol empire is much more than destruction?
09:20: what does a Mongol "city" look like?
11:21: how did the Mongols view us “city" people?
29:22: had the Mongol rulers in China "gone native"?
34:48: how similar were the Mongol and British Empires?
42:01: the Mongol Silk Road--what does it look like?
47:24: the Silk Road cities between China and Europe
56:31: Prof. Favereau's message to the Chinese readers

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On January 3, 2026, US special forces raided Venezuela, kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro from Miraflores Palace in a lightning operation, and flew him to face drug charges in New York. Trump claims it's about stopping narcotics, but is it really? Our analysis exposes the hypocrisy: America's long history with drug cartels (Iran-Contra, Honduras pardons), why Venezuela's oil (world's largest reserves) is the true target, and how weak global demand makes it economically dubious. No plan for democracy, no Guaidó or Machado involvement—just Neo-Jacksonian violence for spoils, echoing Andrew Jackson's frontier wars.

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The 2008 financial crisis should have ended neoliberal economics forever. Instead, it was rebranded and became more powerful than ever. In this episode, Peter Yang break down how neoliberalism triggered the global financial collapse, why it escaped accountability, and how concepts like “inclusive institutions” ultimately helped preserve the system rather than reform it. 

From Wall Street bailouts that made the next crisis even worse, to the Eurozone debt crisis that sacrificed an entire generation, rising inequality, and China’s post-2008 economic defiance, this video traces how the global economic order was reshaped and why it is now entering a new phase of crisis.

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The U.S. is no longer just competing with China economically or militarily—it’s fighting a cognitive war. This video explains how Washington uses narratives, media, NGOs, and alliances to shape global opinion on China, from Huawei to debt traps and the China balloon incident. A deep dive into narrative power, propaganda, and the future of global order.

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The United States is betting its future on artificial intelligence. From the Stargate data-center megaproject to the AI Action Plan and the Genesis Mission, Washington promises an AI-powered revival — reshored industry, higher productivity, and renewed global dominance. But beneath the rhetoric lies a far darker trajectory. This video breaks down how America’s AI strategy, as currently designed, leads not to broad-based prosperity, but to extreme inequality, corporate concentration, and automation without growth.

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