What China Wants

Happy New Year, and welcome back to What China Wants. In today's episode we look at what is probably the first aspect of Chinese culture that most people around the world encounter: its food. To do so, we are delighted to be joined by Michelin-starred chef, anthropologist, and cultural observer Andrew Wong of the eponymous restaurant in London. China's cuisine is far more than its taste; it is also a window into the country's history and society, as we explore in this episode.

This week on What China Wants we are joined by a returning friend of the show, Andrew Methven of the Substack newsletter Slow Chinese, to discuss Christmas in China on this festive special. Andrew explains the main differences as well as some surprising similarities between how the festivities are celebrated in China compared to the West. 

In this week's episode, Stewart and Sam are talking to one of the leading thinkers on technology, Rob Atkinson, Founder and President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Rob joins us to discuss the realties of a "NATO for tech",  which British Prime Minister Rishi Sunk has recently called for as a means to counter Chinese influence.

This week we are pleased to announce we have launched The Evenstar Institute, a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank focused on measuring and understanding the evolving nature of national influence in the twenty first century. Sam and Stewart are joined by our Director of Research, Dr William Matthews, to discuss our latest paper, An Overlooked Risk: China's Indirect Influence on the UK's National Security Supply Chain.

Stewart and Sam are joined this week by Meyrick Chapman, a 40 year veteran of macro-investing and formerly of Elliott Management. We discuss Meyrick’s research of monetary policy which has shown up an interesting and potentially vital impact on China’s relationship with the world. 

We have discussed the possibilities of economic sanctions between China and the West before on this podcast, but this week we unpick a particular example. Stewart and Sam are joined by Dr. Naoise McDonagh, a specialist from the University of Adelaide to discuss the Australian experience of China's economic sanctions, imposed since 2020. We discuss which industries were targeted, how the sanctions' impact have been deflected or even circumvented, as well as their overall impact on Australia and its geopolitical positioning.

This week on What China Wants, Sam and Stewart are joined by Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, which was shortlisted for the FT's Business Book of the Year 2022. We discuss why microchips are so central to the world economy and how competition between the US and China for control over them has intensified.

This week Sam and Stewart are joined by Eric Olander, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the China-Global South Project to explore China's engagement across the continent and if ChinThe  China-Global South Project is a non-profit and non-partisan multimedia editorial initiative dedicated to exploring every facet of China's engagement in Africa. 

This episode of What China Wants is our final in a series of commentary on the 20th Party Congress. Sam and Stewart are joined by returning guest and friend of the podcast, George Magnus, to discuss the economic outlook of the Congress, both in reflecting on both China's recently published 3Q22 numbers and broader trends surrounding the change in personnel.

This week on What China Wants, we are joined by Joseph Torigian to unpack the 20th Party Congress, and what it means for the global political landscape. Worldwide attention on the National Congress might have focused on what happened to former leader Hu Jintao, but there was of course far more to it than that.