This week on @SinicaPodcast, I spoke with Lizzi Lee of the Asia Society Policy Institute about China's 4th Plenum, the anti-involution push, why "overcapacity" is misleading, VAT incentives driving overcompetition, and what really happened at the Trump-Xi meeting in Busan.

I have a new, long piece in The Ideas Letter called “The Great Reckoning: What the West Should Learn from China," arguing that we must learn from China even (or especially) when its successes unsettle our assumptions. Link below.

Turns out we're pretty CLUELESS about China in the West... @kaiserkuo.bsky.social (from the Sinica podcast) joins me for the latest episode of SMART COOKIES to explain why that's probably not a good idea 👇🏻 YT: youtu.be/uWAkwJlrPuE Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4jas... #china

New book review for @kaiserkuo.bsky.social's Sinica substack subscribers: Calvin Quek on "a welcome and timely update" by Ma Tianjie about environmental issues in China.

This was a ton of fun. Thanks so much to Joe @weisenthal.bsky.social and @tracyalloway.bsky.social for inviting me on and asking great questions!

Appearing on the Sinica podcast was a bucket list sort of thing. Thanks to @kaiserkuo.bsky.social for having me on to talk about ethnopolitics in China. There's more I wish I had said, and some things I wish I had said differently, but give it a listen! www.sinicapodcast.com/p/live-at-pi...

The Sinica podcast where I discuss my new book on evolution in IR with @kaiserkuo.bsky.social is now out! Evolutionary Psychology and International Relations, with Jeremy Garlick www.sinicapodcast.com/p/evolutiona...

If you're in the Bay Area, please come check out this live taping of the Sinica Podcast on Th 5pm PST in Berkeley. Guests are Ryan Hass (Obama NSC, Brookings) and Jessica Chen Weiss @jessicacweiss.bsky.social (Hopkins SAIS). Gonna be a banger! RSVP at the link. events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/2...

Watching people defend USAID solely in terms of 'Great Power Competition' with China is like mourning a burned-down library and condemning the arsonist because now your rival has more books. Maybe — just maybe — foreign aid should have been about, you know, helping people?

Here's my latest interview with @kaiserkuo.bsky.social, founding guitarist of the legendary metal band Tang Dynasty, who will reunite with his other band Chun Qiu in March. Truly a pleasure to have on! youtu.be/7Jwvwdv4B4U?...

Imma lose my shit if I ever hear anyone in this fucking administration accuse China of bullying and expansionism.

The one and only Jeremy @goldkorn.bsky.social returns to the Sinica Podcast to say why he thinks — with DeepSeek, the TikTok Refugees on Xiaohongshu, and more — a narrative shift on China is now underway in the US. Tell us whether you agree! Link in the reply thread below.

Lovely piece by the poet Heather Swan, married to my best friend, abt his bonkers love of winter & skating. “It’s the closest we get to flying,” he said once as he sailed past me. Another time: “Maybe this is how a dolphin feels carving through the water.” www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/590...

I'm curious about the perspectives of folks here on Bsky. Are we in a moment of narrative shift here in the U.S., or more broadly in the "West," regarding China? You know the drivers: DeepSeek, the "TikTok" refugees on Xiaohongshu, all atop growing awareness of China's tech prowess, EV boom etc. 1/n

Oh so NOW the AI guys are worried about intellectual property theft

1/ My flight's delayed and I find myself with a couple of hours in the Zurich airport, so I thought I'd follow on my earlier thread to address a question that's always intrigued me: What is it about China's rise that seems to stick so badly in the American craw?

1/ Why does the U.S. seem to be caught off guard so often by what China or Chinese companies accomplish? Here’s an off-the-top-of-my head thread unpacking some reasons—structural, cultural, and epistemological—for this recurring phenomenon.

New from the Sinica Podcast: a new limited series from our friends at Johns Hopkins SAIS China Research Center — "Studying China in the Absence of Access: Recovering a Lost Art." The first episode features renowned Pekingologist Frederick Tiewes (emeritus, Sydney University). Link below.

Very interesting discussion about Shen Yun & Falun Gong especially in the US w/ New York Times reporters Nicole Hong & @mrothfeld.bsky.social on @kaiserkuo.bsky.social podcast

Recorded just a couple of hours ago, here's the latest Sinica Podcast — all about the Xiaohongshu (RedNote) "TikTok Refugees," with Ivy Yang of Wavelet Strategy and David Fishman of the Lantau Group. Fantastic insights from both of them! Links in replies.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I speak with @nytimes.com investigative reporters Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld about their extensive investigation into Shen Yun, the Epoch Times, and the new religious movement that ties them together, the Falun Gong. Links in replies below!

I posted an essay (with audio narration) I published in the magazine "Insight: The Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai," drawn from a keynote I gave in September in Buffalo at the New York Conference on Asian Studies. Hope you like it. open.substack.com/pub/sinica/p...

The latest "This Week in China's History" column about the UK's recognition of the PRC on Jan 6, 1950, is free for everyone this week. Please support the invaluable work of @jayjamescarter.bsky.social (and the Sinica Podcast!) by becoming a subscriber.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with @cerny.bsky.social and @rorytruex.bsky.social about their survey research on US foreign policy think tanks and the China discourse. It's a fascinating paper you can read here. Links to the podcast below, in replies. www.rorytruex.com/underpressure

Yeah the rest of us in the writers room think this is just too implausible. Nice try but back to the drawing board. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/u...

A very nice Christmas present! I was interviewed by Dutch Metal journalist and musician Kevin Pasman for his website, and the interview just dropped. I think it turned out nicely. For anyone interested in my musical side. kevymetal.wordpress.com/2024/12/25/i...

Very sad news just now from Beijing. A legend on the music scene has passed: Liu Yuan, the saxophone virtuoso probably best known for his work with China's greatest rock musician, Cui Jian, died this morning. May he rest in peace.

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Amy King of ANU about Australia, China, and the economics-security nexus. Fascinating ideas from an impressive and original body of scholarly work. Listen to the show at the link below or find more ways in replies! www.sinicapodcast.com/p/australia-...

It was a pleasure to join @kaiserkuo.bsky.social on his podcast to talk about my research! I’ve been a long time lister and really enjoyed the conversation!

This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with the brilliant @ilariamazzocco.bsky.social of @csis.org about her extensive work on the Chinese EV sector and industrial policy. Listen here: www.sinicapodcast.com/p/chinas-ev-...

101 years ago, the Chinese Youth Party (中国青年党) was founded in Paris. Read all about it in latest "This Week in China's History" by @jayjamescarter.bsky.social column! open.substack.com/pub/sinica/p...

This is probably the greatest drum solo I've ever seen (yes, including Buddy Rich). Metal drummer Jordan Cannata. youtu.be/y15_F0ftT3Q?...

Playing with Tencent's new Hunyuan AI video generator (腾讯混元文生视频). Really amazing! Here's my first effort. My prompt was ""一名容貌被毁的麻风病人在6世纪拜占庭肮脏的街道上乞讨，背景中拜占庭士兵正从他身后列队经过。"

This week on the Sinica Podcast, Jane Hayward of @lauchinainstitute.bsky.social joins to talk about her excellent YouTube channel Jane Hayward China, and the challenges of making smart, accessible media about something as complex as contemporary China. www.sinicapodcast.com/p/jane-haywa...

This is grim but brilliant - and what an indictment www.esquire.com/news-politic...

Another Thanksgiving meal done, dishes all washed despite the fog of many glasses of wine and turkey's notoriously high L-Tryptophan (which turns out isn't so high: pork chops are higher, chicken the same, per 100 grams). NIce juicy bird, copious gravy, and the corn bread dressing stood out!

The passing of the torch. Al Di Meola and Matteo Mancuso — something to be thankful for! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOI...

As we approach the end of the year, here are some of the highlights from the Sinica Podcast over the last 10 months since rebooting the show in February, following the demise of The China Project about a year ago. Here's the return episode featuring @goldkorn.bsky.social: art19.com/shows/sinica...

An early Christmas present to myself this year. When I was in Beijing I bought a PRS Custom 24, and loved it. So I just bought this PRS Semi-hollow body in lovely peacock blue, with a piezo pickup. Arriving Tuesday!

I had the great honor of being interviewed by Tsinghua University's Da Wei for the CISS podcast, on a wide range of topics, including the importance of cognitive empathy and my idea of "priority pluralism," plus lots of music stuff! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/k...

I really like this: blueskydirectory.com/starter-pack.... It's a terrific feature for searching for people interested in similar things.

Welp, it's as good a time as any to start posting here! The kids are home from college, the turkey is in the brine, there are new strings on all the axes, my pedal board is all configured to my liking, and I'm just playing a lot of guitar — more than I have in many years.