Bill Birtles shares the story of his sudden departure from China in 2020, and discusses his book, "The Truth About China: Propaganda, Patriotism and the Search for Answers." — Bill Birtles is East Asia correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was based in Beijing between 2015 and 2020, when he had to make a sudden departure as Australia-China relations soured. He is now based in Taiwan. — The YCW Podcast is a podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Joshua Cartwright and Sam Colombie. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

For this episode, we partnered with the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong, which focuses on presenting Asian perspectives on global issues. Alejandro Reyes is the institute’s director of Knowledge Dissemination and host of the Asia Global podcast. Ahead of the 20th Party Congress, he discussed the challenges China is facing with Ann Listerud and Jason Li. — Ann Listerud is co-director of Young China Watchers’ DC chapter and is an analyst at Strider Technologies. She specializes in China’s macroeconomic conditions and government policies, as well as East Asia more broadly.  Jason Li is a DC-based research associate at the Stimson Center’s East Asia program. His research focuses on U.S.-China relations, cross-Strait relations, grand strategy in the Indo-Pacific, and China’s approach to conflict issues in its periphery and the Middle East.  — The YCW Podcast is a podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Joshua Cartwright, with support from Sam Colombie. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

On the 30th of June, 2020, Beijing implemented the Hong Kong National Security Law. Officials promised the law would not substantially alter Hong Kong’s way of life. But many greeted that rhetoric with skepticism, and some critics even declared the death of the “One Country, Two Systems” framework.  So, over a year later, what has been the actual impact of the National Security Law on Hong Kong and its people? To find out, YCW’s multimedia editor Joshua Cartwright spoke with Thomas Kellogg, an expert on law and governance in China. — Thomas Kellogg is a leading scholar of legal reform in China, Chinese constitutionalism, and civic society movements in China, who currently serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Asian Law at Georgetown University. — The YCW Podcast is a podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Joshua Cartwright, with support from Sam Colombie. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

As our London chapter kicks off their annual Climate Series with a Q&A with Isabel Hilton of China Dialogue, we invited climate reporter Karoline Kan to share her thoughts on recent developments in China-U.S. climate cooperation and China's climate policy. Sam and Karoline talk about the Leaders Summit on Climate, cooperation versus competition, and China's 14th Five-Year-Plan and carbon market. Karoline's reading recommendations: Bloomberg Green China Dialogue Meltdown in Tibet, by Michael Buckley — Karoline Kan is a longtime climate journalist and author of Under Red Skies, a memoir of China's changing society through the eyes of her family. Kan is the 2019 winner of our Young China Watcher of the Year Award.  — The YCW Podcast is a podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Sam Colombie, with support from Joshua Cartwright. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

As our European chapters continue a deep dive into the relations between China and the Visegrád Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), we invited Czech analyst Filip Šebok to discuss China's role in Czech domestic politics and the future of the 17+1 initiative. Our host for this interview is Mirela Petkova, a former Junior Researcher at the EU & Global Affairs Unit at Clingendael, and a writer for the Young China Watchers editorial team.  If you'd like to find out more about developments in Central Europe regarding China, be sure to check out our recent webinar, in which a panel debated the benefits and pitfalls of the Visegrád Four’s cooperation with China, Beijing’s economic and political presence in the region, the region’s role in EU-China relations, and the significance of the 17+1 Initiative. And subscribe to our newsletter to find out about upcoming events. — Filip Šebok is a Project Manager and China Research Fellow at the Association for International Affairs in Prague, Czech Republic. His research interests include Chinese domestic and foreign policy, relations between China and the Central and Eastern European countries and China's foreign policy rhetoric. — The YCW Podcast is a podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Sam Colombie, edited by Joshua Cartwright and Sam Colombie.  Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

In this episode, Sam speaks with Lt. General H.R. McMaster about his new book, "Battlegrounds," in which McMaster lays out his vision for some of the key foreign policy challenges facing the current and next U.S. administration. McMaster discusses what he believes to be the flawed assumption embedded in previous U.S. administrations' China policy — namely, that the PRC would liberalize. McMaster puts it bluntly: "Engagement with the Party has not worked," and has in his view emboldened the Party. They also discuss China's overseas investment and the difficulty of imposing international standards of accountability as well as China's aims to export its model, what McMaster says has been called a "new type of colonialism." McMaster makes the case for characterizing Trump's trade war within the appropriate bounds of competition rather than confrontation with China. "This is not a U.S. and China problem; it's a free world and China problem." — Lt. General H.R. McMaster is a former National Security Advisor to U.S. president Donald Trump. He currently holds fellowships with Stanford University and the Hoover Institution. McMaster is the author of "Dereliction of Duty" (1997) and "Battlegrounds" (2020). — The YCW Podcast is a monthly podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Sam Colombie, edited by Joshua Cartwright, with support from Johanna Costigan. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

Excerpted from an event hosted by YCW London, this month's episode features Tim Clissold, a Sino-U.S./U.K. business dispute resolution expert and the author of Mr. China, a book centered on the mishaps and lessons Tim encountered when first entering the Chinese business world. Interviewed by YCW London Head Michael Yip, Tim tells his personal story of becoming interested in China alongside the broader narrative of China's growth and dominance in the globalized world. Tim points out the imbalance of knowledge between Chinese expertise on the West and Western expertise on China and emphasizes that the root of Western ignorance toward the society driving the world's second largest economy is rooted in school curricula that persist in Eurocentrism, despite his and others' efforts to shift them toward the Sinosphere. He also speaks about his personal relationships with individuals in China and how they continue to shape and complicate his outlook on the nation's political system. Tim also discusses his upcoming book on Chinese poetry, to be published within the mainland. — Tim Clissold is a business writer and conflict mediator who specializes in Western-Chinese partnerships and is the author of three books. — The YCW Podcast is a monthly podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Sam Colombie, with support from Johanna Costigan and Joshua Cartwright. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

On May 30, we invited Dr Victor Shih, UC San Diego professor and expert on China’s political economy, to discuss the outcome of the Two Sessions of the 2020 National People's Congress (NPC). Dr Shih shared three takeaways. Part 2 of this double episode captures a lively debate with YCW members on the controversial National Security Legislation (NSL) that was introduced for Hong Kong. Dr Shih started by explaining why the most concerning aspect of the NSL is the unrestricted operation of Mainland Chinese offices in the territory. He described the potential impact on civil society and the investment climate in the city, in particular the lack of recourse and the legal repercussions of shorting state-owned enterprises.  On potential further sanctions by the U.S., Dr Shih analyzed several options, from visa restrictions and sanctions on individuals, to a ceiling on the borrowing by Chinese companies on the international market. Asked what the timeline for implementation of the NSL looks like, Victor was pessimistic and compared the situation to the dismantling of civil society in mainland China in the late '50s, only at a much faster pace. Dr Shih next commented on the remarks by the Chairman of the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) that the NSL will preserve the long term economic stability of the city, and the underlying appeal to the financial world. He debunked the narrative that Hong Kong’s unrest has hurt its financial market but believes that the NSL will have a much larger negative impact.  He then discussed the phenomenon of China’s 'wolf warrior diplomacy' and the decline of Beijing's political factions into irrelevance. Both of which he described as a sign of an emerging Xi Jinping dictatorship. Dr Shih ended the episode with an introduction of his upcoming book 'Coalition of the Weak,' which is about senior-level appointments in the late Mao period and what that tells us about Xi's motivation to elevate officials with narrow political networks and other weaknesses onto the national stage. — Victor Shih is an associate professor of political economy and has published widely on the politics of Chinese banking policies, fiscal policies and exchange rates. He was the first analyst to identify the risk of massive local government debt, and is the author of “Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation.” Prior to joining UC San Diego, Shih was a professor of political science at Northwestern University and former principal for The Carlyle Group. Shih is currently engaged in a study of how the coalition-formation strategies of founding leaders had a profound impact on the evolution of the Chinese Communist Party. He is also constructing a large database on biographical information of elites in China. — The YCW Podcast is a monthly podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Sam Colombie, with support from Johanna Costigan and Joshua Cartwright. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

On May 30, we invited Dr Victor Shih, UC San Diego professor and expert on China’s political economy, to discuss the outcome of the Two Sessions of the 2020 National People's Congress (NPC). Dr Shih shared three takeaways. In part I of this double episode, Dr Shih covers the decision by the Central Government to focus on supply-side stimulus and subsidies targeted at new economy and technology sectors, as opposed to demand-side stimulus seen in the U.S. and some European countries. With a drop-off in global consumption due to locked-down economies, many Chinese factories will struggle to find markets for their goods — even with increased production capacity. Additionally, the collapse of fiscal revenues at the local level result in inadequate government action. With potential blind spots in current government measures, some kind of demand-side relief is inevitable if the recession persists. Against the backdrop of growing U.S.-China tensions, Dr Shih addressed a question on the potential impact of financial sections on Hong Kong. He touched on the strength of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) U.S. dollar facility and what he considers more at stake to be China’s large-scale borrowing through interbank channels. He stressed that what matters more are international financial institutions’ exposure to China. He continued onto China’s debt issues and the reluctance of China’s central bank to introduce more quantitative easing for fear of capital outflows. The episode ends here and moves onto the National Security Legislation in Hong Kong in the next episode. — Victor Shih is an associate professor of political economy and has published widely on the politics of Chinese banking policies, fiscal policies and exchange rates. He was the first analyst to identify the risk of massive local government debt, and is the author of “Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation.” Prior to joining UC San Diego, Shih was a professor of political science at Northwestern University and former principal for The Carlyle Group. Shih is currently engaged in a study of how the coalition-formation strategies of founding leaders had a profound impact on the evolution of the Chinese Communist Party. He is also constructing a large database on biographical information of elites in China. — The YCW Podcast is a monthly podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Sam Colombie, with support from Johanna Costigan and Joshua Cartwright. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].

Host Sam Colombie speaks with the current YCW London Mentorship team, Dr. Shengke Zhi and Samuel Wejchert, to expand upon their YCW blog post on China's leadership in global carbon innovation. They touch on cooperation between China and the European Union on carbon, as well as China's commitment to innovation in low carbon emissions technologies. They also talk about the market distinctions between the U.K. and China and how those differences affect carbon partnerships between the two nations, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Samuel and Shengke discuss changes in China's climate policy in recent years and how the concept of "ecological civilization" impacts business. In the wake of COVID-19, they talk about China's plans to rebuild its economy and how recovery plans might expedite or derail low-carbon energy developments. As Samuel concludes, "We're facing a short-term crisis in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, but we shouldn't forget that we're in the midst of another, arguably, larger and more severe crisis." — Samuel Wejchert graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in Chinese Studies in 2019. He is currently pursuing a Graduate Diploma in Economics at SOAS University of London. Dr Shengke Zhi is Director of Strategy and Development at Wood, a multinational energy services company on the FTSE 250. Shengke is also a board member of the China-Britain Business Council and a guest lecturer at Tsinghua University. — The YCW Podcast is a monthly podcast series by Young China Watchers. We’re a global community of young professionals, providing a platform to discuss the most pressing issues emerging from China today. We organize events with China experts in our 10 chapters across Asia, Europe and the U.S., fostering the next generation of China thought leaders. Download and follow our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music or your usual podcasting platform. Produced by Sam Colombie, with support from Johanna Costigan and Joshua Cartwright. Music: ‘We Build With Rubber Bands’, ‘Dirty Wallpaper’ by Blue Dot Sessions. For any suggestions, recommendations or other notes, please email us at [email protected].