Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, the first by a US president in nine years, not only included plenty of pageantry, but produced some apparently substantive agreements. Aside from China resuming purchases of Boeing planes, beef and soybeans from the US, the two countries agreed to set up boards of trade and investment, and pledged to establish a 'constructive relationship of strategic stability'. And Xi Jinping will visit the US in September. But will this really ease recent trade and political tensions? Melinda Liu, veteran Beijing bureau chief of Newsweek magazine, and Professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute and co-author of 'The Political Thought of Xi Jinping', discuss who got the most out of a summit described by President Trump as 'very successful' and by President Xi as ‘historic’.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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The war in the Middle East has affected China in many ways: as well as targeting Iran, a country with which Beijing has a comprehensive strategic partnership, it has disrupted exports, rattled consumer confidence, and forced the Chinese government to step in to protect consumers from the worst of rising petrol prices. Yet some believe Beijing may benefit from the damage to US global credibility, and China has sought to highlight its role as a responsible diplomatic player, proposing a joint peace plan with Pakistan, and holding talks with Gulf leaders and Iranian officials. And China may also benefit from fresh opportunities, as Gulf countries, with which it has fast growing economic ties, seek to build new port and railway infrastructure to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Yet Beijing’s veto of a Bahraini resolution, opposed by Iran, to guarantee safety of navigation in the Strait at the UN in April was a reminder of the fine line it has to tread in maintaining relations with both the Gulf states and Iran, 90 percent of whose oil sales go to China. Jonathan Fulton, professor of international relations at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, editor of the China MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Newsletter, and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joins us to assess how recent events in the region will affect China in the longer term.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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The presidency of Donald Trump has given China fresh opportunities to increase its influence on the international stage. China has long been seeking to expand its role in global governance, proposing initiatives on issues ranging from development and security to the regulation of the internet and AI. It’s also founded the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and is a prime mover in groups including the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. At the recent annual China Development Forum, its premier Li Qiang told an audience of international executives that China was a ‘haven of stability’ in a volatile world. And Beijing, along with Pakistan, has now proposed a peace plan for Iran and the Middle East. Yet China also continues to assert what it sees as its core interests on issues including Taiwan, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, and in its tariff clashes with the US. And many observers have argued that China’s rise makes a conflict with the United States almost inevitable — in line with concepts such as power transition theory and the Thucydides trap. But a new article by two academics proposes an alternative analysis of China’s international role — as the leader of a ‘global opposition campaign’. Its co-authors, Todd Hall, professor of international relations and director of the China Centre at Oxford University and author of the book ‘Emotional Diplomacy - Official Emotion on the International Stage’, and Hannah Bailey, assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a specialist on Chinese global influence campaigns, join us to discuss China’s global ambitions, and the tensions between what they describe as the nation’s overlapping and sometimes contradictory personas.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
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China's legislature this month set the nation's GDP growth target at 4.5 – 5%, the lowest since 1991, and also approved the country's new five year plan, which calls for higher quality growth with an emphasis on self-reliance and technological innovation, and pledges to promote domestic consumption and improve citizens' livelihoods. The National People’s Congress also passed a new 'Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity', which among other things, enshrines the use of Mandarin in schools in ethnic minority-dominated regions. In this episode, Evelyn Cheng, senior correspondent for CNBC in Beijing, joins us to assess China’s economic plans, while Christopher Mittelstaedt, Professor of Chinese politics at the University of Zurich, analyses the political implications of the Five Year Plan and the ethnic unity law.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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China’s legislature is meeting in March to approve the nation’s new Five Year Plan, which aims to promote higher quality growth, and make China increasingly self-sufficient in new technology of all kinds, from AI to semiconductors. Yet it comes against a backdrop of uncertainty and tariff wars abroad, and high youth unemployment and a slumping property market at home. Xi Jinping has pinned his hopes on boosting domestic consumption and has pledged to promote the private economy, which he had previously hit with a major regulatory crackdown. But will this be enough to stimulate the kind of economic revival the government is hoping for? Andy Rothman, founder of the consultancy Sinology LLC, former China-based analyst and diplomat, and now senior advisor to the DGA Albright Stonebridge Group and senior China fellow at the Asia Society Northern California, discusses China’s economic prospects — and the challenges for consumer confidence and private enterprise.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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The run-up to the lunar year has been a busy one for China’s President Xi Jinping, with world leaders beating a path to Beijing to meet him; he also found time to purge two of the Chinese military’s top generals, while the outspoken Hong Kong newspaper publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was jailed for 20 years. And with the erratic trade and foreign policy of the US currently boosting Beijing’s global influence, the 72 year-old leader could be said to be at the height of his powers. Yet even after more than a decade in charge of China, to many people outside the country he remains something of an enigma, rarely speaking to international media. Professor Joseph Torigian, a specialist on Chinese politics at American University in Washington DC, offers an unusual insight into Xi Jinping’s backstory in his new book, The Party’s Interests Come First, a biography of the Chinese president’s father, Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002), who was himself a senior party official, but was purged from the leadership by Chairman Mao and jailed in the 1960s and 70s, before returning to pioneer economic reforms in southern China. In this episode, Joseph Torigian looks at how his father’s experiences may — or in some cases may not — have influenced Xi Jinping’s life and politics.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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Sir Keir Starmer described his recent trip to China as a chance to end the ‘ice age’ in the two countries’ ties and build a more ‘sophisticated’ relationship. But despite the announcement of visa free-travel to China for British visitors, and the lifting of sanctions on six British MPs and peers, Starmer has been criticised by political opponents for failing to secure the release of publisher and British citizen Jimmy Lai, recently found guilty of sedition and national security offences in Hong Kong. This follows controversy over the approval of China’s new embassy in the City of London, and concerns about alleged Chinese espionage and the potential security risks of Chinese technology. Professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute, and Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the Observer newspaper and Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and author of The Penguin History of Modern China, discuss where Britain stands in its relations with an increasingly powerful China — and the significance of President Xi Jinping’s assertion that when it comes to his country, the UK needs to ‘see the entire elephant’.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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In this episode we look at love, marriage and divorce in contemporary China, from the perspective of two female filmmakers. These are topics with a political as well as personal significance — the Chinese government is keen to boost the birth rate to tackle the problem of an ageing population, but the marriage rate has fallen sharply, while the divorce rate has grown significantly over recent decades. Elizabeth Lo’s remarkable new film Mistress Dispeller looks at a growing industry in China — people you can hire to intervene if your spouse is having an affair, and who promise to help save your marriage. Luo Tong’s documentary Shanghai Girls, meanwhile, is an intimate depiction of the experiences of a group of women in their early fifties, and their lives and loves over the past thirty years. They join us to discuss changing attitudes to relationships in China.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

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