Sponsored by the government organization Hanban, the Confucius Institute has been successfully promoting the learning of Chinese Language internationally. However, it recently inspired a lot of resistance, especially in the San Gabriel Valley, where an editorial in a local paper decried that the Chinese Communist Party is sending Chinese teachers to spread Communist ideology. Is the Confucius Institute a cultural exchange platform or an aggressive arm of Chinese foreign policy?
Some of China’s major news agencies are busy expanding their English-language satellite news networks. For example, CCTV has recently invested six billion dollars in its international satellite news network and has established bureaus all over the U.S. But who is the audience of this media expansion?
As one of the biggest plays for soft power that China has ever staged, the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was intended to showcase Chinese culture and innovation. However, was it as inspiring in the view of Western core values as Chinese media had praised, or was it more imposing and intimidating? Shanghai EXPO just opened after billions of dollars have been devoted to it by the Chinese government, but do people outside China really care?
In this week’s podcast, Kaiser and Jeremy discuss different facets of the grand Chinese soft power push as an effort to win the world through attraction rather than coercion. Is Beijing’s global soft power charm bearing fruits? Is China making or breaking its public image? Why has Chinese culture not made meaningful impacts on the West? In what ways is China still deficient that would make for real attractiveness?
Joining our podcast this week are Gady Epstein, Beijing bureau chief for Forbes magazine, and Evan Osnos, Beijing-based staff writer for the New Yorker and part-time enforcer in Kaiser's outlaw e-biker gang. We are also proud to have extra commentary from Adam Minter, an American writer in Shanghai who brings us stories from his first-hand encounter with the 2010 Expo.
U.S. Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA) on his new U.S.-China policy white paper
The case for the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement
The Rise and Fall of the EAST: MIT's Yasheng Huang on his new book
China Stories summer special: The best of This Week in China's HIstory
Wargaming a Taiwan invasion scenario: Lyle Goldstein on the CSIS wargame “The First Battle of the Next War"
The state of play of generative AI in China, with Paul Triolo
Is the Biden administration resetting U.S.-China relations?
The CFR Taiwan task force report: advice and dissent, with Maggie Lewis and Paul Heer
Transnational repression and China's "overseas police stations," with Jeremy Daum of Yale's Paul Tsai China Law Center
China after COVID: UPenn's Neysun Mahboubi reports on scholarly exchange in a tightening political space
China's Military-Civil Fusion program: CNAS fellow Elsa Kania on the myths and realities
Mr. Blinken goes to Beijing, with former NSC China Director Dennis Wilder
Economist Keyu Jin on her new book, "The New China Playbook"
David Ownby of ReadingtheChinaDream.com on the intellectual mood in China
Curtain-raiser on the Shangri-La Dialogue, with the man who runs the show: James Crabtree of IISS
Harvard's William Kirby on China's higher education system and his book "Empires of Ideas"
Does the Capvision raid signal a crackdown on consultancies in China? The China Project's CEO Bob Guterma, formerly of Capvision, weighs in
China's draft regulations on generative AI, with Kendra Schaefer and Jeremy Daum
Xiong'an: Techno-natural utopia or authoritarian folly?
Earth Day episode: How can the U.S. and China cooperate on climate in this era of competition?
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