Tom Miller, senior Asia analyst and managing editor at Gavekal Research, joins Jeremy and Kaiser to discuss his new book, China’s Asian Dream: Empire Building Along the New Silk Road. Miller combines policy analysis with his on-the-ground reporting from over a dozen countries to better understand China’s most ambitious foreign policy move since the “reform and opening up” that started in 1978: Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative.
With its substantial financial backing and global reach, the Belt and Road Initiative has the potential to reshape the international order and accelerate China’s development as a world leader. Miller brings clarity to the vast and seemingly undefinable policy, detailing China’s desire to create “a network of interdependence,” hone in on issues of national security, and use international development to bolster the country’s growth.
Recommendations:
Jeremy: Ear to Asia, a podcast by the Asia Institute of the University of Melbourne, features academics who examine an array of topics about Asia. In one episode, Chinese literature specialist Anne McLaren discusses her research into the folk ecology of the Lower Yangtze Delta, particularly the rhythmic song cycles sung by workers there.
Tom: Guo Xiaolu’s 郭小橹 memoir, Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China, depicts the author’s difficult beginnings growing up in a poor fishing village on the East China Sea, her later navigation of modern China at the Beijing Film Academy as a young woman, and her outsider’s perspective on London, where she now resides. Her other novel, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, is also worth a read.
Kaiser: Väsen is a Swedish folk trio that plays a viola, a 12-string guitar, and and a nyckelharpa (a “keyed fiddle”). It brings together rock, jazz, and classical influences to discover a modern sound rooted in Swedish tradition.
China’s Ukraine conundrum, with Evan Feigenbaum
Biden's China policy needs to be more than "Trump lite:" A conversation with Jeff Bader
Veteran diplomat Bill Klein recalls the turbulent Trump years at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing
What China is reading and why it matters: A conversation with author Megan Walsh
China's ideological landscape, with Jason Wu
Why the law matters in China, with Jeremy Daum of Yale's Paul Tsai China Law Center
Personality and political discontent in China, with Rory Truex
Dan Wang on China in 2021: "Common prosperity," cultural stunting, and shortcomings of the "modal China story
Mental models for understanding complexity, with Anthea Roberts and Nicolas Lamp
The sociologist watching the China-watchers: A conversation with David McCourt
Damien Ma of MacroPolo on China's economic and political outlook
The investigative team from MIT Technology Review that found major flaws with the DoJ's China Initiative
FOCAC 2021 in Dakar, Senegal, and B3W — the U.S. counter to China's BRI?
Sinica presents the best of China Stories 2021
Revisiting the Red New Deal, with Lizzi Lee and Jude Blanchette (live at NEXTChina 2021)
The Carter Center's survey on Chinese perception, with Yawei Liu and Michael Cerny
Peter Hessler live at the NEXTChina 2021 Conference in New York
Psychologist George Hu of the United Family Mental Health Network on mental health in China
The worldview of Wang Huning, the Party's leading theoretician
Bonus Episode: Introducing the China Sports Insider Podcast
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free