This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Deborah Seligsohn, who served as the State Department’s Environment, Science, Technology and Health Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2003 to 2007. She is now an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University in Philadelphia, where she currently teaches a course on pandemics and politics. She recalls her firsthand experience with China’s SARS response in 2003, shares her views on how much China improved in the intervening years, and talks about how, when, and why China mishandled its initial response to the novel coronavirus in the winter of 2019–2020. Deborah also offers her critical perspective on the persistent “lab-leak” theory.
This show was recorded on March 12, with an addendum recorded on March 29, in which Deborah addresses some of the news relating to the search for COVID’s origins that came out in the intervening weeks.
6:50: Understanding the origins of COVID-19
34:16: Chinese scientists’ unwillingness to share data
43:54: The World Health Organization’s handling of the virus
54:36: The lab-leak theory
Recommendations:
Deborah: Coronation, by Ai Weiwei, and the podcast In The Bubble: From The Frontlines.
Kaiser: The rise of made-in-China diplomacy, Peter Hessler’s latest piece in The New Yorker.
Has China won? Part 2 of our conversation with Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani
Has China won? A conversation with Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani
Kaiser interviews Gordon Chang!
Grounding China's drones: Leading drone maker DJI's Brendan Schulman on U.S. regulatory challenges
The pathogen and the prejudice: Jiwei Xiao on COVID-19 in China and in America
The Sinica Podcast turns 10
China's Venezuelan vicissitudes
R.I.P. Liu Dehai, pipa virtuoso
Will China save the planet? A climatic conversation with NRDC's Barbara Finamore
Former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul on democracy promotion in Russia and China
Dexter Roberts on ‘The Myth of Chinese Capitalism’
Janet Yang and Michael Berry on the state of cinema in a time of souring U.S.-China ties
USCBC President Craig Allen on trade in a time of disruption
UCLA's Alex Wang on where China leads and lags in climate change
Jeff Wasserstrom on music in protest and revolution in modern China
Chinese industrial espionage and FBI profiling and overreach, with Mara Hvistendahl
U.S. tries to persuade Africa it is a credible alternative to China
Bonus Episode - coronavirus update with Yanzhong Huang
China policy and the American presidency
Former NSC official Jeff Prescott on China-Iran relations
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