Episode 6: How to think about China

Meia Nouwens, IISS Research Fellow for Chinese Defence Policy and Military Modernisation, joins Dr Kori Schake for this episode of Sounds Strategic.Meia and Kori discuss the economic and intellectual property antagonisms of China’s military development, and the wider economic strategy implications of its goal to become a military world leader by 2030. China seems to have ‘activated the antibodies against [its] continued success’, suggests Kori, referring to the renationalisation of high-tech industries.Meia debunks the myth that China is inflexible because it is an authoritarian government and that, therefore, domestic public opinion doesn’t matter.She asserts that the Chinese public mood is a far greater threat to the Chinese Communist Party than the United States could ever be. Meia and Kori discuss how such assumptions can lead to poor policy decisions by foreign governments.Favourite data visualisation:Xi Jinping’s Thought https://i.stack.imgur.com/tO3Rg.jpgReading recommendations:Philip Ball, The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China (London: Penguin Random House, 2016)Date of recording: 19 February 2019Sounds Strategic is recorded and produced at the IISS in London.Theme music: ‘Safety in Numbers’ by We Were Promised Jetpacks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.