Annalytic Talk

● What is the West really afraid of? China’s growing power — or a China that didn’t turn out the way the West expected? ● Why does the West depend on China economically while seeking to “de-risk” strategically? ● Is conflict between China and the United States ultimately inevitable? Two leaders. Two visits. What answers might Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s back-to-back visits to Beijing reveal? In this episode of Annalytic Talk, I speak with Colonel Zhou Bo, Senior Fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy, to explore how the world should understand China today — and, more importantly, how China sees itself: what kind of major power it believes it wants to become.

China-U.S. relations, perhaps the most consequential bilateral relations in the world, are entering a critical moment. With tensions rising globally, and expectations building ahead of Xi and Trump summit in Beijing, the question is simple but urgent: Are the two sides moving toward stability, or deeper uncertainty? Former US senator and Ambassador to China Max Baucus says that future prosperity depends on how this relationship is managed today. Let’s turn to my conversation with Ambassador Baucus.

A recent Financial Times article questioning whether China really ended extreme poverty has sparked a broader debate--one that goes beyond the facts to how they are selected, framed, and interpreted. Is this a case of healthy skepticism—or selective storytelling? Host Ge Anna speaks with Prof. Robert Walker, who was interviewed for the piece and says key parts of his explanation on China’s poverty alleviation efforts were omitted from the report. In his response article, Media Mythmaking: Mistake, Mischief or Malevolence?, he argues the real issue is not criticism itself, but how selective framing shapes perception.