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China 21
by 21st Century China Program
China 21 is produced by the 21st Century China Center, at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. We are a leading university-based think tank that produces scholarly research and informs policy discussions on China and U.S.-China relations. This podcast features expert voices, insights and stories about China’s economy, politics, society, and the implications for international affairs. Visit china.ucsd.edu
Episodes
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China 21: U.S.-China Relations at a Crossroads — Sarah Beran and Victor Shih
This podcast was recording in November, 2025
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China 21: Bureaucracies at War, featuring Tyler Jost
China 21: Bureaucracies at War, featuring Tyler Jost by 21st Century China Program
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China 21: Outsourcing Repression — Featuring Lynette Ong
We speak with Professor Lynette Ong about her latest book, covering how China uses thugs and respected elders alike to enforce its control over society with a mix of persuasion and violence.
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China 21: Micro-Foundations of Capitalism - Featuring Roselyn Hsueh
In this episode of China 21, UC San Diego Professor Barry Naughton speaks to Roselyn Hsueh about her new book which covers China's, India's and Russia's pathways to gloablization.
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China 21: Retrofitting Leninism - Featuring Dimitar Gueorguiev
China 21: Retrofitting Leninism - Featuring Dimitar Gueorguiev by 21st Century China Program
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China 21: The DOJ's China Initiative: Where it went wrong, and why - Susan Shirk & Carol Lam
In this episode of China 21, Susan Shirk interviews former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam about the twists and turns taken by the DOJ's China Initiative.
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China 21: Xinjiang from Qing to Xi - James Millward & Micah Muscolino
Micah Muscolino interviews James Millward, a leading scholar on China and Central Asia at Georgetown University. They connect the history of Xinjiang in the Qing Empire, to assimilationist policies and terrorism of the 2000s, and to present day large-scale repression and cultural genocide of...
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China 21: Epidemic Control & Medical Diplomacy - Mary Brazelton & Micah Muscolino
Micah Muscolino interviews Mary Brazelton, a historian of science, technology and medicine, on mass mobilizations to battle epidemics, medical diplomacy, and vaccines as tools of political control before and after 1949. They discuss the implications of those historical developments on how China…
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China 21: Remembering June 4 - Perry Link & Paul Pickowicz
The 21st Century China Center is premiering a new web series: "China Throughlines" - featuring UC San Diego’s China historians in conversation with their colleagues on the echos and connectedness of China’s storied past to the twenty-first century. In this audo excerpt from the pilot episode…
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China 21: Rural China Copes with Covid-19 - Scott Rozelle
Since the novel coronavirus outbreak in the megacity of Wuhan in December 2019, lockdowns were also implemented across China’s vast countryside, home to more than 700 million people. Dr. Scott Rozelle, senior fellow at Stanford University FSI and co-director of the Rural Education Action Program,...
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China 21: Investing in US-China Relations - Weijian Shan and James Kralik
As we are living through a historic pandemic and ever more turbulent US-China relations, we revisit a conversation recorded at our last public lecture right before the lockdown. 21st Century China Board Chair James Kralik interviews investor and best-selling author Weijian Shan about his memoir…
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China 21: Lessons from 1989 - Wang Dan and Victor Shih
Wang Dan 王丹 speaks with Victor Shih on the lessons from the 1989 student democracy movement. They discuss Wang’s journey as a young student leading up to the Tiananmen Square protests and his life since. Wang describes his mission for Dialogue China - and the discussions he’s fostering about...
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China 21: Interpreting the Xi Dynasty - Geremie Barmé & Susan Shirk
In a wide-ranging conversation, Susan Shirk and Geremie Barmé discuss cultural and political life in China during the Xi Jinping era. Barmé, who coined the term “Chairman of Everything,” compares Xi’s style and ambition with the cult of Mao and dynastic rulers from China’s long history. They also...
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China 21: Defending Digital Rights - Rebecca MacKinnon & Molly Roberts
Molly Roberts interviews Rebecca MacKinnon about her time as a journalist covering human rights and politics in Asia that leads to her pioneering work on advocating for digital rights, corporate responsibility and freedom of expression around the world. Rebecca MacKinnon is the director of…
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China 21: China Tripping (Part 2) - Paul Pickowicz, Perry Link, Jeremy Murray
Paul Pickowicz, Perry Link and Jeremy Murray speaks with guest host Lazlo Montgomery in this special co-produced episode with China History Podcast, with excerpts from their new book “China Tripping: Encountering the Everyday in the People’s Republic” and discussion about how traveling to China...
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China 21: China Tripping (Part 1) - Paul Pickowicz, Perry Link, Jeremy Murray
Paul Pickowicz, Perry Link and Jeremy Murray speaks with guest host Lazlo Montgomery in this special co-produced episode with China History Podcast, with excerpts from their new book “China Tripping: Encountering the Everyday in the People’s Republic” and discussion about how traveling to China...
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China 21: Mobilizing Without the Masses - Diana Fu
Diana Fu describes the evolution of activism, citizenship and civil society in China, and how NGOs engage in unconventional mobilization under authoritarian rule, based on her research on migrant workers and labor organizations. Diana Fu is an associate professor of political sciences at the...
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China 21: U.S.-China Rivalry Roils Asia - Danny Russel & Steph Haggard
Steph Haggard speaks with Danny Russel about the intensifying U.S.-China rivalry that is ushering in new dynamic in the Asia Pacific region. They address the trade war, negotiations with North Korea, American alliance with Japan, the Indo-Pacific strategy, and warn against the notion of…
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China 21: Will China Save the Planet? - Barbara Finamore
Barbara Finamore, who founded the National Resource Defense Council’s China program, discusses with China Focus editor-in-chief Charlie Vest about China’s clean energy sectors, domestic environmental activism and its push to develop renewable energy infrastructure abroad. Barbara Finamore founded...
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China 21: AI, 5G, and the Race for Tech Supremacy - Elsa Kania
Elsa Kania discusses the potential and concerns of cutting-edge technologies that are underpinning the competition between the U.S. and China, especially in the race towards supremacy in AI and 5G - and describes what healthy U.S.-China competition can look like going forward. Elsa Kania is an...
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China 21: U.S.-China Symbiosis - Joe Tsai & Susan Shirk
Alibaba’s Joe Tsai speaks with Susan Shirk in front of a live audience in a wide-ranging conversation about current trade disputes, security concerns, technological competition, and the innovation and collaboration capacity for U.S. and China. Mr. Tsai is the co-founder and Executive Vice…
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China 21: China's Investment Outlook - Andy Rothman & Victor Shih
Andy Rothman speaks with Victor Shih on the opportunities and volatility of investing in the People's Republic and the outlook on China's impact on global economic growth. They discuss the risk of including China's bonds and SOEs in passive indices, the challenge of data verification and spurring...
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China 21: Unlikely Partners On the Cruise To Reform - Julian Gewirtz
In the critical period of China’s opening in the 1980s, Chinese policymakers invited Western economists to learn and debate the way forward for China, and that’s the subject of fascinating research by Julian Gewirtz in his book “Unlikely Partners: Chinese Reformers, Western Economists, and the...
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China 21: Trade Disputes - Victor Shih, Natalia Ramondo, Barry Naughton
As President Trump’s team continues trade negotiations in Beijing this week, we bring you this recently recorded conversation between GPS professors Natalia Ramondo, Barry Naughton and Victor Shih. They discuss the current threat of tariffs by both countries, and implications on multilateral…
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China 21: Soul of a Superpower - Ian Johnson & Richard Madsen
Ian Johnson joins Richard Madsen to discusses how today’s Chinese Communist Party is striving for a national set of values, and how ordinary Chinese are seeking for deeper meaning in their lives, and the lessons for the rest of the world in this global populist moment. Ian Johnson is a...
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China 21: Ballasting the US-China Relationship - John Pomfret & Paul Pickowicz
Historian Paul Pickowicz interviews acclaimed author John Pomfret about patterns in the long history of US-China relations, and how it informs the controversies in the current moment of Sino-American relations ranging from the impact of Chinese students on US universities, Xi Jinping’s end to...
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China 21: Qualcomm & U.S.-China Tech Rivalry - Tai Ming Cheung, Mikko Huotari, Barry Naughton
Tai Ming Cheung, Mikko Huotari and Barry Naughton unpack the China factor in the case of the U.S. government’s protection of Qualcomm, and discuss what kind of tools and policies will emerge as the rules of engagement in international investment and technological competition continue to become...
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China 21: Xi Without Limits - Victor Shih, Susan Shirk, Barry Naughton, Lei Guang
21st Century China Center faculty reflect on Sunday's announcement by Chinese Communist Party to end term limits on the presidency, clearing the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely. Even in the context of the party's authoritarian rule, it is a significant break from rules...
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China 21: China's Political Order - Francis Fukuyama & Barry Naughton
Francis Fukuyama and Barry Naughton trace the origins of the Chinese state, its historic economic modernization, and how the current Xi Jinping era is challenging assumptions and theories about political order and decay. They also discussed the relationship between political freedom and...
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China 21: The Specter of Global China - Ching Kwan Lee
UCLA sociologist Ching Kwan Lee discusses her new book that is the result of over six years of ethnographic research in Zambia on Chinese capital and labor. In The Specter of Global China: Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investment in Africa, Prof. Lee analyzes the peculiarity of outbound Chinese...
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China 21: Thailand-China Relations - Somkiat Tangkitvanich
Dr. Somkiat Tangkitvanich, President of the Thailand Development Research Institute, discusses current Thailand-China relations and the impact of Chinese investment and infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. Dr. Tangkitvanich is a leading Thai expert in the areas of trade and investment...
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China 21: American Grand Strategy in Asia – Stephan Haggard & Michael Green
Does the Trump Administration have a grand strategy in Asia? How does an "American First" posture square with the idea of a free and open Asia Pacific? Stephan Haggard interviews Michael Green on the president's visit to Asia and how it reflects the recurring themes in the long arc of American...
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China 21: Left, Right, Middle Kingdom: Ideology in China – Jennifer Pan & Yiqing Xu
Scholars Jennifer Pan & Yiqing Xu discussed their paper on “China’s Ideological Spectrum,” which has generated widespread acclaim and discussion. They analyzed data from an opinion survey of more than half a million Chinese citizens, and find that public preferences in ideology are not simply…
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China 21: China's News Media - Wang Shuo
Caixin's Managing Editor Wang Shuo 王烁 describes the challenge for investigative journalists in China in the context of a changing media landscape and state control of information. He also discusses the stories his team has worked on, from high-speed rail accidents, to the one-child policy, to...
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China 21: Hong Kong’s Movement for Democracy - Evans Chan
Director Evans Chan (陳耀成) talks about his latest documentary “Raise the Umbrellas,” the politicization of Hong Kong identity and media, and the city's democratic future and implications for Greater China. (Trailer: https://youtu.be/Q2kxtQW-nAA) Chan is an independent filmmaker, who has been...
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China 21: SHIFT+Asia: Digitizing Chinese Studies - Karl Gerth & Tom Mullaney
Dr. Karl Gerth interviews Dr. Tom Mullaney about his journey in building a digital humanities community for Asian studies and how a new set of analytic tools are disrupting and transforming the practice of teaching history and understanding various phenomena in China. Karl Gerth is a professor of...
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China 21: US-China Trade – Gordon Hanson & Charlene Barshefsky
Gordon Hanson and Charlene Barshefsky discuss China’s commitments and market reforms since joining the WTO and the path ahead in the trade relationship between the world’s two biggest economies. They explore the policy and enforcement tools the US has to confront China over the imbalance and lack...
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China 21: Chinese Dream on Wheels: China & The Future of Cars - Michael J. Dunne
China is now the biggest auto market, including electric vehicles. Michael Dunne discusses the government's role in guiding the car industry, competition and cross-border investment among Western and Chinese firms, and implication for clean energy, infrastructure and job-creation in both…
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China 21: Trump & China - Bipartisan Policy Recommendations with Susan Shirk and Winston Lord
Two China policy veterans: Prof. Susan Shirk and Amb. Winston Lord are members of a high-level bipartisan task force that launched a report on US Policy Toward China, with detailed policy recommendations for the Trump administration. They offer an overview of the comprehensive list of issues...
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China 21: Make America & China Laugh Again - Jesse Appell
Intercultural comedian Jesse Appell, founder of US-China Comedy Center in Beijing, shares his fun and educational journey of learning what makes Chinese people laugh, and bridging cultural gaps with humor. www.ChinaFocus.us hosted Jesse's performance at UC San Diego on Feb. 6 as part of his…
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China 21 : China’s Green Leap Forward - Julio Friedmann & David Victor
Dr. Julio Friedmann unpacks the environmental and energy challenges in China - the world’s largest energy user, largest emitter, largest market and largest cleantech enterprise. Interview is followed by excerpt from conversation with Dr. David Victor Dr. Friedmann is the senior advisor for energy...
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China 21: U.S.-China Relations After Obama: Looking Ahead with Melanie Hart
Dr. Melanie Hart reviews America's foreign policy towards China in the last eight years, and looks ahead to opportunities and challenges in US-China Relations in light of constructive milestones and the US presidential elections. Dr. Hart is currently a Senior Fellow and Director of China Policy…
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China 21: The Cross is Red - Richard Madsen on Christianity in China
The Chinese Communist Party issued new directives for religious affairs earlier this year, especially calling for religions to serve national interests. What does this new project to “sinicize” religions imply for religious practice in China? For Christians in China, how are they adapting as…
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China 21: 13th Five Year Plan with Deborah Seligsohn & Jack Zhang (十三五: China’s Roadmap)
Deborah and Jack unpacks the details and highlights of China’s latest five-year-plan, the most basic and authoritative document that charts out the country’s strategic vision, covering policies, measures and targets on domestic social issues, to the environment, to education and economic...
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China 21: Running a Bank in China - Victor Shih & Ken Wilcox
Professor Victor Shih speaks with Ken Wilcox of Silicon Valley Bank on the lessons learned from running a joint-venture with a state-owned bank and how banking practices have evolved during recent financial crises in China. Victor Shih is a leading expert in examining the intersection of China’s...
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China 21: Poverty Alleviation in China - Albert Park
Professor Albert Park of Hong Kong University of Science & Technology talks with Samuel Tsoi about his research on human capital and labor, firm performance, poverty and inequality, rural-urban migration, and the social safety net in the People's Republic of China. Albert Park is a development...
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China 21: Dr. Susan Shirk & Amb. Stapleton Roy on China's Internal and Regional Politics
Two of the most influential China Hands, Professor Susan Shirk and Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy, discuss the current state of Chinese politics, the South China Sea, and where they see China in the next 5 to 10 years. Susan Shirk is the esteemed chair of the 21st Century China Program, and former...
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China 21: Reporting from China - David Barboza of the New York Times
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Barboza shares his decade-long journey of reporting on China's economy, culminating in his investigative article on the hidden wealth of China's political elite, published by the New York Times in 2013. David Barboza has been a Shanghai-based correspondent...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
China 21 is produced by the 21st Century China Center, at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. We are a leading university-based think tank that produces scholarly research and informs policy discussions on China and U.S.-China relations. This podcast features expert voices, insights and stories about China’s economy, politics, society, and the implications for international affairs. Visit china.ucsd.edu
HOSTED BY
21st Century China Program
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China 21 currently has 48 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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China 21 is produced by the 21st Century China Center, at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. We are a leading university-based think tank that produces scholarly research and informs policy discussions on China and U.S.-China relations. This podcast features expert voices,...
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China 21 has 48 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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