PODCAST · society
The Red Leaf Express
by Joey Chou
The Red Leaf Express is a short-form podcast examining geopolitical stability and instability across the Indo-Pacific, reimagining the spirit of the Mayflower—a voyage once made in search of religious and civic freedom—through a modern regional lens. Focused on current affairs and regional flashpoints, the show connects headlines to the historical, cultural, and strategic forces shaping the Indo-Pacific order.--Hosting provided by SoundOn
Episodes
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EP042 - No one bets on someone who doesn’t play
Foreign support comes with conditions. From South Vietnam and Finland to Japan, Ukraine and Taiwan, Joey Chou examines why countries help others, and when that help ends. Taiwan’s investments can build American interest, but lasting security also depends on its own willingness to fund defense and...
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EP041 - Reach for the ballots
From Italy’s 1948 election to today’s contests, Joey Chou examines how powerful countries try to shape other nations’ choices. Open endorsements, trade pressure, covert campaigns and intimidation all exploit emotions. Across Taiwan, Brazil and British Columbia, the challenge is separating…
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EP040 - All Quiet on the APEC Front
Ahead of possible APEC sidelines talks in Shenzhen, Red Leaf Express revisits Nixon’s opening to China and Taiwan’s exclusion from those negotiations. Today, Ukraine and Taiwan face decisions made without them, while South Korea seeks its own seat. Who gets a say when great powers bargain over...
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EP039 - From Manila to Nanjing: the real effect of the summit last week
Old treaties still shape the Indo-Pacific, but this week’s signals came from what arrived—and what did not. Joey Chou follows fighter jets held in Hawaii, a Taiwanese patrol ship delivered to the Philippines, and a minister’s visit to Nanjing to examine what the Trump-Xi summit means beyond its...
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EP038 - 40 years later, the economic order shuffles again
Forty-one years after the Plaza Accord reshaped Asia’s manufacturing map, another round of quiet U.S.-China negotiations unfolds behind presidential ceremony. Joey Chou examines the officials drafting agreements on artificial intelligence, rare earths and tariffs, while Taiwan and Japan make...
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EP037 - Who calls and who folds
Beijing relies on others to enforce its pressure against Taiwan. Joey Chou examines governments that resist, Taiwan’s own cautious compliance, and the shipping companies and insurers whose private decisions could determine whether China’s rules carry weight—drawing lessons from West Germany’s…
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EP036 - No outside interference
From Xi Jinping’s Cairo message to Chinese coast guard ships east of Taiwan, this episode examines what “no outside interference” means when a great power sets the rules nearby. Joey Chou weighs US strain, Beijing’s pressure and Taiwan’s response, asking what autonomy looks like for an island…
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EP035 – Who Guards the Room That Matters
Four governments, four guarded rooms: Beijing reaches into personal devices, Moscow controls an Arctic shipping route, Taipei catches restricted AI servers, and Washington holds the legal leverage. Joey Chou examines why Taiwan can defend its own border yet still depends on decisions made inside...
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EP034 - Who do you call and cards do you hold?
When something goes wrong, a government has 2 things it can actually use. The first is other governments — who takes its call, and who gives it a straight answer. The second is its own machinery — what it can decide, fund and deliver without asking anyone's permission. And both of them take years...
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EP033 - What We Already Know (and What We Didn't)
Earlier this year, a researcher in Amsterdam was poking around the internet and found a Chinese police computer system that nobody had locked. So he went in. The system was built to keep track of foreigners. He scrolled through it for a while. And then he found his own name. His photo was in…
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EP032 - Everyone Is Scraping
China, Japan, the United States and Taiwan all look wealthy on paper. But can they use what they own? Joey Chou traces frozen offshore fortunes, untouchable Treasury holdings, costly American borrowing and Taiwan’s economic and military constraints to reveal the widening gap between wealth and...
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EP031 - Keep Your Powder Dry
In Manila, the American Secretary of State was asked why weapons Taiwan has already paid for still haven't arrived. He didn't say the commitment had changed. He said the sales were still being reviewed against stockpiles and supply, while Washington works to rebuild its defence industry. That's a...
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EP030 - Which Part of the Government Do You Listen to?
Imagine you run a shipping company. Or a small country's foreign ministry. Or a defense budget. You have to make a decision this year that will not pay off for six years. And to make it, you need to know what one large government is going to do. So you go and look. And you find that the large...
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EP029 - When Your Friends Stop Liking You
For more than 20 years, a major American research center has asked people around the world how they feel about the United States and China. This year, the order flipped: Across 36 countries, China now has a more favorable image than the United States in 25 of them—including Canada, Mexico, much…
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EP028 - The Missile, the Fleet, and the Fist: China Pressed Taiwan From Every Direction
At one minute past noon last Monday, a ballistic missile broke the surface of the Pacific, fired from a Chinese submarine somewhere underwater. It flew for roughly half an hour and came down in the South Pacific — where three Chinese survey ships were already waiting to measure exactly where it...
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EP027 - The Downgraded Channel
Last Tuesday, China’s foreign minister called America’s top diplomat — and the two governments came away with two different phone calls. Beijing’s readout carried a pointed warning about Taiwan. Washington’s readout did not mention Taiwan at all. This week: Beijing raised its voice on Taiwan…
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EP026 - The Superpower Vacuum
On Tuesday, China's newest aircraft carrier — the Fujian — transited the Taiwan Strait. That sentence has appeared in news feeds before. It will appear again. And each time it does, the instinct is to file it under provocation, under pressure, under the weekly drumbeat of Chinese military…
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EP025 - Two Clocks Running
This past week, two things were true about the world at the same time. The first: markets surged. A peace deal was signed. Oil prices fell. Taiwan’s stock market hit all-time highs — twice. The economy is now expected to grow nearly ten percent this year. A respected Swiss business school ranked...
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EP024 - The Closing Window
Five hours. That's how long it took this week for Donald Trump to go from threatening to bomb Iran's Kharg Island — the island that handles roughly ninety percent of Iran's oil exports — to announcing on social media that the United States and Iran were about to sign a peace agreement. Five…
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EP023 - The Franchise Model
In the summer of 2026, the United States sent seventeen of its most powerful business executives to Beijing. The list included the CEOs of Nvidia and Qualcomm — the two American companies most directly affected by US chip export controls on China. It included the head of BlackRock, the world's...
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EP022 - Every Deal Is a Good Deal
On May 27th, the leaders of Japan and the Philippines sat down in Tokyo and signed a joint statement. They agreed to elevate their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership — deeper intelligence sharing, military equipment transfers, coast guard cooperation. And they agreed to begin...
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EP021 - The Maintainer
In March 1996, China fired ballistic missiles into the waters off Taiwan's coast. Not at Taiwan. Near it. The target was the psychology — a message delivered to every Taiwanese voter preparing to cast a ballot in the island's first-ever direct presidential election: look at what proximity to us...
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EP020 - The Presidential Speech
Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-te [LYE CHING-tuh], is delivering a speech. It is the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. And the word he uses to describe himself — the political identity he claims in public, on this day, in this moment — matters more than it has at any point in his…
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EP014 - The Strait of Hormuz Now Has Got a Price Tag
Taiwan's economy is flashing red — and this week, red means boom. Record GDP forecasts, record stock gains, record labor fund returns. But in the same week: oil crossed a hundred dollars, a French container ship paid Iran in yuan to cross the Strait of Hormuz, and Taiwan's opposition leader flew…
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EP013 - China's strategy on all fronts
But a 34-kilometer strait now has a toll booth, and the costs are already transmitting through everything from jet fuel, electricity bills and plastic bags. Meanwhile, China is running three simultaneous campaigns while the world watches Hormuz — AI-driven information warfare, yuan oil settlement...
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EP012 - A Clean Break
In 1996, a group of policy advisers wrote a strategy document for a newly elected Benjamin Netanyahu. It was called A Clean Break. It named Iraq, Syria, and Iran as targets to be removed — not negotiated with. Thirty years later, one name remains on the list. And the clock appears to be running.…
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EP011 - The Insurance Playbook
Iran closed the world's most important oil chokepoint without a navy — just drones, IRGC commanders, and insurance underwriters in London. Taiwan's waters carry nearly half the world's container fleet. This week, we ask the question nobody is saying out loud: has Iran just handed Beijing a…
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EP010 - The Insurance Blockade
Iran closed the world's most important energy chokepoint — not with a navy, but with cheap drones and the insurance market. Joey unpacks the paradox at the heart of the Hormuz crisis: a weapon powerful enough to send oil past $109 a barrel, but one that points at everyone — including the hand...
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EP009 - Who's Burning What
Taiwan's stock market hit its year-end target in February. The HALO trade is real — hardware wins when AI can't replace the physical. But this week, the US lost in court and launched a war eight days later. Germany flew to Beijing underprepared. The architecture looks intact. The question is...
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EP008 - Last Factory Standing
America's Supreme Court just struck down Trump's tariffs. Taiwan's trade deal survived. The chips are still moving. So why does this feel like the wrong kind of good news? This week, the Red Leaf Express traces the historical pattern underneath the headlines — and asks whether Taiwan is making…
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EP007 - The case of Japan: key to the new order
Japan's Takaichi wins the biggest electoral mandate since WWII. Five days later, Taiwan commits $250 billion in overseas semiconductor investment. Everyone covered these as separate stories. They're not. Joey Chou examines how Japan is quietly becoming the anchor of a new East Asian order—and…
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EP006 - China is Not Rushing, Should We Be?
The U.S., Japan, and Taiwan launched their most coordinated rare earth move the same week seven European leaders flew to Beijing. One group's building for 2027. The other's hedging now. And Xi Jinping just purged his last rival while Trump fights midterm math. Guess who's racing whom. -- Hosting...
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EP005 - The Price of Democratic Solidarity
As world leaders queue in Beijing and Canada's Mark Carney declares a new "values-based realism" that abandons democratic principles, what happens to those who bet on solidarity? Joey Chou examines the shifting global order and speaks with former Czech Parliament Speaker Markéta Pekarová Adamová...
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EP004 - My Big Fat Canadian Divorce: Mark Carney's Middle Power Doctrine
When America's closest allies—Canada, UK, Finland, South Korea—make their first Beijing visits in seven years, it signals more than diplomacy. Mark Carney's standing ovation at Davos revealed the truth: middle powers are hedging against American unpredictability by building partnerships with…
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EP003 - Hollowed Out: The Venezuela Lens on Taiwan
Venezuela wasn't invaded because of Maduro—it was invaded because it was already broken. This week, we apply that lens to Japan and Taiwan. As the US retreats to the third island chain and economic cracks widen, what happens when small states lose the leverage that keeps them safe? -- Hosting...
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EP002 - What the Maduro capture reveals about being a small state in a G2 world
The US Venezuela operation wasn't about Maduro's crimes—it was a resource grab and capability demonstration aimed at China. But the real danger isn't that Beijing will copy this playbook for Taiwan. It's that we're normalizing decapitation operations as acceptable—and US allies are quietly…
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EP001 - When drills become normal
EP001 examines China’s Justice Mission 2025 drills around Taiwan and asks why escalation now feels routine. It breaks down what made the drills operationally significant, why international reactions were muted, and how a G2 world is reshaping crisis management. The episode warns that public...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Red Leaf Express is a short-form podcast examining geopolitical stability and instability across the Indo-Pacific, reimagining the spirit of the Mayflower—a voyage once made in search of religious and civic freedom—through a modern regional lens. Focused on current affairs and regional flashpoints, the show connects headlines to the historical, cultural, and strategic forces shaping the Indo-Pacific order.--Hosting provided by SoundOn
HOSTED BY
Joey Chou
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Red Leaf Express have?
The Red Leaf Express currently has 37 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Red Leaf Express about?
The Red Leaf Express is a short-form podcast examining geopolitical stability and instability across the Indo-Pacific, reimagining the spirit of the Mayflower—a voyage once made in search of religious and civic freedom—through a modern regional lens. Focused on current affairs and regional...
How often does The Red Leaf Express release new episodes?
The Red Leaf Express has 37 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Red Leaf Express?
You can listen to The Red Leaf Express on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Red Leaf Express?
The Red Leaf Express is created and hosted by Joey Chou.
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