The Wire China Podcast

There are fewer U.S. journalists working in China now than at any point since the two countries normalized relations in the 1970s. Today, the New York Times has one reporter in the country, the Wall Street Journal two, soon to be one, and the Washington Post none.Features editor Tom Mitchell and reporter Eliot Chen return to the podcast to discuss Eliot’s investigation into why the journalist population in China has struggled to rebound. While Beijing doesn’t seem to mind this turn of events, the dearth of reporters on the ground in China means the world knows much less about what happens there — a challenge we aim to overcome here at The Wire China.  Eliot’s article will be published this weekend on thewirechina.com, along with other stories on China’s leading AI glasses maker Rokid, what exactly Trump’s idea for a U.S.-China Board of Trade entails, Chris Horton on how how tensions with China are bringing Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan closer together, and a Q&A with Sebastian Mallaby on why the U.S. should be ready to give up its chip export controls if it can help secure an AI safety deal with China.Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://www.thewirechina.com/newsletter/ Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

Another day, another AI chip smuggling ring has been busted by the United States government. But this one is different: for the first time, executives from U.S. server manufacturer Super Micro have been charged with selling NVIDIA chips to Chinese buyers — a violation of U.S. export controls.Reporter Eliot Chen returns to the podcast with editor Andrew Peaple to discuss how the operation worked, and why smuggling chips to China is seemingly so hard to stop.Also, we’ll have a clip from our forthcoming Q&A with author Nicholas Niarchos on the impact that the push for clean energy is having on the countries that supply many of the key resources needed for products like batteries and electric vehicles. Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://www.thewirechina.com/newsletter/ Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

In the high-stakes world of cryptocurrency, traders are writing big checks with borrowed funds — a risky investment trend known as leveraging. To understand whether this will help or hurt the industry, The Wire looks back at the trend's emergence in China.In this episode, we are joined by a new guest: journalist Grady McGregor, who discusses his upcoming piece on crypto leverage and its Chinese origins with features editor Tom Mitchell. His cover article will be published this weekend on our website, thewirechina.com. Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://www.thewirechina.com/newsletter/ Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

After so many years of Canada and the United States presenting a united front against Chinese electric vehicles, some were surprised by Canada's announcement earlier this year it would drop its high tariffs on EVs — and even allow them to set up factories.But, as reporters Eliot Chen and Savannah Billman discuss, security risks haven't disappeared as the tariffs have. In this episode, Eliot explains why the two North American neighbors fell out over EV policy, and traces the close ties between one Chinese car company and a sanctioned surveillance firm.Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

China's solar imports aren't welcome everywhere, but that's not the case in Africa. Solar exports to the continent as a whole increased by almost 50 percent last year. In our latest episode, editor Andrew Peaple and reporter Noah Berman discuss his upcoming reporting on Chinese solar's booming sales to the continent. Solar proponents spy opportunity to improve electrical grids across African nations with Chinese imports, but are widening trade deficits and China's anti-involutionary policies going to slow the rush?In the second part of this episode, we look at how the U.S. intelligence community viewed the Hainan spy plane crisis through the eyes of Dennis Wilder, who was then CIA China Division Chief. Our oral history of the incident continues this week on our website, thewirechina.com, where Part II will be released this Sunday evening.Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

25 years ago, a Chinese and a U.S. plane collided over the waters off of China's southern coast. The Chinese pilot was never found, while the 24 surviving American crew members made an emergency landing on a Chinese military base on the island of Hainan.In this special episode, The Wire China kicks off our two-part oral history series on the Hainan spy plane crisis, a defining diplomatic test for both nations at the beginning of the so-called "Asian Century." Editor Tom Mitchell, reporter Rachel Cheung, and the Wire China Team bring together the voices of the officials, pilots, diplomats, and military personnel who were there to understand how they navigated the crisis — and if such an incident might occur again.The full oral histories will release in two parts on thewirechina.com over the next two weeks. Audio:President Bush/Chen Ci from AP ArchiveShenyang J-8 audio from Wikimedia CommonsFollow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

It seems as if everything is AI now — well, not this podcast. But you can't discuss U.S.-China relations without understanding which one is ahead in artificial intelligence. Who leads on the scorecard?In our eighth episode, reporters Rachel Cheung and Savannah Billman discuss Rachel's upcoming story on where the United States and China score across the stack of technologies and capabilities that make AI possible. We also have an excerpt from our upcoming Q&A with veteran diplomat Sarah Beran on the role of U.S.-China diplomacy in an evolving international environment. You can read these stories and more at thewirechina.com. Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

Reporter Noah Berman and editor Tom Mitchell take us to small-town North Carolina, where a new magnet factory has set up shop. Vulcan Elements wants to make magnets without sourcing any materials from China — a difficult task, because Chinese companies monopolize the supply and production chain for the rare earths needed in the process.Also in this episode, an excerpt from this week's Q&A with Kei Koizumi, former Deputy Director at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and a preview of our upcoming issue, which you can read this weekend at thewirechina.com Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

In our sixth episode, reporters Eliot Chen, Rachel Cheung, and Savannah Billman discuss the latest breakthroughs in Bytedance’s AI video generation tool, Seedance 2.0. The extremely lifelike videos went viral around the world, but also triggered existential questions for the film industry and the Chinese startups looking to make a profit from AI cinema. We also explore why AI diffusion in China is so low despite the high technical capabilities of domestically developed models and tools.Coming up this week, we have an extract from our latest Q&A with the economist Eswar Prasad about his new book, The Doom Loop: Why the World Economic Order is Spiraling into Disorder, and a guide to the other articles you can read in this week's edition, published every Sunday evening EST at thewirechina.comFollow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

Smugglers in Texas, New Jersey, and New York. A mysterious Hong Kong client. And a plot to illegally sell Nvidia AI chips to China.In our fifth episode, The Wire China reporter Eliot Chen ventures into the criminal underworld with news editor Andrew Peaple. They discuss how Eliot mapped out an international smuggling ring busted late last year for sending advanced chips to Chinese customers. It's a case that reads more like a thriller — and it shows just how far companies will go for an edge in the increasingly competitive race for tech dominance.We also have an extract from our latest Q&A with former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on how successive presidential administrations navigated U.S.-China rare earth competition, and a guide to the other articles you can read in this week's edition, published every Sunday evening EST at thewirechina.comFollow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

China's economic rise beckoned Jeffrey Epstein in the 2010s. Associates of the financier and sex offender, who made much of his money from advising billionaires, sought opportunities to connect him with a network of powerful men in China.Though no concrete deals ever materialized, the Epstein files demonstrate how power, connections, and opportunities flowed among the elite as China's star continued to rise. In this episode, our reporters discuss how they sorted through thousands of files to build the network of Epstein associates with stakes in the China game.The Wire China will have no new issue this week as we take off for the Chinese New Year. Read the Epstein and China story on our website, thewirechina.com.Follow us on social media:https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

In our third episode, features editor Tom Mitchell is joined by reporter Noah Berman to discuss shifts for two of China's most consequential exports: military armaments and electric vehicles. Even as wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa raged on in 2024, newly released data for that year shows that China's arms exports decreased by ten percent as Xi Jinping's anti-corruption investigations roiled the country's defense industry. Meanwhile, despite trade tensions, the door for Chinese EVs to enter U.S. markets is not entirely sealed shut, but President Trump's seeming openness to the idea puts him at odds with national and state officials alike.We also have an extract from our latest Q&A with author Yi-Ling Liu on her new book "The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet," and a guide to the other articles you can read in this week's edition, published every Sunday evening EST at thewirechina.comFollow us on social media: https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

Welcome to the second episode of The Wire China podcast, in which we take you behind the scenes of the stories we cover each week in our magazine, thewirechina.com.In this episode, reporter Eliot Chen walks us through a true crime thriller with news editor Andrew Peaple. A mild-mannered Chinese software engineer working for Google in California schemes to make it big as a tech entrepreneur by setting up his own company back in China. Instead, he winds up in the middle of the U.S.-China tech war, accused of stealing Google's intellectual property for the Chinese government.We also have an extract from our latest Q&A, with Ali Wyne of the International Crisis Group, and a guide to the other articles you can read in this week's edition, published every Sunday evening EST at thewirechina.comFollow us on social media: https://x.com/thewirechinahttps://bsky.app/profile/thewirechina.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/thewirechinahttps://www.instagram.com/thewirechina/?hl=en

Welcome to the first episode of The Wire China podcast, in which we will take you behind the scenes of the stories we cover each week in our magazine, thewirechina.com.In this episode, news editor Andrew Peaple talks to reporter Rachel Cheung about her latest cover story on China's fast-growing robotaxi industry, and whether a recent spate of accidents involving self-driving cars will drive the sector off course. We also have an extract from our latest Q&A, with Chinese economist David Daokui Li, and a guide to the other articles you can read in this week's edition, which you can read at thewirechina.com