China’s legislature is meeting in March to approve the nation’s new Five Year Plan, which aims to promote higher quality growth, and make China increasingly self-sufficient in new technology of all kinds, from AI to semiconductors. Yet it comes against a backdrop of uncertainty and tariff wars abroad, and high youth unemployment and a slumping property market at home. Xi Jinping has pinned his hopes on boosting domestic consumption and has pledged to promote the private economy, which he had previously hit with a major regulatory crackdown. But will this be enough to stimulate the kind of economic revival the government is hoping for? Andy Rothman, founder of the consultancy Sinology LLC, former China-based analyst and diplomat, and now senior advisor to the DGA Albright Stonebridge Group and senior China fellow at the Asia Society Northern California, discusses China’s economic prospects — and the challenges for consumer confidence and private enterprise.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

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The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
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SOAS China Institute (SCI)

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The run-up to the lunar year has been a busy one for China’s President Xi Jinping, with world leaders beating a path to Beijing to meet him; he also found time to purge two of the Chinese military’s top generals, while the outspoken Hong Kong newspaper publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai was jailed for 20 years. And with the erratic trade and foreign policy of the US currently boosting Beijing’s global influence, the 72 year-old leader could be said to be at the height of his powers. Yet even after more than a decade in charge of China, to many people outside the country he remains something of an enigma, rarely speaking to international media. Professor Joseph Torigian, a specialist on Chinese politics at American University in Washington DC, offers an unusual insight into Xi Jinping’s backstory in his new book, The Party’s Interests Come First, a biography of the Chinese president’s father, Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002), who was himself a senior party official, but was purged from the leadership by Chairman Mao and jailed in the 1960s and 70s, before returning to pioneer economic reforms in southern China. In this episode, Joseph Torigian looks at how his father’s experiences may — or in some cases may not — have influenced Xi Jinping’s life and politics.

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For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)

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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

Sir Keir Starmer described his recent trip to China as a chance to end the ‘ice age’ in the two countries’ ties and build a more ‘sophisticated’ relationship. But despite the announcement of visa free-travel to China for British visitors, and the lifting of sanctions on six British MPs and peers, Starmer has been criticised by political opponents for failing to secure the release of publisher and British citizen Jimmy Lai, recently found guilty of sedition and national security offences in Hong Kong. This follows controversy over the approval of China’s new embassy in the City of London, and concerns about alleged Chinese espionage and the potential security risks of Chinese technology. Professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute, and Jonathan Fenby, former editor of the Observer newspaper and Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, and author of The Penguin History of Modern China, discuss where Britain stands in its relations with an increasingly powerful China — and the significance of President Xi Jinping’s assertion that when it comes to his country, the UK needs to ‘see the entire elephant’.

Photo credit: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk

________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)

• SCI Blog
• SCI on X
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• SCI on Instagram

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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0