The sudden emergence of DeepSeek’s AI chatbot earlier this year reminded the world of just how fast Chinese technology is developing. But it’s also highlighted continuing tensions over China’s technological rise — US Vice President JD Vance recently spoke of America being in an ‘arms race’ with China for control of Artificial Intelligence: the US has banned the export of its most advanced chips to China, and is now trying to stop companies around the world from using China’s own latest chips. It’s also sanctioned numerous Chinese tech firms due to security fears. The EU meanwhile has imposed tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles, amidst concerns about unfair subsidies. But as its technology improves, is China winning the ‘tech war’? And what does this mean for Taiwan, currently the world’s largest chip manufacturer? These topics are explored in a new audio book, ‘Global Tech Wars - China’s Race to Dominate’, by James Kynge, who recently left the Financial Times, where he reported on China for almost three decades. Now a senior fellow at MERICS (the Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies) in Berlin, he discusses his findings with presenter Duncan Hewitt.

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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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After the drama of Donald Trump’s Liberation Day and the 145 percent tariffs he imposed on China, and Beijing’s retaliation with 125 percent tariffs, the two countries have agreed a 90 day pause while they engage in further negotiations. But with the US recently announcing that it would seek to punish any business using advanced chips made by the Chinese IT giant Huawei anywhere in the world, and Beijing threatening retaliatory measures against anyone who complies, what are the prospects for a meaningful and lasting trade deal? On this episode we hear the views of two Americans with decades of experience in China, Kenneth Jarrett, a former US Consul General in Shanghai who is now the Senior Advisor in Shanghai for the strategic advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group , and Jim McGregor, Chairman for Greater China of the consultancy APCO Worldwide, and formerly the head of Dow Jones in China.

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In the face of Donald Trump's tariffs, will China's plans to boost its domestic consumer economy succeed — or could the government in Beijing be tempted to introduce massive stimulus measures, as it did after the financial crisis in 2008? In this episode of China in Context, leading scholar Yasheng Huang, professor of global economics and management at MIT's Sloan School of Management, explains why China's political resilience in a trade war may be greater than its economic resilience — and argues that, despite the current obsession with high technology, reforms of land ownership and the rights of rural citizens and migrant labourers could be key to China’s long term economic prosperity.

Professor Huang's forthcoming book, Statism with Chinese Characteristics — a revised version of his 2008 work Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics — draws on lessons from China's response to the 2008 crisis to highlight the country's current challenges.

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Taiwan is facing a range of challenges — from Donald Trump's threat of 32% tariffs on its crucial exports to the US, to massive Chinese military exercises off its coastline aimed at intimidating the island's leaders. If that weren't enough, the DPP administration, led by President William Lai, has seen its budget slashed by Taiwan’s legislature, which is now dominated by its main rival, the KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party. It's resulted in months of protests and political wrangling. So how will Taiwan's economy and society cope with these challenges? In the latest episode of China in Context, Dr. Michael Reilly, senior fellow on the Taiwan Studies Programme at the University of Nottingham, and a former British diplomat who was previously the UK's senior representative in Taiwan, analyses the island's political and economic situation, in conversation with Duncan Hewitt.

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At this month’s legislative session China announced policies to maintain GDP growth at 5%, boost consumption and the private sector and promote AI and high tech industry, from quantum computing to the low altitude economy. But will it be enough to reassure consumers and investors — and does the higher than GDP growth increase in defence spending in the budget, and the continuing crackdown on corruption hint that the leadership’s top priorities are still security and stability rather than growth? Professor Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute and co-author of the recent book, The Political Thought of Xi Jinping, and George Magnus, former Chief Economist at UBS, and a Research Associate at SOAS and at the Oxford University China Centre, share their views.

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In this episode we look at the life and work of Lynn Pan, one of the most imaginative of writers in English about modern China and particularly Shanghai, who died last year, and was commemorated at a special event at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival earlier this month. Her books, including In Search of Old Shanghai, The New Chinese Revolution, Sons of the Yellow Emperor, Shanghai Style and When True Love Came to China, were accessible, often witty, and always deeply researched. Duncan Hewitt discusses her legacy with Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking and Her Lotus Year, Frances Wood, SOAS Research Associate and former curator of Chinese collections at the British Library, and Michelle Garnaut, founder of the Shanghai Literary Festival. With a further contribution from Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor’s Professor of History at University of California, Irvine.

Photo of Lynn Pan by Robert Martin.

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With the US imposing new tariffs on Chinese exports, the state of the country’s domestic economy has become all the more crucial. Despite healthy export growth in recent years, at home consumer confidence has plummeted, with rising youth unemployment and a slump in the once booming housing market. Will recent government steps to reassure consumers and entrepreneurs and stimulate property sales be enough to revive the economy? Or does soaring local government debt mean more creative solutions are required?

In this episode, we hear two perspectives on China’s economic challenges — from economist Andy Rothman, founder of Sinology LLC, and Professor Victor Shih, director of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California San Diego, and author of the newly published book, Elite Conflicts and the Path to Economic Decentralization (2025, CUP).

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Donald Trump's new tariffs on Chinese exports may only boost the trend for Chinese companies to seek new markets and manufacturing bases overseas — including in Africa, where China is now the biggest trading partner and source of loans. On this episode, we discuss 'Made in Ethiopia', a new film looking at the human impact of Chinese involvement in Africa's industrialisation, with its directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan — and debate China's wider relationship with the continent with Professor Carlos Oya, head of the Department of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London.

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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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