In early March, Beijing released its fifteenth Five-Year Plan, detailing the Party leadership's economic and technological ambitions for the years ahead. Jon Czin sits down with China Center colleague Kyle Chan and Andrew Polk of Trivium China to discuss Beijing's push to move up the value chain — from low-end manufacturing toward high-tech industries like AI, robotics, and semiconductors. The two experts offer their analysis of what the plan reveals about where China's leaders want its economy to go, how it plans to get there, and how Western countries are reacting to its increasing economic global influence.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

President Trump's planned visit to Beijing has been postponed to May 14 to 15 because of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. What does the delay signal about the state of U.S.-China relations, how does Chinese leadership read this moment? On the inaugural episode of The Beijing Brief, Ryan Hass, Jon Czin, Pattie Kim, and Kyle Chan unpack what the postponement reveals about the trajectory of U.S.-China relations during the second Trump administration. They discuss China's strategic calculus amid the Iran conflict, the Taiwan issues likely to dominate when the two leaders finally meet, and the deeper question of whether time is really on America's side in its competition with China.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

On The Beijing Brief, a new podcast from the Brookings Podcast Network, Brookings China scholars and expert guests take listeners behind the scenes in Washington, D.C., and Beijing to unpack the forces shaping U.S.-China relations and China's political, economic, and technological ambitions.

Stay tuned for new episodes soon.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.