Slower Growth, Hi-tech Self-reliance, and 'Ethnic Unity' — China plans the future

China's legislature this month set the nation's GDP growth target at 4.5 – 5%, the lowest since 1991, and also approved the country's new five year plan, which calls for higher quality growth with an emphasis on self-reliance and technological innovation, and pledges to promote domestic consumption and improve citizens' livelihoods. The National People’s Congress also passed a new 'Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity', which among other things, enshrines the use of Mandarin in schools in ethnic minority-dominated regions. In this episode, Evelyn Cheng, senior correspondent for CNBC in Beijing, joins us to assess China’s economic plans, while Christopher Mittelstaedt, Professor of Chinese politics at the University of Zurich, analyses the political implications of the Five Year Plan and the ethnic unity law.Photo credit: Gary Lee Todd / CC0 1.0For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

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.Photo credit: Yu Ko / UnsplashFor information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

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.Photo credit: Tatarstan.ru / CC BY 4.0For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________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 StreetFor information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

In this episode we look at love, marriage and divorce in contemporary China, from the perspective of two female filmmakers. These are topics with a political as well as personal significance — the Chinese government is keen to boost the birth rate to tackle the problem of an ageing population, but the marriage rate has fallen sharply, while the divorce rate has grown significantly over recent decades. Elizabeth Lo’s remarkable new film Mistress Dispeller looks at a growing industry in China — people you can hire to intervene if your spouse is having an affair, and who promise to help save your marriage. Luo Tong’s documentary Shanghai Girls, meanwhile, is an intimate depiction of the experiences of a group of women in their early fifties, and their lives and loves over the past thirty years.  They join us to discuss changing attitudes to relationships in China.Photo credit: Ariela Ortiz-Barrantes / CC BY-SA 4.0For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

Relations between China and Japan — never smooth, given the legacy of Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s — are currently at their tensest in years. This follows the new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks in Japan's parliament last month that if China were to use military force against Taiwan — which Beijing claims as part of its territory — Japan would view this as a threat to its survival, and could deploy its own military in response. China has denounced Ms Takaichi's comments as crossing a red line, and warned that they hint at a revival of militarism in Japan. It has warned its citizens against travelling to Japan, leading to mass cancellations of bookings and flights; concerts by Japanese pop stars and screenings of Japanese films in China have also been cancelled, and seafood imports halted. The tension comes amidst rising Japanese nationalist sentiment, much of it directed at a recent influx of immigrants, including, by some estimates, more than a hundred thousand middle class migrants from China. Rupert Wingfield Hayes, for more than two decades a BBC correspondent in first Beijing, then Tokyo, and most recently Taiwan, joins us to discuss the significance of these developments, and the historical resonances that lie behind them.Photo credit: Official Website of the Prime Minister’s Office of JapanFor information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

While young people around the world face growing difficulties finding work and coping with the cost-of-living crisis, the situation confronting China’s youth seems particularly acute. Years of pandemic disruption, economic slowdown and mounting social pressure have created a sense of fatigue and frustration for many. This has given rise to a new language of despair and dark humour. ‘Nei Juan’ (内卷) — or ‘involution’ — describes the exhausting, endless competition where everyone works harder yet gains less, a race to the bottom with no finish line. In contrast, ‘Tang Ping’ (躺平), or ‘lying flat’, signals quiet resistance: choosing to step back, do less, and let go of society’s impossible expectations. But is this realistic in a country with a limited social welfare safety net? Guest host Howard Zhang speaks with Dr Yuan Zhong from SOAS about her recent research in China, exploring what these buzzwords reveal about a generation under strain — and the country’s future.Photo credit: leoon liang / UnsplashFor information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

China and the US reached a truce in their trade war at the recent meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea. And the two leaders even pledged to visit each other’s countries next year. But US tariffs on Chinese imports remain at around 47% — and a dispute over the export of US semiconductor chips to China looks set to continue. These tensions seem to have informed the Communist Party’s newly released proposals for China’s next Five Year Plan, which focus on innovation and making China technologically self-sufficient. But will this approach, along with promises to boost the private economy, help to tackle unemployment and sluggish domestic consumer spending? Minxin Pei, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California, and editor of the website China Leadership Monitor, discusses the prospects for Sino-US relations and the challenges facing China’s leaders.Photo credit: Daniel Torok / White HouseFor information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

The inaugural US-based Baifang Schell Book Prize for Chinese language fiction in English translation was recently awarded to the Taiwanese writer Yang Shuang-zi’s novel 'Taiwan Travelogue'. And with an ever-growing number of Chinese to English translators, and a well-resourced mainland Chinese publishing industry keen to expand globally, this could seem like a significant moment for Chinese writing. But with continuing censorship in China, and the rising popularity of often throwaway internet writing, can mainland Chinese fiction remain relevant and viable, and tackle important contemporary and historical themes? And with heightened tensions between China and the West in the last few years, is there still the same international interest from readers and publishers? Leading translators Jeremy Tiang, himself a published novelist and playwright, and Nicky Harman, founding member of the Chinese literature website Paper Republic, discuss the pressures and prospects for Chinese literature, while Daniel Li of UK-based publisher Sinoist Books reflects on the challenges of navigating between the Chinese and western publishing industries.Books referred to in the discussion:Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-ziDelicious Hunger by Hai FanDiablo’s Boys by Yang HaoOld Kiln by Jia PingwaCocoon by Zhang YueranFor information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

After the sudden emergence of the Chinese company DeepSeek’s generative AI model in January, there has been much excitement about the future of innovation in China. But continuing US efforts to limit the sale of the latest AI chips to China are a reminder of the tensions surrounding this area. The recently announced deal for a partial US takeover of Chinese social media platform TikTok’s American operation may hint at the potential for cooperation. But Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, has warned that restrictions on chip production will only encourage the development of China’s own semiconductor industry, with China already just ‘nanoseconds behind’ in AI. Yet how far is Chinese innovation handicapped by political controls? And as China seeks to promote new sectors like robotics and cloud computing, can it avoid the type of overcapacity already seen in its electric vehicle industry? To discuss these issues, we’re joined by Duncan Clark, a specialist in Chinese technology since 1994, when he founded the investment advisory company BDA in Beijing. An early advisor to Jack Ma, founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, he’s also author of the book ‘Alibaba — The House that Jack Ma Built’, and is co-chair of the Asia Society France.Books referred to in the episode:Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan WangApple in China – The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGeeImage © 光画社 (Kōgasha) / Adobe StockFor information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: [email protected]________________________________________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 BlogSCI on XSCI on LinkedInSCI on FacebookSCI on Instagram________________________________________Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0