Podcast

November 28, 2018

US President Trump and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping are expected to meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina over the weekend. But there is little hope that the two leaders will announce an end to the Sino-American trade war, says Hong Kong-based economist Alicia García Herrero. She says at most China and the US could agree on a truce to gain more time to disentangle their economies from each other. What the trade war is really about, she argues, is a battle for hegemony, a kind of economic Cold War. Europe is caught in the middle between its two largest trading partners. Some industrial sectors could benefit from increased trade with China, García Herrero says, but the EU also has to be aware that the Sino-American trade dispute carries huge risks for Europe. Listen to Alicia García Herrero in the new MERICS Experts podcast.

November 22, 2018

In the past 15 years, China has made considerable progress in setting up a comprehensive health care system. Today, over 92 percent of Chinese have basic health insurance. But huge challenges remain notably in rural areas. While people in urban centers often have access to modern facilities and well-trained doctors, rural residents still struggle to get basic care such as vaccines, says Jane Duckett, a health care specialist from the University of Glasgow and co-editor of a new MERICS report on social development in China. One of the big issues is “training the right kind of health care workers to deliver primary care,“ says Duckett in the latest MERICS Experts Podcast. 

This is part 2 of a series based on a new MERICS publication on social services in China: "Serve the people. Innovation and IT in China’s social development agenda.”

October 2, 2018

When Xi Jinping first launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the idea of improving trade and transport links between China, Asia and Europe was received favourably in many European countries. Especially central and south-eastern European governments were keen on Chinese infrastructure investments. Five years on, the mood has somewhat changed. There are concerns over “debt diplomacy” and political influencing. And there’s pushback from Brussels. The EU Commission last month published its own plan for better connecting Asia and Europe. Still, the BRI presents a dilemma for the EU, says Theresa Fallon of CREAS, a Brussels-based think tank: How to engage with China without compromising European standards and values? In the new MERICS Experts Podcast she argues that “the EU needs to proceed very carefully.”

September 10, 2018

For years, many China observers believed that the Chinese Communist Party would eventually crumble under the contradictions between a Leninist political system and a dynamic society. “But we were all proved wrong,” says Frank N. Pieke, the new head of MERICS. The Chinese Communist Party is more modern, more powerful and confident than ever, he says. Yet, Xi Jinping, who likes to present himself as an all-powerful state and party leader, faces headwinds from within the apparatus and might find it more difficult than expected to secure a third term. People in Europe, Pieke says, need to face up to the new realities in China and get to grips with their own differing interests. China looks different from Athens or Duisburg than from Berlin or Paris, he says. Listen to Frank N. Pieke talking about his views on China and his plans for the future of MERICS in the new MERICS Experts Podcast.

June 22, 2018

For Hollywood China is a huge market it cannot afford to ignore. But closer co-operation with the Chinese movie industry has not always gone well: Expensive co-productions like “The Great Wall” flopped at box offices worldwide in 2016. More recently, a series of high profile deals hit snags. Yet Hollywood is still keen on China and willing to go a long way to please Chinese censors by tweaking scripts, making Chinese movie characters look nicer or replacing Chinese villains with baddies from North Korea. “Hollywood is compromising freedom of expression to stay in China,” warns film critic and Boston College lecturer Martha Bayles. In the new MERICS Experts podcast she argues that the US film industry should become more mindful of China’s influences and draw clear red lines.

June 15, 2018

Internet censorship in China has evolved from just blocking websites into an elaborate system of information control, says Fu King-wa, Associate Professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong. Fu has developed projects that track what has been deleted on the Chinese web. His assessment of the current situation is bleak: The space for public expression is depressingly small, he says. The authorities want to control everything. Yet the #MeToo debate in China also demonstrates that that not all discussion can be suppressed – even in China. Listen to Fu King-wa in the MERICS Experts podcast.

June 5, 2018

Chinese schools are notorious for their rote learning and endless tests and exams. But the Chinese government wants to change that – at least, the authorities want to introduce more creativity into the classrooms. That’s no easy undertaking, says MERICS Visiting Academic Fellow Didi Kirsten Tatlow, who for many years reported from China for the New York Times. China’s notion of creativity differs from that in the West. Creativity is mainly seen as an instrument for innovation. But for children to become truly creative adults, Tatlow argues, they need time to play and the freedom to think their own way. Yet such an approach is difficult in a country with a strong authoritarian spirit imbedded in both the Communist Party and Chinese culture. Listen to Did Kirsten Tatlow in the latest MERICS Experts podcast.

May 11, 2018

When China’s law on non-governmental organizations went into effect in early 2017, observers worried that many international NGOs would pull out as a result. Almost 18 months on, the picture is mixed as Jessica Batke of ChinaFile has found out. As part of ChinaFile’s NGO Project, she tracks the experiences with the new law and says some 350 groups have managed to register with the authorities. None is known to have pulled out so far. Yet, this could change in 2018. Small NGOs find it particularly difficult to comply with the new regulations, and some groups face more difficulties then others. MERICS Director of Communications Claudia Wessling talks to Jessica Batke in the new MERICS Experts Podcast.

You can finde the China NGO Project under www.chinafile.com/ngo.

March 8, 2018

China wants to develop a “world class” military force that can “fight and win wars” by 2049, the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. So it comes as little surprise that the defense budget just got another boost. Military spending will rise by 8.1 percent this year. What’s behind this figure and China’s military modernization drive? Why is the PLA projecting power well beyond Chinese borders? And why are we going to see a lot more PLA activities on the global stage in the future? MERICS research associate Helena Legarda discusses the 2018 military budget and China’s strategies in the new MERICS Experts podcast.

March 2, 2018

In international rankings China does not appear to be a very happy place. In the latest World Happiness Report China ranked 79^th out of 155 countries. Yet happiness as always played a key part in the Communist Party’s propaganda, and some Chinese analysts even predict that by 2030 China will be one of the happiest countries in the world. How so? How is the CCP trying to make people happy or at least happier? And can the China Dream, Xi Jinping’s idea of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, help? Gerda Wielander, Associate Professor at the University of Westminster, discusses happiness, propaganda and the China Dream in the latest Merics Experts podcast.