MERICS researchers discuss and analyze developments and current affairs in China: What is behind the Belt and Road Initiative? What kind of leader is Xi Jinping? How should we assess China’s climate change policies? How does the Chinese government use social media to its own ends?
In addition to MERICS’s own staff, other experts on China and guest speakers at MERICS also take part in the interviews.
The MERICS Experts Podcast is produced by Ruth Kirchner.
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Fu King-wa: “Chinese censorship has evolved into full information control”
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.
Didi Kirsten Tatlow: "Give Chinese children more time to play and have fun"
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.
Jessica Batke: Small NGOs particularly vulnerable under new NGO law
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.
Helena Legarda: PLA to become more active globally
March 8, 2018
China wants to develop a “world class” military force that can “fight and win wars” by 2049, the 100th 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.
Gerda Wielander: Can the China Dream make people happy?
March 2, 2018
In international rankings China does not appear to be a very happy place. In the latest World Happiness Report China ranked 79th 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.
Akio Takahara: “Xi Jinping is an action-oriented person“
December 15, 2017
At the 19th Communist Party Congress in October, Chinese president and party leader Xi Jinping proclaimed a “new era”. China was ready to become a global power and move to center stage, he said. What lies behind such claims? Has China taken advantage of the global leadership vacuum left by US president Trump? “Xi Jinping is an action-oriented person”, but his foreign policy record is mixed, says Akio Takahara of Tokyo University. Listen to Akio Takahara as he talks about Xi Jinping, rivalries in the Asia Pacific and why China would not abandon North Korea.
David Shambaugh and Willy Lam on the 19th Party Congress
October 19, 2017
The 19th Party Congress is a “Xi Jinping Show” and China’s political system, under Xi’s rule, has lost much of its flexibility. That’s the rather blunt assessment of David Shambaugh of George Washington University in Washington D.C. Shortly before the start of the 19th Party Congress, Shambaugh visited Berlin and discussed China under Xi Jinping with Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who was equally sober in his assessment of the state of the People’s Republic. The exchange between the two renowned China experts was jointly organized by the Robert Bosch Foundation and Merics and was moderated by Merics researcher Kristin Shi-Kupfer. You can listen to an edited version of the public event in our new Merics Experts podcast.
Willy Lam: "Xi Jinping has benefitted from the leadership vacuum left by Trump“
October 17, 2017
The 19th Congress of the Communist Party kicks off in Beijing this week with the focus mainly on elite politics and personnel decisions in the top leadership. But the gathering of some 2300 delegates is also an opportunity to take stock of five years of Xi Jinping rule. Internationally, China plays a much more active and assertive role on the international stage. “Xi Jinping has benefitted tremendously from the world leadership vacuum left by US President Donald Trump”, says Willy Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. But, he warns, China’s power projection won’t go very far unless Beijing addresses its “soft power deficit” and starts to respect international rules and laws.
Shazeda Ahmed on China’s Social Credit System
September 28, 2017
In setting up the so called Social Credit System, China plans to monitor, rate and regulate the behavior of citizens and companies with the help of big data, rewarding those who obey the rules and punishing those who cheat or don’t conform. “Social Credit is seen as a means of making people, companies, entire industrial sectors and the government more honest by monitoring behaviors,” says Shazeda Ahmed, a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Visiting Academic Fellow at MERICS. The digital mechanism the system is based on will collect data on every single person in China by 2020. What motivates the government? What are the biggest challenges in setting up the system? And: how do people in China think about this system? Listen to our latest MERICS experts podcast.
Carsten Holz: Challenges of Chinese investment in Tibetan areas
August 2, 2017
The Chinese government spends millions to develop the Tibetan areas of China. But what can investment achieve in these remote regions? Can it create sustainable jobs and change people’s lives? The economist Carsten Holz of Hongkong University of Science and Technology has spent many months on the Tibetan plateau in Western Sichuan to study how Beijing’s policies affect local people’s lives. Roads have improved and access to education has increased, he says. But restrictions on travel, unequal pay and a heavy security presence fuel resentment. The central government hasn’t managed to buy the hearts and minds of the Tibetans. Listen to Holz’s observations in the new Merics Experts podcast.