Peking Playbook

Zichen Wang

On China, by Zichen Wang. www.pekingnology.com

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  1. 19.04.2025

    Hu Bo on South China Sea and U.S. military activities in 2024

    Many China-focused English-language podcasts are online, mostly run by Western institutions and individuals. Some have tried hard to include Chinese mainland guests in their conversations. I applaud their efforts. For various reasons, their success is uneven. I guess—or I’d like to believe—I may be in a better position to bring some Chinese voices to a global audience, so let me have a try—starting with today’s guest, Hu Bo, Research Professor and Director of the Centre for Maritime Strategy Studies of Peking University. Professor Hu is perhaps better known as the Director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), which has established itself as the most internationally well-known Chinese hub for data-based research on the crucial topic of the South China Sea. In my opinion, the SCSPI stands out for publishing data-informed reports, unlike many in China churning out, basically, opinion pieces. Among its recent work is An Incomplete Report on US Military Activities in the South China Sea in 2024, which we talk about in this podcast. I’m glad Hu Bo is willing to shed more light on the SCSPI, for example, where it sources its data and how its research reports are authored. In the last 1/3 of the podcast, Hu Bo also laid out China's policy and thinking toward the Philippines and other South China Sea claimants, correcting some of my misconceptions about how and why Beijing does or does not do certain things. I have no experience producing podcasts, and as usual, this is an attempt with no funding or support from anyone. So please forgive me if I don’t sound like Kaiser Kuo on Sinica or if the production quality is terrible - there are some instances where the sound is just awful. And one of my rookie mistakes is that throughout the podcast, I mispronounced South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) for South China Sea Probing Institute, which is inexcusable. Let me thank Yuxuan JIA for the post-recording production and Adobe Podcast for its fabulous Enhance Speech. They are lifesavers. Please subscribe to Peking Playbook on your favorite podcast platforms, be it Apple Podcast, Spotify, or something else. [2:45] Hu Bo introduces South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI) [5:50] Hu Bo on the sources of SCSPI data [8:50] Hu Bo on the annual Incomplete Report on US Military Activities in the South China Sea [15:45] Hu Bo clarifies my mischaracterization of the Chinese official attitude against the U.S. reconnaissance activities in the South China Sea [20:20] Hu Bo talks about the U.S. military’s Island-intrusive FONOPs and Taiwan Strait Transits [24:00] Hu Bo on the Continuously Boosted Joint Operations with Allies [29:00] Hu Bo on the China-Philippines standoff in the South China Sea [31:15] Hu Bo emphasizes that the Nine-Dash Line is not China’s legal base to claim territorial waters [35:50] Hu Bo on the dispute between China and the Philippines [40:05] Hu Bo on the Second Thomas Shoal This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pekingnology.com

    46 Min.
  2. 10.04.2025

    Beijing will not back down, I told Foreign Policy Research Institute audience

    On Monday, April 7, I was invited to the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), a 70-year-old nonpartisan think tank, to talk in front of an audience with Neysun A. Mahboubi, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the FPRI Asia Program as well as Director of the Penn Project on the Future of US-China Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. The title of the program A Grand Bargain Between the US and China? was finalized less than a month ago, and I was called in at the 11th hour to take the stage. In the hour-long program, which also includes Q&A with the audience, we instead had to talk about the ongoing tariff war. The FPRI posted the videotaped event on YouTube and generously allowed me to extract the audio and post it as a podcast. Adobe Podcast’s Enhance Speech was used to improve the sound quality in the process. Basically, I shared my observation that the Chinese response to Washington’s bullying was not at all unexpected and that Beijing would not back down from the extreme pressure. At the time of this post, President Donald Trump raised the tariff on Chinese imports to 125% on Wednesday, hours after China boosted the duty on American goods to 84%. He also hit pause on the trade war with other countries for 90 days, levying only 10% surcharge in tariffs on them. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pekingnology.com

    1 Std. 9 Min.
  3. Peking Playbook Unscripted 20250330

    30.03.2025

    Peking Playbook Unscripted 20250330

    Hello! Welcome to the 6th episode of the podcast “Peking Playbook,” mainly featuring me (Zichen Wang) and Robert Wu, of Baiguan and China Translated substacks, just talking about recent news. In the following 39-minute conversation recorded on Saturday evening ET, March 29, 2025, we talked about: [00:52] Xi met global CEOs [04:25] What’s more serious for foreign businesses in China, organic domestic competition or the alleged policy discrimination? [10:00] Some Western firms (such as top consulting firms) are facing pressure at home to do business with China [12:06] There is also discrimination against local businesses, benefiting the foreign businesses. [15:22] Bo’ao and the discussion to increase pension payments for farmers [21:12] Trump's tariffs on all auto imports and their indirect impact on China [25:20] SOE automaker consolidation policy, as a counter-argument against the idea that China’s EV sector was successful mainly because of government support [27:48] The US is doing it wrong when it comes to supporting its own auto industry [30:57] YouTuber IShowSpeed in China [36:23] A new English-language book “Should the World Fear China?” by Zhou Bo, retired Senior Colonel of the PLA, on Taiwan and for China to get rid of the mindset of victimhood. For reference: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pekingnology.com

    40 Min.
  4. Peking Playbook Unscripted 20250128: DeepSeek

    28.01.2025

    Peking Playbook Unscripted 20250128: DeepSeek

    Happy Lunar New Year to all those who celebrate it! The top news on the last day of the lunar year of Dragon is obviously DeepSeek, the Chinese AI start-up. You’ve probably heard Americans talk about it all day now. Here is me, Robert Wu of Baiguan and China Translated, and Johnny Zou of MJFinance talking about it after the close of the brutal trading day when Nvidia sheds nearly $600 billion. Listen to Peking Playbook on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube Podcast, and elsewhere! Don’t forget to subscribe! Highlights [2:43] Is DeepSeek China’s sabotage against the US? [10:51] How “involved” is Beijing in all of this? [19:44] Investment strategies in a post-DeepSeek world [24:43] Effectiveness of US export controls [31:02] Censorship on DeepSeek Background links Pekingnology CEO of DeepSeek's parent, High-Flyer Quant, spoke in 2020: Lu Zhengzhe talks about a quantitative investment model fully reliant on AI. It is from there that DeepSeek was born Geopolitechs An Informative Closed-Door Discussion on DeepSeek: Vision Matters More Than Technology DeepSeek, computing, and a victory for open-source over closed-source DeepSeek Founder Becomes a Guest of China’s Premier, on the Same Day of the R1 Model Launch DeepSeek Launches Next-Generation Model on Par with OpenAI-o1 Official Version Does China's DeepSeek-V3 make the computing power advantages of US AI companies less important? DeepSeek-V3: Chinese Large Model's Commercial Path From Compute Arms Race to Pursuing Maximum Model Efficiency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.pekingnology.com

    36 Min.

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On China, by Zichen Wang. www.pekingnology.com