336 episodes
ChinaTalk Jordan Schneider
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4.5 • 29 Ratings
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Conversations exploring China, technology, and US-China relations. Guests include a wide range of analysts, policymakers, and academics. Hosted by Jordan Schneider.
Check out the newsletter at https://www.chinatalk.media/
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TSMC Takes Arizona
TSMC is taking on Arizona. How's it going? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Viola Zhou, journalist at Rest of World. She has published pieces on Foxconn's quest to make iPhones in India and most recently, a gripping feature about the cultural challenges that TSMC is facing trying to manufacture semiconductors in the USA. Throughout her story, we get a peek into a world of rigid hierarchies, American workers who are slow on the uptake, and culture clash over pornographic desktop flair.
Today’s interview discusses:
Sleuthing techniques for independent journalism;
The challenges faced by Taiwanese semiconductor engineers relocating to Arizona;
TSMC’s management style and the complaints raised by new American employees;
The similarities and differences between TSMC’s expansion to the USA and Foxconn’s expansion to India;
Whether adapting to American work culture will tank the prospects of the new Phoenix Fab.
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History and Future of India-China Relations
India’s elections are underway! What does the future hold for the world’s largest democracy? Will the election results impact India-China relations? What about India-US relations?
To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Dr. Raja Mohan, Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.
Co-hosting today is James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj.
We get into:
What the border disputes between China and India can tell us about the political economy of the two nations;
The anti-imperial history that frames India-China relations;
Modi’s election prospects and India’s spirit of democracy;
What score Biden’s diplomatic team has earned in Southeast Asia;
Criticisms of Modi and accusations of democratic backsliding;
Opportinities for friction in the US-India relationship, including Trump tariffs, immigration, and Russia;
Whether the US is making a “bad bet” on India, and how India is prepared to involve itself during an invasion of Taiwan.
Outtro Music: Jhoome Jo Pathaan Vishal-Shekhar, Arijit Singh, Sukriti Kakar, Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani, Kumaar https://open.spotify.com/track/6FAYpZ4jve8vpvTwUvjK6H?si=66c7c984fd52497cs
12 Bande 12 Bande - song and lyrics by Varinder Brar | Spotify
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DOJ vs Data Espionage
The DOJ is now charged with protecting American data from foreign adversaries. This new proposed rule they recently issued is, according to one observer, “one of the most ambitious and sweeping new initiatives in national security law over the past few years.”
To discuss, we interviewed Devin DeBacker and Lee Licata of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.
We get into:
How adversaries plan to weaponize obscure data types — including geolocation data, DNA sequencing, and undersea cable transmissions;
How China managed to purchase genomic data on millions of Americans through healthcare investments;
Why black box data brokers keep records of who goes to casinos;
How the DOJ plans to protect your data, and whether their plans can be thwarted by gridlock in Congress.
I’m excited to introduce a partnership with Policyware to bring affordable, expert-driven policy education to my audience. Starting May 14, Samm Sacks will be teaching a deep dive into China’s Digital Governance and its Global Implications.
Samm is an old friend of mine and a Senior Fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. She is a leading expert on China’s cybersecurity legal system, the U.S.-China technology relationship, and the geopolitics of data privacy and cross-border data flows. Check out below a show I did with Samm on ChinaTalk discussing China’s digital governance.
You’ll learn over several weeks as Samm delivers live classes, with options to listen on your own time. Policyware Deep Dives are designed to be attended alongside your job, and they will help you organize with your employer for cost sharing. Check out the show we did together on data issues late last year.
Help support ChinaTalk by registering for the deep dive here and thank you to Policyware for sponsoring today’s episode.
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Japan's Resurgent Tech Scene
Ryan Takeshita is the Chief Global Editor at PIVOT, a new media outlet in Japan focused on the emerging startup scene.
We get into:
A stroll through recent economic history leading to today's 'boom times'
Why more people are looking to leave traditional occupations for insurgent firms
Challenges around demographics and immigration
Outtro Music:
Idol by Yaosobi https://open.spotify.com/track/1hAloWiinXLPQUJxrJReb1?si=36552bdc34cb4a73
Matsuri No Genzo by Hideo Shiraki and 3 Koto Girls https://open.spotify.com/track/6eTteH1zyZeQKZ2Mu7VC5d?si=230b3d1739d5417e
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Japan's Economic Security Renaissance
To learn about Japan’s new economic national security policy, export controls, chip policy, lessons from history, and even space policy, we interviewed Kazuto Suzuki.
Suzuki-san is a professor at the University of Tokyo. He serves as an advisor to Japan’s Ministry of the Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) as well as advising Japan’s space program. He served on the UN Security Council's Iran Sanctions Panel, and he also recently established the Institute of Geoeconomics at the International House of Japan.
We get into…
What Japan’s new economic national security law does, and what it means for global semiconductor supply chains;
The state of multilateral export controls;
Nippon steel, the US election, and cooperation between East Asian democracies;
Historical examples of economic coercion, from the Qing Dynasty to FDR vs imperial Japan to the Senkaku islands;
Japan’s goals for space commercialization;
… and more!
Co-hosting today is Arrian Ebrahimi, student at Yenching academy and author of the Chip Capitols Substack.
Outtro Music: Every Breath You Take/Theme from Peter Gunn as featured on the Sopranos The Sopranos - Every Breath You Take (youtube.com)
Cover photo: Toyohara Kuniteru III | Illustration of the Imperial Diet House of Commons with a Listing of all Members | Japan | Meiji period (1868–1912) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)
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A Gut Check on Intel and Nvidia with Asianometry, Fabricated Knowledge, and SemiAnalysis
Just minutes after the Taiwan earthquake yesterday, Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis, Doug O'Laughlin of Fabricated Knowledge, Jon of Asianometry and yours truly had a brief hang where we got into:
Intel's process progress and rocky financial road ahead
Reflections out of GTC
Jensen's galaxy brain
Photo of the woman who saved Intel, Dr. Ann Kelleher, General Manager of Foundry Technology Development.
Outtro music: YELLOW黃宣 & 9m88 - 怪天氣 Strange Weather https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n_i0JupwRA
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Customer Reviews
Absolutely brilliant series
Like the SRB Podcast (on Russia), this gives indispensable insights into a culture that too many of us are unfamiliar with. Hugely enjoyable. Unfortunately, it sometimes falls prey to the fallacy that if you’re not aware of something then you assume no-one else is. The almost hysterical China Balloons episode is a good example of this. If Jordan had done some research first, then learnt about the hundreds of high-altitude research balloons released every week, the show would have been the better for it. That aside, I hope the podcast develops the huge audience it deserves.
Quality of guests slipping
The last few guests, barring the Chip Avengers, AI and S&T guys, have sounded like daytime TV. Remember when some former spy or military uniform would make the rounds on CNN, Fox et al, and claim that secret intelligence or anonymous sources told him a war with country X was inevitable? They’re usually more wrong than right, and get no pushback from the hosts. How can you say China is “thinking” of doing X? Can these guys read minds now? I’m sure China thinks of a lot of things, hence we judge on actions.
The last guy on the podcast, the CIA one, what tea leaves was he reading to determine that the Chinese leader would tank his economy and national rejuvenation because he called another leader a friend, and wrote “nonsense” in the margins of a paper once? Forget deterrence. Forget an entire episode on what happens even if China wins (a pretty good episode at that). Just psychoanalyse one guy to reach a foregone conclusion. Also, more money and military spending, please. No one hires a think tank to tell them everything’s alright.
I get that Jordan works for a think tank, but I enjoyed the more neutral, inquisitive feel of the past, not the manufacturing of consent. For example, where does the 2027 timeline come from? It seems the guy who introduced the world to it pulled it out of thin air, and now everyone just goes with it. In the UK, they have 55 Tufton Street, a think tank industrial complex I used to read, till I could see that everyone was sourcing everyone else. “Common sense” was just groupthink. It didn’t make me smarter. Can’t count how many times “compete, contest & collaborate” got reused.
The people doing what ChinaTalk used to do are the Sinica Podcast and friends for China coverage, and Transistor Radio for semiconductors. Simica’s schedule also makes life much easier. If I wanted to listen to CSIS, Brookings or War on the Rocks, I’d go there. I legit expect Zeihan to turn up in within the next 12 months. If I start hearing 2030 or demographics, I’m out.
Core listening for China Wonks
Insightful podcast that appreciates complexity.
Mixture of short form and longer conversational episodes is a refreshing take on a podcast feed.