China Field Notes – with Scott Kennedy

CSIS
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Understanding China has become more difficult than ever, yet also more important than ever. Hardening geopolitics has made travel to China more difficult, but not impossible. Join host Scott Kennedy, the Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at CSIS, for an on-the-ground look at China, for conversations with people shaping China and scholars exploring the country firsthand. What makes China tick? Where is the country going? How should the U.S. respond to the China challenge? We’ll dive into all of that and more on China Field Notes – with Scott Kennedy.

  1. 12/11/2025

    History from Below: Harvard’s Michael Szonyi on Fieldwork, History, and U.S.-China Relations

    In this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with historian Michael Szonyi about why fieldwork matters to social historians and trends in U.S.-China relations. Szonyi unpacks the concept of “history from below” and how doing fieldwork in localities helps social historians understand history from the perspective of everyday people, their practices, and community dynamics that are less visible when looking through the lens of the country’s leaders or international politics. Drawing on years of research in places such as Quemoy and Yongtai (Fujian), he describes how local records, such as land deeds and genealogies, complicate familiar national narratives and reveal how ordinary communities experienced major political and geopolitical shifts. Kennedy and Szonyi conclude by discussing the role of historians as public intellectuals, the risks of scholarly decoupling, and why first-hand knowledge of China remains essential for navigating the future of U.S.-China relations. Michael Szonyi is Frank Wen-hsiung Wu Professor of Chinese History and former Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. A social historian of late imperial and modern China, his books include The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China (2017) and Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Front Line (2008). His most recent works are The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations (co-edited with Adele Carrai and Jennifer Rudolph, 2022) and Making Meritocracy: Lessons from China and India, from Antiquity to the Present (co-edited with Tarun Khanna, 2022). He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his D.Phil. from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has also studied at National Taiwan University and Xiamen University. He is currently writing a modern history of rural China and a study of a remarkable trove of local documents found in Yongtai County, China. In 2024, he was made an “Honorary Villager of Yongtai.”

    54 min

  2. 11/25/2025

    China’s Economic Progress and Challenges: A Conversation with Leading Chinese Economist Yao Yang

    On this episode of China Field Notes, host Scott Kennedy talks with Yao Yang, one of China’s most thoughtful and influential economists. Dr. Yao, who spent most of his career at Peking University and recently moved to the Dishuihu Advanced Finance Institute at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, discusses his entry into the economics profession, the sources of China’s growth, why Xiaomi is currently his favorite Chinese company, the challenge of tackling involution, and the state of U.S.-China relations, and his own ongoing research.

    50 min

  3. 11/12/2025

    The Enduring Value of Studying in China: A Conversation with the HNC’s Adam Webb.

    In this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy talks with Adam Webb, Co-Director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Drawing on Kennedy’s own experience as an HNC student and Webb’s long tenure on the faculty, they discuss what makes the Center unique in the landscape of international higher education institutions and how this dual-language, dual-university model fosters exchange and mutual understanding. Webb also reflects on how the Center has navigated political shifts, the pandemic, and growing skepticism towards engagement, while preserving academic freedom and open dialogue. The conversation concludes with a discussion of shifting national identities in the United States and China, how these dynamics are felt on campus and in the classroom, and the importance of broadening debates beyond the two countries.    Adam K Webb is Co-Director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Centre (HNC), where he also serves as Resident Professor of Political Science. He has been a faculty member since 2008. He previously taught at Princeton and Harvard and was a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research interests cut broadly across political thought, globalization, and critiques of modernity. He is the author of four books, including Beyond the Global Culture War (2006), A Path of Our Own: An Andean Village and Tomorrow’s Economy of Values (2009), Deep Cosmopolis: Rethinking World Politics and Globalisation (2015), and his most recent book, The World’s Constitution: Spheres of Liberty in the Future Global Order (published January 2025) which offers a radically different vision of future world order that could work in a global space while shifting the balance of power from state back to society. He received his AB summa cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard and his MA and PhD in Politics from Princeton.

    33 min

  4. 10/22/2025

    Crossing Worlds: Han Shen Lin on Leadership, Finance, and U.S.-China Relations

    On this episode of China Field Notes, host Scott Kennedy speaks with Han Shen Lin, China Managing Director for the Asia Group and Associate Professor of Practice in Finance at NYU Shanghai. Lin details his journey from serving in the U.S. Marines to working at Wells Fargo in China to teaching at NYU Shanghai. He explains why the original hopes of financial openness were not borne out and what this means for China’s economy and foreign banks. He also unpacks data from AmCham China’s 2025 Business Climate Survey, offering insight into why business optimism among American companies has waned. Finally, Lin and Kennedy discuss the outlook for a potential Trump-Xi meeting, the need for clear guardrails to stabilize U.S.-China relations, and why continued engagement in China remains vital for business competitiveness and mutual understanding.

    34 min

  5. 10/08/2025

    Field Research and Governance in Xi’s China: Reflections from Middlebury’s Jessica Teets

    On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy talks with Jessica Teets of Middlebury College about the challenges and benefits of doing fieldwork in China, and what she and her research partners have learned about the complexities of civil society in an authoritarian context and the unintended consequences of governance reforms under Xi Jinping.

    1h 1m

  6. 09/24/2025

    Innovation and Involution: A Conversation with CSIS’s Scott Kennedy 

    On this special episode of China Field Notes, guest host Ilaria Mazzocco interviews the program’s usual host, CSIS Trustee Chair Scott Kennedy, about his latest trip to China. Scott shares insights on the split-screen picture of China’s booming tech sector, including his visit to BYD, and signs of a slowing economy. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the state of U.S.-China relations and shifting dynamics in Hong Kong.

    41 min

  7. 09/09/2025

    Reporting on China’s Age of Uncertainty: A Conversation with CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng

    On this episode of China Field Notes, host Scott Kennedy speaks with CNBC's Evelyn Cheng, who has been reporting on China’s economy in Beijing since 2018. She discusses the challenges of being a Western reporter in China, the take-off of China’s EV sector and other tech industries, changing consumer behavior, and the implications of worsening U.S.-China relations for businesses, families, and individuals. Evelyn Cheng is a Senior Correspondent at CNBC.com, covering China’s economy and financial markets from Beijing, where she has been based for the past seven years. She has reported on the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise of China’s electric vehicle industry, and interviewed key financial and economic policy officials in the country. She also launched and writes "The China Connection," CNBC’s weekly newsletter on China’s economy, markets, and its relationship with the global landscape. Before moving to Beijing, Cheng reported from CNBC’s global headquarters in New Jersey on investing, bitcoin, and the U.S. stock market. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Urban Design, and Architecture Studies from New York University.

    51 min

  8. 04/03/2025

    Communication Amid Competition: A Conversation with Chen Dongxiao

    On this episode of China Field Notes, Scott Kennedy speaks with Chen Dongxiao, the President of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). He discusses how China's shifting role to the center of global politics and economics has shaped his career, and he offers a frank assessment of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship during the late-Biden and early Trump administrations. The discussion concludes with a strong defense of the value of U.S.-China track-2 dialogue for thinking creatively about the world's most important challenges and offering reforms to global institutions.

    43 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
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6 Ratings

About

Understanding China has become more difficult than ever, yet also more important than ever. Hardening geopolitics has made travel to China more difficult, but not impossible. Join host Scott Kennedy, the Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at CSIS, for an on-the-ground look at China, for conversations with people shaping China and scholars exploring the country firsthand. What makes China tick? Where is the country going? How should the U.S. respond to the China challenge? We’ll dive into all of that and more on China Field Notes – with Scott Kennedy.

Information

  • Channel
    CSIS
  • Creator
    Center for Strategic and International Studies
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2023 Center for Strategic and International Studies

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