MERICS China Podcast MERICS

The long awaited third plenary session of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party will kick off on July 15. In the four-day meeting its 376 members will vote on programmatic decisions prepared by the Politbureau that will aim to solve the pressing economic and social issues the country currently faces.Johannes Heller-John talks with Kristin Shi-Kupfer and Katja Drinhausen about the Third Plenum as well as Chinese debates on the country’s current economic challenges and future pat...

As the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is increasingly unstable, what can we expect from Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te when it comes to navigating relations with China? How will the results of the EU elections affect Europe’s policies vis-à-vis Taiwan? And how might a change of government in the United States impact the situation? These are some of the questions discussed by Bonnie Glaser, Managing Director of GMF's Indo-Pacific program, and MERICS’ Director Policy & European Affair...

Chinese investment in Europe has hit a new low according to a new study by MERICS and Rhodium Group on China’s Foreign Direct Overseas Investment in the 27 EU member states and the UK. It is the lowest level of investment since 2010. In Hungary, however, investments drastically increased and made up just under half of all FDI in Europe in 2023. Where does Chinese investment in Europe stand, what sectors and countries do Chinese investors focus on and where do we go from here? Johannes He...

Ahead of the European Parliament election on June 6-9, 2024, this episode looks at the role of the European Parliament in EU-China relations and the possible impact of the election results on the European “de-risking” agenda among other topics. Johannes Heller-John talks to Ivana Karásková and Grzegorz Stec. Ivana is a European China Policy Fellow at MERICS and the founder of MapInfluenCE and China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE) at the Association for International Affa...

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Beijing in May to meet with China’s leader Xi Jinping. This will be Putin's first foreign trip after his reinauguration on May 7. The meeting will be another chance for the two leaders to emphasize how important and close the “no limits” partnership of Russia and China is. In this episode of our podcast, we look at the implications of the Sino-Russian relationship for the European Union, in particular due the ongoing invasion of Ukraine ...

In this year’s government work report at the National People's Congress, the issue of science and technology was mentioned more often than any other. Why does the Chinese government put so much focus on science and technology? What does this mean for other pressing issues that the Communist Party is facing? And what does it mean for Europe and the United States? To discuss these questions Johannes Heller-John is joined by Barry Naughton and Jeroen Groenewegen-Lau. Barry Naughton is So Kwan Lo...