China In Context

Chinese electric vehicle brands may not yet be on everybody's roads, but they're certainly on the minds of policy makers around the world. With Donald Trump musing recently on whether to allow Chinese cars to be manufactured in the US, leading American auto industry figures have pushed back, arguing that the subsidies China has given its EV and battery firms over the past two decades amount to unfair competition. The head of Volkswagen, meanwhile, has warned that French and German carmakers must work together to combat the challenge from China, whose passenger vehicle exports are expected to hit 11-12 million this year, compared to just five million three years ago. And the EU, which has followed the US in imposing punitive tariffs on Chinese EVs, recently also persuaded Beijing to limit its exports of hybrid cars to the bloc to just 350,000 per year — compared to this year’s predicted exports of 800,000 such vehicles. But the challenge is far from over: with sales in China slowing, the country’s biggest manufacturers, including BYD — now the world’s biggest EV maker — Chery and Geely, which already dominate their domestic market, are seeking to avoid tariffs and add market share by manufacturing in factories in Europe, Latin America and other regions. So how should the world respond to the rise of the cheap, hi-tech Chinese EV — and is its dominance inevitable?  Bill Russo, a former senior executive in China for Chrysler who now heads the Shanghai-based advisory firm Automobility, and is also chairman of the automotive committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, shares his views.
For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk
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The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

September's summit meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping may not have achieved too many concrete outcomes, but to some observers, it highlighted China’s rising international status. Beijing's ambitions on the international stage have been highlighted in recent years by its launch of a series of Global Initiatives, on Governance, Security, Development and Civilisation, which emphasise its own values, and have fuelled fears among some in the west that China seeks to replace the US as the world’s dominant power. So what is China seeking to achieve internationally? That’s the topic of a new book, China’s Global Strategy Under Xi Jinping, co-authored by Professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute and a specialist on President Xi's ideology, and Olivia Cheung. It focuses on China's attempts to win over countries of the Global South, increase its influence in multilateral bodies like the UN, and ultimately to take control of Taiwan as part of Xi Jinping's stated aim of achieving what he calls 'The China Dream of National Rejuvenation' by 2050. Steve Tsang joins us to discuss China’s global aims and strategies.
Photo credit: Ricardo Stuckert/PR / CC BY-SA 4.0
For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk
________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)
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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington this month comes amidst continuing tensions over Beijing’s strategic ambitions, US arms sales to Taiwan, and restrictions on US chip exports to China. Congress has just passed a bill pledging sanctions against countries which, like China, import Russian oil, while Donald Trump’s recent Greenland deal seems targeted at both Beijing and Moscow. So what are the chances of the two countries extending the truce on trade tariffs they reached last year — to say nothing of reaching a consensus on AI governance, or even building the ‘constructive relationship of strategic stability’ that they agreed to create during Mr Trump’s visit to Beijing in May? Professor Rana Mitter, historian of modern China and ST Lee Chair in US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, shares his views on the state of the relationship between the two nations.
Photo credit: Daniel Torok / White House
For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk
________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)
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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

Despite decades of rapid Chinese growth, it’s over the past year that European politicians have begun to talk of facing what’s been dubbed the ‘China Shock 2.0’ — as surging Chinese exports and the impact of higher technology Chinese growth increasingly affect the heartlands of European industry — particularly German car and machinery manufacturing. Germany’s industrial output has fallen around 10% since 2022, and the country is estimated to be shedding some 10,000 industrial jobs every month; Volkswagen has just outlined up to 100,000 possible job cuts. Much of the blame has been placed on Chinese overcapacity, and what Europe sees as unfair subsidies and an overvalued Chinese yuan. And amid fears that job losses could further boost the rise of the far right in European politics, there have been calls for new import restrictions and higher tariffs on Chinese imports to Europe. The European Union and China have just begun three months of trade talks in an attempt to find a solution — but will Europe dare to take tough action in the face of China’s stranglehold on sectors like rare earths and legacy chips — and is China prepared to compromise? Joerg Wuttke of the consultancy DGA Albright Stonebridge Group, for many years president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, and former Vice President for China at the German chemicals giant BASF, discusses the roots of the crisis and the chances of finding a solution.
Image © European Union, 2025 / CC BY 4.0
For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk
________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)
SCI Blog
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Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0

There’s been much talk recently about China’s demographic challenges: a fast-ageing population, a fall in the number of marriages, and record low birth rates - despite the relaxation of the One Child Policy ten years ago - as well as a rise in divorce rates over the past two decades. So what is going on in Chinese families and relationships? One person who studies this in great depth is Liu Jieyu, professor of sociology and China Studies at SOAS, and co-editor of the journal the China Quarterly, whose new book, Embedded Generations — Family Life and Social Change in Contemporary China, features interviews with more than 200 people from three generations — from those born in the 1930s and 40s to those born in the 1990s and beyond. Based on her fieldwork in villages in three provinces, and three cities from northern to southern China, it focuses on her interviewees’ experiences of childhood, relationships, sex and marriage, grandparenting and ageing. And it challenges traditional sociological attitudes to the impact of modernization and individualisation on Chinese society, highlighting some unexpected continuities and reinventions of tradition. Professor Liu joins us to discuss her findings.
Image © PRPicturesProduction / Adobe Stock
For information about the SOAS China Institute Corporate Membership scheme, please contact SCI director Steve Tsang: steve.tsang@soas.ac.uk
________________________________________

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and are not necessarily those of the SOAS China Institute.
________________________________________

SOAS China Institute (SCI)
SCI Blog
SCI on X
SCI on LinkedIn
SCI on Facebook
SCI on Instagram
________________________________________

Music credit: Sappheiros / CC BY 3.0