A weekly conversation exploring China's economy and tech scene. Guests include a wide range of policy analysts, business professionals, journalists, and academics. ChinaTalk is hosted by Jordan Schneider, who also writes a weekly newsletter translating and analyzing Chinese-language sources.
Latest in ChinaTalk
Ben Reinhardt, an independent researcher and robotics PhD, discusses why DARPA has so many hits to its name; why NASA wasted the past two decades; what needs to be subtracted from the U.S. research ecosystem; and sci-fi book recommendations.
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Dr. Yan Zheng, senior technical staff specializing in microelectronics at In-Q-Tel, discusses what it's like to invest in startups for the CIA and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community; what's broken in the early stage chip ecosystem and how to fix it; hy the US government should consider expanding its direct investments in hard tech companies; how the U.S. needs to counterbalance CFIUS with carrots; how anti-Asian violence has influenced the research community.
Bell Labs is dead, long live Bell Labs! This week's guest, Ilan Gur, the CEO of Activate.org, has a plan to improve America's R&D apparatus: fund start-ups that allow entrepreneurial researchers to pursue the practical applications of their world-class basic research. We discuss why we're lucky to have Moderna and BioNTech (beyond the obvious reasons), the impact of research moving from corporations to universities, the Endless Frontier Act, why patents don't equal innovation and more.
The Endless Frontier Act, the most important piece of legislation no one's heard of, got blown to bits in committee this week. Sam Hammond of the Niskanen Center joins to discuss.
My recent coverage in the ChinaTalk newsletter https://chinatalk.substack.com/p/endless-frontier-the-most-important
Sam's coverage: https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-congress-ruined-the-endless-frontier-act/
Why hasn’t North Korea emulated Deng’s Opening & Reform? Are China’s wealthy, educated, urbane youth liberals? Could the PLA cooperate with the U.S. military in the event of Korean reunification?
Odd Arne Westad joins ChinaTalk to discuss his latest book Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations. Westad’s work is a diplomat’s handbook that connects the sweeping currents of history to the geopolitics of today. Co-hosting today is Danny Crichton of TechCrunch. We explore how Korea, past and present, navigates its relationship with the powerful empires on its doorstep.
For Part Three of ChinaTalk's industrial policy series, we are joined by two leading lights of the American left: Saikat Chakrabarti, AOC's former Chief of Staff, and Zack Exley of the 2016 Bernie campaign. (Don't forget to check out Part One with Rob Atkinson and Part Two with José Fernandez.) Co-hosting is Vishnu Kannan, a junior fellow in Carnegie's Technology and International Affairs Program.
Kevin Xu of the fantastic Interconnected newsletter, and formerly of Commerce and the Obama White House, ran through a grab bag of some of the hottest topics in U.S.-China tech.
Student Research Symposium: https://forms.gle/FYoSeHS7t3ZLLwEh9
Work with me! https://rhg.com/job/research-assistant-china-technology-and-industry-research/
Thomas Shugart joined me and Eric Lofgren on another cross-over episode of ChinaAcquisitionTalk. Thomas spent 25 years in the US Navy and is currently an adjunct senior fellow at CNAS.