For many years, the West had great hopes on China. That market economy would eventually lead to democracy or at least a liberalization. But even as these hopes did not materialize, a West in nearly constant crisis was grateful for a Chinese government that other than the Russian one did not exploit its weaknesses, but…

Taiwan Trilogy 2023 The Chinese government has been launching a highly sophisticated and intensive disinformation campaign through a plethora of channels – trying to influence Taiwanese voters and raise doubts about American assistance. In the last episode of Sea of Change Podcast’s Taiwan Trilogy, we talked with Professor Puma Shen on his study on these…

Taiwan Trilogy 2023 It has been more than one year that Russia invaded Ukraine – and in Taiwan citizens, analysts and politicians ponder upon which lessons Taiwan can learn from it. Is there any way that a Chinese invasion could be avoided? What could be the most likely war strategy taken by China? How can…

Taiwan Trilogy 2023 With the Russian invasion of Ukraine a lot of international attention has been shifting to Taiwan – will China eventually attack the island? The Communist Party of China has been vowing to take over Taiwan since 1949. For a long time this promise sounded rather hollow, as the People’s Liberation Army did…

This is an episode we have been looking for for quite some while. The Overseas Chinese are one of the largest migrant groups in the world – and they are very much thought after by the Chinese Communist Party. Again and again it stresses the notion of an umbilical chord that connects them to their…

Most of the major economies in the world are struggling with recession, but not Indonesia. This most populous country in Southeast Asia even managed to maintain strong export and import during the pandemic, and witnessed a strong rebound after the Covid 2019 crisis. Its inflation rate is relatively low and has one of the best…

On 9 December 2022, another military conflict happened at the disputed border region between India and China, injuring at least two dozen soldiers on both sides. This incident has added to a series of Sino-Indian border conflicts since May 2020. New resentment is brewing between the world’s two most populous countries and nuclear powers, fueling…

In Oct. 2022, The Biden administration published a CHIPS and Science Act with a sweeping set of export controls to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with US tools. This marked a significant escalation of the Chip War launched by the US against a rising China. Washington knows that…

From rather clumsy beginnings the Chinese government has become very skilful in the way it exerts influence on the policy making process of the countries it deals with. It uses not only a wide variety of means but also recruits civilian actors like students, business associations and so on. In this episode we will be…