Hear how Chinese scientists and the semiconductor industry have responded to Biden’s latest executive order, why some are calling it a “lose-lose” situation, and why China’s goal towards technological self-sufficiency has become much more difficult. Also, the Post’s Shenzhen-based tech reporter Iris Deng shares her latest visit to the world’s largest electronics market in search of chips the US has barred from export to China.
Aug 18, 2023•27 min
The US and China have less than two weeks to decide whether to renew a landmark science and technology agreement. Post reporter Khushboo Razdan explains what this agreement has achieved in the past and what would be lost if it isn’t renewed by August 27. Particle physicist and acclaimed columnist Yangyang Cheng explains how US-China science cooperation is as old as the bilateral relationship and what kind of collaborations she hopes to see between the global superpowers.
Aug 18, 2023•38 min
China is predicted to have 400 million retirees in 2035 - the same year the state pension fund is expected to run out. In this episode, Jasmine Tse analyses the central government's race to prepare the nation's finances, infrastructure and health system. Global health policy expert Professor Winnie Yip unpacks the challenges ahead, explains why robots or immigrants won’t fix them, and reveals a shift in China's culture of filial piety and caring for the elderly. Post desk editor Zhou Xin looks…
Jul 14, 2023•37 min
Something's changed in China's youth and it's causing concern all the way up to President Xi Jinping. Jasmine Tse presents an episode tracing the roots of a cross-generational protest from the 90s 'slacker' Generation X in the West to the year 2019 and a lone Chinese developer angry at '996' working culture, to viral memes on Chinese social media that became slogans uniting China’s GenZ and millennials in their disaffection with the status quo.
Jul 14, 2023•22 min
A record 12 million Chinese college graduates are entering the workforce at a time of historic youth unemployment. Xi Jinping's response to China's GenZ and millenials was "eat bitterness'. King’s College sociologist Dr Ye Liu analyses why these generations differ from their elders; consumer trends journalist Yaling Jiang analyses how spending habits of China’s GenZ and millenials are changing the economy and Post reporter Luna Sun analyses the harsh economic reality for China’s new graduates.
Jul 14, 2023•28 min
What started as a government-backed campaign to shame women in their late 20s and 30s who didn’t marry and have children has backfired spectacularly. Hear from the daughters of the one child policy; now the most educated, affluent women in Chinese history, and what they think about career, marriage and children.
Jul 14, 2023•26 min
After 70 years as the world's most populated nation, the news of China's first decline in population since the Great Famine of the 1960s was a long time coming. King’s College sociologist Dr Ye Liu reveals the deeper impact of the one child policy, how the massive gender imbalance continues to play out in and how it forged generations of women with very different attitudes to their elders.
Jul 14, 2023•24 min
There’s more to the shock of China's declining population than just births, deaths and marriages. Chinese GenZ and Millenials are choosing career over kids - or choosing to “lay flat” or “let it rot”. The two most educated and affluent generations in China's history are making choices that are changing the economy and challenging Beijing's policies - but they're now facing historic levels of unemployment, just as a record 12 million Chinese college students are about to graduate. Jasmine Tse…
Jul 05, 2023•1 min
Holly Chik looks at how this year’s heatwaves in China presaged the announcement of an El Nino weather cycle. Shanghai-based sustainability expert Richard Brubaker analyses the challenges to secure water, food and power supplies. Siqi Ji reports on the ongoing drought in Yunnan province threatening China’s massive hydropower scheme that supplies its industrial heartland, and Echo Xie reports on a new type of climate disaster – the flash drought – and what it means to the world.
Jun 16, 2023•29 min
The final in a three part special on Hong Kong's new retail crypto trading era: SCMP tech reporter Xinmei Shen speaks with Vivien Khoo about her transition from compliance in banking and how that influences her views on crypto and fintech; her forecast for the future of Hong Kong in the new retail crypto trading era; and her advocacy and leadership with women and challenging the culture of 'crypto bros'.
May 31, 2023•28 min
The second in a three part special on Hong Kong's new retail crypto trading era: SCMP specialist digital editor Jarrod Watt speaks with Neil Tan, chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong about how generative AI is changing crypto; his involvement in blockchain development in mainland China; how Hong Kong's legalising of retail crypto trading will attract talent that fled Beijing's crypto ban; and whether bitcoin mining will come to Hong Kong.
May 31, 2023•24 min
SCMP tech reporter Xinmei Shen presents an episode on Hong Kong’s new era of regulated retail cryptocurrency. Matt Haldane looks at the major players in Hong Kong and the attraction to mainland Chinese talent and investment after Beijing’s crypto and bitcoin bans in 2021; Ken Lo of crypto exchange HKbitEX discusses how the regulations work; and Chengyi Ong from Chainalysis examines Hong Kong’s regulations, how they compare globally and analyses the risks ahead.
May 31, 2023•35 min
Hear analysis from Orient Capital Research managing director Andrew Collier of the raids and arrests on consulting firms conducting due diligence and sharing expert analysis in mainland China and the impact on foreign investment; Post tech desk editor Zhou Xin looks at why the Cyberspace Administration of China has labelled American chipmaker Micron a “national security risk”.
May 24, 2023•34 min
Finbarr Bermingham analyses the EU Indo-Pacific forum and the reality of "de-risking" from China; Kawala Xie reports on expectations for the role of China's peace envoy to Ukraine Li Hui; Rob Delaney looks at the Wang Yi-Jake Sullivan meeting as the US mends relations without raising balloon incidents; and Shi Jiangtao on Beijing's response to the G7 meeting and how it views Japan's increasingly hawkish call for Europe to focus on the Taiwan Strait.
May 17, 2023•53 min
Holly Chik presents the latest update on AI in mainland China. William Zheng reports on the first person arrested for using ChatGPT to generate fake news; while tech reporters Ben Jiang and Coco Feng explain the lag of China’s tech companies as they try to catch up, while the first wave of AI-related job losses begin.
May 12, 2023•35 min
Hear the stories going viral this week from the SCMP People and Society desk with Luisa Tam and Kevin Kwong. The airbnb guests from hell who protest a denied cancellation by turning the taps and gas on for days; the man who had his girlfriend's name added to his mother's tombstone, only to have her demand it be removed two years later; the grieving brother and sister who find out their dead mother left them millions, made even more distraught by the brother's wife demanding her fair share, and…
May 11, 2023•16 min
The 2023 “golden week” holiday period which includes May Day did more than just reveal how badly people in mainland China wanted to travel and visit tourist sites. Beijing-based reporter Luna Sun discusses the numbers and has a look at an island hoping to surpass Hong Kong as a free trade and travel destination, while the Post’s Oscar Liu and Harvey Kong look at new trends and behaviours seen among the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visited Hong Kong over the past week.
May 05, 2023•27 min
Holly Chik presents an episode analysing new announcements about the Chinese space programme. Post science reporter Xin Ling and Space.com journalist Andrew Jones report on Beijing’s timeline for developing a GPS system for the moon and 3D printing bricks for the first lunar base, its hopes for beating the US in a race to get soil samples from Mars and its plans for a survey of Jupiter’s moon Callisto.
Apr 28, 2023•41 min
Holly Chik looks at how people in China are using AI and ChatGPT. A dead woman holds a conversation with her grandson; a surveillance satellite operates without human control; and the PLA considers “cognitive warfare”. In Hong Kong, a stock brokerage with thousands of millennial and Gen Z investors prepares to launch a ChatGPT-powered investment assistant. And hear from nuclear weapons and China tech expert Dr Amy J Nelson on chances for a global AI arms treaty.
Apr 21, 2023•31 min
Holly Chik presents the second in a two part special. Technology reporter Xinmei Shen analyses Beijing’s new draft guidelines for generative AI and how it will affect China’s burgeoning chatbot industry. China technology and AI expert Matt Sheehan from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace compares the approach of China, the US and Europe in regulating AI and the prospects for superpower co-operation.
Apr 14, 2023•32 min
Despite it not being officially available, Hong Kong is adapting ChatGPT for use in finance, law firms, customer service and beyond. Hong Kong city reporter Oscar Liu reports on how it's being used, as well as the split among Hong Kong universities on whether to allow students to use ChatGPT. Hear from a secondary teacher on how ChatGPT and other AI applications are changing the way he teaches, how his students are using it to enhance their learning and his concerns for unregulated development…
Apr 14, 2023•28 min
Xi Jinping’s recent Moscow visit was upstaged by an unannounced trip to Ukraine by Japanese leader Fumio Kishida as well as Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russian nuclear weapons will be staged in Belarus. The Post’s Europe correspondent Finbarr Bermingham analyses the EU response as well as why European leaders are making plans to visit Beijing. Diplomacy expert Shi Jiangtao explains why Kishida’s diplomacy with Ukraine, South Korea and India is being seen as a game changer for Xi’s plans…
Mar 30, 2023•36 min
Kevin Kwong and Luisa Tam talk about the stories from mainland China that grabbed people's attention this week. Find more stories from the SCMP People and Culture desk: https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture
Mar 17, 2023•15 min
Holly Chik speaks with SCMP political economy editor Wendy Wu about how Xi Jinping's reference to 'brotherhood and love' for China's entrepreneurs has been received, and what the latest economic data portends for the plans put forward at the Two Sessions. Senior journalist William Zheng analyses the speeches of Xi Jinping and newly ascended premier Li Qiang.
Mar 15, 2023•32 min
Jasmine Tse hosts a special episode celebrating the success of Michelle Yeoh and her film Everything, Everywhere All At Once at the 2023 Oscars. Senior culture reporter Lisa Cam explains the power of films with Asian mothers and their daughters as central characters. And Hong Kong-born Hollywood veteran George Cheung talks about the barriers he’s confronted as an Asian actor in 50 years of films and tv, and why this year’s Academy Awards represent substantial progress for Asian actors.
Mar 13, 2023•41 min
The Post’s Kinling Lo reports from Beijing on its annual political assembly known as the ‘two sessions’, in a week when Chinese President Xi Jinping made an unusual direct remark on US policy while Foreign Minister Qin Gang in his first media briefing, also commented on US rivalry, Ukraine and Taiwan. North American bureau chief Rob Delaney analyses the US response, its ongoing legislative agenda for Taiwan and the impending visit of its leader Tsai Ing-wen.
Mar 10, 2023•35 min
China’s president Xi Jinping will seek to consolidate his power and update Beijing’s economic and security policies in the coming ‘two sessions’ meetings. Hear analysis on the expected ministerial changes as well as indications about how Beijing will change its approach to internal security, the administration of Hong Kong and how it will use the gatherings to send signals to China’s people as well as to the world.
Mar 02, 2023•24 min
It is now just over one year since Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared China and Russia's “no limits” friendship, just weeks before the Russian leader announced he had ordered troops into Ukraine. Hear Beijing diplomacy expert Shi Jiangtao and Europe correspondent Finbarr Bermingham analyse the optics of top diplomat Wang Yi’s meeting this week with President Putin, how Beijing’s relationship with Moscow has changed, and how European nations have changed their perspective on China over the…
Feb 24, 2023•37 min
While not officially released in China, the arrival of ChatGPT has sparked huge interest on Chinese social media and set off a race between tech giants Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba to develop similar AI chatbot technology. Post technology reporter Xinmei Shen speaks with fellow tech journalists Coco Feng and Ben Jiang in Beijing about this new AI tech gold rush, how China’s censorship system will have an impact, and why operating in Chinese language is a much more complicated task for AI. Alibaba…
Feb 17, 2023•21 min
SCMP Culture desk editor Kevin Kwong and China People and Society edesk editor Luisa Tam discuss the stories that have been most popular on scmp.com over the past week. What do you prefer - a deadly octopus in your hotpot or floor cleaning liquid in your fruit juice? Luisa Tam talks Kevin Kwong through some of the stories that got the biggest audience for the SCMP People and Society desk. Hear about the controversial court case over lai see and why gay couples are in the spotlight for the year…
Feb 10, 2023•10 min
