Dr. Thomas Wright is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. Tom is also a contributing writer for The Atlantic magazine, and last year published Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order, which he co-authored with current Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl. On this episode, we discussed the Russia-Ukraine crisis and Russian Preside...
Feb 15, 2022•30 min
Nazanin Ash is the CEO of Welcome.US, a non-profit, non-partisan initiative that seeks to rally additional support and resources from the American private sector, NGOs, and community groups in support of arriving Afghans. The initiative was launched in September 2021, and has partnered with the U.S. State Department, as well as more than 250 NGOs, businesses, and leaders of diverse faiths, politics, and backgrounds. Previously, Nazanin was vice president of Global Policy and Advocacy at the Inte...
Feb 01, 2022•29 min
Congressman Ami Bera has represented California’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013, and he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation for the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Before entering politics, Congressman Bera had a twenty-year medical career in the Sacramento area. He is a first-generation American, born and raised in California, and the longest-serving Indian American serving in Congress.On t...
Jan 18, 2022•30 min
This special episode, presented by the Asia Group in partnership with Bloomberg, highlights the InFinity Forum, a new flagship conference hosted by the Government of India and Bloomberg. Our guest for this episode is Dino Setiawan, chief executive officer and co-founder of AwanTunai, and an advisor to the InFinity Forum. AwanTunai is an Indonesian startup providing financing and digital e-commerce tools to brick-and-mortar wholesalers and small-scale entrepreneurs in the greater Jakarta area. On...
Dec 13, 2021•29 min
Representative Bi-khim Hsiao leads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington, DC, serving as Taiwan’s top representative in the United States since July 2020. Before entering her current role, Representative Hsiao was Senior Adviser to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen at the National Security Council of Taiwan, and previously served four terms in the Taiwan Legislature, where she was ranking member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. On this episode, ...
Nov 23, 2021•32 min
Peter Borup is a seasoned shipping executive with nearly three decades of experience across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Peter began his career with A.P. Moller Maersk in Copenhagen, and helped to build the company’s businesses in South Korea and China. Most recently, Peter was the CEO of Norvic Shipping International, based in Denmark and the U.A.E. In this episode, we discussed the 2021 global supply chain disruptions, longterm challenges and trends in shipping, and the prospects for the...
Nov 08, 2021•43 min
Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan led the CIA from 2013 to 2017, following four years as assistant to President Obama for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. A key decision-maker on many of the country’s most critical national security matters, Mr. Brennan played a central role in efforts to counter international extremism, U.S. policy in Syria and the fight against ISIS, and the Iran deal. Mr. Brennan served six U.S. presidents, and in 2003 became the founding ...
Oct 12, 2021•36 min
Dr. Michael J. Green is senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and director of Asian Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Previously, Dr. Green served on the National Security Council staff from 2001 through 2005, first as director for Asian affairs, and then as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Asia. Today we are lucky to work ...
Sep 24, 2021•32 min
Shweta Rajpal Kohli is Chief Public Policy Officer, Sequoia India and Southeast Asia. She advises the fund’s Indian and Southeast Asian portfolio companies on regulatory risks and engages policymakers on matters related to India’s startup ecosystem. Prior to joining Sequoia, Shweta was the head of public policy for India and South Asia at Uber, and then at Salesforce, following a two-decade career as a leading business journalist and TV news anchor. With 2021 projected to see a record of around ...
Sep 08, 2021•39 min
PichaEats is a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based social enterprise in the food industry, focused on supporting the city’s large refugee community. PichaEats partners with refugee chefs to cook and package meals based on the chefs’ personal recipes, and sells and delivers those meals to individuals and catered events across the city. On this episode we spoke with Kim Lim, who alongside co-founders Suzanne Ling and Lee Swee Lin transformed PichaEats from a college service project into a self-sustaining...
Aug 23, 2021•29 min
Anna Fifield was Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post from 2018 to 2020, before which she covered the Korean Peninsula and Japan as the Post’s Tokyo bureau chief from 2014 to 2018. Anna is the author of The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, and an authority on North Korean society and politics, having visited the country a dozen times to report on the Kim regime. She has also traveled across Asia to interview North Korean defectors, giving he...
Aug 08, 2021•47 min
Dr. Evan S. Medeiros is Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Senior Advisor at The Asia Group. Dr. Medeiros served on the National Security Council for six years under U.S. President Barack Obama, first as Director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and then as President Obama’s top advisor for U.S. policy in Asia. Combining expertise as a scholar of Chinese politics with first-hand experience at the height of U.S. China policy, Evan ref...
Jul 25, 2021•42 min
Scott Levy is Managing Director of NBA Asia, where he oversees development and expansion of the National Basketball Association’s strategic initiatives across the Indo-Pacific region – excluding China. With the Tokyo Olympics opening later this month, Scott spoke with Tea Leaves about sports and consumer culture in different Asian markets, the NBA’s response to COVID-19, and the outlook for the Tokyo Olympics. You can access a full video of the conversation at www.youtube.com/channel/UCwSvkY8tzv...
Jul 12, 2021•41 min
Natasha Khan is a Hong Kong-based reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she has covered major stories including Hong Kong’s popular protest movement, the emergence of COVID-19 and the city’s response, and major changes to Hong Kong’s political system. On this episode of Tea Leaves, Rexon and Shery spoke with Natasha about her experiences covering the protests, the economic, social, and political changes underway in the city, and how she continues to seek truth amid the crackdown on some med...
Jun 28, 2021•36 min
Ashley J. Tellis holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. On the NSC he was a top negotiator of the pivotal 2005 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – a landmark agreement that helped transform the U.S.-India relationship. On this episode, Rexon and Sh...
Jun 14, 2021•47 min
Ambassador Nina Hachigian is Deputy Mayor for International Affairs for the City of Los Angeles and previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 2014 to 2017. On this episode, Rexon and Shery spoke with Nina about how cities shape international relations, urban policy and the fight against climate change, and the challenges facing ASEAN amid the Myanmar coup. They also discussed LA’s preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics and working with May...
Jun 01, 2021•43 min
Admiral Harry Harris served as U.S. Ambassador to South Korea from 2018 to 2021, before which he was a four-star admiral in the U.S. Navy, commanding the U.S. Pacific Fleet and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). Admiral Harris was also the first American of Japanese descent to lead USINDOPACOM. Ahead of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to the White House on May 21, Rexon and Shery spoke with Admiral Harris about his expectations for the Moon-Biden summit, U.S. military capabiliti...
May 17, 2021•45 min
Tea Leaves welcomes our listeners back with two new co-hosts: Rexon Ryu, Managing Partner at The Asia Group, and Shery Ahn, an anchor at Bloomberg Television’s “Daybreak Asia” and “Daybreak Australia.” In this latest iteration of the Tea Leaves Podcast, Rexon and Shery share their personal stories and discuss how their Asian heritage influenced their perspectives and chosen careers in government, journalism, and the private sector. The two also dive into the emerging influence of China throughou...
Apr 22, 2021•37 min
For all the promise and potential that Asia has to offer for the world, what challenges does the region face? In this latest Tea Leaves discussion, Kurt and Rich sit down with Vasuki Shastry to take a more counterintuitive approach to Asia’s future and examine the region through a more critical lens, touching on social fault lines and wealth disparities that exist in the region today. Using Shastry’s new book – “Has Asia Lost It?” – as a starting point, the three discuss how both developed and d...
Dec 18, 2020•38 min
In this Tea Leaves episode, Kurt is joined by TAG Partner Rexon Ryu to welcome on General Dave Goldfein, recently-retired Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force. General Goldfein shares his experiences guiding the 650,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve, and civilian personnel that make up the U.S. Air Force through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The three also discuss the future of the Air Force in Asia, how the Air Force approaches technological innovation, the importance of nuclear deterrence,...
Nov 30, 2020•37 min
In this Tea Leaves conversation, Kurt and Rich talk with Peter Martin, defense policy and intelligence reporter at Bloomberg LP and the author of “China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy.” Peter gives an overview of China’s diplomatic corps and expanding global diplomatic footprint, discusses the roots of “Wolf Warrior Diplomacy,” and describes also the dynamics, strategies, and traditions in Chinese diplomatic history.
Nov 16, 2020•32 min
What’s next for the United States when it comes to trade? Is it ready, from a domestic politics perspective, to engage more deeply with its Asian partners? Kurt Campbell is joined by TAG Partner Kurt Tong for a conversation on all things trade with Wendy Cutler, Vice President and Managing Director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Washington, DC office. Wendy also discusses digital trade and data flows as an increasingly important component of overall trade, as well as the role of multilat...
Nov 02, 2020•33 min
In this Tea Leaves episode, Kurt talks with Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank and a distinguished diplomat, about diplomatic history as a tool to educate future policymakers in government. Using Bob’s newly published book: “America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy,” the two dive into specific events in U.S. history – including events before the outbreak of World War II – that can be applied to contemporary issues pertaining to trade, security, and th...
Oct 20, 2020•40 min
In this Tea Leaves conversation, Kurt and Rich sit down with one of the leading energy policy experts in the world – Dr. Daniel Yergin. The three discuss the significant geopolitical ramifications of U.S. energy independence following the shale gas revolution. Dr. Yergin also discusses the emergence of a mixed global energy system as well as the complexities associated with nuclear power as an energy source in both Asia and the United States. They also talk about the energy demands of China asso...
Sep 27, 2020•41 min
In this Tea Leaves episode, Kurt and Rich are joined by Ben Bland, Director of the Southeast Asia program at the Lowy Institute. Ben, currently based in Sydney, shares important insights from his new book, “Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia,” which is the first English-language biography of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. The three roll back the curtain on Indonesia – Southeast Asia’s largest economy – and discuss what’s currently at stake amid the COVID p...
Aug 31, 2020•32 min
On this Tea Leaves episode, Kurt and Rich talk with Larry La, owner of Meiwah Restaurant, a DC favorite frequented by former presidents, diplomats, and global celebrities. Larry shares his experiences as a restauranteur amid the ongoing pandemic, his Vietnamese roots, and his inspiring story as an American immigrant moving to the country in the late 1970s. The full video of this conversation can be found on the news section of The Asia Group’s website: https://theasiagroup.com/in-the-news/.
Aug 10, 2020•32 min
In this Tea Leaves episode, Kurt and Rich talk with Ambassador Capricia Marshall, former U.S. Chief of Protocol. The three discuss the significance of gift-giving at the highest levels of government, Capricia’s experiences in her roles supporting the Clinton administration and Obama administration, and her recently published book, “Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work for You.” To watch the full episode of this conversation, please visit: https://theasiagroup.com/in-the-news/
Jul 26, 2020•36 min
In this Tea Leaves episode, Rich and Nirav are joined by TAG Ambassador Pham Vinh in Hanoi for an assessment of U.S.-Vietnam ties after 25 years of diplomatic normalization. The three also discuss Ambassador Vinh’s personal experiences growing up in Vietnam and his time as Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States. To access the video of the conversation with Ambassador Vinh, please visit: https://theasiagroup.com/tea-leaves-podcast-ambassador-pham-quang-vinh/
Jul 13, 2020•27 min
In this Tea Leaves episode, Kurt and Rich talk with Chris Brose from Anduril Industries to talk about the future of U.S. military power in Asia and Chris' new book, "The Kill Chain." The three also discuss Chris' time working as staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee and his personal experiences working with the late U.S. Senator John McCain. The video of this conversation can be accessed here: https://theasiagroup.com/in-the-news/
Jun 29, 2020•36 min
Dr. Anthony Fauci joins Kurt and Rich in this latest Tea Leaves episode to talk about the COVID-19 situation in the United States and prospects for a second wave. The three also discuss Dr. Fauci’s extensive research on HIV/AIDS and how it has helped him in his experiences addressing COVID-19. Dr. Fauci also shares some of his experiences with dealing with the pandemic on a personal level and offers guidance for individuals as we look to the months ahead. The full video of Kurt and Rich’s conver...
Jun 18, 2020•21 min
