The Beijing Brief

Why is China's economic growth slowing despite rapid technological breakthroughs and dominance in the manufacturing sector? Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Mary Gallagher and Rhodium Group Partner Logan Wright join Jon Czin on The Beijing Brief to unpack what is driving the slowdown, how it is reshaping state-society relations in China, and what it means for Western economies grappling with China's export surge.

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The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Ryan Hass and Jon Czin are joined by Evan Osnos, a Brookings nonresident senior fellow, to look at China from the ground up. What do people really want and how has that changed over the past decade? And how are they living through a period today of slower growth, tighter control, and rapid technological change?

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The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

In September, President Xi Jinping made his first state visit to Washington in more than a decade. Ryan Hass, Jon Czin, and Kyle Chan assess what the visit means for U.S.-China relations and where the relationship may be headed under President Trump.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Why has the Chinese Communist Party survived so long, and how does it rule? Jon Czin and Ryan Hass sit down with Minxin Pei, editor-in-chief of China Leadership Monitor, to unpack China's political system, the party's historical dynamics from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, and the government's foreign and domestic priorities.

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The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

How do you tell China's story when journalism in China is so limited? What is lost when so few reporters remain? Ryan Hass and Jon Czin sit down with former China correspondent Jane Perlez to discuss her favorite beats and stories, the difficulties of reporting in China, how Beijing steers foreign coverage toward "shiny bauble" stories, and the importance of people-to-people exchange between the U.S. and China.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Ryan Hass and Jon Czin are joined by Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Caitlin Talmadge for a special episode of The Beijing Brief from on the ground in Taipei. Drawing on conversations with Taiwanese counterparts, they unpack how Taiwan is thinking about its own defense, why its technology industry is central to its national security, and where Washington's read of the situation falls short.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

As China searches for markets to absorb its excess exports, it has increasingly directed much of that manufacturing overcapacity toward Europe, hollowing out the continent's industrial capacity. On this episode of The Beijing Brief, Ryan Hass and Jon Czin are joined by Constanze Stelzenmüller and Kari Heerman to examine how Europe reached this point, what it can do to safeguard itself and advance its economic growth, and whether it can unify behind a solution..

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

What does the invention of Chinese AI model Kimi K3 mean for Washington and Silicon Valley? In a new explainer for The Beijing Brief podcast, Kyle Chan breaks down the ongoing AI battle between Chinese open-source models and American AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI.

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The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

America's leading role in the world is eroding under the second Trump administration, raising questions about how China will position itself in the future global order. "We blew it," says historian and Senior Fellow Robert Kagan in conversation with Ryan Hass and Jon Czin on the latest episode of The Beijing Brief. Kagan examines what this could mean for China's ambitions and behavior in the international system.

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The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The Ukraine war, shifting American foreign policy priorities under President Trump, and increased global instability have shifted the balance in the China-Russia relationship, one of the world's most consequential relationships. Jon Czin is joined by Fiona Hill and Patirica Kim to examine the convergences and divergences in Beijing and Moscow's strategic interests and personal relations.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

In this special episode of The Beijing Brief, Ryan Hass speaks with R. David Edelman on the sidelines of the United Nations Global Conference on AI, Security, and Ethics in Geneva, Switzerland. Drawing on seven years of experience participating in a track II dialogue on AI and national security, they discuss the importance of sustained dialogue despite broader strategic competition, prospects for renewed government-to-government AI talks, shared concerns over AI-enabled cyber and biological risks, and the growing debate over global AI governance.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

How are the United States and China pursuing AI development? On this episode of The Beijing Brief, Ryan Hass sits down with Kyle Chan and R. David Edelman to discuss the two countries differing AI strategies and assess why the two countries have taken a different approach to their AI ambitions.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

President Trump came home from China on May 15 hauling trade deals and stability. But how did Beijing read the visit? On this episode, Ryan Hass sits down with China Center scholars Patricia Kim, Kyle Chan, and Jon Czin to unpack what the summit really means for the future of the relationship.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

What does Beijing really want from the war in Iran, and what do Washington and Tehran want from China? On this episode of The Beijing Brief, Jon Czin speaks with co-host Ryan Hass and experts Suzanne Maloney and Mara Karlin about the triangular interplay among the United States, China, and Iran. They explore China-Iran relations, Beijing's role in regional dynamics, and Washington's strategic positioning vis-à-vis China considering the conflict.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Ryan Hass speaks with Jon Czin and John Culver, a top expert on China's military, about how sweeping leadership purges and rapid military modernization are reshaping the People's Liberation Army. What do these competing forces mean for the risk of conflict with the United States? And what lessons are China's military leaders learning from the U.S. war with Iran?

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

In early March, Beijing released its fifteenth Five-Year Plan, detailing the Party leadership's economic and technological ambitions for the years ahead. Jon Czin sits down with China Center colleague Kyle Chan and Andrew Polk of Trivium China to discuss Beijing's push to move up the value chain — from low-end manufacturing toward high-tech industries like AI, robotics, and semiconductors. The two experts offer their analysis of what the plan reveals about where China's leaders want its economy to go, how it plans to get there, and how Western countries are reacting to its increasing economic global influence.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

President Trump's planned visit to Beijing has been postponed to May 14 to 15 because of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. What does the delay signal about the state of U.S.-China relations, how does Chinese leadership read this moment? On the inaugural episode of The Beijing Brief, Ryan Hass, Jon Czin, Pattie Kim, and Kyle Chan unpack what the postponement reveals about the trajectory of U.S.-China relations during the second Trump administration. They discuss China's strategic calculus amid the Iran conflict, the Taiwan issues likely to dominate when the two leaders finally meet, and the deeper question of whether time is really on America's side in its competition with China.

Transcript and show notes.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.

On The Beijing Brief, a new podcast from the Brookings Podcast Network, Brookings China scholars and expert guests take listeners behind the scenes in Washington, D.C., and Beijing to unpack the forces shaping U.S.-China relations and China's political, economic, and technological ambitions.

Stay tuned for new episodes soon.

The Beijing Brief is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback to podcasts@brookings.edu.