TI Observer: Recent Episodes
Taihe Institute
This podcast is produced by Taihe Institute, a leading Chinese think tank headquartered in Beijing with research centers in the United States and Germany.
TI Observer is dedicated to promoting transnational interaction and mutual understanding between China and the world.
The views of each episode don't necessarily reflect those of Taihe Institute.
For more information, please visit our official website: http://www.taiheinstitute.org/
While a late emerging economy, China has successfully managed to break through the Western hegemony and become a global leader in mobile communications. What are the key driving forces? How should one approach China's achievement in telecommunications and what are the key takeaways? Here's Thorsten Jelinek, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute and former Associate Director of the World Economic Forum.
The economic development of both China and India is remarkable. Yet, they view each other as potential competitors both regionally and internationally. Despite growing economic ties with India, China faces a number of challenges to improve the trade and investment relationship. How to proceed from the prevailing situation? What is the key takeaway from the Ukraine-Russia crisis to global affairs? Let's hear what Vidya Shankar Aiyar, International Relations analyst and ex-executive editor of CNN IBN (now CNN News18), has to say.
The current Russia-Ukraine crisis has coalesced the non-Western majority of the international community, brought forward a broader consensus, and provided common enlightenment and an objective opportunity for the revival of China-India relations. With the challenges of resolving bilateral historical issues in the short term, can China and India create better conditions for strengthening the foundations of mutual trust and facilitate the resolution of bilateral differences?
Currently, the most discussed topic on higher education in China is the so-called “Double First-Class” initiative. As the initiative is being carried out in its second round, the priority and the underlying logic of this transformation are two areas that have been garnering interests both at home and abroad. What is this initiative all about? How opportunities does it present to the country and the world? Liu Jinghui, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, answers these questions on this episode.
China’s “dual carbon” goal, namely achieving carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, is a noteworthy topic at the 2022 Two Sessions. This year’s meetings set the tone for the next steps that China will take to achieve its “dual carbon” goal and its transition to a green economy.
Ti Time is a special podcast series produced by TI Observer that aims to engage today's youth to shape tomorrow's world.
China and the world stand at a crossroad. As China conducted its annual Two Sessions in affirming its economic direction for the year, the crisis in Ukraine has waged on, all of which create new uncertainties and difficulties on the road ahead. How does China plan to navigate its economy? Will it abandon its current COVID management policy? And what might the global consequences of this conflict be? In this episode, Einar Tangen, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, answers these questions in an interview with TIO.
China’s society and economy have entered a new stage of development after two years of fighting the pandemic, thanks largely to the transportation industry that has withstood the many challenges posed by the virus. What are the changes made to the industry in response to COVID-19? Will these changes become part and parcel of the “new normal” that China is marching into? Zhang Zhuting, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, offers his views on these questions in this episode.
In its fight against COVID-19, China has demonstrated to the world its management capacities and government effectiveness. What does this imply about China’s social governance in the post-pandemic era? What are the development trends to be watching as the country gradually adjusts itself to the “new normal”? This episode, Xie Maosong, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, offers his interpretation for the questions.
Ti Time is a special podcast series produced by TI Observer that aims to engage today's youth to shape tomorrow's world.
The COVID-19 pandemic ultimately proved to be a world-changing event in ways we could have not imagined, impacting almost everyone’s life in profound ways while comprehensively rewriting global political currents. How has the experience of the pandemic played out both in China and overseas? What are its impacts on human-to-human exchanges and relations between China and the United States? In this episode, David Moser, Associate Professor at Capital Normal University, offers his perspective on these topics.
Ti Time is a special podcast series produced by TI Observer that aims to engage today's youth to shape tomorrow's world.
Most Latin American countries won their formal independence from Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in the 19th century, but they found themselves in the shadow of an incipient North American imperialism. Yet, with the expansion of Chinese investment and trade, which is sealed based on equality and works to develop mutually beneficial relationships by the Belt and Road Initiative, Latin America has the historic opportunity to break out of its status as a “backyard” of the U.S. to climb the ladder of development and to affirm its status as a key player in an increasingly multipolar world.
Initiated by the ASEAN in 2012 to strengthen its ties with China and other Asian countries, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, which covers a market of 2.2 billion people and $26.2 trillion of global output, came into force on January 1, 2022. Amid the slowdown of economic globalization, the RCEP is to inject new momentum into the Asia-Pacific region in terms of economic integration, though big challenges remain.
China has by all metrics handled COVID-19 very well. However, the pandemic has still brought significant challenges to the Chinese economic development in the past two years. If the economic buzzword for China in 2021 was adaption, what’s in store for the country’s economic development in 2022? What kind of fiscal and monetary policies will China adopt to address the challenges and spur growth? Let’s hear what Dr. Zhang Jiarui, Fellow of Taihe Institute and Assistant Professor of the Nottingham University Business School has to say on this.
The Belt and Road initiative, the massive global infrastructure project led by China in 2013, is a project which has attracted great interest, debate, and controversy. Whilst some have praised the need to help the development of the global south, others have criticized it as a symbol of China’s geopolitical expansion and ambitions through the notion of the “debt trap," leading western nations such as the U.S. to try and build their own alternatives to it. But where does the truth lie? Will efforts to counter it succeed? This episode features TIO's interview with Dr. Maria Adele Carrai, Assistant Professor of Global China Studies at NYU Shanghai.
Dr. Carrai/s research explores the history of international law in East Asia and investigates how China’s rise as a global power is shaping norms and redefining the international distribution of power. In light of the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, she is looking in particular at the economic, legal, and political repercussions of Chinese investments and economic engagement in Europe and Africa. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, she was a recipient of a three-year Marie-Curie fellowship at KU Leuven. She was also a Fellow at the Italian Academy of Columbia University, Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program, Max Weber Program of the European University Institute of Florence, and New York University Law School. More information can be found on her website www.mariadelecarrai.com.
This episode features Australian scholar Digby Wren's comments on China's most recent historical resolution - Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century.
2021 is a momentous year for China, with landmark regulations marking pivotal changes to key sectors and areas of society. To better grasp the developments of the past year that will inform the coming years’ policies, TIO conducted an interview with Charles Liu YS, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute and Co-Founder of Impact Asia Capital.
Young people are the future. They also have the power, both individually and collectively, to influence the present. Taihe Institute’s mission of bridging the gulf of understanding between China and the rest of the world recognizes the voices of today’s youth and amplifies the urgency of addressing common global issues.
At Taihe, we prioritize youth empowerment by offering a platform for the articulation of fresh perspectives and ideas on contemporary issues. Together, today’s youth and Taihe are building the foundations for a more sustainable future for generations of youth to come.
This episode features the conversation between Walker Darke, a Ph.D. student at Fudan University and an editorial committee member of TIO, and Bao Rong, a second-year MA student at the Yale School of Environment at the COP26 meeting.
In its discussion on global governance last month, TIO featured responses to the results of the G20 summit and COP26 from countries and regions whose voices were lost in the large power geopolitical machinations as a means of communicating a more nuanced view of the world.
Today, we present you this article written by H.E. Luis Diego Monsalve, Ambassador of Columbia to China, where he addresses the top issues facing his country in terms of necessities, assesses the two global meetings in question, and offers suggestions and advice concerning the future improvement of global governance.
In its discussion on global governance last month, TIO featured responses to the results of the G20 summit and COP26 from countries and regions whose voices were lost in the large power geopolitical machinations as a means of communicating a more nuanced view of the world.
Climate change is no longer just an environmental concern. It has emerged as the biggest developmental challenge for the planet. Its economic impacts, esp. on the poor, make it a major governance issue as well. Today, we present you this article contributed by Vikram Misri, Ambassador of India to China, where he disseminates some perspectives of developing countries on climate change in the Indian context.
In its discussion on global governance last month, TIO featured responses to the results of the G20 summit and COP 26 from countries and regions whose voices were lost in the large power geopolitical machinations as a means of communicating a more nuanced view of the world.
In today’s episode, we present this piece contributed by Ahcene Boukhelfa, former Ambassador of Algeria to China. Examining the effect of climate change on poor countries and regions like Africa, he highlights the significance of adequate financing for ensuring the effectiveness of global governance as the world progresses amidst prevailing crises and ever-evolving challenges.
In its discussion on global governance last month, TIO featured responses to the results of the G20 summit and COP 26 from countries and regions whose voices were lost in the large power geopolitical machinations as a means of communicating a more nuanced view of the world.
Today, we hope to share this piece by Jorge Heine, former Ambassador of Chile to China, where he talks about the capacity of global governance and multilateralism in the post-pandemic era from the perspective of Latin America in view of the pressing challenges like climate change, COVID-19, and refugee and humanitarian crises.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 has spread a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability across the globe. While 2020 was a year of perplexity, as the shock’s intensity and lack of recent precedents of similar magnitude resulted in doubts and confusion, 2021 has been a year of actions, of individual and collective decisions whose impact will arguably stretch far beyond the year itself. In this piece, Wang Zaibang, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, examines the capacity of existing problem-solving mechanisms in face of the most serious systematic crises like climate change and the pandemic. Referring to the outcomes of the recent G20 summit and the COP26 in particular, Wang sheds light on the main factors that have been compromising efficient global governance, and offers a limited outlook on how international institutions can further improve, so that they are more prepared for handling future crises.
2021 marks the 50th anniversary of China-Peru diplomatic ties. The year is also the 200th anniversary of the independence of Peru, and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. In this episode, Marco Carrasco-Villanueva, Specialist in Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru, Research Associate at Seeds of Change Consulting and NASA Space Apps Local Lead for Lima, joins us in a talk on the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
Marco has been a friend of TI for a long time. He has been an editorial committee member of the TI Observer (TIO) publication since November 2019. In this 30-minute discussion, Marco talks about the history of China-Peru ties, the significance of engagement between the two countries, and the importance of developing people-to-people ties.
The virtual summit between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden has gathered great attention from the world as the current world politics is arguably being dominated by the great power relations between China and the United States. How did the summit turn out? What it means for U.S.-China relations and their future cooperation? What are the implications for third-party countries? In this episode, Ding Yifan, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, and Einar Tangen, Independent Political and Economic Affairs Commentator, join us in a conversation to discuss this major leadership summit between Xi and Biden.
For a generation, married couples in China were ordained that “one child is enough.” In 2016, a second child was allowed. On May 31, 2021, a further relaxation of birth-control regulations was put in place. While some parents reacted to the three-child policy with glee. Most dismissed this policy action with an unsympathetic shrug. What is the rationale behind this initiative? How should we approach this shift? Where should the state go from here? In this piece, Dr. Wang Hui, Fellow of Taihe Institute and Affiliated Scholar of the University of Cambridge, shares her understanding of the topic in question from a comparative perspective where she refers to the experience of the West in tackling the same issue.
China, in the midst of global economic uncertainties caused by geopolitical competition and the Covid-19 pandemic, has embarked on sweeping changes to its society. The days when China defined domestic success in terms of GDP growth alone have been modified by social constructs which stress “common prosperity.” Issues such as poverty eradication, economic fairness, and educational reform are now in the news and on the lips of people in the country and around the world. In this podcast, we focus on China's vocational education reform in an effort to examine the rationale behind the initiative and explore its implication to the future development of China and the world.