Hi, I'm Joe Wiley. And I'm Soie Ball. And we're here to tell you about a brand new podcast, Digit.

Digit is all about the things that Joe and I love. From the kids to the parents and all the stuff in between.

There's a lot going on when you get to this age. Listen wherever you get your podcasts and watch every episode on Spotify. Dig it. Every week. Every week.

For the rest of time. Yes. Okay. Good.

I'm John Batchew with my colleague Andrew Collier, his book in 22, China's Technology War.

The word prescient applies, but Andrew was careful in 22 not to come to conclusions, just to observe the tensions that are introduced by Xi Jinping's common prosperity theme, and the enforcement of those themes on the

tech giants that were growing apace with the tech giants in the U.S. at the time.

Alibaba was a worthy competitor worldwide, eventually, to Amazon.

The others also, the gig economy was working everywhere,

but China took it down. The fast food, ordering food in, being delivered was working everywhere,

but China took it down. Now we come to poverty, lifting people out of poverty.

There is a remark in your book, and I'm sorry I didn't write down the author.

It's very clever.

He said, if they keep this up, we'll have common poverty, not common prosperity.

And that is apparently what we are now observing.

In 22, 17% of the population remained in poverty.

Extreme poverty had been mitigated.

They ate every day.

However, the redistribution has not worked out.

Did Xi Jinping know that in 22, that it was PR, that it was marketing and not real?

Or is this a revelation to them three years later that the unemployment lines are bigger than ever?

They don't even print statistics anymore.

...