A China policy for the progressive left
Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo
4.8 ā¢ 676 Ratings
šļø 5 November 2020
ā±ļø 64 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
š§¾ļø Download transcript
Summary
This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Tobita Chow and Jake Werner about what a progressive U.S. policy toward China should look like. Tobita is the direcĀtor of JusĀtice Is GlobĀal, a speĀcial project of Peopleās Action that is buildĀing a moveĀment to creĀate a more just and susĀtainĀable globĀal econĀoĀmy and defeat right-wing nationĀalĀism around the world. Jake is a Postdoctoral Global China Research Fellow at Boston University's Global Development Policy Center. He is currently researching the emergence of great power conflict between the U.S. and China following the 2008 financial crisis and how new strategies for global development could resolve those tensions. The three talk about whether the ātankiesā bring anything to the conversation, whether a Biden presidency is likely to move U.S. policy off the current trajectory toward conflict with China, and how human rights should be considered in drafting progressive China policy.
3:58: Much ado about tankies
13:10: A worldwide shift toward authoritarianism
28:44: Imperialism ā itās complicated
33:31: Thoughts on a potential Joe Biden presidency
36:32: Progressive globalization
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Recommendations:
Tobita: The album Fantasize Your Ghost, by Ohmme, and Punisher, by Phoebe Bridgers.
Jake: The Made in China Journal. Also, Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory, by Herbert Marcuse.
Kaiser: The show Raised by Wolves, available on HBO Max.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the cynical podcast, the weekly discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with sub-China. |
| 0:18.5 | Sub-China is simply the best way there is to keep on top of all the |
| 0:20.9 | important news coming out of China, especially if you subscribe to our daily email newsletter, |
| 0:26.3 | SubChina Access. And visit subchina.com to check out our wide range of reported pieces, |
| 0:32.6 | op-eds, videos, and of course podcasts. It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation |
| 0:38.9 | that is reshaping the world. I'm Kaiser Guo coming to you today from my home in Chapel Hill, |
| 0:44.4 | North Carolina. Today on Cineco, we're talking about what a progressive foreign policy should |
| 0:49.7 | look like, and specifically what shaped the American progressive policy toward China ought to take. |
| 0:55.3 | Right now, I don't think I'm alone in thinking that the American left is all over the place when it comes to China. |
| 1:01.0 | I'm not really including the so-called tankies who are pretty hardcore in the support for the party under Xi Jinping's leadership |
| 1:06.4 | and defend stubbornly everything from Xi's abolition of term limits, from China's claims in South China Sea to his position on Taiwan, his imposition of the national security law in Hong Kong, all the way up to his policies in Xinjiang, when they even acknowledge the existence of the so-called re-education camps at all. |
| 1:26.2 | Those people aside, there is still some |
| 1:28.9 | profound disagreement within the self-identified American progressive camp when it comes to China. |
| 1:34.7 | Some, in their zeal to champion the perceived interests of working class Americans, |
| 1:39.0 | tend to favor economic protectionism and to view China's state capitalism as, you know, |
| 1:44.0 | being just as objectionable as American capitalism as, you know, being just as |
| 1:44.6 | objectionable as American capitalism or even more to revile globalization, while others aren't |
| 1:51.2 | in any hurry at all to decouple from China and want to see trade ties deepen and capital flows |
| 1:56.5 | increase. Some seem to be eager to use American power up to, and even including military power, |
| 2:03.2 | to put an end to Chinese human rights abuses, as if that were possible. While others are |
| 2:08.3 | horrified by the crescendo of the war drums, it's not hard to imagine just about any |
| 2:13.6 | permutation of convictions on the progressive left when it comes to what our correct posture |
... |
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