A compilation of Chinese Whispers: understanding China
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2025
⏱️ 98 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode you can hear from: journalist Bill Hayton on what it means to be Chinese (1:10); writer and actor Mark Kitto and author Alex Ash on being foreign in China (13:07); professor of international history Elizabeth Ingleson on whether China’s economic boom was made in America (23:08); professor of Chinese studies and former diplomat Kerry Brown and professor of history Steve Tsang on how the cultural revolution shaped China’s leaders today (47:05); journalist Bill Bishop and professor of political science Victor Shih on how Xi took complete control at the 20th party congress in 2022 (58:13); journalist and advisor Noah Barkin on the relationship between Europe and China (1:10:04); and, professor of China studies William Kirby and former diplomat Charles Parton on why China won’t invade Taiwan (1:19:56).
To stay abreast of Cindy’s latest work, subscribe to her free Substack at chinesewhispers.substack.com
Produced by Cindy Yu and Patrick Gibbons.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews. |
| 0:06.2 | Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online, |
| 0:11.5 | along with a free £20 £10, John Lewis or Waitrose voucher. |
| 0:15.0 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. |
| 0:31.5 | Hello and welcome to this compilation of some of the best moments from Chinese whispers with me, Cindy Yu. |
| 0:33.8 | Thank you for being such a long-time listener of the podcast. |
| 0:36.5 | As you may have heard, it's coming to an end, |
| 0:38.6 | because I'm joining the Times and Sunday Times later this year. |
| 0:41.8 | But for you now, here is a compilation of just some of the best discussions I have had from across the series, |
| 0:47.0 | with journalists, experts, and long-time China watchers about Chinese politics, society and more. |
| 0:53.1 | And if you'd like to keep up to date with my writing, |
| 0:55.5 | then please sign up to my free Chinese Whispers Substack at Chinesewispers.com. |
| 1:01.4 | I hope to see you there. |
| 1:02.8 | And thank you again for listening. |
| 1:05.1 | Bye-jian. |
| 1:21.6 | The Chinese government puts forward an idea of what it is to be Chinese, of what contributes to that Chinese identity, which is often shared by a lot of Chinese people themselves. |
| 1:28.8 | Some of the key tenets of this identity are 5,000 years of history, for example, dating all the way back to the Yellow Emperor. There's also this notion of territorial sovereignty, this territorial wholeness, |
| 1:33.9 | which includes places like Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and even the South China Sea. And that's |
| 1:39.8 | also a definition of what peoples live in China, 56 ethnic groups of which the Han are the vast |
| 1:46.7 | majority. But amongst these and other tenets of national identity, how much of them actually |
| 1:53.2 | have a solid historical basis as opposed to being constructed in some way by people in recent |
| 2:00.2 | history? That's a question I'll be asking today, together with the journalist Bill Hayton. to being constructed in some way by people in recent history. |
... |
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