What Does China Want? The Authors of a New Paper Challenge the DC Consensus
Sinica Podcast
Kaiser Kuo
4.8 • 676 Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Sinica, I chat with Dave Kang (USC), Zenobia Chan (Georgetown), and Jackie Wong (American University in Sharjah, UAE) about their new paper in International Security titled "What Does China Want?" The paper, which has generated quite a bit of controversy, takes a data-driven approach to examine the claim that China seeks global hegemony — that it wants to supplant the U.S. as a globe-spanning top power.
I'm traveling much of this week, so I'll update this podcast page when the transcript comes back!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.co. |
| 0:05.5 | U.K. slash Wondery. That's audible.com.uk slash Wondery. |
| 0:20.4 | Welcome to the Cynica Podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China. |
| 0:24.8 | In this program, we'll look at books, ideas, new research, intellectual currents, and cultural |
| 0:29.9 | trends that can help us better understand what's happening in China's politics, foreign relations, |
| 0:34.7 | economics, and society. Join me each week for in-depth conversations that shed |
| 0:39.5 | more light and bring less heat to how we think and talk about China. I'm Kaiser Guo coming to you |
| 0:45.2 | this week for my home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Cynica is supported this year by the |
| 0:50.1 | Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a national resource center for the study of East Asia. |
| 0:56.2 | The Cynica podcast will remain free, but if you work for an organization that believes in what I'm doing with the show and the newsletter, please consider lending your support. |
| 1:05.5 | I am in the market for new institutional support because of the Trump cuts to the Department of Education. |
| 1:11.9 | The title six grants cut. |
| 1:13.5 | The center in Wisconsin is no longer going to be able to support me. |
| 1:17.5 | So please, looking for new support. |
| 1:19.8 | Listeners can support my work by becoming a paying subscriber at cincicapodcast.com. |
| 1:25.1 | You will enjoy, in addition to the podcast, the complete transcript of the show each |
| 1:28.5 | week, essays from me, as well as writings and podcasts from some of your favorite columnists |
| 1:33.6 | and commentators who focus on China. And the knowledge, of course, that you're helping me do, |
| 1:38.3 | what I still really believe is important work. So do check out the page to see all that's on |
| 1:42.8 | offer. And when you do, you will, no doubt, |
| 1:46.0 | consider helping me out. One of the more consequential and frequently asked questions when it comes |
| 1:51.9 | to China is, what does China actually want? On this program, I have interviewed numerous guests |
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