Into Asia

The China Model, ten years on

In 2015, Daniel Bell, then a political theorist at Tsinghua University published “The China Model.” China should be evaluated not by its failure to live up to a Western liberal democracy, Bell argued, but by its own ideals, what he called a "political meritocracy." More than a decade into the Xi Jinping era, Chang asks Daniel whether his views had changed. They also discuss Bell's new book Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters, and whether ancient Chinese wisdom does inform policies like Xi's anti-corruption campaign and his criticism of "lying flat" youths. See Bell's book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691279800/why-ancient-chinese-political-thought-matters

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China's Grand Bazaar of Artificial Intelligence

Chang just returned from a extended trip to China and shares some of his reflections. He visited frontier AI labs and stopped by the World AI Conference in Shanghai, where Xi Jinping spoke and announced a new AI governance body with 29 member countries. Chang and Ian discuss what the AI talks between the US and China might produce, what the Chinese worry about as they develop stronger and stronger models, and why Chinese generally feel much more optimistic about AI than Americans.

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How Christianity Shaped North Korea’s Personality Cult

Before Pyongyang became the capital of the Kim dynasty, it was known as the "Jerusalem of the East," a city so devoutly Christian that one American missionary in 1925 declared it "the most Protestant city" they had ever seen. Its most consequential resident was a Sunday school teacher named Kim Il Sung. Ian and Chang are joined by Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief, to break down how a child of the church turned a nation into a nuclear-armed religious society. He is the author of Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult (Knopf, April 2026)

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The Velvet Prison: Self-Censorship from Berlin to Beijing to New York

How should decent people live in indecent societies? Chang and Ian look at historical cases from Nazi Germany and contemporary China to see how artists and intellectuals responded, and resisted, as their societies grew increasingly intolerant of dissent. We discuss the current state of the United States, the rift between exiles and those who choose to stay, and the moral implications of "inner emigration." Readings: Ian Buruma: https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/staying-decent-in-an-indecent-society/ The Velvet Prison: https://www.amazon.com/Velvet-Prison-Miklos-Haraszti/dp/0465098002 Brave New World: https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060850523

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Trump at the Imperial Court

Chang and Ian unpack Trump's historic summit with Xi Jinping. They discuss the pageantry, the Taiwan question, the first serious bilateral talks on AI, plus the echoes of Marco Polo and the Macartney Missions: the consistent awe and fear that transpires whenever the West encounters the Middle Kingdom.

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Taiwan on the Eve of the Summit

Will Trump cut a deal with Xi that concedes ground on America's Taiwan policy? That is the question hanging over the US-China summit in Beijing this week. To talk through what's at stake, Ian and I are joined by Eyck Freymann, a Hoover fellow at Stanford and the author of Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China. Eyck makes the case for a more proactive form of US deterrence against Beijing than the current paradigm of "strategic ambiguity" allows called "structured ambiguity."

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Why So Many Asians Study Classical Music

Why are Chinese, Korean, and Japanese musicians so overrepresented in Western orchestras? Mari Yoshihara, author of Musicians from a Different Shore, joins Ian Buruma and Chang Che to trace how Western classical instruments, pedogogy and cultural traveled from Meiji-era military bands to suburban living rooms in Tokyo, Beijing, and Seoul. We also talk about why classical music still carries cultural weight in East Asia even as its glow seems to be fading in the West.

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A Year Inside ByteDance's AI Lab

From 2025 to 2026, Zhang Chi was an AI researcher at ByteDance Seed, the division behind Doubao, China's most-used chatbot. Now a assistant professor at Peking University, he joins Chang for a rare insider account of life at one of China's top AI labs. He talks about ByteDance's two-hour nap culture, the shortcuts Chinese labs take to catch up to the US, the ubiquity of Claude Code, and why he thinks the gap with American frontier labs is widening.

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Takaichi Goes to Washington

The main item on Sanae Takaichi's agenda during her recent visit to the White House, on March 19, was China: to shore up Japan's relationship with the U.S. ahead of Trump much-anticipated summit with Xi Jinping. But the Iran war scrambled her plans. Ian and Chang talk about how Japan has now found itself caught in the middle of Trump's war in Iran, the shadow of China on the US-Japan relationship, and the unintended consequences in East Asia of Pax Americana's irreversible deterioration.

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Takaichi's New Japan

In February, Sanae Takaichi won the biggest electoral victory in the Liberal Democratic Party’s 70-year history. With a constitutional supermajority, an ambitious industrial policy, and a willingness to speak bluntly about Taiwan, Takaichi is remaking Japan’s domestic and foreign policy at a moment when the country’s alliance with the United States has never felt more uncertain. Tobias Harris is the author of The Iconoclast, a political biography of Shinzo Abe, and the founder of the consultancy Japan Foresight. He joined us to discuss what Takaichi’s rise means for Japan and the region. Follow Tobias Harris at his Substack: https://observingjapan.substack.com/

China-maxxing: Why Young Americans are Rethinking China

In November, the left-wing political commentator Hasan Piker took his first trip to China, live-streaming the trip to hundreds of thousands of viewers on the streaming platform Twitch. Hasan is a self-described socialist and a staunch critic of American capitalism, and he told me he had long wanted to see for himself how a Communist government ran a country. He wasn’t disappointed. In this episode: Why Hasan sees China differently than liberals; growing up in Turkey First impressions of China, Tiananmen flag-raising ceremony The incident where Hasan got stopped by security at Tiananmen Hasan’s thoughts on Chinese (and American) censorship Surprising similarities between America and China Hasan’s Chinese fan base and how the red pill pipeline is going global What Hasan would advise a future Democratic president on China policy

Inside Xi Jinping’s Military Crackdown

China’s top generals are falling like flies, and at unprecedented speeds. As Xi Jinping dismantles the upper ranks of the People’s Liberation Army, questions are mounting about corruption, loyalty, and the stability of China’s political system. Neil Thomas, an expert on Chinese politics at Asia Society, unpacks the logic of Xi’s military crackdown. Neil's articles: https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/neil-thomas Follow him on X: https://x.com/neilthomas123?lang=en

Drum Diplomacy: As Trump Sows Chaos Abroad, South Korea and Japan Edge Closer

As Trump threatens the sovereignty of NATO allies, the leaders of South Korea and Japan appeared together in Nara, playing drums in a highly choreographed display of diplomatic comity. Ian and Chang talk about the historic significance of this unlikely rapprochement, why it is happening now, and the prospect of an East Asian security architecture without the help of the United States.

The American Dream Is Fading. What Comes Next For China's Youths?

Across the world, the promise of stable growth that underwrote many economies is unraveling. From Nepal to Bulgaria to Mexico, young people fed up with the status quo are rebelling. While many have turned to populists for help, China's youth are turning to a very different figure. The anthropologist Xiang Biao, who has become a voice for China's "lost" generation in recent years, speak to us about what went wrong with Chinese and Western elites, and his ideas for redefining politics. This conversation was recorded live in Tokyo. Related links: Xiang's work on Zhejiang Village migrants: https://www.amazon.com/Transcending-Boundaries-Zhejiangcun-Migrant-Village/dp/9004142010 Xiang's writings: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-19-4953-1 https://www.readingthechinadream.com/xiang-biao-excerpts-from-self-as-method.html https://www.readingthechinadream.com/xiang-biao-hello-stranger.html

Taiwan’s Forgotten Role in Japan’s War

Lau Kek-huat is a Malaysian-born documentary filmmaker based in Taiwan. His latest film, From Island to Island, won the prestigious Golden Horse Award in 2024. The film examines the role of Taiwanese in Japan’s Pacific War and explores why memories of World War II diverge across the Chinese-speaking world. Lau joins us to discuss his latest film and its differing reception across Asia. Follow his work, including his film at: https://reurl.cc/6bGRDr

Japan’s New Leader Meets China’s Red Line

Less than a month into Sanae Takaichi’s tenure as Japan's prime minister, she has already sparked a diplomatic crisis with Japan's powerful neighbor. Joining us is Tokujin Matsudaira, a constitutional-law professor at Kanagawa University who grew up in Taiwan. He has written extensively on Article 9, constitutional revision, and the diplomatic challenges that shape Japan–China relations. Related Links: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/takaichi-sanae-iron-lady-will-not-improve-gender-relations-japan-by-ian-buruma-2025-11

Anti-Semitism and East Asia

In the September 29, 2025, issue of The New Yorker, the writer Ian Buruma reviews two books that trace the uses and abuses of anti-semitism from late-19th century France to present-day US campus politics. Long before right-wing Israeli politicians to evoke the term to deflect criticism of the war in Gaza, anti-semitism reflected a persistent worldview: that a shadowy group of powerful Jews often stood behind the workings of a complicated world. For over a century, that idea has found converts in East Asia. In this episode, Ian and I talk about how beliefs about Jewish power manifested in Chinese and Japanese life from the 20th century to the present. Related Links: "The Uses and Abuses of Anti-Semitism" by Ian Buruma

The Forces Shaping Asia's Low Birth Rates

China, Japan, and South Korea are each confronting plummeting birthrates and rapidly aging populations, each with worrying consequences for their economies, societies, and political futures. What makes East Asia’s demographic decline different from that of the West? As women entered the workforce in Asia, how did they define and discover freedom and fulfillment between the expectations of the family and the workplace? And in China, how has the one- and two-child policies—and the parallel tide of economic reforms—reshaped desires in marriage and child-bearing among young adults? Yun Zhou, a social demographer at the University of Michigan with a particular focus on family policy and gender in contemporary China, joins us.

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The Chinese Immigrants Behind Japan’s Populist Surge

Japan's first female prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, a hard-line conservative, rose to power on promises of national renewal and a “Japan First” agenda. Her rise follows the stunning breakthrough of the Sanseito, a Trump-style populist party that captured 14 seats in the upper house this summer, drawing support from disaffected youth and social-media activists. Takehiro Masutomo, author of Runri: Tracking the Mass Exodus of Wealthy Chinese to Japan, talks about the Chinese immigrants behind Japan's right-wing turn. Maustomo's book is on Amazon (Japanese version only) Masutomo's podcast Asia Frontline

Inside China's AI Boom

From Shanghai’s World AI Conference to start-up incubators across the city, the Chinese tech analyst Rui Ma shares what she’s seeing on the ground, and where China actually stands in the global AI race. Follow Rui on X: https://x.com/ruima Follow her newsletter via Tech Buzz China (Substack): https://techbuzzchina.substack.com Related Links: https://techbuzzchina.substack.com/p/china-deep-tech-trip-what-we-did