In this episode, Journalist Barbara Demick talks with Jane about her latest book Daughters of the Bamboo Grove. It’s the story of Chinese twins separated as toddlers. One twin grows up with her family in rural China. The other twin is adopted by an American family in Texas. It’s a haunting, moving narrative about the harsh repercussions of the One-Child policy, and the realities of life in rural China and rural America.

Barbara and Jane know each other from their time together as reporters in China. They both lived in Beijing - Barbara the bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, Jane the bureau chief of the New York Times. Jane thought of her as one of the bravest reporters - always fearless and open to getting the stories of real people. 

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is another example of her excellent reporting and her unique ability to shine a light on the lives of ordinary people.

Guest: Barbara Demick, author & journalist, former bureau chief in Beijing for the Los Angeles Times 

Book Recommendations:

Daughter’s of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick

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Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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We’re back! We’ll be publishing five brand new episodes of Face-Off bi-weekly starting today. In this episode, we welcome back Zhou Bo, a retired colonel in the People’s Liberation Army. 

Xi Jinping has unleashed a massive purge of the Chinese army, the biggest since the early days of Communist China. Nearly three dozen senior generals have been demoted or disappeared. Almost all have been accused of corruption. Then this past January the most senior general, General Zhang Youxia, essentially Xi Jinping's number two in the army, disappeared. 

No-one outside of China, and not many inside China, seem to know what’s going on. There's a reason the Chinese military is known as a black box. 

With Colonel Zhou, Jane discusses everything from Greenland to Taiwan to China’s military strength in the South China Sea. 

Guest: Zhou Bo, Retired Senior Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army

Book Recommendations:

Should The World Fear China by Zhou Bo

China’s Quest for Military Supremacy by Joel Wuthnow and Phillip Saunders

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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Jensen Huang built the company that powers the AI revolution—and he's playing both Washington and Beijing. The Taiwan-born Nvidia CEO holds the keys to artificial intelligence. But whose side is he really on? Inside the rise of tech's most important power broker.

Guest: Tripp Mickle  New York Times Tech Reporter

Book Recommendations 

The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip by Stephen Witt. 

After Steve by Tripp Mickle 

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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As Trump trashes American soft power, can China fill the void? A top Chinese academic explains why Beijing struggles to win hearts and minds and why being feared isn't the same as being loved. Plus: How American influencers are going viral in China.

Guest:  Da Wei, Professor, Tsinghua University

Book Recommendations 

Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future by Ian Johnson

Other Rivers: A Chinese Education by Peter Hessler

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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High-seas drama as Chinese warships hunt Filipino fishing boats in their own waters. Beijing is testing America's oldest Pacific ally with dangerous games of maritime chicken. With Philippine politics in flux, can Manila hold the line or will China fracture another US alliance?

Guest: Marites Vitug, Filipino Journalist & Author, editor-at-large for Rappler and chair of the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation

Reading Recommendations 

Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China by Marites Vitug

The U.S. and China Are One Misstep Away From War by Chris Rosenbach and Chris Li
Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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The strangest geopolitical deal you've never heard of: Australia trades rugby league spots for an agreement not to make an agreement with China. Papua New Guinea's players get to compete Down Under and in return, China gets locked out of a strategic Pacific island. Sports diplomacy at its most serious.

Guest: Oliver Nobetau, Papua New Guinea Government Lawyer & Fellow at the Lowy Institute

Book Recommendations

Lost In Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War 2 by Mitchell Zuckoff

If you are looking for other interesting books about China, do check out the China Books Review section of the Asia Society webpage at https://chinabooksreview.com/

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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"If I was the U.S., I would be terrified."

We report from a 1,500+ robot convention in Beijing, and an American robotics expert who's toured China's factories reveals how China is winning the robot race. From assembly lines to hospital wards, humanoid robots are everywhere—and America is falling behind.

Guest: Alberto Moel, Robotics Scientist, Professor of Practice in Finance at the University of Hong Kong

Book Recommendations:

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

The Fourth Age by Byron Reese

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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Jake Sullivan has sat across from Xi Jinping more times than almost any American official—from Xi's rise in 2013 to their last face-off in Beijing. What's it like negotiating with the world's most powerful dictator? Sullivan reveals Xi's ego, tactics, and how a relationship that started with cautious optimism turned into open hostility.

Guest: Jake Sullivan, Former U.S. National Security Adviser for President Biden and the host of The Long Game, a new podcast from Vox Media.

Book Recommendations:

The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping by Joseph Torigian. 

Apple in China by Patrick McGee. 

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with ⁠Rowhome Productions⁠.

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China is outbuilding America's navy and beating us in hypersonic missiles. Xi has purged corrupt generals to create a military machine loyal only to him. Can China's forces actually win a war? We break down the PLA's transformation from paper tiger to potential superpower.

Guest: Zhou Bo, Retired Senior Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army (https://ciss.tsinghua.edu.cn/info/CFExperts/1212)

Book Recommendations:

Should The World Fear China by Zhou Bo

China’s Quest for Military Supremacy by Joel Wuthnow and Phillip Saunders

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with Rowhome Productions.

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China's youth were supposed to lead the nation to glory. Instead, they're lying flat, embracing "garbage time," and quietly rebelling against a system that promised everything and delivered economic stagnation. In this episode of Face-Off - our first of Season 3 (!) - we get inside the psychology of China's disillusioned generation.

Guest: Chang Che, Chinese-American Writer (https://changnche.com/) 

Book Recommendations: 

Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future by Ian Johnson

Other Rivers: A Chinese Education by Peter Hessler

Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China is produced in partnership with Rowhome Productions.

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In our third season of Face-Off: The US vs China, we’ll explore some of the biggest issues dividing these global powers today: Trump and Xi Jinping, AI, China’s growing military might, and also… robots.

Season 3 of Face-Off: US vs China begins Tuesday, November 18th. Join us.

Face-Off is produced in partnership with Rowhome Productions.

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