The end of the EAST?

This week on the Sinica Podcast, the renowned MIT professor, economist, and scholar of management Yasheng Huang joins host Kaiser Kuo to talk about his new book, The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why they Might Lead to its Decline.

This ambitious and thought-provoking work is bound to stir up quite a bit of controversy, as might this podcast about it: Click through to listen or read a transcript, or search for “Sinica” on any podcast app or platform.

More audio on The China Project:

China-Global South Podcast: Why did G20 countries last month fail to agree on a plan to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030?

The China in Africa Podcast: The once lifeless BRICS bloc got a big boost of energy last week with the addition of six new members.

This Week in China’s History: Professor James Carter’s article on the Treaty of Nerchinsk, signed in 1689, established a border between Manchu China and Romanov Russia. Here is the audio version, narrated by Kaiser Kuo.

Some people in China began panic-buying iodized salt, in the mistaken belief that it can ward off the effects of radiation, which brings us our Phrase of the Week: A desperate attempt (救命稻草 jiùmìng dàocǎo). Here’s the full story behind the phrase together with all the linguistic context.

More on The China Project:

Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly went to China. Some politicians within his own party say he should have snubbed the invitation, but he defended his trip.

The Biden administration’s wave of diplomacy continues in China. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Chinese officials that the U.S. wants to work with China on solving problems. But China has some concerns.

China’s many projects in Zimbabwe, its “all-weather friend.” Zimbabwe is one of only 14 countries China considers an “all-weather friend.” Former president Robert Mugabe went further, describing China in 2006 as “our second home…a part of us,” but Chinese companies stand accused of treating locals like slaves.

More on The China Project:

Activists lobbied a Canadian government labor watchdog to investigate 14 big-brand firms alleged to be profiting by turning a blind eye to Uyghur forced labor. Fast-fashion giant Shein is also under scrutiny.

Beijing has banned all seafood imports from Japan over its decision to discharge treated wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant. The backlash in China has been swift: Anti-Japanese sentiment is growing, egged on by the Chinese government. Now Japanese companies and schools are facing boycotts and harassment.

More on The China Project:

The Japanese intellectual who inspires Chinese women: Millennials and younger Gen-Zers are having a feminist awakening in post–#MeToo China, despite a conservative backlash and a government increasingly hostile to the movement. Their unlikely hero is a 74-year-old Japanese provocateur. Jin Zhao takes a deep dive in this feature.

A hedonistic portrait of Old Beijing: British scholar John Blofeld arrived in Beijing in 1934, in his early 20s, seeking aesthetic and sensual pleasures. Nearly three decades later, he wrote “City of Lingering Splendour,” recounting an “Old Peking” saturated in the final vestiges of its luxurious imperial past. Paul French with the latest in his Ultimate China Bookshelf.

The Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed in 1689 to establish a border between Manchu China and Romanov Russia. It was negotiated in a remote region between two sides that distrusted each other and with deeply different conceptions of both diplomacy and politics — and somehow withstood the test of time, writes James Carter in This Week in China’s History.