ChinaTalk Substack

Articles

Biotech

2 weeks ago | chinatalk.media | Angela Shen

In 2011, China’s drug regulator cleared the nation’s first home-grown targeted cancer pill. Fourteen years later, a Chinese bispecific antibody is aiming to knock the world’s top-selling oncology drug off its perch. Those two bookends frame twin contests now running in parallel. One is humanity’s decades-long fight against cancer, a disease that still claims one in six lives worldwide. The other is China’s effort to move from importing medicines to inventing them.
Xiaomi's Hard-Tech Balancing Act

3 weeks ago | chinatalk.media | Angela Shen

Once hailed as the “Apple of China,” Xiaomi has evolved into the world’s No. 3 smartphone brand. The Beijing giant wires millions of homes with its TVs, wearables, and appliances while pitching itself as a seamless “Human × Car × Home” platform. Founder Lei Jun now wants to turn that consumer-electronics prowess into hard-tech dominance. In 2025 alone, Xiaomi debuted its first in-house chip (the XRING O1) and showed off its sleek SU7 electric sedan.
The Grey Market for American LLMs on Taobao

3 weeks ago | chinatalk.media | Lily Ottinger

I did a podcast with Doug, Dylan and Jon updating our AI Mandate of Heaven tier list and talking about how America needs science research and immigrants (Apple Podcasts, Spotify). If you’re an AI researcher interested in signing onto a short letter in support of the NSF and global STEM talent coming to America, please respond to this email!Zilan Qian is a fellow at the Oxford China Policy Lab and an MSc student at the Oxford Internet Institute.
The AI Attention War

3 weeks ago | chinatalk.media | Jordan Schneider |Lily Ottinger

Just how weird will the AI-powered future be? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed , a CS PhD who writes⁠ the Interconnects newsletter⁠ and trains models at the Allen Institute.
Learning from CoCom

4 weeks ago | chinatalk.media | Lily Ottinger

We’re having a meetup on Monday in DC. RSVP here!This edition is brought to you by Pelanor, the AI-powered FinOps startup letting companies make sense of their cloud spend. Founded by alumni of Israel’s elite cyber intelligence unit, Pelanor untangles the chaos behind nine-figure AWS and Azure bills. Most companies have no idea how their compute spend ties into business outcomes.
China’s AR Arms Race

1 month ago | chinatalk.media | Lily Ottinger

We’re looking for part-time help with the podcast and newsletter! Spend ~10 hrs/week editing shows and putting together enhanced transcripts starting at $35/hr. All you need is enthusiasm for our content—no prior audio experience required (we use this software called Descript which is easy to learn and a pleasure to use). Respond to this email if you’re interested with a little background on yourself.
MAGA-Mao Echoes with Orville Schell

1 month ago | chinatalk.media | Jordan Schneider |Lily Ottinger

Can studying Mao Zedong help explain Donald Trump? To find out, ChinaTalk interviewed the legendary sinologist Orville Schell, who visited China during the Cultural Revolution and is currently at the Asia Society.
Chips Act Lore + a Department of Competitiveness

1 month ago | chinatalk.media | Jordan Schneider |Lily Ottinger

What does the future of industrial policy in America look like, and what state capacity investments are needed to get there? How does China factor into the future of the U.S. semiconductor industry? And what do government affairs offices actually do? To explore these questions, we’re concluding our CSIS Chip Chat series with Bruce Andrews.
Abundance and Antagonism

1 month ago | chinatalk.media | Jordan Schneider |Lily Ottinger

Could America pursue an abundance agenda without the threat of the PRC? And can podcasters change the world? To discuss, ChinaTalk interviewed Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, who need no introduction, as well as Dan Wang, who has written all those beautiful annual letters and is back in the US as a research fellow at Kotkin’s Hoover History Lab. He has an excellent book called Breakneck coming out this August, but we’re saving that show for a little later this year.
China’s SME Industrial Policy in 5 Charts

1 month ago | chinatalk.media | Arrian Ebrahimi |Lily Ottinger

Arrian Ebrahimi is a J.D. candidate at Georgetown Law and a former Yenching Scholar at Peking University. Today, he’ll attempt to quantify China’s state equity investments in semiconductor manufacturing equipment. You can read more of Arrian’s writing on the excellent Chip Capitols Substack. Special thanks to Lily Ottinger for assisting with the charts.