Podcasts by Poking with Chopsticks (China Podcast)
How dictatorships work -
Freelance writers Qin Liwen and Marcel Grzanna discuss Chinese government's authoritarian policies and strategies and put it into perspective with their own real-life-experiences
Further podcasts by Qin Liwen & Marcel Grzanna
Podcast on the topic Politik
All episodes
#24 President for good - This is what happens now from 2022-10-29T07:15:22
China's President Xi Jinping has established himself in Mafia style as a leader for lifetime. That's not good news neither for 1,4 billion in the country nor for the rest of the world. His reign...
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#23 "Crimes against humanity" – A Xinjiang report that resonates on multiple levels from 2022-09-04T13:06:10
The UN believes the victims of human rights violations more than Beijing's threadbare explanations. Thisfact will deepen the cleavage lines in international institutions. And it assures China's ...
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#22 A political power game - Emperor Xi ist exercising his will whilst tens of millions are locked up in their houses from 2022-04-29T13:19:17
Lockdowns in Shanghai and other Chinese cities are apparently intended to combat the corona virus. But the main question is whether President Xi is powerful enough to become president for life. ...
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#21 New World Order - Why Chinese censorship only applies one way from 2022-03-08T14:02:40
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a welcome opportunity for China's domestic propaganda to tell a story of a needled Russian regime. For that purpose it even accepts flooding of it's scoial med...
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#20 The Games must go on - How CCP pulls athletes through the arena at five rings from 2022-01-28T10:19:57
For the Chinese government the Beijing Winter Olympics are less about sports. The event is a stage to demonstrate the superiority of its authoritarian political system. The IOC passionately help...
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#19 Power, sex and punishment - What happens next with tennis star Peng Shuai? from 2021-12-02T10:22:35
A former Wimbledon champion goes missing in China after disclosing accusations of sexual coercion by former high-ranking party official Zhang Gaoli. The case displays the country's leadership's ...
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#19 Power, sex and punishment - The tragedy of tennis star Peng Shuai from 2021-12-02T10:22:35
A former Wimbledon champion goes missing in China after disclosing accusations of sexual coercion by former high-ranking party official Zhang Gaoli. The case displays the country's leadership's ...
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#18 Authoritarian self-disassembly - Has China's rise already come to an end? from 2021-10-11T12:28:42
Tech-companies, fan culture, online gaming - for the Chinese government evil for society and threat to its power monopoly is couching everywhere. Instead of providing little spaces for society t...
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#17 Lying flat - A relaxing concept that stresses Chinese censors from 2021-08-17T13:42:12
More and more Chinese youngsters prefer chill time to working hours. They are fed up with a system that demands them to totally submit their personal desires to a company that doesn't care for t...
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#16 Quo vadis, Hong Kong? - One year National Security Law from 2021-07-18T09:11:53
The contours of the future Hong Kong are becoming increasingly visible. Beijing's political purge cuts freedom and tramples on civil rights. Quo vadis, Hong Kong?
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#15 Look who's back - The return of the Lab Leak Theory from 2021-06-10T19:20:01
For a year Chinese government was successful in containing the Lab Leak Theory. Now that 18 month have gone and still no origin of the Corona virus has been detected tides are changing.
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#14 No girls wanted - The One Child Policy disaster from 2021-05-03T18:00:32
Chinese scholars propose single women move back to countryside to marry one of the millions of bachelors in the villages. It's only one radical idea to fight the symptoms of China's gender gap p...
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#13 Wake up on Xinjiang! - It's a genocide from 2021-03-18T21:14:02
Chinese government's policies to contain Uyghur's culture and population in Xinjiang is not simply a violation of human rights. Academics, politicians, and governments around the world start cal...
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Quick-Poke #1 - A glimpse into a "China-would-be" from 2021-02-14T10:05:09
In China for a few days opened a window for free discussions. It closed as quick as it had appeared.
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#12 Spamouflage Dragon - Chinese softpower hit by regulators from 2021-02-09T13:41:41
China Global Television Network has been revoked its licence in the UK. One tool of softpower less for Beijing that pushes to enhance its influence abroad. Meanwhile a former Danish cultural min...
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#11 People above the law - How Chinese negotiation skills are shaped from 2021-01-24T12:21:47
The EU and China signed an agreement on investment to further open up their markekts. While Europe gains less, it's China who stars on international stage. Some of Chinese government's concessio...
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#10 The China challenge - Soft power won't do it for US president-elect from 2020-11-24T15:54:22
Joe Biden has to deal with a determined opponent on the other side of the Pacific ocean. Hoping for engagement of an authoritarian Chinese government by good will is doomed to fail.
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#9 Powder keg Taiwan - China's security issue with a beautiful democracy in its front garden from 2020-10-16T12:20:29
Taiwan is THE role model for 1,4 billion people in mainland that Chinese ethnic is very well able to run a functioning democracy althoug told otherwise by their leaders for decades. That's pain ...
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#8 EU strikes back - Giving China's FM a hard time from 2020-09-11T20:01:13
Wang Yi's visit to Europe was pain in the neck for China's foreign minister. Criticism everywhere. No wonder since the Chinese government messed up 2020 quite a lot so far on the international s...
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#7 Fun with the EU - Beijing enjoys Europe's cowardice over Hongkong from 2020-07-07T14:21:01
Chinese government implements a new security law in Hongkong and ignores its obligation for the city's autonomy. Still the European Union can't bring itself to take consequences and prefers to c...
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#6 Does Germany really depend on China? from 2020-06-18T14:21:04
European leaders and enterprises are afraid to draw the Chinese government's anger towards themselves. They fear economical repercussions that might cost revenues and jobs at home. Still they se...
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#5 Are Chinese leaders driven by fear or ambition? China Podcast from 2020-05-18T16:46:10
Tensions are rising between the US and China in the Corona age. Where does it end? We're already entering a stage of cold war, while Chinese scholars even warn Beijing to prepare for an armed co...
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Are we racist when we criticize China? from 2020-04-23T20:21:29
Western societies too busy with themselves in their apologetic approach towards China oversee the great masterplan of the Communist Party that blames us of being racist and biased. The strategy ...
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Production of what they call efficiency from 2020-04-08T14:18:35
Liwen explains why in China everybody has to take care of himself in times of crisis and remembers an interview with the director of the remake of the film drama "The Wave". Meanwhile Marcel fee...
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Propaganda warfare: Twist and shout from 2020-03-24T09:41:18
Chinese government's huge propaganda machine aims to replace facts with fantasy in the ongoing Corona crisis. Liwen and Marcel analyze the strategy and capabilities of the world's most powerful ...
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A dictatorship's fear of a deadly virus from 2020-03-04T09:00
Freelancing writer Qin Liwen and former China correspondent Marcel Grzanna team up for their new podcast on the mechanisms in the largest and most perfectionist authoritarian system in the world...
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