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47 | ASEAN and the European Union - Kindred Spirits or Worlds Apart?

February 24, 2022

Featured Guests: Eva Pejsova, Huong Le Thu

Welcome to the inaugural episode of CSDS-Asia Matters, in which we continue our mission to bring together policy experts and academics to dissect the factors… more


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46 | China’s Politics and Economy as the Winter Olympics Open

February 5, 2022

Featured Guests: Ling Li, Isabella Weber

The eyes of the world are on China as Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics. A successful Games will be used by leader Xi Jinping to bolster his image and status… more


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45 | Is There a Transatlantic Approach to China and the Indo-Pacific?

December 15, 2021

Featured Guests: Harry Harris, Michael Reiterer
Featured Host: Raffaello Pantucci

We’re heading to familiar territory again on this week’s podcast - the Indo-Pacific. Increasingly, the area is becoming the centre of the geopolitical conversation… more


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44 | Good COP? China, Asia and Climate Change

November 27, 2021

Featured Guests: Sam Geall, Tom Hale, Yan Qin

This week we take stock of COP26, the latest major international meeting on climate change which just wrapped up in Glasgow - billed beforehand as the…. more


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43 | China Tackles its Tech Titans

November 14, 2021

Featured Guests: Rui Ma, Graham Webster

This week we look at China’s tech industry - few sectors have been more dynamic or grown as fast in recent years, with the likes of e-commerce giant Alibaba… more

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42 | Delta Damage: Asia’s Continuing COVID Struggle

October 16, 2021

Featured Guests: Yanzhong Huang, Peter Mumford

For those hoping the coronavirus pandemic was under control in Asia, the summer has been a nasty shock. A resurgence of Covid-19 across Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar… more



41 | South Korea: The Tech Powerhouse on the Cyber Frontline

October 7, 2021

Featured Guests: Michael Reiterer, Robyn Klingler Vidra

In any list of influential tech powers in the world, South Korea would undoubtedly be near the top. In this episode we delve into how the country achieved this status… more



40 | North Korea: The View from the South

August 8, 2021

Featured Guests: Jina Kim, Ramon Pacheco Pardo

We turn again to the Korean peninsula in this week’s episode, in another collaboration with CSDS. We often talk about North Korea’s future in terms of how the issue… more



39 | Myanmar Six Months On: A Failed State?

July 19, 2021

Featured Guest: Thant Myint U

The most shocking political development in Asia so far this year is arguably the seizure of power by the military in Myanmar, and the arrest of the country’s… more



38 | The Olympics in Asia: Gold, Glory and Geopolitics

July 12, 2021

Featured Guests: Victor Cha, Shushu Chen

Against all odds, and after much compromise, the Tokyo Olympic Games are set to go ahead this summer. With no foreign fans and most spectators banned… more



37 | How the EU Fits into Asia’s Security Puzzle

June 28, 2021

Featured Guests: Eva Pejsova, Abhijit Singh, Kei Koga

This week we turn our attention to the Indo-Pacific - and the new geopolitical groupings emerging there, from multilateral trade deals to nascent security… more



36 | Does China See Itself as a Great Power?

June 8, 2021

Featured Guests: Shaun Breslin, Suyan Pan
Featured Host: Rana Mitter

In July the Chinese Communist Party turns 100. From humble beginnings in a small building in Shanghai’s French Concession, the party would go on to seize… more



35 | North Korea: Is Full Denuclearisation Still a Viable Goal?

June 1, 2021

Featured Guests: Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Sue Mi Terry

For this episode we’re taking a look at one of the world’s most intractable geopolitical issues - North Korea - as the second of our collaborations… more



34 | Japan and South Korea: Navigating an Era of Competition

May 28, 2021

Featured Guests: Haruko Satoh, Brendan Howe
Featured Host: Bill Hayton

This week we set our sights on Japan and South Korea, East Asia’s most prominent middle powers. With the United States and China showing no sign… more



33 | Biden Post-100 Days: The View from Asia

May 12, 2021

Featured Guests: Jaewoo Choo, Satu Limaye, Haruko Satoh

US President Joe Biden has steamed past his first 100 days in office, typically a stage where we can look back and take stock of where a new administration… more



32 | Dealing with Disinformation: A Global Challenge

May 3, 2021

Featured Guests: Lutz Guellner, Bonji Ohara

This week Asia Matters joins forces with the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Brussels School of Governance, home to a rich expertise on Asia… more



31 | ASEAN and Myanmar: How to Handle the Coup Next Door

April 24, 2021

Featured Guests: Bilahari Kausikan, Hoang Thi Ha
Featured Host: Bill Hayton

ASEAN leaders will meet in Jakarta on April 24 to discuss the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, which has shown no sign of abating since a military coup… more



30 | How China is Changing - And Being Changed by - the UN

March 28, 2021

Featured Guests: Rosemary Foot, Courtney Fung

China’s growing clout in the world economy is being matched ever more closely by its rising influence over major international institutions… more



29 | China Faces Up To Its Biggest Challenges

March 16, 2021

Featured Guests: Tao Wang, Jinny Yan, Scott Rozelle

China’s rulers have been setting out their goals for the country at their big annual political meetings in Beijing. This year’s event held special significance … more



28 | Islands Apart: Pacific Nations in the COVID Era

March 1, 2021

Featured Guests: Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, David Ward, Jonathan Pryke

In this episode we turn to a part of the world we haven’t discussed before — the Pacific Islands. Stretching over a vast area covering some 15% of the earth’s surface … more



27 | What to Expect from Vietnam’s New Leaders

February 19, 2021

Featured Guests: Nguyen Phuong Linh, Nguyen Khac Giang
Featured Host: Bill Hayton

After a year-long battle behind closed doors, Vietnam has a new political leadership. At its Congress, which finished on February 1st … more



26 | Myanmar’s Military Are Back: First Impressions of the Coup

February 7, 2021

Featured Guests: Champa Patel, Tin Htar Swe

“Our country was a bird that was just learning to fly. Now the army broke our wings,” said one activist. “What was granted by the generals is now being taken … more



25 | US - India Relations: Why Modi Will Be Key to Biden’s Asia Plans

January 10, 2021

Featured Guests: Nirupama Rao, Raja Mohan
Featured Host: James Crabtree

The US and India are the world’s two biggest democracies - and the relationship between them is one of the world’s most important bilateral partnerships … more



24 | Southeast Asia and China: Too Close for Comfort?

December 21, 2020

Featured Guests: Pon Souvannaseng, Sebastian Strangio, Enze Han
Featured Host: Bill Hayton

Southeast Asia is becoming an increasingly important geopolitical battleground - and so this week, we put the region’s complex relations with China in the spotlight… more



23 | Biden in Asia: New President, New Rules?

November 29, 2020

Featured Guests: Jaewoo Choo, Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Yuka Kobayashi

It took a little longer than expected but we finally know who the next American president will be: Democratic candidate Joe Biden. The Trump era is drawing to a close… more



22 | Joko Widodo: Indonesia’s Leader of Contradictions

October 26, 2020

Featured Guests: Ben Bland, Dewi Fortuna Anwar

When Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, became president of Indonesia in 2014, it completed a stunning rise for a political outsider who had spent much of his previous life… more



21 | SoftBank: Asia’s Most Influential Tech Company

October 8, 2020

Featured Guests: Phred Dvorak, Steve Kaplan

This week’s episode is a deep dive on a company that’s transforming not just Asia, but arguably the entire global tech sector - Japan’s SoftBank. Even if you’ve never heard of SoftBank… more



20 | India in the COVID-19 Era

September 28, 2020

Featured Guest: Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Featured Host: Yuka Kobayashi

In the second of our special editions recorded at the Association for Asian Studies’ annual conference, we turn our focus to India. Our guest is Pratap Mehta (@pbmehta), one of the country’s… more



19 | South Asia’s Dual Crises: Coronavirus and Climate Change

September 11, 2020

Featured Guests: Mushfiq Mobarak, Yamini Aiyar

South Asian countries are facing a double whammy - the effects of the global pandemic and an increasingly urgent battle against pollution and the effects of climate change… more



18 | Summer of China: Three Books to Read

August 27, 2020

Featured Guests: Lingling Wei, Michael Schuman, Tom Orlik

This episode, we present - the inaugural Asia Matters Book Club episode. China has dominated the headlines this summer - and if you’re looking for a good book to help you… more



17 | Japan’s Foreign Policy: The Art of Persuasion?

August 17, 2020

Featured Guests: Akio Takahara, Yuka Kobayashi

This episode, in a collaboration with the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, we turn our attention to Japan - specifically, its foreign policy. Against a backdrop of rising… more



16 | Coronavirus and Racism: Asian-Americans in the Crossfire

July 27, 2020

Featured Guests: Christine Yano, Jennifer Pan

The world is still very much in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic - but the blame game has already begun. China, where the virus was first reported last December… more



15 | Do Middle Powers Have a China Dilemma?

July 6, 2020

Featured Guests: Kerry Brown, Matthew Henderson

We often talk about geopolitics in terms of superpower competition - at the moment, particularly between the U.S. and China. But where does this leave mid-sized countries… more



14 | The Luckin Scandal: How “China’s Starbucks” Crashed

June 8, 2020

Featured Guests: Nana Li, Jacky Wong, Catherine X. Pan-Giordano

The pandemic-related lockdown continues in much of the world, but in China, they are getting back to work. That gives us a chance to look into a major scandal from the… more



13 | China’s “Two Sessions”: Hong Kong, COVID-19 and the Economy

June 2, 2020

Featured Guests: Shaun Breslin, Dingding Chen, Jue Wang

There was plenty to digest from China’s coronavirus-delayed “Two Sessions” (Lianghui) annual political gathering last week - so much so that we’ve got a bumper episode… more



12 | Pandemic Fallout: Advantage China?

May 12, 2020

Featured Guests: Courtney Fung, Rush Doshi

Welcome to another episode of Asia Matters, lockdown style. This week, Vincent and Andrew are joined by Courtney Fung of the University of Hong Kong and Rush Doshi… more



11 | Myanmar 101: From Colonialism to Coronavirus

April 27, 2020

Featured Guest: Thant Myint-U

In the latest of our lockdown podcasts, we turn to Myanmar. Andrew and Vincent are joined by one of the country’s best known historians and analysts, Thant Myint-U, for… more



10 | North Korea, U.S. & China: Where Next?

April 17, 2020

Featured Guests: Chun In-Bum, Tong Zhao

One of the biggest - and most persistent - stories in the Asia region over the last few years has been North Korea. It may have been pushed out of the headlines recently… more



9 | COVID-19: How Have Asian Approaches Differed?

March 17, 2020

Featured Guests: Parag Khanna, Ian Johnson

Welcome to podcasting in a time of COVID-19. The new coronavirus has run rampant throughout the world and disrupted the global economy, transport and everyday life… more



8 | India: Is Hindu Nationalism Endangering Its Democracy?

March 5, 2020

Featured Guests: Madhav Khosla

In December last year, Narendra Modi’s government passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. It’s raised concerns that India’s secular constitution is at risk… more



7 | Chinese Economy: Mounting Debt, Deeper Headaches

February 12, 2020

Featured Guests: Stephen Roach, Dinny McMahon

China’s economy is facing its biggest challenges for years as growth slows and debt piled up. How worried should we be? This episode, Andrew is joined by Stephen Roach… more



6 | COVID-19 and SARS: Lessons Learnt?

February 3, 2020

Featured Guest: Sian Griffiths

There’s only been one story in the region over the last few weeks: the coronavirus, or COVID-19, and its spread from Wuhan to the rest of China, then Asia, now the world… more



5 | Tsai Ing-wen Re-election: The China Factor and Taiwanese Identity

January 18, 2020

Featured Guest: George Yin

Last week, Taiwan re-elected its president, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), by a landslide. Her campaign focused heavily on what she claims is “the rising threat from Beijing”… more



4 | U.S. - China Trade War: Is the Show Over Yet?

December 14, 2019

Featured Guests: Lingling Wei, Trinh Nguyen

The U.S. - China trade war is going through another bout of excitement as the two sides reach an interim deal. But, why are the world’s two biggest economies at loggerheads… more



3 | What China’s Ambitions Tell Us about Tech in Asia

December 1, 2019

Featured Guests: Jing Tsu, Julian Gewirtz, Newley Purnell

A bumper episode for a hugely important topic - the tech industry in Asia. Yale’s Jing Tsu joins Andrew to discuss the history behind China’s drive to become a global… more



2 | 1MDB: A Billion Dollar Scandal

November 17, 2019

Featured Guest: Tom Wright

It’s been called one of the world’s biggest financial heists. When the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB was set up in 2009, its purpose was supposedly to develop… more



1 | Japan vs. South Korea: Asia’s Other Trade War

November 3, 2019

Featured Guests: Sheila Smith, Richard McGregor

The leaders of South Korea and Japan recently held talks for the first time in over a year; their aim, to resolve a long-running trade dispute. Taking this other trade… more