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