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China Digest #55

In the U.S. we've been social distancing for a few weeks now, and the question on everyone’s mind is: When can we go back to “normal”? And what’s happening in China, where they’ve already lifted the lockdown? To find out, we talk to Dr. Swapnil Mishra, part of the Imperial College Covid-19 Response Team, and Dr. Franz-Josef Schmitt. 

Here’s a link to our transcript: https://bit.ly/2y5nJtc

You can listen to The Journal’s full interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci here: https://spoti.fi/2x99xQ8

This episode was produced by Sinduja Srinivasan, Wendy Zukerman, Laura Morris, Michelle Dang, Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler and Meg Driscoll. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell and Caitlin Kenney. Fact checking by Lexi Krupp. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger. Music written by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, and Bobby Lord. A big thanks to all the researchers we got in touch with for this episode, including Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam, Michael te Vrugt and others. And special thanks to the Zukerman family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.

Science Vs

Coronavirus: When Will It End?

Researchers are using dogs’ heightened sense of smell to build a device to sniff out the chemicals produced by cancer cells.

Science Friday

Scientists are Training Dogs to Detect Cancer with a Sniff

Are you following stay-at-home orders? In some countries, the government will use cell phone data to make sure.

Countries Start to Track Stay-At-Home Orders Digitally

Alexander Gabuev, Senior fellow and chair of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific Program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, interviewed Ivan Zuenko from the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who is based in Vladivostok. Zuenko discussed China's presence in the Russian Far East and how Russia-China relations look from the "local" perspective of a city located on the Pacific Rim and far away from the halls of power in Moscow.

Asia Local/Global - Interview with Ivan Zuenko

Dr. William Overholt, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School, presents the first of the Fairbank Center's online lectures as part of the Critical Issues Confronting China Lecture Series. This series is hosted by Professor Ezra F. Vogel.

William Overholt joined the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia in July 2008 and conducts research on development and governance issues. Previously, he served as a visiting scholar with the Institute for Asia and continues to be a frequent visitor and speaker at Harvard University. As the former director of RAND’s Center for Asia Pacific Policy, Overholt held a distinguished chair at the Center. He has long been an important analyst of Asia. Dr. Overholt is the author of America and Asia: The Coming Transformation of Asian Geopolitics (RAND, 2007), as well as The Rise of China (W.W. Norton, 1993), which won the Mainichi News/Asian Affairs Research Center Special Book Prize. He has also written or co-written, Political Risk (Euromoney, 1982), Strategic Planning and Forecasting, with William Ascher (John Wiley, 1983), and Asia’s Nuclear Future (Westview Press, 1976). In 1976, he founded the semi-annual Global Assessment, with Zbigniew Brzezinski, and edited it until 1988. He has also spent 21 years running research teams for investment banks, including Nomura Securities, Bankers Trust, and BankBoston, mostly in Hong Kong or Singapore. Prior to his banking career, he was at the Hudson Institute, directing planning studies.

This event was recorded on Zoom on April 15, 2020. The recording features the lecture, but not the public Q&A.

China-US: The New Game, with William Overholt

This episode examines China’s role in the World Health Organization (WHO), and how its relationship with the organization has changed over time. Our guest, Dr. Jeremy Youde, discusses how China has influenced how the WHO responds to global health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Youde also explores the challenges WHO leadership faces when balancing public health concerns with sensitive geopolitical issues, best illustrated by China’s opposition to Taiwan’s inclusion in the organization. 

Dr. Jeremy Youde is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is a member of the editorial board of Global Health Governance and is the current chair of the Global Health Section of the International Studies Association. Previously, Dr. Youde was an associate professor in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University.

Examining China's Influence in the World Health Organization: A Conversation with Jeremy Youde

CSIS