Tweets of the Month + Student Essay Content + Nuptials + Madrid + Paris

First off, a programming announcement. I’m having my wedding this Saturday so will be taking off from publishing for the next three weeks! The ChinaTalk podcast feed will be running some best-of episodes.

Second, I’m launching the second annual ChinaTalk Student Essay Contest. If you’ve graduated this semester (or this past December) from an undergrad or masters program, and have done any research incorporating Chinese-language sources, submit your paper or thesis for consideration here! Authors of the best papers will receive an honorarium and have the opportunity to appear on the ChinaTalk podcast to talk with me about your work.

Lastly, after my honeymoon, I may be spending some time in Madrid and Paris in mid-July. If you’re in town let me know, I’m hoping to arrange some ChinaTalk meetups.

Tweets of the Month

RAND Corporation @RANDCorporation

We’re thrilled to announce that Jason Matheny has been selected as our new president and CEO. He is an economist, technologist, highly regarded national security expert, and longtime civil servant. Welcome, Jason!

bit.lyJason Matheny Named President and CEO of RAND CorporationJason Matheny, an economist, technologist, national security expert, and longtime civil servant, has been named president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit and nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

Jason Matheny, senior Biden tech official and founding director of CSET, ChinaTalk’s 2021 think tank of the year, is leaving the administration to head up RAND. One of the keys to CSET’s success was Matheny getting to start from a blank slate with a 10m+/yr budget and very few strings attached from Open Philanthropy on how to spend it. The RAND Corporation is more than an order of magnitude larger, with a 75-year institutional history, a bench of staff in the thousands and $435 million in FY2021 revenue.

I’m very curious to see in what direction he aims to take RAND and to what extent institutional FFRDC kludge may impede his realization of that vision. As I’ve argued in a recent podcast episode with Jon Bateman, there is an embarrassing amount of China and tech-adjacent analysis that just isn’t happening right now for American policymakers to be as informed as possible when squaring up against some of the most important questions of our time. I am hopeful that with Matheny at the helm, RAND will start to plug some of those gaps.

Lillian Li @lillianmli

After consuming Chinese media focusing on analysis for 8 hours a day for two years… The old chestnut that Chinese narrative tend to focus on systems while Western narrative tend to focus on individuals is true.

Cosign…but you also have plenty of hagiography around ‘heroic’ tech figures, though that certainly has toned down of late as the regulatory winds have shifted.

不明白播客 @bumingbaipod

裴敏欣谈上海封城：中国从九十年代末开始维稳，这次其实是维稳的实战试验，中央政府可以发一个命令，可以让上海2500万人一下子就两个月不出门，动用了不得了的社会维稳力量。 在Apple Podcasts订阅、收听本节目：

podcasts.apple.com‎不明白播客: 裴敏欣：上海清零的政治逻辑 on Apple Podcasts‎Show 不明白播客, Ep 裴敏欣：上海清零的政治逻辑 - Jun 1, 2022

If you can understand Chinese, I highly, highly recommend you check out NYTimes tech columnist Li Yuan’s new podcast which features uncensored longform conversations in the ChinaTalk mold. The world needs more shows like this.

itrulyknowchina @itrulyknownchi1

Why is this not in the news? China's No.1 internet influencer 李佳琦 Li Jiaqi was taken off air abruptly on the eve of June 4 because, for whatever reason, a tank-like cake emerged in live streaming. And why @SCMPNews totally ignored it in its report? scmp.com/tech/big-tech/…

Joseph Torigian @JosephTorigian

Please check out my new piece for ⁦@ForeignPolicy⁩ on the Xi family and the legacy of Tiananmen

foreignpolicy.comXi Jinping’s Tiananmen Family LessonsThe Chinese leader learned one key thing from his father: The party comes first.

Jordan Schneider @jordanschnyc

1/ CCP-watching today is a hollowed out field, with only a handful of analysts in the west with deep expertise. This gap is dangerous, and could lead to grave policy missteps. Richard Baum's memoir gets at the root of the problem and hints at paths forward. A BOOK REVIEW THREAD

Jordan Schneider @jordanschnyc

15/ At the start of the Cold War, the CIA had only a dozen Soviet experts. But money changed that state of affairs fast.

Jordan Schneider @jordanschnyc

16/ USG investments coupled with tens of millions from places like the @FordFoundation created the intellectual cadre that the US needed to understand Soviet politics and create the bureaucrats to win the Cold War.

Jordan Schneider @jordanschnyc

17/ Today, Congress and philanthropies need to send a strong financial and career signal to incentivize more talent to put in the years needed to really learn how to read the CCP from afar.

Jordan Schneider @jordanschnyc

the lack of viable career paths for China analysts in America is a national security risk

Jordan Schneider @jordanschnyc

I'd love to do the @ByrneHobart Diff Jobs thing for China-adjacent jobs, if, you know, anyone who asked me to help them find people had any budget whatsoever

Jordan Schneider @jordanschnyc

1/ TOKYO VICE is absolutely pitch-perfect in capturing some aspects of expat life. Not that American Jewish guys abroad in East Asia are a group in desperate need of representation in the media, but it has been fun how many aspects of the show resonated. A THREAD

Alice Evans @_alice_evans

Global Population Density i think this is the most evocative visualisation i've ever seen? more by @undertheraedar

Alasdair Rae @undertheraedar

I decided to create a few more European population density renders - you can find more here if you need a break from the doomscrolling: https://t.co/W2IOcBrYRi https://t.co/728CFRTekn

Ryan Etzcorn @thosewholeft8

Floating around in WeChat groups on the day many people in Shanghai were finally released from lockdown. Rough translation: “I’m finally out!!”…except with a LOT more profanity

God knows how they’re going to lock this guy down again in two months.

Yong Xiong @yongxiong2008

On the 1st day of Shanghai resuming some subways, state media reporters interviewed a grandma. When she was saying “since I was born, I have never suffered anything like this, being locked home and couldn’t leave. It’s a big joke,” the reporters pointed mic/cam to somewhere else.

AlbertYZhang @AlbertYZhang

1/ The Chinese Communist Party has a problem with smart Asian women. See my latest Strategist article co-authored with my colleague @DaniellesCave

aspistrategist.org.auSmart Asian women are the new targets of CCP global online repression | The StrategistThe Chinese Communist Party has a problem with women of Asian descent who have public platforms, opinions and expertise on China. In an effort to counter the views and work of these women, the CCP ...

Soviet Visuals @sovietvisuals

The Soviet Union's official poster for the movie Star Wars Museum quality reprint here: stratonaut.shop/products/sovie… (P.S. Yes to cosmic poster art. NO to war)