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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣

@kaiserkuo.bsky.social
2.1K followers 507 following 199 posts

Host of the Sinica Podcast (sinicapodcast.com), former guitarist of Tang Dynasty, currently of the newly re-formed 春秋 (Spring & Autumn). Living in Beijing. Chinese history, politics, culture, society.

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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This week on the Sinica Podcast, the wonderful Pallavi Aiyar on why India and China talk past each other — China reading India through a colonial lens, India reading China through the lens of 1962 — and why her answer to "born Indian or Chinese?" has changed since 2008. 👇
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
I planned this one as a region-by-region tour: how is the Global South reacting to Trump and Putin summits? Eric Olander's answer, in the first ten minutes: mostly, it isn't. What looked like the absence of a story turned out to be the story. New Sinica episode 👇
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
I planned this one as a region-by-region tour: how is the Global South reacting to Trump and Putin summits? Eric Olander's answer, in the first ten minutes: mostly, it isn't. What looked like the absence of a story turned out to be the story. New Sinica episode 👇
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
This week on the Sinica Podcast, I speak with historian Andrew Seth Meyer about his wonderful new book "To Rule All Under Heaven: A History of Classical China from Confucius to the First Emperor." Relevance schmelevance. This was a fun convo! 👇
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Long live constructive strategic stability! 中美建设性战略稳定关系万岁!
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
I've just published a stupidly long essay called "The Civilization Trap" at the Sinica Podcast newsletter page. Free. Examines how civilizational discourse has returned (think Rubio's Munich speech and China's Global Civilization Initiative). Inspired in part by @chenchenzhang.net Link below.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 4 years ago today. Two Ukrainian China scholars, a Beijing-based Ukrinform correspondent, and a leading analyst of Chinese media look at how Chinese perspectives on the war have evolved over the course of the last four years. 👇
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Yi-Ling Liu's book The Wall Dancers traces China's internet through five lives: a rapper, a censor, a gay app founder, a feminist, a sci-fi writer. We talk "dancing in shackles," the end of techno-utopianism, and how Chinese & US internets are converging. New Sinica drops Wed!
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Wrestling with the Iran intervention question. The humanitarian case is real but I loppose strikes. We suck at predicting what military force actually accomplishes. This might be the moment that forces a reckoning with liberal interventionism. My thinking (for now) in the essay at the link below. 👇
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
So depressing to read (over on the hellsite) all the WaPo foreign correspondents and others announcing they've been laid off. It'a completely insane to be gutting international coverage at a time like this. I'm dreading the crap that will fill the vacuum.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
New Sinica Podcast episode with Ryan Hass of Brookings on US-China relations under Trump. He lays out 3 scenarios: soft landing, hard split, or (most likely) uneasy calm through mutual constraint. We dig into Beijing's bet on Trump, and why Xi's April visit matters. Link below 👇
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
500 modern Chinese wormhole back to the Ming Dynasty to jumpstart industrialization. A crowdsourced novel "The Morning Star of Lingao"《临高启明》— the ur-text for China's "Industrial Party." Writer Afra Wang joins the SinicaPodcast to discuss the Industrial Party, Lingao, & how China thinks about power.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
This week on the SinicaPodcast, I speak with Danny Bessner about Cold War liberalism, how American primacy became ideology, why the first Cold War was a choice, and what genuine restraint toward China would actually require. Links below!
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Justin Vogt @jvogt.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Fascinating stories of Chinese workers who migrated from rural areas to Guangdong in 2006-15: skillfully collected by the poet Zheng Xiaoqiong, translated by Eleanor Goodman, insightfully introduced by @kaiserkuo.bsky.social—and, thankfully, published by @equatormag.bsky.social.
equator.org
The Makers of Modern China • EQUATOR
For many years, Zheng Xiaoqiong has collected the stories of the workers whose migration to Guangdong powered China’s manufacturing revolution
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Robert Wright @robertwrighter.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Had a great conversation with @kaiserkuo.bsky.social of the Sinica Podcast about the causes and consequences of the seeming softening of Washington's China-hawkism.
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Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
It was my great honour to go back on the Sinica podcast with @kaiserkuo to discuss the "economic thriller" that is Nexperia Recommended if you want to go deep on the latest crisis in Europe's strategic autonomy Thanks Kaiser for having me!
open.spotify.com
Finbarr Bermingham of the SCMP on Nexperia, Export Controls, and Europe's Impossible Position
Sinica Podcast · Episode
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
This week on @SinicaPodcast, I spoke with Lizzi Lee of the Asia Society Policy Institute about China's 4th Plenum, the anti-involution push, why "overcapacity" is misleading, VAT incentives driving overcompetition, and what really happened at the Trump-Xi meeting in Busan.
sinicapodcast.com
Lizzi Lee on Involution, Overcapacity, and China's Economic Model
This week on Sinica, I chat with Lizzi Lee, a fellow on the Chinese economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute and one of the sharpest China analysts working today.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
I have a new, long piece in The Ideas Letter called “The Great Reckoning: What the West Should Learn from China," arguing that we must learn from China even (or especially) when its successes unsettle our assumptions. Link below.
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Smart Cookies podcast @smartcookies.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Turns out we're pretty CLUELESS about China in the West... @kaiserkuo.bsky.social (from the Sinica podcast) joins me for the latest episode of SMART COOKIES to explain why that's probably not a good idea 👇🏻 YT: youtu.be/uWAkwJlrPuE Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4jas... #china
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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham @mauracunningham.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
New book review for @kaiserkuo.bsky.social's Sinica substack subscribers: Calvin Quek on "a welcome and timely update" by Ma Tianjie about environmental issues in China.
sinicapodcast.com
Book Review: Ma Tianjie's "In Search of Green China"
A guest post by Calvin Quek, Executive Director, Nature Finance, Oxford Sustainable Finance Group. Director, Transition Asia
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
This was a ton of fun. Thanks so much to Joe @weisenthal.bsky.social and @tracyalloway.bsky.social for inviting me on and asking great questions!
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Benno Weiner @bennoweiner.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Appearing on the Sinica podcast was a bucket list sort of thing. Thanks to @kaiserkuo.bsky.social for having me on to talk about ethnopolitics in China. There's more I wish I had said, and some things I wish I had said differently, but give it a listen! www.sinicapodcast.com/p/live-at-pi...
sinicapodcast.com
Live at Pitt: CMU's Benno Weiner on the Evolution of China's Minzu Policy
This week on Sinica, in a show recorded at the University of Pittsburgh, I speak with Benno Weiner, Associate Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University, about how China's policy toward its mi...
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Jeremy Garlick @jeremy-garlick.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
The Sinica podcast where I discuss my new book on evolution in IR with @kaiserkuo.bsky.social is now out! Evolutionary Psychology and International Relations, with Jeremy Garlick www.sinicapodcast.com/p/evolutiona...
sinicapodcast.com
Evolutionary Psychology and International Relations, with Jeremy Garlick
This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Jeremy Garlick, Director of the Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, Prague University, and a scholar of China’s international relations.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
If you're in the Bay Area, please come check out this live taping of the Sinica Podcast on Th 5pm PST in Berkeley. Guests are Ryan Hass (Obama NSC, Brookings) and Jessica Chen Weiss @jessicacweiss.bsky.social (Hopkins SAIS). Gonna be a banger! RSVP at the link. events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/2...
events.berkeley.edu
Kaiser Kuo’s Sinica Podcast: China and the US in 2025, with Jessica Chen Weiss and Ryan Hass
RSVP is required.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Watching people defend USAID solely in terms of 'Great Power Competition' with China is like mourning a burned-down library and condemning the arsonist because now your rival has more books. Maybe — just maybe — foreign aid should have been about, you know, helping people?
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jaketheman091.bsky.social @jaketheman091.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Here's my latest interview with @kaiserkuo.bsky.social, founding guitarist of the legendary metal band Tang Dynasty, who will reunite with his other band Chun Qiu in March. Truly a pleasure to have on! youtu.be/7Jwvwdv4B4U?...
youtu.be
Interview with Kaiser Kuo (Spring & Autumn, formerly of Tang Dynasty) | Music Existence
YouTube video by Jake Kussmaul
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Imma lose my shit if I ever hear anyone in this fucking administration accuse China of bullying and expansionism.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
The one and only Jeremy @goldkorn.bsky.social returns to the Sinica Podcast to say why he thinks — with DeepSeek, the TikTok Refugees on Xiaohongshu, and more — a narrative shift on China is now underway in the US. Tell us whether you agree! Link in the reply thread below.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Lovely piece by the poet Heather Swan, married to my best friend, abt his bonkers love of winter & skating. “It’s the closest we get to flying,” he said once as he sailed past me. Another time: “Maybe this is how a dolphin feels carving through the water.” www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/590...
thesunmagazine.org
Keening for the Cailleach
The best nights are when moonlight comes through the trees, casting indigo shadows across the ice. My partner swoops around, his arms swinging in front of his crouched body. “It’s the closest we get t...
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
I'm curious about the perspectives of folks here on Bsky. Are we in a moment of narrative shift here in the U.S., or more broadly in the "West," regarding China? You know the drivers: DeepSeek, the "TikTok" refugees on Xiaohongshu, all atop growing awareness of China's tech prowess, EV boom etc. 1/n
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Catherine Fletcher @catherinefletcher.info · 29/01/2025
Oh so NOW the AI guys are worried about intellectual property theft
ft.com
OpenAI says it has evidence China’s DeepSeek used its model to train competitor
White House AI tsar David Sacks raises possibility of alleged intellectual property theft
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
1/ My flight's delayed and I find myself with a couple of hours in the Zurich airport, so I thought I'd follow on my earlier thread to address a question that's always intrigued me: What is it about China's rise that seems to stick so badly in the American craw?
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
1/ Why does the U.S. seem to be caught off guard so often by what China or Chinese companies accomplish? Here’s an off-the-top-of-my head thread unpacking some reasons—structural, cultural, and epistemological—for this recurring phenomenon.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
New from the Sinica Podcast: a new limited series from our friends at Johns Hopkins SAIS China Research Center — "Studying China in the Absence of Access: Recovering a Lost Art." The first episode features renowned Pekingologist Frederick Tiewes (emeritus, Sydney University). Link below.
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Alex Dukalskis @alexdukalskis.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Very interesting discussion about Shen Yun & Falun Gong especially in the US w/ New York Times reporters Nicole Hong & @mrothfeld.bsky.social on @kaiserkuo.bsky.social podcast
podcasts.apple.com
Inside Shen Yun and the Epoch Times, with NYT's Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld
Podcast Episode · Sinica Podcast · 01/09/2025 · 1h 8m
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Recorded just a couple of hours ago, here's the latest Sinica Podcast — all about the Xiaohongshu (RedNote) "TikTok Refugees," with Ivy Yang of Wavelet Strategy and David Fishman of the Lantau Group. Fantastic insights from both of them! Links in replies.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
This week on the Sinica Podcast, I speak with @nytimes.com investigative reporters Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld about their extensive investigation into Shen Yun, the Epoch Times, and the new religious movement that ties them together, the Falun Gong. Links in replies below!
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
I posted an essay (with audio narration) I published in the magazine "Insight: The Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai," drawn from a keynote I gave in September in Buffalo at the New York Conference on Asian Studies. Hope you like it. open.substack.com/pub/sinica/p...
open.substack.com
High Stakes: Can American Exceptionalism Accommodate Chinese Exceptionalism in the 21st Century?
This essay was first published in Insight: The Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai in the Winter 2025 issue, and was adopted from a keynote address delivered in September 2024 at t...
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
The latest "This Week in China's History" column about the UK's recognition of the PRC on Jan 6, 1950, is free for everyone this week. Please support the invaluable work of @jayjamescarter.bsky.social (and the Sinica Podcast!) by becoming a subscriber.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with @cerny.bsky.social and @rorytruex.bsky.social about their survey research on US foreign policy think tanks and the China discourse. It's a fascinating paper you can read here. Links to the podcast below, in replies. www.rorytruex.com/underpressure
rorytruex.com
Featured Paper: Under Pressure — Rory Truex
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
Yeah the rest of us in the writers room think this is just too implausible. Nice try but back to the drawing board. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/u...
nytimes.com
1 Dead After a Cybertruck Explodes Outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas
At least seven people were injured, the authorities said. Videos posted to social media appeared to show a vehicle engulfed in flames outside the lobby’s entrance.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
A very nice Christmas present! I was interviewed by Dutch Metal journalist and musician Kevin Pasman for his website, and the interview just dropped. I think it turned out nicely. For anyone interested in my musical side. kevymetal.wordpress.com/2024/12/25/i...
kevymetal.wordpress.com
Interview Kaiser Kuo: Finding Chinese Rock and Metal Touchstones
Traveling back and forth between his native United States and his parents’ homeland China many times throughout his adult life, Kaiser Kuo eventually played a pivotal role in the development of the…
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Very sad news just now from Beijing. A legend on the music scene has passed: Liu Yuan, the saxophone virtuoso probably best known for his work with China's greatest rock musician, Cui Jian, died this morning. May he rest in peace.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Amy King of ANU about Australia, China, and the economics-security nexus. Fascinating ideas from an impressive and original body of scholarly work. Listen to the show at the link below or find more ways in replies! www.sinicapodcast.com/p/australia-...
sinicapodcast.com
Australia, China, and the Economics-Security Nexus with Amy King of ANU
This week on Sinica I'm delighted to be joined by Amy King, Associate Professor in the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre at The Australian National University.
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Ilaria Mazzocco @ilariamazzocco.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
It was a pleasure to join @kaiserkuo.bsky.social on his podcast to talk about my research! I’ve been a long time lister and really enjoyed the conversation!
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with the brilliant @ilariamazzocco.bsky.social of @csis.org about her extensive work on the Chinese EV sector and industrial policy. Listen here: www.sinicapodcast.com/p/chinas-ev-...
sinicapodcast.com
China's EV Explosion, with Ilaria Mazzocco of CSIS
China's rapid surge in electric vehicle manufacturing, adoption, and export has variously encouraged, delighted, impressed, frightened, and even enraged people around the world.
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
101 years ago, the Chinese Youth Party (中国青年党) was founded in Paris. Read all about it in latest "This Week in China's History" by @jayjamescarter.bsky.social column! open.substack.com/pub/sinica/p...
open.substack.com
This Week in China’s History: The Chinese Youth Party founded in Paris
December 2, 1923
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
This is probably the greatest drum solo I've ever seen (yes, including Buddy Rich). Metal drummer Jordan Cannata. youtu.be/y15_F0ftT3Q?...
youtu.be
Jordan Cannata Drum Solo
YouTube video by Jordan Cannata
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Kaiser Kuo 郭怡廣 @kaiserkuo.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Playing with Tencent's new Hunyuan AI video generator (腾讯混元文生视频). Really amazing! Here's my first effort. My prompt was ""一名容貌被毁的麻风病人在6世纪拜占庭肮脏的街道上乞讨,背景中拜占庭士兵正从他身后列队经过。"
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