Libsyn Directory

Why China's Ability to Make a $6 Toaster is a Big Problem for the Global South

Release Date: 11/12/2025

Why the Belt and Road Is Back in a Big Way

The China-Global South Podcast

There's been a lot of discussion in recent years about the financial health of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Critics contend the BRI became overstretched, bankrupting borrowers and straining creditors suffering from a weakening Chinese economy. Even the Chinese government sought to reframe the BRI with its "small yet beautiful" tagline to reflect a new era of purported austerity. And while all of that was certainly true when it comes to state-backed Chinese entities that used to be at the forefront of the BRI, new data from Griffith University in Australia and the Green Finance and...

How South Asian States Navigate Rivalries Between the U.S., China, and India

The China-Global South Podcast

As debate intensifies over the unraveling of the U.S.-led international order, sparked by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s stark remarks at Davos, small states are being forced to rethink how they survive and advance in an increasingly fragmented global system. Carney captured the anxiety shared by many global leaders when he bluntly declared that the U.S.-led international order is over. In this episode of the China Global South Podcast, Eric is joined by Sagar Prasai, an independent advisor to international development agencies, and Mandakini D. Surie, an independent development...

Africa and the New World Order: U.S. Pulls Back and China Moves Forward

The China-Global South Podcast

The collapse of the post-war international system now underway will have a disproportionate impact on African countries that rely heavily on multilateral bodies like the UN. Beyond a pull-back of aid and humanitarian assistance, African countries must also contend with an increasingly hostile United States. Dozens of African countries have been targeted by the Trump administration for visa restrictions, trade sanctions, and regularly denigrated by the president himself. At the same time, U.S. diplomats across the continent were ordered by the State Department in January to remind African...

China's Place in the New Post-American International Order

The China-Global South Podcast

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week will likely be remembered as one of the most significant orations of the early 21st century. Carney channeled the fear and frustration of many global leaders when he defiantly declared that the U.S.-led international order is over. The "rupture" that Carney referenced in his address has profound consequences for China as it moves to reshape a part of this new international order to better align with its interests. Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior...

China's Low-Key Response to the Iran Crisis

The China-Global South Podcast

China was among the first and most vocal opponents of the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro. Curiously, though, when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to launch military strikes against Iran as Tehran dealt with a massive popular uprising, China was largely silent. Both Venezuela and Iran have high-level strategic partnerships with China, yet the Chinese leadership's responses to the crises in each country are radically different. William (Bill) Figueroa, a leading China-Iran scholar and an assistant professor at the University of...

Is the Crisis in Venezuela a "Setback" for China? Eric Olander on Sinica with Kaiser Kuo

The China-Global South Podcast

In this special bonus episode, Eric speaks with Kaiser Kuo, host of the popular Sinica Podcast, about China's response to the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro. Many U.S. and European analysts have framed Maduro's downfall as a "setback" or even an "embarrassment" for Beijing, but while that may be true, Eric argues that it's also premature to make such declarations less than a week after Maduro's downfall. After all, U.S.-led military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya all started well but ended up being very costly failures for...

What Maduro’s Detention Means for China

The China-Global South Podcast

One of the prevailing narratives that's emerged following the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and the detention of President Nicolás Maduro is that this is a major setback for China. Some analysts have called it a "strategic failure" on Beijing's part, while others have described it as "reality check" for China's role as a "global player." But China's ability to influence events in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America is extremely limited, so the assessment that what happened in Caracas was a blow to Beijing may also be overstated. Alonso Illueca, CGSP's non-resident fellow for...

2025 China-Global South Year in Review

The China-Global South Podcast

In this special year-end edition of The China-Global South Podcast, Eric, Cobus, and Géraud look back on the top stories of 2025 and look ahead to the key trend to watch in 2026. 📌 Topics covered include: Simandou goes online (Guinea) and the iron ore geopolitics shift Zambia’s Kafue River spill and the China narrative battle China’s manufacturing push, overcapacity, and export pressures Soybeans and South America’s growing leverage in U.S.–China trade China–India détente and what it changes (and doesn’t) G20 turbulence around South Africa and global governance...

Jane Perlez on the New Era of U.S.-China Competition and Rivalry

The China-Global South Podcast

The increasingly acrimonious U.S.-China relationship is the defining trend of this era, upending global politics, economics, and security, especially across the Global South. Countries that have worked hard from having to pick sides in this new competition, may longer have that luxury as this rivalry intensifies. Jane Perlez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a former longtime China correspondent for The New York Times, has been covering this story since the 1980s. Now, together with acclaimed Harvard University China scholar Rana Mitter, she's launched season 3 of her award-winning...

What Makes China’s Foreign Aid Different

The China-Global South Podcast

Soon after USAID was closed in February, speculation circulated that China would move quickly to fill the void left by the United States. That did not happen. While the Chinese did step in to provide modest additional funding for a handful of programs, like demining initiatives in Cambodia and support for the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa, overall, there's been no significant change in China's foreign aid programs. That did not surprise Alicia Chen, a PhD candidate at Stanford University, who noted in a recent that Beijing is very tactical with where and how it distributes overseas development...

More Episodes

China is breaking the rules of development. Typically, as countries progress up the value chain, they transition from agriculture to light industry, then to heavy industry, and ultimately to high-technology and services. And as they move up the value chain, this creates opportunities for less-developed countries to advance.

But China's not doing that. Chinese manufacturers are holding on to their immense productive capacity, enabling them to produce both low-tech sneakers and high-tech semiconductors at a scale and cost that are unrivaled.

Now, as developing countries around the world seek to move up the value chain, they will have to compete head-on against the dreaded "China Price."

James Kynge, who covered China for nearly 30 years at the Financial Times, delved into this challenge in a fascinating audiobook that came out earlier this year, "Global Tech Wars: China's Race to Dominate." James joins Eric from London to explain how China's ability to produce a $6 toaster exemplifies the country's enormous manufacturing advantage that will be very difficult, if not impossible, for other countries to match.

CHAPTERS:

• Introduction – The $6 toaster and the global value chain crisis
• The Flying Geese Model – How automation broke development’s old path
• China’s Dual Reality – A continent-sized economy of billionaires and low-wage labor
• Industrial Clusters – The unbeatable advantage of Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta
• The Global South’s Dilemma – Competing against the “China price”
• Automation and Inequality – Why manufacturing isn’t moving offshore
• The $1 Trillion Surplus – Trade backlash and global tensions
• Searching for Solutions – Industrial policy and self-strengthening in the Global South
• Winners and Losers – Cheap exports, consumer gains, and producer pain
• Political Risk – Xi Jinping’s lesson from Western deindustrialization
• The Humanoid Robot Moment – From $6 toasters to $6,000 robots
• China’s Auto Revolution – BYD and the new wave of affordable EVs
• The Double-Edged Future – Opportunity and disruption in China’s rise

SHOW NOTES:

Financial Times: Global Tech Wars: China's Race to Dominate by James Kynge
Financial Times: China’s plan to reshape world trade on its own terms by James Kynge and Keith Fray

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