Drum Tower

For evidence that America is a corrupt and broken country run by billionaires, look no further than the re-election of Donald Trump—at least that’s how Chinese propagandists are spinning it. In their hands, Mr Trump’s victory is proof of their superpower rival’s decline.  But what will be the real-world consequences of Mr Trump’s return to power? The 60% tariffs he’s threatened would be a serious challenge for China’s economy. And a confrontation over Taiwan would be disastrous for the world.   When it comes to China, will Mr Trump listen to the superhawks in his next administration? Or could he strike a deal with China? David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, and Alice Su, our senior China correspondent, ask what Mr Trump’s return to the White House will mean for the country.For more coverage of the US election, check out our sister podcasts “Checks and Balance” and “Money Talks”.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Planning a holiday? How about a 32-hour boat ride through the South China Sea, one of the world’s most contested waterways? Six governments have laid claim to the Spratly Islands, including China. The country has been intimidating its rivals in the region and the Philippines is its primary target.Pag-asa is ground zero in this fight. It’s the only one of the islands with a civilian population. There aren’t any hotels or fancy restaurants. Instead, a handful of hardy Filipinos eke out a living, and plenty of fishermen experience Chinese bullying every day. Sue-Lin Wong, The Economist’s South-East Asia correspondent, joins a tourist trip like no other, in an episode that first aired on The Weekend Intelligence podcast.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

The Chinese and American dreams both extol working hard to achieve success. But in recent years, for many Chinese, attaining that dream has felt out of reach.Some have decided to pursue the American one instead. They embark on the zouxian journey, which takes them from South America to the US through some of the most difficult and dangerous terrain in the world.   Drum Tower has been following Chinese migrants on this path from Necoclí, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, to Tapachula in southern Mexico, to Jacumba Hot Springs in southern California. The migrants have trudged over mountains, forded rivers and been robbed and extorted by gangs and cartels. But none of them have given up hope of making it to America.This week we go to Monterey Park, California, where the new arrivals try to build their lives. They come to Fatty Ding Plaza, a nondescript shopping mall, to find informal work, a place to live and to connect with other migrants. In the final episode of our four-part series, Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, catches up with the migrants she met along the way. As they begin the next chapter in their quest for the American dream, she asks, was it worth it?Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Jacumba Hot Springs is a speck on the map of southern California. Cacti and desert sage bake beneath the sun and the border wall looms on the horizon.Migrants trying to enter America scramble over or under it. But close to Jacumba, there’s a tiny spot where the wall peters out. People simply walk around it. Any relief at having crossed the border is short-lived. Chinese migrants on their zouxian journey need to turn themselves into the US Border Patrol, and fast. If they don’t, they will be denied the right to seek asylum. Still, those who do seek asylum may spend the first few months of their American dream in detention.  In the third episode of a four-part series, Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, heads to Jacumba and meets Chinese migrants who’ve just found their way around the wall, and arrived in America. Are they really drawn to the country’s ideals of freedom and democracy? Or are the migrants exploiting a broken border and asylum system? And do the Chinese migrants we’ve been following, who’ve made it this far, turn themselves in? Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

They’ve trudged over mountains, forded rivers in wooden canoes, then ridden buses the length of central America. For Chinese migrants on their zouxian journey, Mexico is the only thing separating them from their American dream.Tapachula, in the country’s south, is their first port of call. This small city, just across the border from Guatemala, has become a hub for migrants on their journey north. But making it to Mexico’s northern border isn’t easy. Governments across the region are doing what they can to deter migrants from making it to the US. And that’s pushing migrants into the hands of criminal groups who rob and extort them.  In the second episode of a four-part series, Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, travels to Tapachula and sees the human cost of this game of snakes and ladders. How will the migrants she’s met survive the maze that is Mexico?Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Necoclí is a tiny town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Beach bars blast party music and sell brightly-coloured cocktails. But Necoclí is not just a tourist destination. It is also a stopping point for migrants heading to the United States.The fastest-growing group among them are Chinese. They are on a journey they call zouxian, or walking the line. Disillusioned with the Chinese dream, they have decided to chase the American version. But first they face a journey that is fraught with peril.  Necoclí is the place migrants stock up on supplies and cash, before putting their trust in smugglers who will guide them across the Darién Gap, a treacherous stretch of jungle separating Colombia and Panama.In the first episode of this four-part series, Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, travels to Necoclí to meet Chinese migrants on their zouxian journey, and asks what drove them to leave China and take such risks.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Michael Kovrig spent his first six months at the Dahongmen detention centre in solitary confinement. Inside his padded, windowless cell, the lights were never turned off. They would stay on for the next three years.The former Canadian diplomat quickly realised that survival demanded a strict physical and mental regime. He would need it. 1,019 days passed before the political game that put Mr Kovrig in Dahongmen was resolved. In the second episode of a two-part series, David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, speaks with Mr Kovrig about how he survived inside a machine designed to crush the human spirit.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

The day Michael Kovrig disappeared into China’s security machine began unremarkably. The former Canadian diplomat was in Beijing to pack up house; he wrote talking points for a speech, then grabbed a late dinner with his partner. But when the couple arrived back at his apartment, men in black were waiting for them. Mr Kovrig was pushed into a waiting SUV. Handcuffed and blindfolded, he was driven to a detention centre in southern Beijing that would be his home for the next 1,019 days. September 24th 2024 is the third anniversary of Mr Kovrig’s release. And now he is ready to talk publicly about his ordeal. In the first episode of a two-part series, David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, speaks with Mr Kovrig about the night he was seized, and how his detention was part of a far bigger geopolitical game.   Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

In 1971 Jaime “Jimi” FlorCruz, a student leader from the Philippines, arrived in Beijing, eager to explore Mao’s China. But when President Ferdinand Marcos announced a crackdown on leftists, Mr FlorCruz found himself stranded. What began as a three-week visit turned into five decades of witnessing China’s transformation.During his time in China, Mr FlorCruz became a well-known journalist, working as the Beijing bureau chief for Time magazine and CNN. In 2022, he was appointed the Philippines’ ambassador to China by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the man whose regime had made it impossible for him to return in the 1970s.David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, sits down with Jaime FlorCruz and asks: how close can any foreigner get to understanding China? And how have the transformations in Chinese politics changed his relationship with the country?Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.