Drum Tower

TikTok’s saga is just the latest in the long line of challenges facing Chinese companies trying to break into global markets. This week, we look at Shein, another Chinese multinational, which now accounts for half of fast-fashion sales in America. But its Chinese origins have raised questions about data security and supply-chain ethics. Shein has moved its headquarters to Singapore and avoids selling in China. Yet its reliance on Chinese factories and data-driven logistics continues to cause concern in America.Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, and Don Weinland, our China business and finance editor, explore Shein’s rise, its rapid production model, and the hurdles Chinese firms face abroad. Can Shein shake its Chinese roots? 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.

Dongbei, as China’s cold and gritty north-east is known, has traditionally been more famous for its economic struggles than for its cultural exports. Once booming under Mao because of its coal mines and steel mills, the region has endured decades of decline and poverty. But from these hardships, a powerful literary movement has emerged.David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, and Alice Su, our senior China correspondent, analyse “Winter Swimming”, a short story by Ban Yu, and ask: why are stories from China’s rust belt resonating with so many readers around 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.

Xi Jinping wants to reshape China—and the world—but there’s still much to understand about him: the ideology that influences his actions; his motivations and anxieties; and how far he’s willing to go in his competition with America, as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.Sue-Lin Wong, host of “The Prince” podcast, and James Miles, The Economist’s China writer-at-large, attempt to get inside the leader’s head, asking: what are the forces that shape Xi’s worldview?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.

David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, and Alice Su, our senior China correspondent, discuss what they’re looking out for in China in 2025, before Alice selects one of her favourite episodes of Drum Tower in 2024 to replay for the end of the year: the sounds of old Beijing. In some ways, Beijing now sounds like a lot of other mega cities. Yet, back in imperial times, sound was used in creative ways to display wealth, to conduct everyday business and, most importantly, to keep order. David Rennie takes us once again on a sonic journey through the places where Beijing’s ancient soundscape is being kept alive. He meets Colin Chinnery, a sound artist and archivist, to find out why sound has long been a vital part of Beijing’s spirit, and the ways in which it still is today.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.

Spare a thought for China’s youngsters. Unlike their parents, who came of age at a time when it wasn’t hard to catch a ride on China’s economic elevator, young Chinese have fewer opportunities. Despite hard work and university degrees, many are priced out of the property market. In a country where having an apartment is generally a prerequisite for marriage, and bride prices can demolish a family’s savings, that institution is increasingly out of reach. The result is a generation of people who are risk-averse, which becomes clear when you talk with people in Yichun, China’s “median city”.In the second episode of a two-part series, David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, and Alice Su, our senior China correspondent, return to Yichun to ask its younger residents if they are hopeful or fearful about the future.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.

Chances are you’ve never heard of Yichun. The city in Jiangxi province in south-western China is home to a bustling night market, a fancy shopping mall and a handful of new skyscrapers. It’s neither big nor small, its residents neither tremendously rich, nor terribly poor. Indeed, what makes Yichun remarkable is its ordinariness. And that same quality makes it the ideal place to visit if you want to gauge how Chinese people feel about life in their country. From an office in Beijing, China’s ascent from poverty to modernity can be summarised by a dry graph showing a smooth upwards curve. But spend enough time speaking to folks in Yichun and a different picture emerges. In the first episode of a two-part series, David Rennie, The Economist’s geopolitics editor, and Alice Su, our senior China correspondent, head to Yichun and ask its elderly residents if they are hopeful or fearful about the future.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.

Chinese tanks didn’t roll into Hong Kong when it was gripped by huge pro-democracy protests five years ago. Instead, Beijing bided its time. But when the world’s attention was elsewhere, the punishments began. From prominent politicians to teenage protesters, scores of people have been jailed for crimes that resemble little more than the ordinary business of democratic politics. Their fate speaks to the crushing power of China’s security state and sends a strong message to places like Taiwan. This week on “Drum Tower”, Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, and David Rennie, our geopolitics editor, ask what we can learn from Beijing's crackdown on the city, and what it means for the future of Hong Kong.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.

Hefei is an inland city only a few hours by train from Shanghai. But while teenagers in the coastal megacity attend voguing parties and young men wear makeup to work, growing up in conservative Hefei is different.Failing to conform to your parents’ expectations of what it means to be a good child can lead to trouble. In Zhang Enxu’s case, that meant years of beatings and, when those didn’t work, being sent to a disciplinary centre to be “fixed”. These private, often expensive, centres are a final resort for parents. Their admission criteria are wide: anything from performing poorly at school to having a different sexual orientation. And life on the inside can be brutal. Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent, and Don Weinland, our China business and finance editor, meet Zhang and find out what happens when young Chinese challenge the social conservatism of their parents.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.