Welcome back to the Sinica Podcast, a roundtable on current affairs in China featuring China-watchers from a wide range of backgrounds. In this week’s installment, host Kaiser Kuo talks about China’s delicate maneuvering in the Middle East, as well as the recent health scandals to emerge around the vaccination of children in Shanxi and Jiangsu provinces. Our guests this week include Bill Bishop, a tech entrepreneur and blogger at DigiCha.com and Sinocism.com, along with public relations expert William Moss, who writes the blog Imagethief.com.
This Week: How should we interpret signs that China may be preparing for an about-turn on Iranian sanctions? Have recent Israeli visits hardened Beijing’s position, or are we seeing a quid pro quo linked to American pressure on currency manipulation and upcoming nuclear disarmament talks? And what is going on with the vaccination crises in Shanxi and Jiangsu? Are we seeing the first stages of another major public relations crisis, or does evidence point to this blowing over quickly?