China is becoming ever more important to global affairs. But political and geopolitical challenges, as well as the covid-19 pandemic, have diminished Europeans’ ability to engage with Chinese thinkers and understand their views and ideas about the world. In this mini-series, Mark Leonard and Janka Oertel try to change that by engaging in conversations with some of the best Chinese academics, researchers, writers, and journalists on the topics in Chinese internal debates that matter most to Europeans. 

—  

In this episode, we are joined by Angela Zhang, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong and director of the Philip K.H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law, to discuss China’s big tech regulation. Angela talks us through big tech companies’ far from frictionless relationship with the Chinese state. How is China regulating its big tech firms? What role do these firms play in China’s competition with Europe and the United States? And what are the lessons for Europe’s own attempts at tech regulation? 

High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy by Angela Zhang 

Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, by Dali L. Yang 

This podcast was recorded on 21 May 2024.