Xi Jinping visited North Korea this week for the first time since 2019. Unlike that last visit seven years ago, he was mum on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. His two-day state visit included meetings with Kim Jong Un, and official readouts from the Chinese side never mentioned North Korea’s nuclear issues. Instead, they emphasized friendship and camaraderie between Beijing and Pyongyang.
In this special crossover episode between Global Dispatches and the Sinica Podcast, Kaiser Kuo and I use this state visit as an entrypoint to discuss how Chinese foreign policy has shifted in recent years — on the Korean Peninsula, in the Middle East, and at the United Nations.
Kaiser Kuo is the founder and longtime host of Sinica, which has partnered with Global Dispatches so that paid subscribers to Global Dispatches can now get a 50 percent discount on a one-year subscription to Sinica. I’m also happy to announce that if you take advantage of this opportunity, you’ll be helping not just Sinica but Global Dispatches — because the proceeds will be divided between the two of us! This partnership is part of the NonZero Network, of which Sinica and Global Dispatches are both members.
Our conversation is freely available directly on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube — and wherever you get Global Dispatches. The link to a discounted subscription to Sinica is below the fold for my paying subscribers.
