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Days after Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington, the Wall Street Journal reported that he needed unusual rest breaks at the White House. Now, the Chinese Communist Party’s top leadership is meeting for its Fifth Plenum, from Oct. 26–29, and the question of who comes after Xi is out in the open. China expert Alex Liao explains why he believes the leak about Xi’s health came from Beijing, how Xi came to rule more like a Ming emperor than a modern party leader, and why China’s military has gone silent since Xi moved against General Zhang Youxia. Mike Sun, who spent decades advising Americans doing business in China, describes how Xi broke the rules that once kept elite politics stable, and why his successor may have to do the same just to survive. Also in this episode: why Beijing ordered 25 of its 40 golf courses to close, according to documents shared with China Watch; what to watch for when the plenum ends; and who could be next in line, from Premier Li Qiang to the “deposed crown prince” Hu Chunhua. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi are expected to be in Shenzhen in November for the APEC summit. How does Tokyo view meetings between Trump and Xi, and where does Taiwan fit? Stephen Nagy, a professor at International Christian University in Tokyo and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, explains why Japan sees Taiwan as the linchpin of its security, what Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan did and didn’t say, and how Tokyo draws its own red line, separate from that of Beijing. He also explains why Japan’s long practice of keeping politics and economics separate has broken down, why Japanese companies are diversifying rather than decoupling, and why he expects today’s China–Japan trade boom to fade. We also discuss what Beijing still needs from Japan, why Nagy thinks Canada’s middle-power pitch landed poorly in East Asia, and the one thing Americans most often get wrong about Japan. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

In 2025, China eliminated 670 small rural banks—nearly one in five—as they were facing elevated financial risks. Most weren’t shut down; they were folded into larger banks. It was consolidation of an unprecedented scale. But the risks haven’t gone away. They’re now concentrated in fewer, larger banks, often tied to local governments that are themselves deep in debt. And the problem isn’t limited to rural lenders. Across China’s banking system, the same issues appear: layers of debt stacked on debt, shadow banking, and bad loans classified as healthy. Chinese banks powered the country’s economic boom, but they also absorbed much of its strain. That pressure has to be released somehow. Doing so without triggering a shock may be one of the regime’s biggest challenges. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

China's control over rare earths is already fading, but only industry insiders seem to know it, says Christopher Ecclestone, mining strategist at the financial advisory firm Hallgarten & Company. He suggests that within three years, the West could have more rare earths than it needs, and China could lose its grip on the market. The key to China's power, he says, is control over prices, or at least the perception of it. So what will it take for the revealing moment—when Beijing squeezes the market again, and nothing happens? Join Terri and Chris for a lively discussion. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for The Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

Beijing waited until 48 hours before takeoff to confirm Xi Jinping's trip to Washington. Why so late? China expert June G. Liao has a theory. She thinks Xi used the visit as leverage to "seal the deal" on Zhang Youxia, the Chinese general who was once Xi’s second-in-command. The same day that Beijing confirmed the trip, the Politburo expelled Zhang from the Party and the military. Xi also brought his own welcoming crowd to Washington. Protesters showed up too, and so did people Terri believes were CCP informants. At a rally at the Navy Memorial, she chased off wave after wave of them. What she saw in action was the CCP's "thousand grains of sand" approach to gathering intelligence. An FBI analyst first described the pattern in the 1980s. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

Gift cards are a great thing to receive, until you realize the card has no money on it! Did your friend make a mistake, or is something more sinister going on? Unfortunately, it’s often the latter. That’s this week’s topic, and Terri dives into how organized crime in China is stealing money from gift cards before they can be used. We’re not talking just hundreds of dollars—we’re talking more than $1 billion in reported losses, and counting. Join Terri this week as she opens up how gift cards are vulnerable to theft, and how the Chinese regime is selectively solving the problem, not in favor of the West. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for The Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

China has updated its laws, in what looks like a move to gear up for war. The threshold for a “national threat” is lower than ever. And one of the major targets is private ownership. This time, American businesses are on the front line. The same thing happened in the 1950s, when U.S. claims of assets lost in China totaled $197 million—smaller than today’s business footprint. Listen to this week’s episode to find out what’s now considered a national threat to the Chinese regime. Host Terri Wu analyzes the latest change in China’s National Defense Mobilization Law and previous law updates, and why Mao’s playbook for seizing private property is shaping up in China in plain sight. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

Newly declassified FBI files reveal how alleged Chinese intelligence asset Christine Fang—also known as "Fang Fang"—used a years-long sexual relationship, illegal straw donations, and planted congressional interns to work her way into the office of a sitting member of Congress. The files also expose "Rusty Thumbs," an FBI operation that tried to quietly turn Fang into a double agent before realizing she was actively running her own influence campaign against the U.S. political system. Epoch Times White House reporter Travis Gillmore joins host Terri Wu to walk through what's genuinely new in the documents, why the case went unprosecuted for a decade, and what it reveals about the scale of the CCP's efforts to compromise American election integrity, from Capitol Hill to the ballot box. Read Travis’s article here. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

Neither the Canadian prime minister nor the U.S. trade chief, in their own public accounts, has named China as a reason the U.S.–Canada trade talks collapsed. However, the China factor is very much present. What’s in it for China? If the North American manufacturing alliance breaks down, China will be better placed to maintain its economic leverage over the global supply chain. Exports are its lifeline to keep the economy going. Meanwhile, Washington sees Canada as a potential backdoor for made-in-China products to flood the U.S. market. Canada has sent mixed signals to the United States on trade. It signed an EV deal with China and then talked about a “Fortress North America” to bolster the region against overseas competitors such as China. In this episode, Terri unpacks the core issues facing the U.S.–Canada trade talks and how Ottawa’s approach to Washington may not be its own. Read more: China Factor Looms Over Collapse of US–Canada Trade Talks Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

What is the best strategy when one is up against overwhelming odds? That’s the Empty City Strategy that Terri Wu shares in this week’s episode of “China Watch,” in the context of Taiwan’s potential defense against the Chinese Communist Party. Two Taiwanese military experts join Terri in this episode: Max Tsung Chi Yu, a retired Major General in Taiwan and a former Dean of the Political Warfare College within Taiwan's National Defense University, and Kitsch Liao, associate director of the Atlantic Council Global China Hub in Washington. Hear their insights on what Taiwan is doing to prepare itself and coordinate with other local allies. And hear whether the spirit to fight is really a military one, or a human one. All that and more on this week’s episode. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for The Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

For years, "decoupling" and "de-risking" have been the go-to words for describing U.S.–China economic relations. Host Terri Wu argues that neither term captures what's actually happening anymore and proposes a new one: degrading. Terri argues the United States and China are now playing to win on the same integrated chessboard. Both want the same things, and both have concluded that simply continuing to do what they're already good at, without pushing back on the other side, won't work anymore. The board they're playing on, she explains, is of the global supply chain. It’s now the main battleground of the U.S.–China rivalry. Behind that are the people who make the numbers a reality. As a manufacturing business owner puts it, this is about the purpose and meaning of American workers. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

In 1958, China tried and failed to cut Taiwan off from American help. Taiwan's 2026 war games rehearse the same scenario on a much larger scale—a blockade of the entire island, not just Kinmen. Host Terri Wu unpacks what has changed since 1958, drawing on analysis from Taiwan-based experts Qi Leyi and Shen Ming-shih on the drills, Japan's rising alarm, U.S. President Donald Trump's ambiguity about defending Taiwan, and whether the risk of invasion is rising or falling. Interviews for this episode were conducted by Gu Xiaohua, China Watch's correspondent in Japan. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

Chinese artificial intelligence is making another push for world leadership. But the actual value of the services may be exaggerated and tailored to look good, misleading users on the ability to deliver practical results at the tempting, low prices being offered, analysts say. Listen as Terri talks to two experts about why AI is a deeply competitive, economically relevant topic for the future. It’s not about how well the models work, but how the world will use the service. And will the world choose the United States or China? Hear more on this week’s episode. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

A sacked Chinese hydroelectric executive. A shocking death toll. A leaked analysis of what a full collapse of the Three Gorges Dam would look like. Record rainfall has caused a dam collapse in southern China. At the same time, the situation for northern China is more dire, as downpours 20-50 percent higher than normal are forecast until mid-August. What did the dam collapse reveal about China’s flood management problems? And what does the leaked analysis reveal about the consequences of a failed Three Gorges Dam? There’s also one key estimate missing from that analysis. What is it, and why is it important? Whistleblower’s texts and video: https://x.com/LUOXIANG_PMTQ/status/2079315130886549941 https://x.com/LUOXIANG_PMTQ/status/2079798667544854926 Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is all in with his gamble on artificial intelligence. AI will have to perform magic by pulling China’s economy out of its current downward spiral and helping Beijing overtake Washington’s global primacy. Xi is directing domestic capital to AI. At the same time, Beijing is trying to “tell the China story well” by attracting foreign investments. That requires a convincing story explaining why China’s economic problems are cyclical rather than structural. In other words, temporary, not permanent. Terri Wu discusses the official economic data of the first half of this year and prepares listeners for Chinese propaganda points that will make their way to the West. Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. — Terri Wu is a Washington-based freelance reporter for The Epoch Times covering education and China-related issues. Send tips to [email protected]. Show your support for Epoch Times and independent journalism by leaving a 5-star review of this show on your podcast platform or visit www.RateThisPodcast.com/chinawatch