In May this year, Donald Trump flew to Beijing. This week, Xi Jinping returns the favour. The Chinese leader arrives in the United States on a state visit, with the two presidents set to meet on September 24. This is their second summit in under five months, and quite possibly not their last this year.

But what exactly is happening between these two countries? Because on the one hand, Washington and Beijing seem to be finding ways to manage their differences. On the other, the underlying relationship remains deeply competitive: over technology, trade, military power, and ultimately the shape of the international order.

Beijing is calling this a relationship of “constructive strategic stability”, a new framework it says will guide ties for the next three years and beyond. But what does that phrase actually mean? What does each side really want? And can a relationship this fraught be steadied by two leaders who both prize the personal touch?

To help us make sense of it, in this episode of The Great Power Show, I speak to Jonathan A. Czin. Jonathan is the Michael H. Armacost Chair in Foreign Policy Studies and a fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings in Washington. Before that, he served in the Senior Analytic Service at the CIA, where he was the US intelligence community’s top expert on Xi Jinping.

We talk about where the China-US relationship stands, Xi as a negotiator and strategist, and whether chemistry between him and Trump really matters to the broader relationship. We also dig into the mood in Washington and on the Hill, how Beijing reads American politics ahead of the midterms, and how China is positioning itself on Iran, Ukraine, its own neighbourhood and the Global South.

As always, I hope you enjoy the discussion. Please like, share, subscribe and rate the episode. And if you’d like to support the show or the work that I do, please do write to me. Your support can make a world of difference.

Ask almost anyone about the state of the world today and you’ll hear the same words: anxiety, disruption, disorder. There’s a sense of flux; nobody quite knows where things are heading. So it’s striking to come across a generation that looks at the very same world and feels, of all things, optimistic.

That’s the finding of the latest Africa Youth Survey, published by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation. The survey is one of the most ambitious attempts to measure what the next generation of leaders across the continent is thinking. This year, the survey polled young people across 16 countries, and the headline finding is Afro-optimism.

To understand the nuances behind this finding, in this episode of The Great Power Show, I speak to Ivor Ichikowitz. He explains that optimism should not be mistaken for satisfaction. This is a generation that is deeply unhappy with its governments, but it is also convinced that its future lies in its own hands, and there are opportunities that it can and should capitalise on.

We also discuss the rise of an African consciousness, concerns around great powers’ interests in Africa’s raw materials, why bandwidth costs are stalling AI adoption in Africa, and how the youth are reading the contest between China, the United States.

It’s a conversation that challenged a lot of my own assumptions. I hope it does the same for you.

As always, I hope you enjoy the discussion. Please like, share, subscribe and rate the episode. And if you’d like to support the show or the work that I do, please do write to me. Your support can make a world of difference.

How much can we really understand about Chinese politics from the outside, and how much has become genuinely unknowable?

A senior general, who is a close confidant of Xi Jinping; a family friend for whom retirement norms were reportedly bent. Present one day, gone the next, with no explanation that outsiders can independently verify. That is the puzzle at the heart of China-watching today. Some things remain remarkably legible: the direction of policy, the priorities of the leadership, a range of economic data…Others disappear behind a wall we simply cannot see through. In many ways, the craft of studying China lies in preventing the unknowable from quietly corrupting the knowable.

This episode is about how to read the Chinese political system—and, above all, how to read the man at its centre and the ideology that now bears his name. What can we genuinely learn about Xi Jinping from the immense body of literature the Party has produced? And what exactly is Xi Jinping Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era? Is it a coherent doctrine handed down from the top, or, as my guest argues, something that is assembled from the bottom up—a rhizome of concepts that are continually interpreted, adapted, recombined and reassembled across China’s bureaucracy, where some ideas take root while others quietly fade away?

My guest today is Chris Mittelstaedt, Associate Professor of Sinology specialising in modern China at the University of Zurich. His recent work offers a compelling new way of thinking about Chinese ideology—not simply as a fixed body of doctrine, but as a living political language whose meaning is constantly negotiated within the Party-state itself.

Our conversation begins with the problem of knowledge: what we can know about elite politics in China, what we cannot, and how to avoid confusing one for the other. We then turn to Xi Jinping, his vision of national rejuvenation, and the mechanics of Xi Jinping Thought. Finally, we look ahead—to next year’s Party Congress, the growing influence of Cai Qi, and the longer-term implications of Xi’s rule. If Xi remains China’s leader through 2035, an entire generation of officials will have spent their careers thinking and governing in his political vocabulary. Do they internalise that worldview, or merely perform it? And either way, what kind of China will it leave behind?

As always, I hope you enjoy the discussion. If you do, please like, share, subscribe, and rate the episode. It really helps the show reach a wider audience. And please do consider supporting the show by reaching out to me.