 |
Why Should We Care About the Indo-Pacific?Author: Ray Powell & Jim Carouso
Chart the world's new strategic crossroads. Join co-hosts Ray Powell, a 35-year U.S. Air Force veteran and Director of the celebrated SeaLight maritime transparency project, and Jim Carouso, a senior U.S. diplomat and strategic advisor, for your essential weekly briefing on the Indo-Pacific. Drawing on decades of on-the-ground military and diplomatic experience, they deliver unparalleled insights into the forces shaping the 21st century.From the U.S.-China strategic competition to the flashpoints of the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, we cut through the noise with practical, practitioner-focused analysis. Each episode goes deep on the region's most critical geopolitical, economic and security issues.We bring you conversations with the leaders and experts shaping policy, featuring some of the world's most influential voices, including:Senior government officials and ambassadorsDefense secretaries, national security advisors and four-star military officersLegislators and top regional specialistsC-suite business leadersThis podcast is your indispensable resource for understanding the complexities of alliances and regional groupings like AUKUS, ASEAN and the Quad; the strategic shifts of major powers like the U.S., China, Japan and India; and emerging challenges from economic statecraft to regional security.If you are a foreign policy professional, business leader, scholar, or a citizen seeking to understand the dynamics of global power, this podcast provides the context you need.Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or your favorite platform.Produced by Ian Ellis-Jones and IEJ Media. Sponsored by BowerGroupAsia, helping clients navigate the worlds most complex and dynamic markets. Language: en Genres: Government, News, News Commentary Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Why Should We Care About Rising Dissent in China? | with Kevin Slaten
Episode 157
Friday, 10 July, 2026
We picture China as a place where no one dares speak out, but the reality is quite different. In 2025, despite one of the most sophisticated censorship machines on earth, workers protested over unpaid wages, homebuyers demanded stalled apartments, and rural communities pushed back against land dispossession. In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with Kevin Slaten, who leads Freedom House’s China Dissent Monitor, the only public database tracking protests across China, from its office in Taipei. Slaten’s team recorded about 40 to 50 percent more dissent in 2025 than the year before, including the largest pre-Lunar New Year labor protest peak the project has ever recorded. The twist: US budget cuts had recently knocked the project offline for four months, and it still came back with a skeleton crew to record its highest numbers yet. Fewest resources ever, most dissent ever recorded.Slaten explains what more than 15,000 cases reveal about the real China beneath the propaganda--an economy under strain, a “social contract” that may never have been one, and why even “local” protests matter politically in an authoritarian system. He also unpacks who protests and why, where Beijing’s red lines fall, and how protest pressure can actually produce real concessions, from policy reversals to quiet legal changes.Key topics:Why dissent is rising even as China tightens censorshipWho is protesting: workers, homebuyers, rural residents, and moreHow Beijing decides what to tolerate, censor, or crushThe 2022 White Paper protests: anomaly or symptom?A school bullying case that spiraled into crowds chanting “we want democracy”If you want to understand where China is really heading, pay attention to the people already demanding change.Subscribe for your weekly Indo-Pacific briefing.Follow Kevin Slaten on X, @KevinSlaten, or on LinkedIn Follow us on X, @IndoPacPodcast, LinkedIn or FacebookFollow Ray Powell on X, @GordianKnotRay, or LinkedIn, or check out his maritime transparency work at SeaLightFollow Jim Carouso on LinkedInSponsored by BowerGroupAsia, a strategic advisory firm that specializes in the Indo-Pacific
