Shortly after Deborah Seligsohn was last on Sinica, in April, the lab leak hypothesis seemed suddenly to gain traction — at least in American media. This week, Kaiser invites Deborah back to the show to talk about why the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a notion long regarded by virologists as less probable than zoonotic transmission, has burst back into the conversation. Deborah served as the State Department’s Environment, Science, Technology and Health Counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2003 to 2007. She is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University in Philadelphia.
3:00: The persistence of the lab leak theory
11:40: Navigating the political and institutional landscape within China
25:36: A view from Beijing’s perspective
31:02: Eliciting cooperation from Beijing, and what should our priorities be
Recommendations:
Deborah: The podcast This Week in Virology, particularly episodes 760 and 762, which touch on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kaiser: Richard L. Watkins, a candidate running for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina.
China's New Red Guards: Jude Blanchette on China's Far Left
Charlene Barshefsky on Trump’s Trade War
Chinese Investment: Beyond the USA
‘Haunted by Chaos: China’s Grand Strategy,’ with Sulmaan Wasif Khan
Howard French on how China's past shapes its present ambitions
Strength in Numbers: USTR veteran Wendy Cutler on managing trade with China
An American Futurist in China: Alvin Toffler and Reform & Opening
Mark Rowswell a.k.a. Dashan Live at the Bookworm Literary Festival
Peter Lorentzen's data-driven analysis of Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign
An update on the Xinjiang crisis with Nury Turkel
Samm Sacks on the U.S.-China tech relationship
China, the U.S., and Kenya
Is there really an epidemic of self-censorship among China scholars
Everything you ever wanted to know about Taiwan but were afraid to ask, Part 2
Everything you ever wanted to know about Taiwan but were afraid to ask, Part 1
Sinica Live with Zha Jianying: Dealing with the troublemakers
Introducing the Middle Earth podcast
China’s ethnic policy in Xinjiang and Tibet: The move toward assimilation
Live from the US-China Business Council: The bilateral trade relationship in 2019
Mexican and Canadian diplomats in a changing, challenging China
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free