What Taiwan's Joe Rogan reveals about its split on China...

...and my lament on London's bottled 'China audit'

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, with a column last week in Sunday Times and one in today’s Times. And then some updates on my latest non-writing work at the bottom.

The latest one first: a look at the incredible character that is Chen Chih-han, or Kuan Chang 館長.

He’s a heavily-tattooed, uber-muscly and foul-mouthed livestreamer and gym owner in Taiwan (gym named after Genghis Khan). He was previously in the mafia, and before that in the marines – you get the idea.

Like Joe Rogan, Chen’s got a cult following for his macho style – over a million subscribers on YouTube. He doesn’t shy away from politics, but whereas previously he’d been a massive critic of the Chinese Communist Party, he has been undergoing a conversion, culminating in a recent six-day tour of Shanghai that he livestreamed throughout. It has dominated conversation in Taiwan.

He has his critics, of course, but also his supporters. My latest column is on what the reaction to Chen says about Taiwan’s current polarisation – fist fights in the legislative chamber, street protests, mass recalls of newly-elected legislators. All the tussle of a healthy democracy, or the in-fighting of navel-gazing politicians?

The most interesting research I came across when writing was the early signs that Taiwan’s Gen-Z might just be less critical of China than its millennials, which turns on its head the received wisdom that Taiwan’s young are shifting ever away from China.

My Sunday Times column was more on the UK-China relationship which, as you know, has been hardly edifying. From the Cameron-Osborne golden era to the bombastic but brief hawkishness of Liz Truss, it’s probably uncontroversial to say that the Conservative government had no idea what to do about China.

Labour had promised change, pledging an extensive audit of the UK-China relationship during the election, which would form the basis for a more consistent approach to China. How much engagement is in the British interest? In which areas? How much risk should we price in, and where are the red lines?

The first signs that the audit wasn’t going to be all that it was promised came, for me, when the new government started sending high-level delegations to China to discuss everything from business to climate change. But we hadn’t yet answered those questions above! What was the point of the China audit then? It was a vibes-based shift towards friendlier relations, but one that was still not underpinned by proper knowledge of China and evaluation of British interests.

Recently it was declared that the China audit wouldn’t be published at all. But I write that a secret China policy is not good China policy. What about the businesses, universities and civil servants crying out for more guidance on what is acceptable to collaborate with China on, and what is not?

To be clear, I think the answer to any China policy would probably end up looking like how relations look now – a mix of engagement and competition. But my problem with this current approach is that it is cart before horse.

Labour have decided the direction first based on, as I say, vibes, rather than on a real thinking through of what the details are. A good China policy is all about trade-offs, and we currently haven’t thought those through (see the recent British Steel kerfuffle). In the end, those who suffer from an unclear and unexamined position will include Chinese investors, Chinese students, etc etc.

This is deep policy wonkery, but if you are interested, I cannot recommend more the former Beijing to Britain newsletter. Its author, Sam Hogg, grew up in Hong Kong and was a parliamentary researcher, so he has an interest in China and first-hand insight into how China policy is made (or not) in the UK. Unfortunately the newsletter is no longer running (a reminder to all that good content can’t always come free…) but his final issue, posted just before the election last year, is an incredibly comprehensive manifesto of what a good China audit, and policy, would look like.

Other updates:

• For months I have been reading more non-fiction than I have in years, thanks to the Orwell Prize. I was a judge on the Political Writing category, along with former ambassador to the US Kim Darroch, historian and Germany expert Katja Hoyer, former Labour MP and now peer Thangam Debbonaire, and political scientist Colin Crouch. We had a lot of fun, and last week we announced the winner of the prize, Victoria Amelina, for her post-humously published Looking at Women, Looking at War. I highly recommend it, along with all the other books on our final shortlist.

• Some of you have asked me for a link for my recent Radio Four appearance – here it is! I was talking about the British Steel fiasco and, in fact, railing against the lack of a China audit or coherent direction…

• In just over two weeks I will be talking to Yuan Yang, formerly the deputy Beijing bureau chief at the Financial Times and now the Labour MP for Earley and Woodley, about her debut book, Private Revolutions. You can get tickets here and for non-Londoners, I think there’s a livestream too.

And the reward for those of you who’ve made it down this far, I’ll start sharing some interesting and pretty pictures from China… This one is from my favourite Chinese account (on X and Instagram), China in Pictures, or Tong Bingxue 仝冰雪：

Tong writes:

US President Richard Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon enter the palace grounds of Beijing's Forbidden City as heavy snow falls on the Beijing, Feb. 25, 1972. In the background is a fleet of Chinese made Hong Qi limousines. China is reviving the illustrious Red Flag marque, better known at home by its Chinese name, Hong Qi.

A different era!