The View from Everywhere Else: Eric Olander on how the Global South is reading the Beijing summits

About this episode

Eric Olander discusses the Global South's perspective on the Beijing summits and the implications for international relations.

Eric Olander on how the Global South is reading the Beijing summits This week I'm joined again by Eric Olander , founder of the China Global South Project, which runs the most indispensable English-language operation going for understanding China's engagement with Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. I came in with a plan: map, region by region, how the capitals of the Global South were reading the back-to-back Trump and Putin visits to Beijing — relief at a steadier U.S.-China modus vivendi, or foreboding at a G2 condominium squeezing shut their room to maneuver. Eric dismantled the premise within ten minutes. The honest answer, he warned me, is that most of the Global South simply isn't watching the way we are — and the disappointment turned out to be the most interesting thing in the room. What looked like the absence of a story was the story. I'd built my questions around one assumption about what mattered; Eric had built his answers around another, and I cop to being schooled. Once you set the summit framing aside, what Eric's contributors are actually seeing comes into focus: Japan racing to recenter an Asia-Pacific security architecture, a region…

People in this episode

Host: Kaiser Kuo

Guest: Eric Olander

Topics covered

• Global South
• Beijing summits
• U.S.-China relations
• Asia-Pacific security
• BRICS
• Chinese manufacturing
• Latin America's phase

Keywords

• Global South
• Beijing summits
• U.S.-China relations
• Asia-Pacific
• BRICS
• Chinese manufacturing
• Latin America
• security architecture

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: China Global South Project

Places: United States, Japan, Latin America, Gulf, Africa, Southeast Asia, Middle East, BRICS

More episodes of Sinica Podcast

• The Texas Paradox: How the Most Anti-China State Is Building America's China Capacity · June 3, 2026 · 1h 42m
• To Rule All Under Heaven: Andrew Meyer on His New Popular History of the Warring States · May 21, 2026 · 1h 21m
• "The China Debate We're Not Having" | Part 4: The AI Race Reconsidered · May 17, 2026 · 36 min
• "Constructive Strategic Stability": Ali Wyne of the International Crisis Group on the Trump-Xi Summit · May 17, 2026 · 1h 6m
• The Poetry of Zheng Xiaoqiong: A Conversation with Translator Eleanor Goodman · May 6, 2026 · 1h 12m
• "The China Debate We're Not Having" | Part 3: Tech, Rivalry, and Competing Visions of the Future · May 1, 2026 · 1h 6m