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ChinaTalk: How Chinese Governance Fundamentals Impact Health Care and National Security

Jordan Schneider
Monday, March 23, 2020, 2:57 PM

How has the distinct nature of local-central relations in the Chinese system impacted its response to coronavirus? To discuss, Schneider speaks with Ryan Manuel, managing director of Official China, a consultancy that goes deep into CCP regulations and policy.

Jiangsu Chinese Medical Hospital in Nanjing, China, May 2017 (Wikimedia Commons/Kristoffer Trolle, https://tinyurl.com/ukdpqcx; CC by 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
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How has the distinct nature of local-central relations in the Chinese system impacted its response to coronavirus? To discuss, we have on Ryan Manuel, managing director of Official China, a consultancy that goes deep into CCP regulations and policy.

Ryan previously taught at KHU and ANU as well as worked for the Australian government. Our wide-ranging conversation filled with dashes of dark Aussie humor starts with COVID-19 and SARS and then broadens out into how the history of rural healthcare in China explains dynamics that impeded the initial Chinese response. Next, we focus on how Hu Jintao created a model of managing local central relations that Xi studied and took to the next level by scrapping collective responsibility and working through Party as opposed to government channels.


Jordan Schneider is the host of the ChinaTalk podcast and newsletter. He previously worked at Kwai, Bridgewater and the Eurasia Group. His Chinese landscape paintings "show promise."

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