Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

Zhengyu Huang, author of the new book Rethinking China, joins Robert Wright to discuss whether prevailing US narratives about China—on IP theft, chips, AI, Taiwan, human rights, and more—hold up to scrutiny.

Exclusive Overtime discussion: nonzero.org/p/rethinking-china-robert-wright-and
Join NonZero's Discord server: discord.gg/Zy4jAhTQMF
Subscribe to The NonZero Newsletter at: nonzero.org/subscribe

0:00 Teaser
0:34 Zhengyu’s tech background and new book, Rethinking China
3:00 What kind of threat is China, really?
10:06 How trading with China transformed America
16:51 The stakes of the chip war
22:02 Will tech war lead to real war?
30:33 The US-China escalation spiral and Taiwan
39:13 “Researching while Chinese”: the new Red Scare?
49:46 Heading to Overtime

Discussed in Overtime:
Rethinking the Chinese economic challenge.
The human rights question.
Who killed the WTO?
What’s happening with the Uyghurs?
Trump-Xi, Iran, and the future of American power.

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Zhengyu Huang (Rethinking China). Recorded May 13, 2026.

Twitter: twitter.com/NonzeroPods