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James Kynge

Senior Research Fellow; Co-Host, China Decode, Chatham House

Search every verified James Kynge interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. James Kynge, senior research fellow at Chatham House and co-host of the podcast China Decode, concluded the show's run in September 2026 after a year of episodes. In the final episode, he and co-host Alice Han discussed China's technological trajectory, with Kynge stating that China is "at the forefront" of a cluster of new technologies, including AI, robotics, and automation, that he described as a "fourth industrial revolution" being "led by China." He also commented on China's relationship with the global south, saying China regards it as "its kind of agent to recreate the world" and views the West as "a source of friction." Across recent episodes, Kynge offered analysis on various aspects of U.S.-China competition. He noted that China holds roughly 50% of global advanced pharmaceutical ingredient capacity and that about half of U.S. imported APIs come from China. Regarding AI, he said that after an incident involving a rogue AI agent, Xi Jinping's stated position that AI should remain under human control "looks a lot wiser," while also questioning whether Chinese firm Z.ai's promotion of open-source models was altruistic or a reflection of competition. On robotics, he observed that many humanoid robots in China are purchased by government-backed training centers that generate data for AI improvement, and he compared the potential market for humanoid robots to the early days of Amazon. He also commented on Microsoft's retreat from China, saying the company has been "a bit of a loser" in the Chinese market compared to other firms, while noting it still sells Azure services to Chinese companies like ByteDance and Tencent.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“The area that's catching mice in China right now is factory and industrial automation. And last year, China installed 295,000 new industrial robots. That makes up over 54% of all industrial robot installations throughout the world. And it's that that you and I have seen in factories and in exhibition centers all over China. It's that that's really moving the needle. I mean, my favorite example of this is the absolute”

“I think that this is so important that we should call it something like the fourth industrial revolution. That's not a phrase I've made up. That's a phrase that's already out there. And this industrial revolution is one that's characterized by artificial intelligence, robotics, automation and a few other elements as well. And to me this revolution is being led by China. That is the key difference. China is at the for”

“The numbers of US dependence on China are startling. You know, China has 50% of the world's API advanced pharmaceutical imports capacity globally, but you know, around about half of the US's APIs imported come from China. The R WSJ ran a piece I think a couple months ago citing certain antibiotics and their compounds that are no longer produced in America and largely sourced from China. I know this is an unfair quest”

“The other thing I must say I reflected on having read this about the rogue AI agent is that it does seem to me frankly that Xi Jinping's mantra that AI should remain under the control of humans looks a lot wiser. The last thing that the world can afford now is AI agents going rogue and breaking into infrastructure and interfering with all kinds of processes. I'm not saying that I support the Chinese approach because ”

“I was noting the way ZAI really made hay out of this situation talking about the merits and the virtues of open source and open weight models which of course embraces most of the Chinese LLMs most of the Chinese AI models and very few of the American ones though of course Nvidia does have open weight AI models as well. But I think this is I was thinking about this. Is this a moment of altruism by Z AI or is this real”

“My sense of this is that it's a little bit like the early days of Amazon. I can remember when Amazon was not making any money and everybody was saying, 'Oh, you know, I don't know if this internet will ever catch on.' And now we see Amazon is capitalized at close to 3 trillion US. My sense is that there will be a market for humanoid robots, a big big market. It's just that the technology has not yet caught up with th”

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