August 5, 2019· 35 min

How Science Fiction Explains the U.S.-China Trade War

Orality
Model
89%
Highly oral (epic poetry, sermons, hip-hop)

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,120 words)
M:28%
HostJoe Weisenthal(1,109 words)
M:28%
GuestLaban Yu(2,733 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic23%
basically, massive, obviously
Engagement64%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, like
Repetition100%
china (48x), know (40x), think (36x)
Parallelism79%
And I'm Joe Wasenthal...., And by that, I mean, I like th..., And then I forget about it, an...
Sound Patterns56%
30 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases7%
i mean, if you will

Literate Indicators

Hedging13%
could, might, probably
Passive Voice10%
been softened, been damaged, been carried
Abstract Nouns21%
investment, fiction, development
Subordination13%
while, because, therefore
Sentence Length41%
Avg: 15.2 words/sentence
Word Complexity49%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style36%
343 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style92%
secretly, actually, really

Description

It's no secret that a lot of the trade tensions between the U.S. and China have centered on technology, and China has accused the U.S. of trying to stymie its economic development by suppressing its technological advancement. This week's Odd Lots guest argues that, while there are few historical precedents for this sort of technological suppression, there are a lot of them in science fiction. Laban Yu, head of Hong Kong and China research at Jefferies, walks us through the surprising overlap between sci-fi and the trade war. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.