Cindy Yu is an assistant editor of The Spectator and presenter of our Chinese Whispers podcast. She was brought up in Nanjing. She tweets at @CindyXiaodanYu
15 min listen
The Chancellor’s statement has gone down well but the big question is how the government will pay for all this. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth about the possibility of tax rises, why the Governor of the Bank of England is still planning to address the 1922 committee, John
25 min listen
In this episode, Mauricio Savarese reports on the latest from Brazil where the battle between the President Jair Bolsonaro and the media heats up. Kate Andrews updates on Britain’s Covid situation with a report from the Times on an estimate for excess cancer deaths in 2021, and Cindy Yu reports on how Beijing’s cluster infection
13 min listen
Boris Johnson has rowed back on comments suggesting that care homes suffered from the pandemic because they did not follow procedure, after a widespread backlash. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about whether or not social care reform is inevitable, as well as why Andrew Bailey planned to address
27 min listen
The year-long Hong Kong protests seem to have come to an abrupt end – as China introduces a draconian national security law that punishes criticism of the Chinese government. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to academic and former diplomat Kerry Brown and Hong Kong journalist Jennifer Creery about what China wants with the city,
39 min listen
The Prime Minister is trying to reform the civil service. He’s not the first to try – so will he succeed? (00:50) The stakes for success are high, as his opponent is no longer Jeremy Corbyn, but the more impressive Keir Starmer. How have Starmer’s first almost 100 days gone? (15:45) And last, how widespread
14 min listen
The government has set out its guidelines for how schools will look come September. Attendance will be compulsory, and even Labour is on board. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about the new world of schooling. Also on the podcast: why the Frost-Barnier meeting broke up a day early and Scotland’s lockdown
17 min listen
China’s new national security law has been passed in Hong Kong, and from this morning it has been implemented as handfuls of protestors have already been arrested under its new wide-ranging powers. Dominic Raab has pledged to speed up the process to offer British residency for Hong Kong’s BNO passport holders and their dependents. Cindy
As we learn of Mark Sedwill’s departure, I talk to Katy Balls and James Forsyth about its wider implications. While the announcement itself has not come as a total surprise (Sedwill was always more of a Mayite appointment than this government’s preference), James points out that it follows on the heels of a speech given by Michael Gove
14 min listen
The Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill has announced that he will be stepping down in September, though his resignation letter suggests that it wasn’t necessarily his decision. This move comes as Michael Gove makes a wide-ranging speech on reform of the civil service. The government looks to be gearing up its Whitehall reform, and on the
45 min listen
On the podcast this week, a former police officer gives his take on why black youths loathe the police (01:05); we discuss why Downing Street would prefer Joe Biden to win (17:25); and will anything really change after the pandemic? (30:50). With former Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Kevin Hurley; campaigner Katrina Ffrench; the Spectator’s
11 min listen
After retweeting an interview with Maxine Peake in which the actress voiced an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, Rebecca Long Bailey has been sacked as the shadow education secretary. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about whether or not this will trigger a Corbynite backlash.
35 min listen
Schools have been closed for almost three months – what is the true cost of these closures on pupils (1:00)? Plus, have Brexit negotiations started looking up (13:15)? And last, are the statue-topplers of Rhodes Must Fall going about their mission the wrong way (22:45)? With teacher Lucy Kellaway; the IFS’s Paul Johnson; the Spectator’s
43 min listen
With post-Covid life a bit closer for some countries around the world than others, this week’s panel takes a look at how businesses are navigating their way out of the pandemic. Jennifer Creery, Managing Editor of the Hong Kong Free Press, takes a look at the government bailout to Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s airline; Peter
Universities in the West can roll over too easily for the Chinese Communist Party. Jesus College, Cambridge, has been a case in point, as Charles Moore pointed out recently in the magazine. The University of Queensland in Brisbane last year appointed a sitting Chinese diplomat as a visiting professor; while MIT and the University of Sydney
40 min listen
As China looks to push through its national security law, is it time to offer Hong Kongers a way out? (01:00) And with the Black Lives Matter protests continuing to rage in America, can they unseat Donald Trump? (15:30) And last, do animals have culture? (29:10)
14 min listen
The time for constructive opposition is over, as Keir Starmer picks up a new tone in his interview to the Guardian, which he continued in PMQs. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about this strategy; and other issues of proxy voting, Scottish care homes, the BAME impact, and a new testing target.
12 min listen
Cindy Yu talks to Kate Andrews and Katy Balls about Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcements on phasing out the furlough scheme.
42 min listen
It’s not just coronavirus, but the government is keen to have a new approach to China. We discuss what this entails and whether or not it’s a good idea (00:50). Plus, what will be the lasting impact of the Cummings affair on the government? (17:16) And last, the way to deal with noisy neighbours now
13 min listen
Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance refused to give their opinions on the Dominic Cummings affair at today’s press conference; while Durham police indicated that they will not be investigating the Barnard Castle trip any further, after announcing that it might have been a minor breach. Downing Street says it’s ‘case closed’ – is it really?
16 min listen
The latest polling shows that even a majority of Conservative voters want Dominic Cummings out; and the Prime Minister’s own standing has taken a dramatic hit. Cindy Yu speaks to pollster James Johnson and our own Katy Balls about what this means.
