China’s men’s soccer team has qualified for the World Cup just once, despite millions in investment and a personal push from President Xi Jinping to turn the nation into a footballing powerhouse.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host Oanh Ha speaks with Eric Zhu of Bloomberg Economics and Mark Dreyer, sports writer and author of Sporting Superpower, about why the country’s top-down engineering approach fails to capture the grassroots magic of the game and how academic pressure continues to push many young players off the field.

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Hosted by Oanh Ha; Produced by Yang Yang and Naomi Ng; Edited by Patrick Hirsch, Julia Weaver; Fact-checking by Julia Press; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.

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China rattled neighbors from Japan to Australia on Monday by test-launching a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean. While such launches are rare, the latest test reflects Beijing’s increasing openness about its growing military strength.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, Rebecca Choong Wilkins, who covers Asian government and politics, joins host K. Oanh Ha to discuss the surprise launch, China’s expanding arsenal and what they reveal about Beijing’s military aspirations for 2027 and beyond.

Read more:

• China’s ICBM Tests Point to New Normal Rattling the Pacific
• China Holds Rare Test of Sub-Launched Missile in Pacific Ocean
• China’s Secretive Missile Program Is Making Dozens of Companies Rich

We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer.

Hosted by K. Oanh Ha; Produced by Naomi Ng and Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Reported by Rebecca Choong Wilkins; Edited by Jeffrey Grocott, John Liu and Julia Weaver;

Fact-checking by Julia Press, David Fox and Yang Yang; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugiura.

Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.

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Thanks to the AI boom, stock markets in Taiwan and South Korea have seen historic rallies this year. But as retail investors pile in, often using borrowed money, concerns are growing over whether this momentum is sustainable.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, guest host Rebecca Choong Wilkins speaks with Bloomberg’s Asian markets reporter Charlotte Yang and Bloomberg Opinion’s Shuli Ren about the risks of betting on AI and how potential fallout could ripple beyond the region.

Read more: Taiwanese Go Deep Into Debt to Amp 100% Stock Rally

Play Micron, Hynix and Samsung ETFs at Your Peril

Hosted by Rebecca Choong Wilkins; Produced by Naomi Ng; Reported by Charlotte Yang, Shuli Ren, Chien-Hua Wan; Edited by Paddy Hirsch, Jiyeun Lee, Julia Weaver.

Fact-checking by Victor Swezey; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa.

Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.