In the final 2025 episode of Geoeconomic Competition, Yanmei Xie tackles the big questions behind China’s anti-involution campaign. What distinguishes involution from overcapacity, and why does that distinction matter? Why is China’s overcapacity treated as a problem when similar conditions elsewhere are not? And can the anti-involution drive meaningfully address China’s economic challenges? Finally, could it ease some of the core tensions between China and the EU?

On the 18th of December, the leaders of the EU will discuss the much debated reparation loan, a proposal to use the frozen Russian assets to finance the Ukrainian war effort. In this episode, Lucas Guttenberg, Director of the programme Europes Future at Bertelsmann Stiftung unpacks what the reparation loan is, how it works and why this decision is so important for Europe.

On 5 November, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral argument on the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs. The decision, which is expected in the next few months, will determine the future of both Fentanyl tariffs as well as Liberation Day tariffs. The decision, however, will have much wider and deeper implications for Trump's wider approach to trade as well as the functioning of check and balances in the United States. Francesca Ghiretti unpacks the story with Geoffrey Gertz is a senior fellow with the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and co-host of the Derisky Business podcast.