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PODCAST

The Little Red Podcast

Graeme Smith and Louisa Lim

The Little Red Podcast: interviews and chat celebrating China beyond the Beijing beltway. Hosted by Graeme Smith, China studies academic at the Australian National University"s Department of Pacific Affairs and Louisa Lim, former China correspondent for the BBC and NPR, now with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at Melbourne University. We are the 2018 winners of podcast of the year in the News & Current Affairs category of the Australian Podcast Awards. Follow us @limlouisa and @GraemeKSmith, and

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All Episodes

49:04

Shakeup or Shakedown? China's New Red Economy

The Little Red Podcast ·

2022/01/02

As China's economy slows down, Xi Jinping's charting a new economic course that will redefine the country's future.From reining in tech giants to redistributing wealth in the name of “common prosperity”, the Party's economic policy is moving away from the Deng reform era.Economic analysts are sharply divided on what it portends for China and the world. This month, Louisa and Graeme hear two completely opposed takes on China's economic strategy, fromAndy Rothman, an investment strategist

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50:46

The Great Reconciler and the End of Chinese History

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/11/21

Become an instant expert on the new historical resolution issued by China's Communist Party for all your cocktail season smalltalk needs. It's only the third such move in the party's century-long history, and the first in forty years. This resolution introduces a new slogan: Xi Jinping's Two Establishments, signalling the Chairman of Everything's elevation to helmsman status. In this episode, Louisa and Graeme turn to two authorities on party history for elucidation: Patricia Thornton of the

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39:53

The CCP Goes Outback? The Century of Humiliation in...

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/10/13

China’s Communist Party’s rewriting of history doesn’t stop at their own borders, but has even reached as far as Wandiligong, a town of 453 people four hours north of Melbourne. It’s home to a memorial bridge to Chinese goldminers built with the assistance of the Australia China Friendship Society. The information panels use racist language for the Chinese such as “chinks and chows to be ridiculed and baited”, illustrating one example of how the CCP is exporting the notion of a century of

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36:56

The Endless Purge: Reassessing June 4 1989

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/09/20

The purge that followed the killings by PLA soldiers in and around Tiananmen Square three decades ago has continued into the present, even permeating Western academia. A host of new sources, including leaked diaries by Chinese leaders, have emerged in recent years, but few Western scholars appear willing to break the taboo surrounding June 4. The jailing this month of nine Hong Kongers, for as much as ten months, for taking part in a banned Tiananmen vigil indicates how the purge is spreading to

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39:55

Lone Wolves or Xi Wolves? The Evolution of China’s...

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/08/18

Nationalism in China seems to have taken a feral turn, with Chinese netizens viciously turning on Olympic athletes, celebrities and even the über-nationalistGlobal Timesfor letting down the motherland. This month we’re talking about the evolution of Chinese nationalism and the factors drivingthe emergence of a new cadre of aggressive diplomats known as wolf warriors. Louisa andGraemeare joined by Bloomberg journalist Peter Martin, who's just writtenChina’s Civilian Army: The Making

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51:35

The Little Red Podcast Turns Five: Agony Aunt Edition

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/07/19

For our fifth anniversary, we’ve thrown the floor open to our audience. This month we’re doing an Agony Aunt edition for China nerds. We've gathered your burning China questions and then hunted down the world’s leading experts in search of answers. From support for the government to statistical elasticity, from clothing habits to tea-drinking titillations right at the very top, we are parrying listener questions. In search of answers, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Arunabh Ghosh and Anthony Saich

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43:14

Jack be nimble: the Party-State Vs. the Tech Titans

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/06/21

China’s once untouchable tech billionaires suddenly find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being roughed up the state. Just at the time when the Party needs its homegrown tech firms to sell Xi Jinping’s new ‘lovable’ image of China, previously toothless regulators are issuing billion dollar fines and ordering companies to restructure—or else. To ask whether the state’s cozy relationships with companies like Alibaba and TenCent are on the rocks, we’re

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52:30

Let's get this party started: China's global...

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/05/10

For a Party chosen by history, the CCP spends a lot of money targeting foreign media outlets and governments. In this episode, a panel of researchers discusses why China—or any autocracy—cares what the world thinks of it, and how it tries to shape its global image. We ask whether the CCP’s media outreach and lobbying operations bear fruit, or are readily seen through as clumsy propaganda. This week, Graeme is joined by Louisa and the Little Red Podcast’s researcher Julia Bergin, discuss a survey on

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43:47

Out of their league? China’s online gaming conundrum

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/04/21

China is home to 661 million online gamers, easily the world’s biggest market. Cities like Shanghai now boast some of the world’s most talented game developers. Yet the Chinese government has long been uncomfortable with online games, fretting about Internet addiction and young people wasting their energies on ‘spiritual opium’, leaving their schoolbooks for seedy Internet cafes. To explore how China is coping with the tension between molding productive citizens and cashing

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41:09

Remaking Hong Kong: Keep the Fishbowl, Change the Fish

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/03/24

China is now remoulding Hong Kong at speed. Forty-seven Democratic politicians and activists have been arrested on national security charges for participating in last year’s primary polls, and only people Beijing deems ‘patriots’ allowed to run for office. One prominent pro-Beijing figure has even warned that the electoral reforms risk ‘killing the patient’. With the legislature muzzled, the authorities are turning their attention to the media, the arts and the

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49:32

Tibet: Colonialism with Chinese Characteristics?

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/02/24

With the world’s attention focused on industrial-scale oppression in Xinjiang, developments in Tibet are passing beneath the radar. But activists are warning of a full-spectrum assault on the Tibetan way of life, as Tibetan language teaching is outlawed and urbanisation campaigns relocate nomads from their ancestral pastures. The CCP has underlined its determination to choose the next Dalai Lama, and Tibetans were recently urged by their Party Secretary to ‘reduce religious consumption’ to build a

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44:25

Fandom Untamed: The Business of Boys’ Love

The Little Red Podcast ·

2021/01/12

This month we’re delving into boys’ love or BL fiction. From niche online novels to TV shows such as the Netflix fantasy epic The Untamed, their storylines revolve around male relationships with a tinge of sexual tension. But there’s a quirk. It’s not gay fiction; the stories are often written by women for women. This genre is incredibly popular in China, making BL fans an intimidating political and economic force, creating and destroying celebrities and the brands they endorse. To unravel the drama

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42:28

Inventing China: The Pick and Mix Approach

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/12/14

China's five thousand years of history has become a fact, repeated ad nauseum by the state-run media and Chinese textbooks alike, but could it be a national myth? In his recently published book, The Invention of China, Bill Hayton argues that “China” was cooked up by a small group of intellectuals who brought notions of sovereignty, citizenry and borders back from Europe just over 100 years ago, using a 'pick-and-mix' approach to history to invent their own past. But how does this

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51:24

Xi Dada and Daddy: Power, the Party and the President

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/11/02

A quick glance at the headlines suggest that only one man seems to count in today’s China – the Chairman of Everything, as he’s been dubbed - Communist party leader President Xi Jinping. He’s helmed China’s reemergence as a world power through his aggressive foreign policy, while consolidating power at home. In this episode, we delve into his own princeling past, looking at his relationship with his father, former Vice Premier Xi Zhongxun, and how his family background

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51:46

See the difference? CGTN in the dock

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/10/06

Last year China's international state-run broadcaster, CGTN, spent millions opening a state-of-the-art London headquarters. Just one year on, it may already be scrambling for an exit strategy. CGTN may even lose its licence in the United Kingdom after the British regulator found it breached the broadcasting code. This episode we interview two people who have brought complaints against CGTN after it broadcast their forced confessions: Peter Dahlin from Safeguard Defenders and private investigator

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35:39

The New Compradors? Hong Kong's Taipans Face a New Era

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/08/26

Even before they had seen its contents, Hong Kong's family-run firms - including two non-Chinese business empires that have shaped Hong Kong - were lining up to pledge support to the New National Security legislation. Even in 2020, Hong Kong remains an oligopoly with a handful of wealthy conglomerates controlling vast swathes of Hong Kong's economy. But these family-run firms no longer have the luxury of remaining silent about Chinese politics. To look at two of these commercial dynasties and their

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45:58

Trump's F*** China Moment: An Attitude, Not a Strategy

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/08/01

China-US ties are in a tailspin, spiralling ever deeper into an abyss. Just one short month has seen US sanctions on senior Chinese officials for atrocities against the Uyghurs, Hong Kong’s special status for trade and diplomacy revoked, and consulates closed in Houston and Chengdu respectively. There's even been talk of a travel ban on China's 92m Communist party members and their families. Is armed conflict really a possibility, and if so when? Louisa and Graeme are joined by Gady Epstein

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51:41

Hong Kong No More: The National Security Law and the...

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/06/26

On June 30, Hong Kong will be subject to a new National Security Law. No one, not even Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, knows what will be in the bill, but details are slowly coming into focus. For critics, the legislation will create a ‘dual state’ that will undermine Hong Kong’s legal system and allow Beijing to target its opponents at will. For proponents, the bill will only affect a handful of people, and bring stability after a year of unrest. To ask whether the law spells

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28:20

Hong Kong: Anything We Say Could Be A Crime

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/06/04

For the first time since 1989 Hong Kongers are banned from holding their annual June Fourth vigil in Victoria Park. Despite this provocation, Hong Kong establishment figures—from vice chancellors to movie stars to religious figures—have been lining up to pledge their loyalty to China and their support for the proposed National Security Law that will be enacted in Beijing, bypassing the local legislature. Only one newspaper in Hong Kong opposes it: the popular Apple Daily. Today we speak to its

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39:38

Inside Job: How China is Changing Global Governance

The Little Red Podcast ·

2020/05/27

The byzantine rules and procedures of multilateral institutions form the backdrop for China's global power play, following President Xi Jinping's 2018 call for China to “lead the reform of the global governance system with the concepts of fairness and justice.” As the US pulls back from its global obligations, there's increasing evidence that China is simply changing the rules inside these global bodies. In this episode, we explore whether China is influencing three international

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115 results

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