The Little Red Podcast

20/12/2023

NEW EPISODE: Every generation in modern China has been richer and more ambitious than the one before—until Gen Z.

With youth unemployment so high that the government has simply stopped reporting the figures, many are opting to lie flat, slump down dead, or even become full-time children. The Party frets that despite the best efforts of the propaganda organs to get them excited about a tech-driven utopian future, China’s young people seem to have lost their work ethic.

Louisa and Graeme are joined by Steven Sun Zhao, a Gen Z writer at Chaoyang Trap and Yaling Jiang, a proud millennial and the founder of Aperture China.

Every generation in modern China has been richer and more ambitious than the one before—until Gen Z. With youth unemployment so high that the government has simply stopped reporting the figures, many are opting to lie flat, slump down dead, or even become full-time children. The Party frets that d...

30/11/2023

On the death of Henry Kissinger, we're reupping this episode from last year with Isaac Stone Fish. We discuss Kissinger's contested ties with China, in particular whether he could, wittingly or unwittingly, have been an agent of Chinese influence.

America's elites love to talk about China's '5000 years of civilization', but such language - which could come straight from the pages of the China Daily - serves to amplify Beijing's talking points. In this way and due to their own business dealings with China, some American elites are helping Beij...

10/11/2023

We can't take much of the credit, but Louisa Lim and I are delighted to announce that our most recent guest, Tania Anin Branigan has won the Cundill History prize for her book, Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution. Listen to her in conversation with the fabulous Bin Xu, the author of Chairman Mao’s Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China, and a rare repeat guest on the show. And another first - we finally have a full transcript of the episode, find it here: https://www.thechinastory.org/lrp/bombard-the-past-exhuming-the-cultural-revolution/
https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/bombard-the-past-exhuming-the-cultural-revolution

The exponential trauma produced by the Cultural Revolution is barely mentioned in China, yet has been foundational to a generation. Now the Communist Party is using the experience of its leader Xi Jinping as one of the 17 million young people sent down to the countryside to reframe the movement as s...

29/09/2023

Here’s a sneak peek for our guests for the second half of our History and Memory series. Fascinating discussion with Bin Xu and Tania Anin Branigan, whose book has been longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Non-fiction prize and the Cundill prize. Coming soon, in the meantime listen to our chat with Ian Johnson.

28/02/2023

Louisa Lim and I will notch up 100 episodes this year, and we're finally starting to really nail it with The Little Red Podcast. This month's episode is one in a series where we'll be exploring China's efforts to push the boundaries of science and territory. We head into space with Blaine Curcio and Dr Brad Tucker to find out what cool (and occasionally jaw-dropping dystopian) stuff the Chinese government and venture capitalists are throwing buckets of RMB at. Like the Politburo, be inspired by the Spirit of Beidou and take a listen. Or just check out the picture - it was taken from one of Brad's balloons! Deeply regretting not following up on my childhood dream of becoming a space scientist.

In a new series of episodes, we’re examining how China is pushing the boundaries of science and territory. First up, China’s space program, the envy of space scientists worldwide for seemingly bottomless pots of funding from government, and increasingly, venture capital. China's space programme,...

16/12/2022

China’s finally sloughing off the Zero Covid policy it’s embraced for three years. This followed a spasm of discontent, with people taking to the streets to demonstrate against Zero Covid in protests that quickly spilled over to demand democracy and Xi Jinping's resignation. We ask what's next for Beijing’s adaptive authoritarianism, as the state eases Covid controls and reverses three years of rhetoric on the dangers of the virus. This month Graeme and Louisa Lim are joined by William Hurst, Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development at University of Cambridge, Chenchen Zhang from Durham University, producer and co-host of the Shicha Podcast and Zeyi Yang, China reporter at MIT Technology Review.

Finally, China’s sloughing off the Zero Covid policy it’s embraced for three years. This followed a spasm of discontent, with people taking to the streets to demonstrate against Zero Covid, in protests that quickly spilled over to demand democracy and Xi Jinping's resignation. Beijing’s adapti...

15/10/2022

On the eve of China's all-important twentieth party congress, we glimpse into the black box of CCP politics with the authors of two of the hottest new books out. With an economy crippled by zero-COVID and global public opinion about China turning precipitously negative, it seems an age since China’s leaders promised a ‘peaceful rise’. Was this peaceful rise stymied by hardliners, or was it all an elaborate influence operation orchestrated by China's spies? For two very different analyses of developments inside the black box of Chinese politics, Graeme Smith and Louisa Lim are joined by Susan Shirk, Research Professor and Chair at the 21st Century China Centre at University of California, San Diego, whose much awaited new book is Overreach: How China Derailed its Peaceful Rise is just out, and Alex Joske, Senior Analyst at Australian Strategic Policy Institute, who’s just written a book called Spies and Lies: How China’s Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. With thanks as always to Wing Kuang and Andy Hazel.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/spies-lies-and-peaceful-rise

20/09/2022

Arguably Cambodia was China's first client state, with the Khmer Rouge's hardline interpretation of Maoism leading to the horror of the Killing Fields. Four decades on, Cambodia still enjoys the best and the worst of what the People’s Republic can offer. While aid from Beijing has built world-class infrastructure and provided clean drinking water to Cambodians, Chinese companies are also responsible for a tidal wave of scams, illegal casinos and even recent cases of human trafficking. China's building a military base at Ream on the Gulf of Thailand, only its second overseas base, amid public denials from Cambodian officials. To delve into the history and complexity of China’s relationship with Cambodia, Graeme and Louisa are joined by Matthew Galway of the Australian National University and the author of The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist movement 1949-1979, and Andrew Mertha, director of the SAIS China Global Research Center at John Hopkins University and the author of Brothers in Arms: Chinese aid to the Khmer Rouge 1975 to 1979.

The Southeast Asian nation has historically been seen as China's first client state, with the Khmer Rouge's hardline interpretation of Maoism leading to the horror of the Killing Fields. Four decades on, Cambodia still enjoys the best and the worst of what the People’s Republic can offer. While ai...

02/07/2022

To all our The Little Red Podcast listeners, here's a new pod for your rotation. It's a Hong Kong story on this, the 25th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule. It's made by me, - no Graeme this time but an A-team of podcast whizzes - and it's taken us a year of toil, tears and sweat. It's the story of the King of Kowloon - how an eccentric, stinky, street vandal became an icon, and what that says about Hong Kong. Made with Russell Stapleton, Sophie Townsend, Kirsti Melville, Wing Kuang. Please listen, like, tweet, tell your friends, your mum, whoever. Thank you!

‎Society & Culture · 2022

12/05/2022

Two of our interviewees were arrested last night in Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen and Denise Ho. They were arrested along with three other trustees of a now-disbanded humanitarian fund, on charges of colluding with foreign forces. This year Cardinal Zen is 90 years old.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/sing-hallelujah-the-miracle-of-hong-kong-s-march

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/be-water-hong-kong-vs-china-with-denise-ho-badiuca?in_playlist=the-little-red-podcast!podcast

11/05/2022

A delightfully relaxed conversation about a vexed issue - is China in the grip of a masculinity crisis? Are effiminate men really 'corrupting the nation' as the People's Daily thunders and will a Ministry of Education program to 'cultivate masculinity' succeed in creating a nation of wolf warriors? We look at who this movement is targeting and what's the ideology behind the cartoonish messaging. A fascinating discussion with Kam Louie, Ting Microway, Xiaogang Wei and Louisa Lim. And apologies for the peach slurping, it might stay with you for some time...
https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/gimme-gimme-gimme-a-han-after-midnight-china-s-mas

For the past year, China has been in the grip of a crackdown on niangpao, or ‘sissy men’, with the People’s Daily warning that effeminate men are ‘corrupting a generation.’ It’s a movement that is having a chilling effect well beyond influencers having their social media accounts closed,...

11/04/2022

Little Red Podcasters in the US: Louisa Lim is launching her new book, Indelible City; Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong, on April 19 at 7-8pm. The launch is hosted by Asian American Writers' Workshop and the fantastic Gina Chua. Do come along for a preview of Hong Kong's hidden history. It will be April 20 at 9-10am in Australia, 7-8am in Hong Kong. All are welcome!

https://aaww.org/curation/virtual-in-conversation-louisa-lim-and-gina-chua/

RSVP HERE! Award-winning journalist and devoted Hong Konger Louisa Lim will join the Asian American Writers’ Workshop for a virtual event celebrating the publication of her newest title, Inde…

07/04/2022

This month, we're asking what Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine means for China's relationship with Russia and the rest of the world. In the wake of the two countries signing a 'no limits' partnership in February, there's been plenty of talk about a new 'axis of autocracies' forming a united front against liberal democracy. Others hope that China can play a useful role as a peacemaker, much as they did with North Korea in the 5 party talks. To examine what's really at stake for China and how this affects the global geopolitical balance, Louisa Lim and I are joined by two of the most eminent Russian experts on China, Georgia State University's Maria Repnikova and Carnegie Russia's Alexander Gabuev
https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/ukraine-a-win-win-for-china

How is Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine redrawing the geopolitical landscape?  In this episode, we examine China’s interests in the conflict and explore the limits of their ‘no limits’ agreement with Russia. To ask whether the geopolitical balance is shifting in favour of an ‘axis of au...

09/03/2022

This episode we zero in on one key question: is former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger an agent of Chinese influence? That's the accusation that author Isaac Stone Fish makes in his new book America Second: How America's Elites Are Making China Stronger. In this episode, Louisa and Graeme talk to Isaac about how the CCP exploits the blurred line between politics and business to capture US elites.

America's elites love to talk about China's '5000 years of civilization', but such language - which could come straight from the pages of the China Daily - serves to amplify Beijing's talking points. In this way and due to their own business dealings with China, some American elites are helping Beij...

03/02/2022

We've spent all these years studying and reporting on China, but occasionally we'll do an episode which fundamentally reshapes the way we see the country. This one - on China's rural dwellers - is one of those. The lives of China's peasants lag far behind their urban counterparts on almost every metric; more than half of rural teenagers are cognitively delayed, and longstanding policies restrict their mobility and access to vital services. To discuss whether common prosperity can trickle down to the countryside, Graeme Smith and I were joined by sociologist Mindi Schneider from Wageningen University, and economist Scott Rozelle, the author of Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China's Rise. With thanks as always to Andy Hazel and Wing Kuang.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/caste-aside-the-future-for-chinas-peasants

By any metric, China's rural residents face massive disadvantages compared to their urban counterparts.  More than half of rural teenagers are cognitively delayed, and longstanding policies restrict their mobility and access to vital services.  China's peasants were one of Chairman Mao's favoured ...

03/01/2022

Is Xi Jinping's economic strategy equivalent to a shakeup of private business or a shakedown? That's the question Graeme Smith and I addressed, and we received two dramatically different answers from different quarters. Andy Rothman from Matthews Asia gave us the optimistic take, while Anne Stevenson-Yang from J Capital Research gave us the pessimistic one. With research from Wing Kuang and mixing by Andy Hazel

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/shakeup-or-shakedown-chinas-new-red-economy

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 analyst...

03/12/2021

Delighted that the Little Red team won a Bronze for Moment of the Year at the Australian Podcasting Awards last night. We were a finalist for Best News and Current affairs show. For the first time in years, four of our team managed to meet in person - though sadly missing our editor Andy Hazel and researcher Xucheng Chong - where we wowed Sydney with our redness.

22/11/2021

Want to impress with your knowledge of Chinese politics? Here's the Cheat's Guide to the CCP's Third Historical Resolution with two of the most authoritative scholars out there. Graeme Smith and I read the tealeaves with China Heritage's Geremie R Barmé and Oxford University's Patricia M. Thornton. The TL;DR version - Thornton interprets the resolution as hinting at intra-party tensions, while Barmé, described by a listener as "the Billy Connolly of sinologists" memorably describes a Xi personality cult as "a cult without a personality". Thanks to Wing Kuang and Andy Hazel, as always. And don't forget to vote for us as your favourite podcast!

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/the-great-reconciler-and-the-end-of-chinese-histor

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 Establi...

29/10/2021

We're so very delighted to be nominated for TWO Australian Podcast Awards....one for Best Current Affairs podcast, and the other for Best Moment! It's a credit to our amazing team who have soldiered on for five years waiting for Graeme Smith to make good on his promises of champagne, hotpot and world domination. Our very big thanks to Julia Bergin, Andy Hazel, Chong Cheng Xu, Wing Kuang
and all of our wonderful, patient, guests who have given us the benefit of their time and expertise.

https://twitter.com/AusPodAwards/status/1453906313633746947

“The nominees for Best Current Affairs Podcast, supported by , are: Ms Represented - Shortcuts Temporary The https://t.co/wIwNLvUToO”

14/09/2021

I'll be talking on Zoom with Jeremy Brown tomorrow at Harvard University Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. He's just written a very fine book about June Fourth, and we'll be talking about new approaches and sources in researching June Fourth.

8-9.30pm Tuesday 14 Sept US time
10-1130am Weds 15 Sept Australian time

Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_q1GtfbIXQESGOCjqJTYcIQ

19/08/2021

The recent Olympics saw some Olympian feats of nationalism emanating from China, whether it was accusations that the mixed doubles table tennis team "failed the nation" in losing to Japan, or angry criticisms that Western media had purposely used an ugly photo of a gold-medal-winning weightlifter. This month, Graeme Smith and I spoke to Bloomberg's Peter Martin and Jessica Chen Weiss from Cornell about nationalism and diplomacy in Xi Jinping's China.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/lone-wolves-or-xi-wolves-the-evolution-of-china-s

Nationalism in China seems to have taken a feral turn, with Chinese netizens viciously turning on Olympic athletes, celebrities and even the über-nationalist Global Times for letting down the motherland. This month we’re talking about the evolution of Chinese nationalism and the factors driving...

19/07/2021

Unbelievably the Little Red Podcast has fulfilled its first five-year plan! Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for this anniversary episode where Graeme Smith and Louisa Lim take them to the experts, as well as sharing our origin story. First thanks to Evan Hadkins, Aaron Chia, Peter Neville-Hadley and Jon Formella, whose questions we tackled. Listen to the end to find out who won a book (and please email us your details!) And thanks to Anthony Saich, Antonia Finnane, Arunabh Ghosh and Lawrence Zhang for answering the questions so expertly. As always, props to Andy Hazel, Xucheng Chong and Julia Bergin for sticking by us for five years despite the failure of any champagne or hotpot to materialise. It's in the next five-year plan!

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 statis...

30/06/2021

Here's my The New York Times essay on how the year of National Security Legislation has changed Hong Kong. It's a full-scale assault on the public sphere, combined with an old-school political purge using lawfare. But more is still to come; sinologist Geremie Barme predicts reeducation programmes and centres, looking back to CCP history as a guide.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/opinion/hong-kong-apple-daily.html

The cherished freedoms that distinguished the city from mainland China are being chipped away.

25/06/2021

My take on the closure of Apple Daily: "In recent weeks, I’ve read one example after another of a heartbreaking new genre of farewell journalism from some of Hong Kong’s most prominent figures. They cite different reasons for stopping. One says his contract might not be renewed; another that he’s too “tired and feeble” to continue; a third cites the growing number of things that are “completely unspeakable”. The truth is that in the year since Beijing imposed national security legislation upon Hong Kong, writing has simply become too perilous."

The days of a free and freewheeling press are over as China continues its attacks on any criticism of the regime, says author and lecturer Louisa Lim

23/06/2021

One day before Apple Daily publishes its last every copy, I'm reposting our interview conducted last June with its founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, now in jail on public order offences and charged with foreign collusion under the national security law. He accurately forecast everything that was to come, predicting, "After the national security law, the operation of the free press is not just difficult but dangerous. We have no choice but to fight on. We don't think of the consequences." When asked what would happen if the government started laying charges against reporters and editors, he said he had taken on an official role in order to take responsibility himself, "What keeps me going is I believe I am doing the right thing."

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/hong-kong-anything-we-say-could-be-a-crime

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 ...

12/05/2021

How to win friends and influence countries: here's our very own Julia Bergin writing in The Conversation about China's media playbook. This is based on the research we did with Johan Lidberg and IFJ - International Federation of Journalists.

https://theconversation.com/how-china-used-the-media-to-spread-its-covid-narrative-and-win-friends-around-the-world-160694

Over half of the 50 nations in the International Federation of Journalists survey said coverage of China had become more positive in their national media since the onset of the pandemic.

12/05/2021

Here's a first - our doughty researcher Julia Bergin and I are talking about our latest research for IFJ - International Federation of Journalists on this month's episode, along with Graeme Smith, University of Southern California's Erin Baggott Carter and University College Dublin's Alex Dukalskis. Some big takeaways: propaganda works, even RT, which has the biggest impact on university-educated people, and even having a Confucius Institute in your city slants its the China coverage in that geographical radius.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/lets-get-this-party-started-chinas-global-propagan

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 med...

21/04/2021

Imagine a video game where you're a truck driver from post-Covid Wuhan. You're driving on a never-ending highway that always looks the same. You can't stop, as noone will let you stop your vehicle, yet you're exhausted. You drive until you crash from exhaustion. That's one example of a Chinese video game described by our panel of RMIT University's Hugh Davies, Marcella Szablewicz and game developer Allison Yang Jing. Listen to find out how Grand Theft Auto became a protest site, and more stories of gaming and politics.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-little-red-podcast/out-of-their-league-china-s-online-gaming-conundru

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 th...