#45: The Last Correspondent - A Geopolitical Allegory For Deteriorating Australia/China Relations | Michael Smith

Article Attached To This Podcast Here 🎙️: https://atlasgeographica.com/michael-smith-last-correspondent/

Michael Smith is the China correspondent for the AFR – Australia’s Financial Review.

Just a tick over a year ago, he was met at midnight with a thud on the door from China’s secret police. This triggered a diplomatic storm which abruptly ended Michael Smith’s stint as one of Australia’s last foreign correspondents in China. After five days under consular protection, Smith was evacuated from a very different China to the country he first visited 23 years earlier.

There is much to this podcast, in it you can expect to learn about…

- Why Australia’s relationship with China has deteriorated so badly.
- Insight’s into the ‘fog’ of China’s economy.
- A wedding straight out of Crazy Rich Asians.
- A propaganda tour of the Xinjiang province.
- And much, much more…

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00:00 – Introduction
05:40 – “China Get’s Harder To Understand The Longer You Live There”
11:39 – Untrustworthy Chinese Data & Differences In Accounting
18:10 – Home Ownership In China & Potential Economic Collapse
22:55 – Chinese Shadow Banking Sector
25:56 – Chinese Demographic Problems & Anti Immigration Segment
33:26 – Explaining China’s Disappearing Millionaires & The Importance Of Hard Work In China
43:26 – The Significance Of Chinese SEZ (Special Economic Zones)
46:16 – Xi Jinping Turning ‘Bad’
56:50 – Michaels Propaganda Tour Through Xinjiang & The Uyghur Humanitarian Catastrophe
1:03:49 – Michael’s Experiences With Geoff Raby
1:05:15 – Why Michael Was Expelled From China & Australia/China Worsening Relations
1:19:20 – Michael’s Thoughts On Taiwan & Hong Kong
1:33:04 – Wild Trip in North Korea & The Crazy Rich Asian Wedding
1:43:50 – How Do You Think About China Now?
1:45:17 – What Country Are You Most Bullish On?
1:46:37 – What Two People Of History Would You Witness A Conversation Between?
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