While we were all preoccupied with Prime Minister Albanese's meeting with Donald Trump, another hugely important meeting was taking place behind closed doors in Beijing. At the highly anticipated Fourth Plenum there were political purges, hints at succession, and clues about what one of the world's great superpowers is planning to achieve over the next five years.

Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald are joined by China analyst Neil Thomas to unpack everything you need to know about the Fourth Plenum and how it might affect President Xi jinping's thinking as he heads into his own highly anticipated meeting with President Trump next week in South Korea.

Recommendations:

Geraldine: Adam Tooze - Chartbook

+ A House of Dynamite now on Netflix

Hamish: Season 3 of The Diplomat on Netflix

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The VERY important meeting in China that you probably missed