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 showcasing personal sacrifice in the interests of national success.  The party would like other aspects to be forgotten, such as the unimaginable violence in Chongqing or the petty brutality that set children onto their parents.  In the second part of our series on history and memory, Louisa and Graeme discuss the legacies of the Cultural Revolution with sociologist Xu Bin from Emory University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, the author of Chairman Mao's Children: Generation and the Politics of Memory in China and Guardian journalist Tania Branigan whose book Red Memory: The Afterlives of China’s Cultural Revolution came out in May. Show transcript: https://www.thechinastory.org/lrp/bombard-the-past-exhuming-the-cultural-revolution/ Image: Red Guard, June 1968. c/- Wikimedia Commons and China Pictorial  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China's underground historians face immense pressure from Xi Jinping's war on historical nihilism. They make sacrifices to preserve histories the Party wants to erase. The podcast explores erasure of history, preservation efforts, and the persistence of Mao's ideas. It also discusses challenges faced by Chinese historians in preserving and sharing historical records.

Science fiction in China faces challenges in a world where reality is stranger than fiction. The popularity and influence of Chinese sci-fi are explored, as well as the genre's evolution and integration of online and real life in China. The podcast also discusses the techniques used by Chinese sci-fi writers to navigate censorship and the future of the genre in China.

Beijing's recent ban on the export of two rare metals represents the latest front in the global battle to control chipmaking technology. Now there are fears China could block the export of rare earths, over which it has a stranglehold.   How close are we to that nuclear option? To find out, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Martijn Rasser, a former senior intelligence officer and analyst with the CIA, who is now the managing director of the Netherlands-based Datenna, and Jon Hykaway, the director and president of Stormcrow Capital in Toronto.      Image: c/- NASA. The Baiyon Ebo Rare Earths Mine, Inner Mongolia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand is in Beijing's good books, attracting state media praise as setting 'a good example' for other countries in its ties, as Prime Minister Chris Hipkins jets into China.  He's said his message is crystal clear: New Zealand is open for business.  But critics say the country's policy is muddled and ambiguous, despite Chinese encroachment.  Two ethnic Chinese MPs have been expelled over their links to Beijing, and a prominent New Zealand China academic was targeted with office break-ins. To unpack what the future holds for China-New Zealand relations, Louisa is joined in Auckland by writer and sociologist Tze Ming Mok and journalist Sam Sachdeva, author of The China Tightrope: Navigating New Zealand's relationship with a world superpower. Image: c/- Michal Klajban. Solidarity Grid by Mischa Kuball (Wuhan, China), Christchurch, New Zealand. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 InternationalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the final episode exploring China's Strategic New Frontiers, we are investigating China's growing cyberpower ambitions. On the National Cyber Power index, Beijing is already the world's number two cyberpower, behind only the US. Its cyberdoctrine includes promoting cybersovereignty, constructing internet standards and infrastructure, and playing a bigger role in cyber governance bodies. To ask what this means for the future of the Internet, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Konstantinos Komaitis, a non-resident fellow at the Lisbon Institute and the Atlantic Council, as well as Julia Voo, cyber fellow leading a team at Harvard University’s Belfer Institute who publish the National Cyber Power Index. Image: IPad with keyboard, c/- 绵 绵 on Unsplash.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China appears to have restarted construction on its fifth Antarctic station for the first time since 2018. It’s just one sign that Beijing is trying to increase its footprint in the world’s coldest regions. It already calls itself a near-Arctic state and is planning for an ice-free shipping route across the top of the world. This month, to discuss the drivers behind China’s polar ambitions, Graeme and Louisa are joined by Eyck Freyman of the Arctic Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the University of Washington’s Mia Bennett and Singapore Management University’s Nengye Liu. Photo credit: Wikimedia commonsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

China's reaching not just for the stars, but also for the deepest ocean depths.  It's even parked its deepwater submersible in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world's oceans, and planted flags on the ocean bed.  This month, Graeme and Louisa are joined by China Ocean Institute CEO Tabitha Mallory and Tiffany Ma, the senior director of Bower Group Asia, to talk about how the Great Game is playing out on our seabeds.  Image: Caulophryne pelagica [Angler Fish] D. Shale, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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, with a space telescope that is constantly being upgraded and its uber-for-satellites, is no longer just cloning Soviet tech. To explore the ecology of China’s space sector and ask what’s driving their massive space spend, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist and cosmologist at the Australian National University and Blaine Curcio, the co-host of Dongfang Hour, a podcast about China and space, and co-founder of Orbital Gateway Counselling.    Image: c/-  Jamie Gilbert and Brad Tucker (ANU), View from a balloon at 32km (105,000 ft.), 2019.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a few short months, Chinese officials have gone from COVID cover-up to competing over who has the highest number of infections. After urbanites flocked back to the countryside for lunar New Year, the Party that ran the world’s strictest prevention regime now presides over the world’s largest and most ambitious experiment in herd immunity. To explore how this dramatic change unfolded, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of Governing Health in Contemporary China and Vivian Wu, co-founder of the Mighty Voice media studio, who has worked at a host of media organizations including BBC Chinese and Initium.  Image: Abandoned Isolation House in Shenzhen with Dynamic Zero Slogan, c/- Wikimedia CommonsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.