The Little Red Podcast

In the Xi Jinping era, China is quietly embedding core socialist values into every aspect of life, including the judicial system.  When core socialist values were introduced in 2013, they sounded like one more slogan in the pantheon of forgettable party dogmas, but now they're gaining teeth.  In this episode we examine how core socialist values are recoding language, legitimising CCP rule and could even pose a threat to Western civilisation.  To explore what these values mean and how they are reshaping the way China is governed, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Delia Lin of the University of Melbourne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When the Hong Kong film Ten Years (Sap nin) came out in 2015, it was pulled from cinemas after Chinese state-run media described it as a 'virus of the mind'. Once seen as dystopian with its scenes of mass protest and police brutality, it now looks prophetic in a world where 88% of the Hong Kong population has been exposed to teargas. In this episode, we explore post-election, post-dystopian Hong Kong, and whether it's already too late for Beijing to reassert its control over an 'independence movement that cannot say its name'. This month Louisa Lim hosted a live recording after a screening of Ten Years with a panel consisting of Monash University anthropologist Kevin Carrico, Melbourne University's Victor Yim who studies Hong Kong's pan-democratic movement and Eric Lai, Vice Convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With cinema takings in the United States at a 22-year low, Hollywood moguls are looking to an unlikely saviour: China. With box office revenues growing at 9 percent, Hollywood is scrambling to find the formula for movies that make the cut of China’s 34 approved films and appeal to Chinese audiences. For every surprise hit, like The Meg and Warcraft, there are flops like The Great Wall. Like many an autocrat before him, Xi Jinping is enamoured of the silver screen, elevating film above radio and television in his 2018 overhaul of the propaganda apparatus. To discuss the special place of film in China’s global soft power push, back in March Louisa and Graeme were joined by City University of New York’s Ying Zhu and Variety Magazine’s Beijing bureau chief Rebecca Davis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As China's leaders gathered in Beijing to survey troops, fireworks and their latest missiles, a different scene was unfolding in Hong Kong.  Police shot an 18-year old protestor in the chest and unleashed a staggering 1400 rounds of tear gas on the population.  The protests originally targeted the extradition bill and then grew into democratic protests, but now protestors increasingly identify as a Hong Kong nation.  What does this mean and how does it affect the endgame? Graeme and Louisa hear voices from the streets including the Civil Human Rights Front's Wong Yik-mo, activist Johnson Yeung Ching-yin and Brian Fong from the Education University of Hong Kong. Image: Hong Kong protesters on the streets of the city from above, c/- Joseph Chan on Unsplash.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, has CCP Chairman Xi Jinping overreached? He's facing blowback everywhere from Hong Kong to Xinjiang amid an escalating trade war with the US. Even his signature infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, has run into trouble. Is the world entering a new cold war? We ask former Obama administration Asia advisor Charles Edel, now with the University of Sydney, and the Lowy Institute's Richard MacGregor, who is the author of Xi Jinping: The Backlash.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The South Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands may be on the verge of switching diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China, which would leave only sixteen nations recognising Taiwan.  When Manasseh Sogavare was appointed prime minister of the Solomons for the fourth time in April, he vowed to review the country’s relations with Taiwan, even though he has been a longtime supporter of the Republic of China.  In this episode, Graeme speaks to all the major players in the Solomon Islands, including the Prime Minister, to investigate the reasons behind the switch.  He found the background to the switch was far murkier and more complicated than has been previously reported.  Photo credit: Terence Wood. Solar panel batteries, given to every Solomon Islands MP  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the news broke that Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam had withdrawn the extradition bill that had sparked three months of unrest in Hong Kong, Little Red Podcast co-host Louisa Lim was moderating the event 'Be Water: Hong Kong vs China'. This panel event, featuring Hong Kong popstar and activist Denise Ho, Chinese artist Badiucao and author Clive Hamilton, was a discussion about resistance and art in Hong Kong, but also included this breaking news. An edited version of the event comprises this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Hong Kong enters its eleventh week of turmoil, we hear voices on the ground.  From 15-year olds who can hardly remember how many times they have been teargassed to thirty-somethings ready to serve prison sentences, the consensus is that Hong Kong is playing out its endgame.  We also travel across the political divide, to hear from attendees at a pro-police rally who feel their voices aren't being heard.  Last weekend saw 1.7m protestors taking to the streets without any violence.  So who are the protestors, and what will they accept?  Research by a team led by political scientist Samson Yeung of Lingnan University, which has surveyed 8000 protestors, indicates any compromise may be hard to strike, given a high degree of support for radical action within the movement.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By 2020, less than half a year from now, a social credit scheme will cover people and companies across China, “allowing the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.” It’s long been assumed the Chinese state would take the lead, but favored companies will doubtless profit from a database that will house every citizen’s tax records, criminal history, traffic offenses, family background and marriage details.  There are signs these companies are likely to export a surveillance-for-profit regime to other regimes keen to keep a close eye on their people. To ask whether China’s future looks like Lei Feng, Black Mirror or Dave Egger’s The Circle, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Gladys Pak Lei Chong and David Kurt Herold of Hong Kong Baptist University.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our third Hong Kong emergency episode comes in the wake of the storming of the territory's Legislative Council on the 22nd anniversary of its return to mainland China. Louisa reports from the floor of the Legco chamber as it is occupied and vandalized by hundreds of demonstrators, all risking hefty jail terms. With Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam still refusing to scrap the extradition bill which inspired millions of Hong Kongers to take to the streets, the territory could be set for further waves of radical action and repression. Protestors at the scene, as well as activists Johnson Yeung and Kong Tsunggan, legislator Eddie Chu Hoi-dick, and former Chief Secretary of Hong Kong Anson Chan join us to ask what the endgame for Hong Kong might be.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.