Once little more than a pornography filter, China’s ‘Great Firewall’ has evolved into the most sophisticated system of online censorship in the world. As the Chinese internet grows and online businesses thrive, speech is controlled, dissent quashed, and attempts to organise outside the official Communist Party are quickly stamped out. But the effects of the ... Show More
Feb 2022
Strange News: China Censorship, Robots on the Border, One Guy Hacks North Korea
<p>In a rare decision, China reverses an earlier act of censorship. Those dogbots Ben and Matt are so concerned about are deployed on the US-Mexico border. One anonymous hacker claims he, in a fit of resentment, single-handedly took down the DPRK's internet. Plus Build-A-Bear goe ... Show More
57m 10s
Dec 2021
Karl Gerth, “China: Up Close and Personal” (Open Agenda, 2021)
China: Up Close and Personal is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Karl Gerth, Hwei-Chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies and Professor of History at UC San Diego. This wide-ranging conversation covers the emerging American-style consumer cu ... Show More
2h 13m
Apr 2022
US-China Tech Race: Spies and Lies (Part Two)
<p>In the second episode of this season of Tech Tonic, James Kynge, the FT’s Global China Editor, asks how significant Chinese intellectual property theft has been to the country’s rise as a global tech superpower.</p><p>We hear from an FBI agent based in Silicon Valley whose job ... Show More
30m 37s
Apr 2022
Morality in the Twitter era. Plus: China’s language revolution
This weekend, we think about morality in the age of social media. According to writer Dan Brooks, we're great at pointing out where good is missing, but we’ve forgotten how to be good people. Then, Yale professor Jing Tsu tells us the story of how China standardised its complex l ... Show More
29m 46s
Oct 2019
Larry Diamond, "Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency" (Penguin, 2019)
Larry Diamond joins us this week to talk about the threat China’s model of authoritarian capitalism poses to liberal democracy in the United States and around the world. Economics drives politics, and it’s easy to admire China’s growth while looking past things like increasing su ... Show More
40m 46s
