Episode 3 of Rules Based Audio, the new Lowy Institute podcast is out today.
'The Propaganda Department' is a story in two parts about media, censorship and politics in China; and my guests are Chris Buckley from the New York Times’ Beijing bureau, and James Griffiths from CNN Hong Kong.
Chris Buckley has lived, studied and worked in China for over 20 years, has a PhD in China studies, and his continually excellent reporting is a must-read for anyone interested in the country. I sat down with him on his recent visit to Australia, and we discussed what it's like covering the opaque world of elite politics in China, how local and social media work under the pervasive censorship regime, the government’s determination to control historical narrative and the discourse around sensitive dates in China, and the prospects of political change under Xi Jinping.
James Griffiths is the author of a new book about the Chinese internet: The Great Firewall of China; and he takes us through a short history of how the CCP built an alternative version of the internet, and how technology originally sold on the promise of liberation and freedom of expression became the perfect authoritarian tool.
