Chairman Mao urged the Chinese people to never forget class struggle. But they not only forgot, they stopped using the word at all. Louisa and Graeme talk to Wanning Sun from the University of Technology, Sydney and and Yingjie Guo from Sydney University about how class has become a dirty word in China. So much for the workers, peasants and soldiers; in today's China, everyone wants to be middle class, even the new rich. Class anxiety is rife as class mobility is ever harder as traditional routes of advancement shut down. And class is at the heart of one of the Communist party's biggest conundrums: how to square its official Marxist-Leninist ideology with the consumption-centered society that's emerging on the ground. Will President Xi Jinping, who often finds himself compared to Mao, ever be tempted to revisit this part of the Chairman's legacy?

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As Hong Kong gears up to mark the 20th anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty, the country's number 3 leader Zhang Dejiang has made clear Beijing's intention to tighten its control over Hong Kong. He has spoken recently of the need to enact anti-subversion legislation and warned against any attempts to turn Hong Kong into an independent entity. But Hong Kong localists made a strong showing in the September 2016 election, winning six seats and securing 20 percent of the vote. In this episode, we look at the roots of the localism movement, and what impact China’s approach is having. As Beijing signals greater control, are parallels emerging between the Basic Law and the 17-point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet signed in 1951? Louisa and Graeme discuss Hong Kong’s future with Kevin Carrico of Macquarie University, who is writing a book on Hong Kong's localist movement.

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Sydney academic Feng Chongyi, whose detention in Guangzhou created international headlines, warns that his experience is designed to intimidate academics researching topics deemed sensitive by Beijing. He describes heightened surveillance by China's state security apparatus and increasing curbs on his research into human rights lawyers. Feng, who is still a Chinese citizen and Communist Party member, attributes his release to the fortuitous timing of Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Australia, combined with media attention and a high-profile campaign. He firmly rejects the notion that backroom negotiations were instrumental in securing his release. Feng is issuing a warning that China's influence risks influencing academic and press freedom in Australia.

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Is President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign working, or is it simply driving corruption underground? This episode we're joined by Minxin Pei from Claremont McKenna College, who's released a forensic analysis of China's corruption market, with insights gained from an examination of court cases. Among his insights are the fact that 84% of convicted officials were promoted while engaged in corruption, those caught taking bribes had been doing so for an average of nine years, and the higher the level of corruption the longer officials get away with it. Pei not only argues that China has reached the late stage of regime decay, he's even willing to estimate how much longer he believes Communist rule can last.

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China is a world leader in resettlement, having resettled 80 million people since 1949. Before 2020, a further 100 million people will be moved for environmental protection, poverty relief and development. So who ultimately benefits from China's massive resettlement programmes? And has China invented an entirely new academic discipline - resettlement science - to provide academic respectability to its far-reaching resettlement campaigns. This episode we're joined by Brooke Wilmsen, an expert on the Three Gorges Dam from LaTrobe University and Sarah Rogers from the University of Melbourne, who has worked extensively in Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, to drill down into China's resettlement industry.

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In this episode we visit a theatre, a prison and an analyst's chair to ask: are China's little emperors really spoiled and lonely, or is this just lazy stereotyping? We meet Wang Chong, who's directing Little Emperors; a play written by Australian playwright Lachlan Philpott about how one family has been affected by the One Child policy. It's now playing at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. We're also joined by Lisa Cameron, a behavioural economist from Monash University, who has tested how altruistic, risk loving and neurotic the little emperors are, and come up with surprising findings that suggest the One Child policy could be one factor driving China's lonely hearts to crime.

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In this episode, Graeme and Louisa talk with Michael Leach from Swinburne University about China's increasingly close military and diplomatic ties with Asia's newest country: East Timor or Timor Leste. Unresolved maritime boundaries, aid on tap, and millions of barrels of oil make for a new Great Game on the boundary of Asia and the Pacific.

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Graeme and Louisa are joined by James Leibold, Paul MacGregor and Louise Edwards to discuss the impact of mainland Chinese money on Australia's higher education sector. What happens when a cash-strapped university sector meets mainland Chinese investors with deep party connections and even deeper pockets?

Image: Classroom with students having a discussion, c/- CX Insight on Unsplash.

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“China’s not trying to influence, it’s trying to change Australia.”
This week we hear from insiders about the range of strategies used by the Chinese government to tame the Chinese-language media in Australia, from cooption to intimidation to outright censorship. Speakers: Raymond Chow, Sameway Magazine; John Fitzgerald, Swinburne University; Yan Xia, Vision China Times
Correction: During the podcast, Professor Fitzgerald mentions a deal between "Fox" and CCTV. He was referring to Sky News, an Australian 24-hour news channel.

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Gavin, our sound maestro, couldn't live with the distortion on the intro music any long, so here's an updated version. It's even catchier than the first time around!

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