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by Graeme Smith and Louisa Lim
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- 1 weeks ago50 min
Lightning Strikes: China’s Robot Revolution
In the second episode of our series, China Rules, we look at an industry dominated by China: humanoid robots. Beijing’s running, dancing and fighting robots are more than just a gimmick; the country’s 15th Five-year Plan puts robotics right at the heart of its modern industrial system. China already accounts for 80% of global humanoid robot installations. In a recent half marathon, a humanoid robot called Lightning left the real humans behind for the first time, breaking the tape in just over 50 minutes. To discuss the future of the robot wars, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Alberto Moel, former Vice President of Veo Robotics, now with the University of Hong Kong, and Chang Che, a freelance writer who was formerly the Asia technology correspondent for the New York Times. Image: Robot in Traditional Attire at Airport Hall, c/- iStock photos, Daqian Wang, 25 February 2026. Transcripts available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- 4 weeks ago48 min
China Rules: Autocracy for sale
In our new series—China Rules—we look at how China is a global exporter, not just of goods, but also of standards, ideas, technologies and mechanisms of control. We’re starting with politics, and whether China is exporting its brand of “smart authoritarianism”. China’s heady mix of extractive political institutions and pro-growth economic policies makes for an attractive recipe to would-be imitators, just as China borrowed these ideas from South Korea and Singapore. Coupled with its edge in AI, digital surveillance and emerging technologies, China has moved from a passive exemplar to marketing—and profiting from—its blueprint for staying in power. Louisa and Graeme are joined by Jennifer Lind from Dartmouth College, the author of Autocracy 2.0: How China’s Rise Re-Invented Tyranny, and Bethany Allen from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and author of Beijing Rules: China's Quest for Global Influence. Image: China’s Police Liaison Team demonstrates martial arts during a community engagement event in Honiara, Solomon Islands. RFA/AFP/Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF), June 2025 Transcripts available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Mar 31, 202633 min
Little Red Podcast x Face Off
As an Easter treat, we're bringing you a cracking tale of espionage from one of our favourite China podcasts: Face Off. We'll be back shortly with a new season called China Rules. Espionage Two young CIA agents were flown to northern China in 1952, part of a bizarre Cold War operation to overthrow Mao Zedong. The plane crashed. The two Americans were arrested, and jailed for 20 years. We fast forward to today and turn the tables: How does China spy on the US now? Who is ahead in the fight over the new technologies? Guests: John DeLury, author, Agents of Subversion; Nigel Inkster, former director operations, MI6; former agent in Beijing. Details about John Delury’s compelling book that tells the story of how two CIA operatives were captured in China and how they endured 20 years in jail. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765971/agents-of-subversion/ Nigel Inkster’s book about the US and China, the two big tech competitors. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Great_Decoupling/K4xfzQEACAAJ?hl=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Mar 5, 202656 min
State Capture or Mind Capture? China's Spy Strategy on 3 Continents
Britain is the latest country to be plunged into yet another espionage scandal after an MP’s husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China. Beijing’s long been known for its ‘thousand grains of sand’ strategy relying on amateur intelligence collectors, but it’s now increasingly employing cognitive warfare to shape public opinion. This month, we analyse changes to China’s spying ground game on three continents. Louisa is joined by former Australian diplomat Sam Guthrie who’s the author of The Peak, a spy thriller set in Australia and China, national security expert Dennis Molinaro, the author of Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China's Secret War Against Canada, and human rights activist Lyndon Lee, who has been targeted by Chinese agents in the UK. Image: c/- Sergeant Paul Shaw LBIPP/MOD, under Open Government License version 1. Union and Chinese flags together. Transcripts available at: https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Jan 7, 202649 min
Bad Apple? How the World’s Greatest Company Changed Chinese Tech
In 2013, to mark International Consumers Day, China’s state-run TV network labelled Apple a ‘bad company’. More than a decade later, despite claiming to rely on multinationals from 50 different countries, Apple still has nearly 100% of its supply chain in China. In this episode, we look at how Apple became so dependent on China, what it did to rehabilitate its image in the eyes of the Chinese government, and how it has influenced China’s aspiring global tech giants. Graeme is joined by Jianggan Li, the founder and CEO of Singapore-based Momentum Works, and the co-author of Seeing the Unseen: Behind Chinese Tech Giants’ Global Venturing and Patrick McGee, Financial Times journalist and the author of Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company. Image: c/- Gerd Eichmann, 2020. Apple Store on Nanjing Lu, Shanghai. Transcripts are available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Dec 8, 202547 min
Education Nation: China’s Exam Fetish
China’s college exam, the gaokao, is fetishized as the ultimate test, yet a lesser-known story is how it entrenches regional education discrimination. Its role at social engineering is also clear, with AI suddenly becoming the sixth most popular major in China, on command from above. This month, the Little Red Podcast sets the first ever podcast gaokao. The intrepid test-takers are Edward Vickers from Kyushu University, co-author of Education and Society in Post-Mao China and host of the Asian Education Podcast, Karron Huang, who is studying for a Masters in early childhood education at the University of Melbourne and sat the gaokao in 2015, and Ruixue Xia from the University of California San Diego who coauthored The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China. Image: c/- Karron Huang. Morning gaokao study session, Foshan No. 1 High School, Guangdong, 2015. Transcripts are available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Nov 4, 202552 min
The Lead Goose: China’s AI Embrace
In the latest episode in our series on belief, we’re looking at the CCP’s faith in Artificial Intelligence. China has embraced AI like no other nation, laying out a plan for AI that would see 70 percent adoption across six sectors - including governance – within the next two years. This aggressive approach is driven by commercial imperatives, the desire to shape international standards, and the hope that AI will solve the Party’s biggest worry: social stability. To explore China’s AI dreams, Louisa and Graeme are joined by China Media Project’s Alex Colville, who also writes the China Chatbot newsletter on Lingua Sinica, and Daria Impiombato, a senior analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. Image: Goose, c/- Andy Hazel, 2025 Transcripts are available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
- Oct 7, 202551 min
Wolf Spirits and Wild Shamans: The Revival of Spirit Mediums
In the latest episode in our series on belief, we’re exploring the surprising revival of shamanism in China, which has made a comeback despite Mao's best efforts at eradication. Ritual healers and spirit mediums are tapping into online believers and a public thirst for authentic spirituality. Shamanism has also become a tourist draw as a form of cultural and religious heritage, with a shamanic theme park even existing in northeast China until 2021. To explore the diversity of shamanic practices across China and their survival in the face of official scepticism, Louisa and Graeme are joined by Feng Qu, an archaeologist from Nanjing Normal University and Mayfair Yang, a cultural anthropologist from UC Santa Barbara. Image: Totem poles at the Changbai Mountain Nayin Tribe Shamanic Culture Tourist Resort. Feng Qu, February 2023. Transcripts available at https://ciw.anu.edu.au/podcasts/little-red-podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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About The Little Red Podcast
The Little Red Podcast: interviews and chat celebrating China beyond the Beijing beltway. Hosted by Graeme Smith, China studies academic at the Australian National University's Department of Pacific Affairs and Louisa Lim, former China correspondent for the BBC and NPR, now with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at Melbourne University. We are the 2018 winners of podcast of the year in the News & Current Affairs category of the Australian Podcast Awards. Follow us @limlouisa and @GraemeKSmith, and find show notes at www.facebook.com/LittleRedPodcast/
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