Understanding China's history is crucial for Australia

To deal with China as a major trading partner, and also a national security threat requires understanding the history that made China what it is today.  That history is shaped by resistance and different waves of uprising. How have governments dealt with these movements? How do they influence politics today?

China: Past, Present, Future was recorded live at the 2025 Sydney Writers' Festival.

Listen to Big Ideas — Behrouz Boochani and Arnold Zable: The language of resistance

Speakers

Linda JaivinAustralian author, cultural commentator, essayist and translatorAuthor of Bombard the Headquarters! China's Cultural Revolution

Louisa LimAward-winning journalist who reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBCAuthor of Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong

Edward WongAmerican journalist and diplomatic correspondent for The New York TimesAuthor of At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China

Peter Hartcher (host)Australian journalist and the Political and International Editor of The Sydney Morning HeraldAuthor of Red Zone: China's Challenge and Australia's Future