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 Jaivin Australian author, cultural commentator, essayist and translator Author of Bombard the Headquarters! China's Cultural Revolution Louisa Lim Award-winning journalist who reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBC Author of Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong Edward Wong American journalist and diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times Author 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 Herald Author of Red Zone: China's Challenge and Australia's Future