Originally published with transcript at https://www.nickfabbri.com/bloom/paulmonkonchina
In this episode, Nick and Paul discuss:
Paul’s book Thunder From the Silent Zone, and four possible futures for China
The history and legacy of Hu Yaobang, the "conscience" of the Chinese Communist Party
The history of democracy in China, and the possibility of political reform or democratisation
Xi Jinping and his designs on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan
China’s rapid militarisation under Xi, and implications for Australia and the regional order
Exercises in thinking: adopting the world view and perspectives of Chinese communist nationalists in regard to the current geopolitical order
The Thucydides Trap, and the prospect of conflict between China and the United States
The COVID-19 pandemic and China
The diplomatic and trade war between China and Australia
Literature on the implications of China’s rise
Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilization in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China.
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