The Edition: China's global spy network
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A Tory parliamentary aide and an academic were arrested this week for allegedly passing ‘prejudicial information’ to China. In his cover piece Nigel Inkster, MI6’s former director of operations and intelligence, explains the nature of this global spy network: hacking, bribery, manhunts for targets and more. To discuss, Ian Williams, author of Fire of the Dragon - China's New Cold War, and historian and Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins joined the podcast.. (02:05)
Next: Lara and Gus take us through some of their favourite pieces in the magazine, including Douglas Murray’s column and Gus’s interview with the philosopher Daniel Dennett.
Then: Tim Shipman writes for The Spectator about ‘hyper history’. This refers to the breathless last ten years in political history, encompassing the breakdown of old electoral coalitions, the formation of new ones and decisive prime ministers who all suffer from the same ‘power failure’ – as he calls it. Tim joined the podcast to discuss further. (17:34)
And finally: How the Jilly Cooper Book Club turned toxic. Flora Watkins joined a Jilly Cooper Book Club whose members got along famously – until lockdown and the ensuing culture wars. Debates over vaccines, lockdown and gender split them up more violently than any of their heroine’s books. Flora is joined by the author and journalist Elisa Segrave to examine the toxicity of women-only book groups. (27:50)
Hosted by Lara Prendergast and Gus Carter.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine is the greatest magazine of English language. Subscribe today for just £12, |
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| 0:32.8 | Hello and welcome to you the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we shed a little light |
| 0:38.2 | on the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed. I'm Laura Prendergars, |
| 0:43.6 | the Spectator's executive editor. And I'm Gus Carter, the Spectator's Deputy Features Editor. |
| 0:48.2 | This week, we'll be discussing China's global spy network. We'll be looking back on a non-stop |
| 0:53.9 | decade of political history, |
| 0:55.5 | and we'll be examining the toxicity of women's book clubs. |
| 1:04.2 | Laura, we're speaking on Wednesday afternoon. The magazine went to press about an hour |
| 1:08.9 | and a half ago. Our cover line this week is The She Files, Nigel Inkstra, on China's Global Spy Network. |
| 1:16.6 | Can you talk us through how that came about? |
| 1:19.0 | Yes, so Nigel Inkster is the former Director of Operations and Intelligence for MI6, |
| 1:23.4 | and he's written this piece about how China's demand for intelligence goes far beyond anything Western intelligence agencies would typically try and gather. |
| 1:32.3 | He says that they're collecting data and everything from government websites to think tanks, human rights organizations and individuals. |
| 1:39.5 | And the peg really came about on Monday when two British men were charged with breaking the |
| 1:45.4 | official secrets act for allegedly passing information to China. |
| 1:49.0 | So Nigel looks at why and how China goes about its espionage. |
| 1:53.5 | And to discuss further, we spoke with Ian Williams, author of Fire of the Dragon, China's New Cold War, |
| 1:58.5 | and historian and guardian columnist Simon Jenkins. |
... |
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