Latest / The Front / A journalist returns to Beijing

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A journalist returns to Beijing · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian, here's what's on the Front. I'm Kristinamot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, August twenty six. Blackouts and big power bills
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. The Israeli Defense Force launched
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  Speaker 1: It says the onehundred rockets were designed to deter a
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  Speaker 3: But members of the Lebanese group.
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  Speaker 1: Said they carried out a raid of their own in
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  Speaker 1: to China will join four hundred other guests, including diplomats
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  Speaker 1: from our Five Eyes partners, at a black tie ball
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  Speaker 1: on the Great Wall of China in a fortnight. That's
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  Speaker 1: the latest from Will Glasgow, the Australian's North Asia correspondent
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  Speaker 1: and the first Australian journalist invited back to Beijing. In
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  Speaker 1: today's episode A Correspondent's Long and Winding Road back to China.
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  Speaker 4: My way overordered was delicious, but I did not need
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  Speaker 4: that well beef noodle suit, not with the cucumber garlic
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  Speaker 4: dish and the spinach peanut dish and the beef coomin skewer.
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  Speaker 1: That's The Australian's North Asia correspondent Will Glasgow. He's back
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  Speaker 1: in his old stomping ground, Beijing's Donjamen district for the
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  Speaker 1: first time in four years.
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  Speaker 4: I got to work on my portion sizes.
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  Speaker 5: I got to adjust.
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  Speaker 1: Donjamen is one of Beijing's more expat friendly neighborhoods, with
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  Speaker 1: journalists like Will as well as diplomats and business people
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  Speaker 1: historically calling it home. These days, it's buzzing with locals
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  Speaker 1: and domestic travelers out to see the sites. It's summer
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  Speaker 1: in Beijing and the sky is a clear, glittering blue.
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  Speaker 1: Will was invited to return to Beijing by the Chinese government,
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  Speaker 1: and so with Camber's blessing, he set off.
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  Speaker 2: So my passport's over with the Exit and Entry Immigration
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  Speaker 2: Office of the Public Security Bureau, and as long as
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  Speaker 2: I get the green light from then I've got a
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  Speaker 2: residency permit to allow me to be a foreign journalist
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  Speaker 2: in China for the next year.
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  Speaker 1: Last week, Will became the first Australian journalists to be
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  Speaker 1: granted media credentials since twenty twenty. Will had been living
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  Speaker 1: and working in China for six months when in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty he returned to Australia to get his wife. The
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  Speaker 1: COVID nineteen pandemic, which originated in China, was gathering steam
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  Speaker 1: and things were getting tense. They had an exemption to
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  Speaker 1: return to China after a stint in hotel quarantine, but
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  Speaker 1: Will was advised against boarding his return flight by Australian
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  Speaker 1: officials shortly before they were due to depart. Will's been
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  Speaker 1: living in Taipei since twenty twenty one. Will was one
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  Speaker 1: of dozens of foreign journalists who left China in twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Some departures were voluntary, but most were ordered out.
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  Speaker 6: China has defended its decision to expel more than a
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  Speaker 6: dozen American journalists and also bar them from working in
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  Speaker 6: Hong Kong. Beijing says that it is within its rights
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  Speaker 6: and has threatened further action. This latest diplomatic row was
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  Speaker 6: triggered last month when Washington forced Chinese state media outlets
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  Speaker 6: to register as foreign embassies.
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  Speaker 1: Australia's relationship with the People's Republic was on the rocks too.
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  Speaker 1: The Government of the day, led by Scott Morrison, back
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  Speaker 1: to an international inquiry into the origins of the pandemic,
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  Speaker 1: a move that didn't go down well with the Chinese
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  Speaker 1: Communist Party. Will A lot has happened in the last
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  Speaker 1: four years. Has any of that been on your mind
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  Speaker 1: as you've made this return to Beijing? Are you scared?
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  Speaker 5: I'm not scared. I'm not scared, but it is on
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  Speaker 5: my mind of course, right. I mean, I didn't just
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  Speaker 5: get a letter from the Chinese government and then book
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  Speaker 5: a ticket and fly over here. I think listeners will
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  Speaker 5: be amazed at how long this process has.
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  Speaker 3: Gone on for.
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  Speaker 5: I mean I've literally been back and forth conversations with
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  Speaker 5: the Chinese in a quite a focused way on whether
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  Speaker 5: this was possible or not for more than eighteen months.
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  Speaker 5: Foreign reporters, we have a lot of hurdles for how
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  Speaker 5: we do things, like one getting access to the internet,
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  Speaker 5: like everyone in China has that problem because of the
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  Speaker 5: Great Firewall, and that's got worse.
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  Speaker 3: Right, that's just.
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  Speaker 5: A simple one that frustrates every day that you're trying
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  Speaker 5: to do your job here. But we have the problem
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  Speaker 5: of getting people to speak to us, right because of
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  Speaker 5: the propaganda machine that demonizes as foreign media and has
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  Speaker 5: created such suspicion and nervousness amongst Chinese people here and
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  Speaker 5: amongst Chinese experts, and even amongst Chinese government officials, who
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  Speaker 5: for the most part decline interview requests from foreign media
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  Speaker 5: because they just see it as too risky. And one
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  Speaker 5: of the big challenges for Australian media as we come
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  Speaker 5: back to China is navigating that extreme distrust that our
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  Speaker 5: readers have about this place because of so much of
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  Speaker 5: the things that have happened over the last four years.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you've been running around all over town having
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  Speaker 1: meetings and chatting with Chinese officials since you got back.
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  Speaker 1: How has your arrival been received this time around? Are
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  Speaker 1: you finding you having to tread more carefully the.
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  Speaker 3: Various meanings I've had.
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  Speaker 5: There's sort of different times, some are quite kurt and
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  Speaker 5: brief affairs others are much more expansive and much more
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  Speaker 5: of a back and forth. And one of the real
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  Speaker 5: striking takeaways is they're very aware that I am the
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  Speaker 5: first Australian journalist from Australian media returning here. They're very
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  Speaker 5: aware of that, right, and so there's a bit of
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  Speaker 5: attempts by them to flatter me for that, you know,
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  Speaker 5: and impress on me what a great opportunity is and
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  Speaker 5: impress on me my role as a.
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  Speaker 3: Bridge builder between Australia and China.
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  Speaker 5: And look, I just repeat to them what my job is,
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  Speaker 5: which is to serve my readers, and that's what I'm
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  Speaker 5: here for. My job's to do my job as best
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  Speaker 5: I can and as accurately tell the story about China
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  Speaker 5: right now what it means for Australia. But it's clear
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  Speaker 5: there's a desire to impress on me that I'd wanted here.
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  Speaker 3: That I'm going to be safe.
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  Speaker 5: The return is being welcomed by bits of the Chinese
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  Speaker 5: system that said I wouldn't over do it, right. I mean,
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  Speaker 5: you can see the very opposite, and I've experienced the
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  Speaker 5: very opposite. There's definitely parts of the Chinese system that
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  Speaker 5: would much rather I wasn't here right.
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  Speaker 3: They think that having no.
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  Speaker 5: Australian journalists in China was a pretty wonderful situation and
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  Speaker 5: long may that have lasted, right, And so there's nervousness
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  Speaker 5: from bits of definitely well nervousness and perhaps a bit
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  Speaker 5: of grumbling about the return of on Australian journalists and
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  Speaker 5: from those parts of the Chinese state there are concerns
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  Speaker 5: that you know, am I the first of a number.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, we'll find out.
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  Speaker 1: Right coming up what's happening below the surface of Beijing's
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  Speaker 1: impressive facelift. We'll be back after the break.
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  Speaker 3: Out for a.
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  Speaker 2: Stroll along the Liangma River, which when I live Tea
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  Speaker 2: back in twenty twenty was well was it dump?
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  Speaker 3: I mean quite literally it was just full of rubbish.
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  Speaker 3: It was disgusting. It was building works all along it.
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  Speaker 1: The Beijing will Glasgow has returned to after four years
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  Speaker 1: in Taipei is a different city to the one he left.
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  Speaker 1: That's because it's had a pretty major facelift in places.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it turns out they were building a greenway park
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  Speaker 2: that runs all the way along the river to chow
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  Speaker 2: Young Park links it up and it's I have to admit,
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  Speaker 2: it's really beautiful.
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  Speaker 3: It's really popular.
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  Speaker 2: It's full of walkers and people fishing, and I can
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  Speaker 2: see up ahead people kayaking and even some people swimming,
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  Speaker 2: which if you tell me four years ago people would
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  Speaker 2: swim in this thing, I would have just well, I
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  Speaker 2: would have been horrified. Frankly, I'd be worried about their health.
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  Speaker 3: But people look pretty happy doing it.
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  Speaker 1: Will's a dedicated runner, and he's enjoying running along the
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  Speaker 1: river in his old neighborhood without a mask designed to
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  Speaker 1: protect him from Beijing's notorious air pollution. Nowadays, the city,
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  Speaker 1: once dubbed Airport sometimes boast air quality almost as good
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  Speaker 1: as Sydney. The sky has been clear and bright, with
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  Speaker 1: heavy summer storms washing away the last remnants of pollution.
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  Speaker 1: In Beijing's the glitzy Chao Young district, the once famous
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  Speaker 1: Opposite House boutique hotel sits vacant. Its doors were closed
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  Speaker 1: just last month, a symbol of the economic uncertainty bubbling
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  Speaker 1: just under the surface of this gussied up city.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a funny thing.
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  Speaker 5: In whats of ways, Beijing looks wealthier than it was
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  Speaker 5: when I left, right, I mean, maybe it's just so
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  Speaker 5: long out of the country, and just the jarring sight
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  Speaker 5: of seeing cashed up Beijing is out in posh shopping
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  Speaker 5: centers and sandy turned buying lots of stuff. It's just
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  Speaker 5: a very visual reminder that there is a lot of
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  Speaker 5: money still being spent in the Chinese economy. That's real, right,
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  Speaker 5: But Beijing is not representative of much of China at all. Right,
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  Speaker 5: it's a very wealthy, privileged part of this warness country.
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  Speaker 5: And Stanleyton is a really unrepresentative part of Beijing. So
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  Speaker 5: you know, you have to just remember most Chinese aren't
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  Speaker 5: living lives anything like that. But you know, we're still
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  Speaker 5: talking about five percent growth, so it's not nothing. And
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  Speaker 5: across the Chinese economy you see this price war. It's
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  Speaker 5: even in dentists in Beijing, where customers are negotiating down
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  Speaker 5: what they'll pay to.
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  Speaker 3: Get a tooth filling.
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  Speaker 5: It's happened to me in my own experience here at
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  Speaker 5: the gym, and just across the Chinese economy, people are
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  Speaker 5: arguing prices down and there's actually deflation in the Chinese economy,
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  Speaker 5: not inflation.
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  Speaker 3: Prices are going down here.
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  Speaker 5: So there's a really weird mismatch in this moment of
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  Speaker 5: the Chinese economy between its headline economic numbers which have
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  Speaker 5: helped Australian exporters, and we continue the Australian economy continues
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  Speaker 5: to make a lot of money from There's a big
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  Speaker 5: gap with how people in China are feeling, and you
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  Speaker 5: just talk to people here and they're doing it tough.
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  Speaker 5: A lot of people are finding things pretty grim and
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  Speaker 5: they're very concerned about the outlook here. The Chinese government
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  Speaker 5: knows about the problems. They're taking them very seriously and
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  Speaker 5: trying to fix them. But we just don't know if
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  Speaker 5: they're going to be successful or not. But we do
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  Speaker 5: know that it's going to have an enormous impact on Australia.
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  Speaker 5: Whether they're successful or they're not successful, or they kind
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  Speaker 5: of muddle through. Either way, we're going to feel it
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  Speaker 5: back in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Book Glasgow is The Australian's North Asia correspondent. You can
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  Speaker 1: read all about his longer way to return to Beijing
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  Speaker 1: and see pictures and videos of the city four years
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  Speaker 1: on right now at the Australian dot com dot au