Caught up in ‘tit for tat’ political games: journalist Mike Smith details his exit from China

For the first time in five decades there are now no Australian news outlets with a correspondent in the People’s Republic of China – a very sorry state of affairs.

Journalist Mike Smith, from The Australian Financial Review, fled his Shanghai home late last year after he and ABC reporter Bill Birtles experienced an unacceptable level of pressure from Chinese authorities.

Today on Please Explain, Tory Maguire is joined by Smith to speak about his dramatic exit from China which he’s written about in his new book, The Last Correspondent.

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