If you haven’t yet dis­cov­ered, the 2008 Reith Lec­tures are cur­rently under way over at BBC Radio 4. This year they are being held by Jonathan Spence — a spe­cial­ist in Chi­nese his­tory — and the first two lec­tures have been on the top­ics of Con­fu­cius and UK-China relations.