The first two (of six) episodes include explainers on China’s family planning changes, from the one-child policy of the 1980s to the three-child policy of today, and Hong Kong’s shift from British to Chinese Communist Party control.

These sections are essentially educational features. To more invested viewers they will seem too general but Chinese history courses have been largely limited to elective units in high schools and only an estimated 130 Australians of non-Chinese heritage can speak Chinese fluently. The more background, the better.

The show is at its best when it does three deeper dives – into China’s comedy scene, the feminist movement and video game culture. They all offer new perspectives on emerging trends in China. Comedian Annie Louey looks at the nuances of why Western jokes fall flat in Chinese comedy, reporter Angharad Yeo explores China’s video game curfew to stop late-night teenagers fuelling the $32 billion industry, and Samuel Yang looks at the challenges faced by young feminist organisers across China.

But they also reveal the limitations of running a show from the outside looking in. Across the two episodes, only one mainland Chinese voice based in China is featured, Maizi Li, a feminist activist whose personal social media accounts have been shut down.

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Otherwise, it is filled with Australian academics, Chinese experts living overseas or foreign officials like Wang. It’s a problem all media have to confront now there are no Australian journalists working for Australian media outlets left in China and the general public is increasingly fearful of talking to foreign media, but one that is worth acknowledging.

The meat of the show for closer China-watchers is in Grant’s interviews with his guests. He takes an adversarial, ABC 7.30-style approach, playing the devil’s advocate with Hui (the exiled Hong Kong politician) to ask why Hong Kong should have freedoms that other parts of China do not, while pressing Wang on allegations of genocide in Xinjiang.

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Wang, a charmer who is not from Beijing’s “wolf warrior” school of diplomacy, is erudite and wordly. He cut his teeth in Washington and Brussels. He is at home on panels and giving speeches but less so in this Australian style of TV interviewing. If Grant can replicate it with some more heavy hitters out of Beijing or Hong Kong, it will make for good TV.

Structurally, the show is interesting. It goes to broader, lighter areas that would have conventionally finished current affairs programs before narrowing down. It opens with presenter Yvonne Yong’s “what’s trending?” section on Chinese social media. Racing through popular topics on Weibo: the herd of elephants marching across China, the cult following of TV show Friends, and the endless pressure of college entrance exams.

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There is a risk that this approach highlights the “crazy stuff that has happened in China this week” to grab viewers’ attention but it may (for now) be a handy way of hooking people into some dense subject matter.

The show’s greatest strength is in its diversity of reporters. Grant and his producers have given young Chinese-Australian journalists and presenters a go, staffing the show with a new batch of reporters who could be key to Australia understanding China in the years ahead.

Eryk Bagshaw is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

China Tonight is on Tuesday, ABC News, 8pm and ABC, 10.30pm