World Affairs
-
Paul Keating’s meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the evolution of bilateral relations with China
Paul Keating’s report on his meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi brought back memories of an hour long one on one conversation I had with Jiang Zemin, who in 1987 brought a trade mission to Sydney. He was the Mayor of Shanghai at the time. Continue reading »
-
The United States, China, and the Future of the Global Order
“Happy to have engaged in a provocative yet always civil dialogue with the famous China expert Orville Schell at the Asia Society in New York on Thursday, 21st March. Hope you will enjoy it too.” Continue reading »
-
Reversing Europe’s and Australia’s slide into irrelevance and insecurity
Europe and Australia are facing a common existential threat: a creeping irrelevance caused, on the one hand, by our failure properly to invest and, on the other hand, by our ill-considered slide from a strategic dependence on the United States to a non-strategic, self-defeating servility to Washington’s policy agenda. Continue reading »
-
Gaza, Assange, and the destruction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As we speak, international law is being openly flouted by powerful actors, [the US, the UK, and Israel] with devastating results for Julian Assange, and other political prisoners, for thousands of innocent civilians slaughtered in Gaza, and for the continued viability of international human rights and international law themselves. Continue reading »
-
The sin of “hubris”
The sin of “hubris” is to shame and humiliate others for pleasure or gratification. Such narcissistic pleasures were considered offensive to the gods of ancient Greece; a case of breaching the boundaries between the human and divine realms. Continue reading »
-
The parade of talk going nowhere
ASEAN has been around for so long media outlets rarely spell the full name – Association of Southeast Asian Nations. That sounds significant and grand. It’s not. Continue reading »
-
Denmark finds ‘Deliberate Sabotage’ of Nord Stream – but ends probe with no charges
The country is the second U.S. ally in the past month to end an investigation into the pipeline explosions. Continue reading »
-
Amidst strategic stalemate, Ukraine war remains Vatican priority
Two years since the Russian invasion, Ukraine has faded from the headlines. But not in the Vatican and for the man who might be the next Pope. Continue reading »
-
Will Netanyahu bring down Biden?
The cabinet of Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is filled with religious extremists who believe that Israel’s brutality in Gaza is at God’s command. According to the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible, dated by scholars to the 7th century BC, God promised the land to the Jewish people and instructed them to destroy Continue reading »
-
Today, every Palestinian is a target for death, extermination and genocide
“We are rapidly approaching a critical juncture where the call to halt the Machinery of Violence will lose its significance.” Continue reading »
-
Things are not what they seem
We are homo dramatis, the species that tells stories. Today more and more of us are rejecting America and Israel’s stories and are searching for a better script. That is a good thing because History is calling us to be actors, not spectators, in the drama playing out in Gaza. Continue reading »
-
Ukraine, Gaza wars reveal how, for the West, it’s a jungle out there
The idea of a Western garden under threat from the unruly jungles of the rest of the world is at the heart of today’s global rifts. The Ukraine conflict basically pushed Russia out of the Western garden, just as the Gaza conflict revealed that Israel, as a Western outpost, can commit atrocities with impunity. Continue reading »
-
The world is fighting back against a real genocide
Now we know how racial mass murders are committed by watching one live on our computer and TV screens. Continue reading »
-
Does China want Trump to win in 2024?
Agathe Demarais is a senior policy fellow on geoeconomics at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a Foreign Policy columnist. She recently argued in that journal (with a clear anti-Trump tilt)-that “China is Rooting for Trump” Continue reading »
-
‘Devastating’: wife of imprisoned journalist Julian Assange mourns death of Alexei Navalny
“Navalny was an opposition figure, but his investigative journalism exposed the corruption of the ruling elites in Russia,” said Stella Assange. Continue reading »
-
When open justice is an optional ingredient
I had been assuming that Julian Assange, whose case comes up for adjudication in the British Courts soon, was a shoo-in for being Australia’s prisoner of conscience of the decade, but a late entry into the competition is Michael Pezzullo, who appears to have been condemned by an Australian Star Chamber convening in secret, without Continue reading »
-
What’s ruining America?
David Brooks describes himself as a moderate-conservative. Born in Canada but long resident in America, he is a respected, outspoken columnist for the New York Times and a range of other outlets. He has now explained what he believes is devastating America. Continue reading »
-
Is a new Korean war in the offing?
In recent days, U.S. media have been proclaiming that North Korea plans to initiate military action against its neighbour to the south. An article by Robert L. Carlin and Siegfried S. Hecker, neither previously prone to making wild assertions, created quite a splash and set off a chain reaction of media fear-mongering. In Carlin’s and Continue reading »
-
US Intervention to end the war in Gaza
What is almost universally agreed is that an enduring peace settlement for Palestine must be based on a two-State solution. However, getting that settlement accepted will require active intervention by the US to broker the deal. Continue reading »
-
China extends full diplomatic recognition to Taliban in blow to US
The diplomatic recognition of the Taliban government in Afghanistan on January 31, 2024 by China must be bracketed with two other far-reaching regional policy moves by Beijing in the post-cold war era —the Shanghai Five in 1996 — later renamed as Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2001— and the Belt and Road Initiative announced by President Continue reading »
-
Extradition looms for Julian Assange
The UK High Court has delayed the extradition of Julian Assange to the US for a further three weeks, requesting the United States give assurances that Assange will be protected by First Amendment free speech rights, that he won’t be discriminated against as an Australian citizen, and that he will not face the death penalty. Continue reading »
-
China warns foreign hackers are infiltrating ‘hundreds’ of business and government networks
Top spy agency urges Chinese citizens to step up cybersecurity as attacks by overseas agencies have been ‘rampant’ in recent years. The message comes as Beijing broadens scope of anti-espionage law to cover online attacks and prepares to expand penalties for data violations. Continue reading »
-
Is China an Imperialist nation?
I was recently sent a complete list of China’s invasions of other countries in the last 2,245 years to demonstrated that China is historically an imperial nation and hence dangerous. Continue reading »
-
The empire slowly suffocates Assange like it slowly suffocates all its enemies
The British High Court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may potentially get a final appeal against extradition to the United States, but only within a very limited scope and only if specific conditions are met. Continue reading »
-
US-China electric vehicle dispute shows old trade rules imperil climate action
“The climate crisis is too urgent for the U.S. or any country to allow outdated trade rules… to distract us from enacting bold climate policies,” argued one campaigner. Continue reading »
-
Anatomy of a Genocide
After five months of military operations, Israel has destroyed Gaza. By analysing the patterns of violence and Israel’s policies in its onslaught on Gaza, this report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met. More broadly, they also indicate that Israel’s actions have been driven Continue reading »
-
Lunacy: Australia pays the US billions to “keep those Chinese at bay”
When Canberra told us we had to join the US in its cruel attempt to prevent a Vietnamese peasant army from overthrowing a US-armed Saigon government, some of us thought the politicians were plain stupid. Continue reading »
-
China steals a march on a distracted world
For China these days it doesn’t get much easier to pursue it geostrategic objectives. With the US distracted on two fronts in Europe and the Middle East, and Russia mired in its intractable invasion of Ukraine, among the great powers, China is largely free to advance its interests on an increasingly global scale. Sabre rattling Continue reading »
-
America’s latest move to block China’s economic rise
US lawmakers have introduced a bill that would bar US mutual funds from investing in indexes that track Chinese stocks (Bloomberg). According to Bloomberg “The legislation targets mutual funds that invest in indexes tracking primarily Chinese stocks, rather than those investing in indexes that only include some Chinese companies, according to Sherman’s office. However, the Continue reading »
-
Overcoming the national tendency to blame migrants for all our woes
On Palm Sunday, diverse refugee activists were literally running rings around reflexive fear mongering politicians. Continue reading »
-
Have we passed ‘Peak China’?
Saul Eslake, the renowned and independent economist, has updated his China chart pack which was last prepared in January 2023. The chart pack gives a bird’s eye view of the economic challenges China needs to address. By using the term ‘Peak China’, he does not mean that China will collapse, but that its future economic Continue reading »
-
Playing the hunger games
The nightmare sprung to life: A gang. Worse, an Asian teen gang. An hour before dawn. I’m alone. With a bike. Continue reading »
-
Why are Liberals trashing relations with WA’s biggest export customer?
Andrew Hastie and Tony Abbott are trying to install a candidate in WA who has written a fictional book to scare people about a Chinese invasion of Australia. Continue reading »
-
BYD says plug-in electrics will exceed 50 pct of new car sales in China in next 3 months
The CEO of BYD, the Chinese giant challenging Tesla as the world’s biggest electric vehicle maker, says sales of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), including battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), will make up more than half of all new cars sold in China within the next three months. Continue reading »
-
China is chastised for its new boundary in Tonkin Gulf
China is one of the most misunderstood and maligned nations when it comes to what it does and does not do in the South China Sea, and that it claims almost all features. China’s nine-dash line controversial claim in the South China Sea is actively challenged by five other coastal states in the region including Continue reading »
-
Human rights protections underpin safeguarding national security ordinance
Grenville Cross says new legislation incorporates guarantees lacking in other common-law jurisdictions’ similar laws. Continue reading »
-
Que sera sera: “Australia will be Australia; China will be China.”
Penny Wong has a new mantra for Australia China relations. Continue reading »
-
Chinese universities want more Australian students: we should send them
Australia is trailing its neighbours in the race to acquire China knowledge and capability, which can only come from in-country experience, writes Louise Edwards. Continue reading »
-
On Syria, sanctions, terror and war – an open letter to Australian parliamentarians
When we choose not to show empathy for the people of Syria, it leads us to ignore their country’s ancient history and the rich fabric of Syrian society today. Continue reading »
-
If TikTok is banned in the US or Australia, how might the company – or China – respond?
TikTok’s owner is once again navigating troubled waters in the United States, where the US House of Representatives has issued an ultimatum: divest or face shutdown within six months. Continue reading »
-
ASEAN carpet baggers
Without a hint of embarrassment, Australian Treasurer Chalmers declared that ASEAN was ripe for the plucking by Australian business turbocharged by a AUD$2 billion fund. Continue reading »
-
Thai establishment to disband popular party – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: ‘Inexorable, predictable’ proceedings against Move Forward. Plus: South Korea’s new envoy at heart of political row; Xi revives Mao’s party-control dictum; Fukushima meltdown fuel still a mystery; China’s tai chi diplomatic culture; Singapore writer in long Taylor Swift gloat. Continue reading »
-
Do China’s leaders fully grasp foreigners’ concerns about the country?
Beijing has been slow to address the visa and e-payment woes of foreign travellers, and some officials remain complacent about the exodus of foreign investment. Continue reading »
-
Tea for two: Preparing for talks with China’s Foreign Minister
We shall never get anywhere with the Australia-China relationship if we are not pragmatic, as Bismarck famously said. While we must avoid over-ambitious goals, forthcoming official talks with China’s top foreign affairs official Wang Yi will present a unique opportunity to test the government’s relationship reset. Continue reading »
-
Six peculiar ‘Peak China’ myths we all should question
In recent years, there has been a notable shift among certain Western politicians, media outlets and think tanks regarding their perspective on China’s developmental trajectory. The once popular theory of an imminent collapse of China, famously asserted by Gordon G. Chang over two decades ago, has finally begun to lose traction. Continue reading »
-
UK/US: Time to end prosecution of Julian Assange, UN expert says
GENEVA (1 March 2024) – A UN expert today expressed concern that the possible extradition and imminent prosecution in the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could have serious implications for freedom of expression. Continue reading »