Writer
Gregory Clark
Gregory Clark began his career in Australia’s Department of External Affairs, with postings to Hong Kong and Moscow. Resigning in 1964 to protest at Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War he moved to Japan, becoming emeritus president of Tama University in Tokyo and vice-president of the pioneering Akita International University. He continues to live in Japan and has established himself as a commentator/academic. Between 1969-74 he was correspondent for The Australian in Tokyo. More on www.gregoryclark.net
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PM attending controversial Abe State funeral a diplomatic mis-step
Mr Albanese is coming to Tokyo for the September 27 state funeral of former Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Does our PM know or care about Abe’s background? Two thirds of Japanese people oppose the state funeral. Continue reading »
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Ukraine: Western missteps lead to something much worse
When even our media of conscience lose interest in the details of emerging East West crises the results can be tragic. Continue reading »
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Will Russia join China in the Pacific?
‘For Russia, China is the key’ was a claim made for the recent Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok annually, and attended by Russia’s President Putin. Continue reading »
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Japan can only blame itself for failure on the ‘northern territories’.
Japan has protested Moscow’s use of four Japanese claimed islands during its recent Vostok -2022 military exercises in Russia’s Far East and Japan’s northern seas. Continue reading »
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Uyghurs and the Bachelet report
As UN high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet has released the report of her office into human rights concerns in China’s Xinjiang province. Amongst other things it accuses officials in the province of torturing Uyghurs detained for suspected dissident crimes. Continue reading »
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Another unprofessional performance by Four Corners, this time on Xinjiang
Several weeks ago Four Corners gave us a special program about Xinjiang Uyghurs sent to prison-style camps and forced to learn Chinese. I watched it recently as a rebroadcast. Continue reading »
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The Chinese non-threat
Our resident non-Chinese speaking, non-Chinese informed but bitterly ‘China is expansionist-aggressive’ commentators in the mainstream media in Australia don’t have,or even want to have, any idea about China? Continue reading »
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Morrison and Japan’s new rightist religions
Japan’s New Religions are becoming an international problem. Continue reading »
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The propaganda war in Ukraine
Freedom of press critics have complained how the Russian government news program, RT, has been blocked by many Western outlets during the Ukrainian fighting. Continue reading »
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Shinzo Abe, his wife and North Korea
Giving tribute to the deceased former Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Albanese described him as a ’true patriot.’ Continue reading »
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The sufferings of the North Korean people are a blot on the conscience and humanity of the West
Just twenty years ago the world had the chance to put an end to this suffering. It said no, and allowed a Japanese leader, Abe Shinzo, to impose his sadistic will on that long traumatised nation. Continue reading »
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Anti-China is in the Australian DNA
Is there any hope for Australia-China relations? I have spent most of a 60 year career on the periphery of those relations – in Canberra, Hong Kong, Moscow and Japan, with some time in China mainly during the crucial Cultural Revolution period. Continue reading »
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Amnesia over Ukraine
The West seems to have forgotten there are several precedents for a solution in Ukraine. Continue reading »
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The Western reactions to Ukraine and Solomon Islands events have something in common
It’s an ugly mistake called phenomenalism. Continue reading »
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The decline in Australian diplomatic skills
The Solomon Islands fiasco confirms what some of us have long known – the gradual decline in the quality of Australian foreign policy. Continue reading »
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Western media have failed dismally in reporting the Ukraine war
While Western news agencies and media have been falling over each other in the rush to cover the Ukrainian side of the story the Russian side of the story has been ignored. Continue reading »
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Western media hypocrisy in reporting from Ukraine
For eight years Ukraine’s military and ultra-nationalists militias have felt free to try to ravage the two Donbas hold-outs, beginning with the total destruction of a large modern airport of Donetsk. Continue reading »
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Russia and Ukraine
Moscow (read Putin) had his reasons for wanting to invade Ukraine. Continue reading »
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Peng Shuai returns serve on the media beat-up merchants
The tennis player’s story was distorted by the media. But we won’t hear any apologies from the blame-China brigade. Continue reading »
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Japan’s master plan for victory: what could have been
In Australia we like to believe that the US Pacific Fleet saved us from Japanese attack in 1942-1944, but that is only partly true. Continue reading »
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French initiatives to calm Ukraine tension reduce invasion danger
As France works to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine, the anti-Russian media will need to find another bone to chew on. Continue reading »
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Duplicitous Ukrainian government is no innocent victim of Russian bullying
Anti-Russian troops and militias have been determined to wipe out the two pro-Russian provincial holdouts approved by the 2015 Minsk agreement. Continue reading »
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The Peng Shuai affair: the West’s reaction should be laughed out of court
The use by China critics of a tennis player’s broken relationship with a senior party official to paint the regime in Beijing as evil is absurd. Continue reading »
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How Ukraine’s dominant right wing undermines the peace
Kiev’s determination to extinguish pro-Russian sentiment in its two far eastern provinces has derailed the Minsk agreement, which offered the best hope for stability in the region. Continue reading »
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Japan’s powerful hawks kill damaging leaks in pursuit of North Korea
Japan’s commitment to a campaign to return citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago betrays its desire to ensure North Korea remains an enemy. Continue reading »
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What a relief to hear an Australian leader talking sense at last about China
The complex state of Beijing-Taipei relations that the anti-China hawks do not understand or probably worse don’t want to understand. Continue reading »
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Conservatives likely to retain power in Japanese election
As Japan heads to an election this weekend, the Liberal Democratic Party is expected to retain government over weakened progressive parties. Continue reading »
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The remarkable story of Japan’s North Korean abductees
Nearly two decades after North Korea retuned five people it abducted to their home country of Japan, efforts to silence those who challenge the government line continue. Continue reading »
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China, Taiwan and the US: the real terms of the deal
The US and China established full diplomatic relations in 1979, but that year the US Congress wrote its own script for Taiwan. Today, what the Chinese side interprets as word games by the US may wreak deadly consequences. Continue reading »
