Writer
Gregory Clark
Gregory Clark was the first postwar Australian diplomat trained in Chinese, with postings to Hong Kong, Moscow and the UN before retiring in protest against the Vietnam War. After PhD studies at the ANU he became Japan correspondent for The Australian. A spell in Canberra’s Prime Ministers department led to professorships at Tokyo’s Sophia University and presidency of Tama University, before becoming co-founder of the very successful English language Akita Kokusai Daigaku. He has now retired to Latin America (Peru) and Kiwi fruit growing in Boso peninsular south of Tokyo. His works include ‘In Fear of China’ (1969) and several books in Japan on education and foreign policy. He used to speak Chinese and Russian with fluency. He now speaks Japanese and Spanish.
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Despite US pundits, the Taiwanese do not want war
By some strange reasoning NATO, the US and the pundits seem to think the current war between Russia – Ukraine is a precursor to hostilities they expect to see between Taiwan and China. Continue reading »
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Asian languages education: how did we end up in this mess?
How do we end up with an ALP government stupid enough to sign up for the ludicrous AUKUS proposal and the accompanying bogus, China threat scare? Continue reading »
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The BBC: a giant propaganda unit promoting the Ukrainian cause
In 2015 a BBC documentary on You Tube showed us the remarkable scene of a Ukrainian military unit trying to enter the outskirts of Slovyansk in the Donbas. Continue reading »
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Your atrocity is worse than my atrocity – A reply to Richard Cribb
The ‘your atrocity is worse than my atrocity’ argument at the core of Richard Cribb’s response to Richard Culllen over Japan needs to be handled with care. Continue reading »
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Japanese Ambassador breaches protocol, pushes Australia to embrace ‘China threat’
As a nation Japan would not win many Nobel peace prizes. Continue reading »
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Russia warns Japan on ‘openly unfriendly positions’
Moscow has now warned that Japan’s ‘openly unfriendly positions’ make delayed peace treaty talks impossible. Australia has some connections with those ‘unfriendly positions.’ Continue reading »
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Can Taiwan avoid the fate of Ukraine?
With Russian armies attacking into Ukraine, many have assumed Taiwan faces a similar threat from Mainland China. Continue reading »
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Taiwan backs Chiang Kai-shek’s great grandson in push for peace with Beijing
Defeated in 1949 in its civil war against China’s pro-Communist forces, the Nationalist KMT, or Kuo Min-tang, party has had a victory. But it had to wait till last Sunday’s Taiwan mayoral elections, where it won 13 of Taiwan’s 23 district electorates. Continue reading »
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The PM gushes enthusiasm for closer military ties with Japan. China sees it differently
From the start there was little in PM Albanese’s CV to suggest familiarity with foreign policy, Thanks to a recent interview with him in The Australian we discover he knows even less. Continue reading »
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Australia’s anti-China obsession
Sinophobia is embedded in the Australian DNA. Canberra’s Vietnam War follies were an early proof. Continue reading »
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The War in Ukraine: A report from Moscow
At last count there was only one English speaker reporting the war from the Russian side. For this recent visitor to Moscow, Mr Putin’s war hardly seemed to exist. No soldiers are marching the streets. The TV featured endless food shows. Continue reading »
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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 »
