Writer
Hamish McDonald
Hamish McDonald has been a correspondent in Jakarta, Tokyo, New Delhi and Beijing, and was Regional Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and Foreign Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He has won two Walkley Awards for reporting from Asia and was made an Inaugural Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
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Think-tanked
As a China-watching think tank winds up after Morrison-era cuts, a respected analyst reviews government funding for security-related research and education. Continue reading »
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Australian Media in the Asian Century.
This edition of ‘Australian Media in the Asian Century’ explores mainstream media coverage of the centenary for the Chinese Communist Party, UNESCO’s “in danger” listing of the Great Barrier Reef, abundant reports on the Miami building collapse and Australia’s Covid third wave in comparison to reports on Covid outbreaks in neighbouring countries, and ongoing tension Continue reading »
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Australian Media in the Asian Century
Scott Morrison calling. It’s been another fortnight of triumph in world forums for Scott Morrison, if you’ve read the headlines and lead paragraphs in The Australian and the Australian Financial Review. Continue reading »
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Australian Media in the Asian Century: Bogans in a Monaro alarm business
You would not know it from the coverage of Scott Morrison’s foray to meet Jacinda Ardern in Queenstown last weekend – which was all about Anzac “family” trumping trade interests on China etc – but the government is in a sullen defensive on its handling of China relations. Continue reading »
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Australian Media in the Asian Century.
This week’s media roundup sees the welcome return of journalist Max Suich. In response spluttering snipes from the anti-China hawks’ nests at ASPI and the ANU’s National Security College were weak. There were also several book releases around growing tensions between Australia and China and new information on the ASIS bugging of Timor-Leste in 2004. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: Belting Victoria
The federal press gallery continues to give the Morrison government a free ride on its handling of foreign policy. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century.
If Defence is going to be Peter Dutton’s springboard to greater power, he has a like mind in the United States in Mike Pompeo who is hoping to rally the defeated Republicans towards victory in 2024. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: On our Quad bikes
The most concrete measure to come out of the March 12 Quad summit was a plan for India’s huge pharmaceutical industry to manufacture one billion doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine financed by the US and Japan for world-wide distribution to regions in need, particularly the most remote. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century
They come at it from different angles but Chinese deputy ambassador Wang Xining and Peta Credlin, former prime ministerial staffer of Tony Abbott and current Sky News After Dark presenter, are agreed on one thing: the Australian media have gone to the dogs. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: crises galore but screens are filled with Boris’ antics
Australia takes a safety-in-numbers approach to Myanmar, but shows no such restraint in dealings with China. And speaking of China, there was a meeting of minds in The Australian, both left and right. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: Defamation payout has Nine urging law reform
And Senator Eric Abetz does not back away from his much-criticised call at a hearing last October for three Chinese-Australian witnesses to publicly and unconditionally condemn “the Chinese Communist party dictatorship”. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: Digging in deeper in an already fraught relationship with China
China sanctions a sting in the tail for Trump officials; role of ASPI in provoking ire of China flies under the radar; and conservatives perform impressive backflips on Biden. Continue reading »
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Line between sledging and racism continues to blur
An invidious Sydney tradition surfaced again at the third Test match between Australia and India last week, with six spectators ejected from a stand for allegedly racist chants towards a nearby Indian outfielder. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century. An Australian anti-China hawk helped draft US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific
“In many ways (Australians) were ahead of the curve in understanding influence operations and interference in domestic systems,” one senior US official told me. “They were pioneers and we have to give a lot of credit to Australia.” The official singled out former Australian senior intelligence advisor John Garnaut for praise…’ Continue reading »
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Eggbeaters in full flight: extoling the virtues of new Trade Minister Tehan
Tehan to the rescue, a Hastie move into Defence and Chinese whispers. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: Read all about our media expertise on China!
This week Sharri Markson exposed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the British MI6 and others for a gormless bunch of gumshoes and naifs. Continue reading »
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Hook, line and sinker: China threw the cast and Scott Morrison fell for it
As someone who has been associated with the Sydney Morning Herald for more than 50 years as a cadet, reporter, correspondent, leader writer, foreign editor and still occasional contributor, I can’t think of a lower level of commentary ever run in the newspaper. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century. The past week’s regional diplomacy passed through the media in a blur.
Drop-catching in Canberra China’s embassy in Canberra has belatedly woken up to the way things are done in our capital, it seems, and got into the business of “dropping” newsworthy material into the laps of selected press gallery members. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: upheaval all around but no Australian perspective
For the Australian media, it seems, it’s always safe in England or America. Anyone noticed that despite a daily death toll from Covid-19 of near 500 in the UK and near 1,000 in the US, there is no talk of withdrawing correspondents. Continue reading »
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The Un-Australian Activities Committee and Eric Abetz. Media in the Asian Century
Is Senator Eric Abetz working for the Chinese Communist Party’s United Work Front Department?…Not one Australian newspaper has editorialised about his conduct. Continue reading »
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Australian media in the Asian century
Pompeo and circumstance Our foreign minister, Marise Payne, flew off to Tokyo for a rare meeting of the “Quad” on Tuesday with counterparts including the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Continue reading »
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Australian media in the Asian Century
The struggles and contradictions in media understanding of China. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century. Tit for tat for journalists.
And did anyone in Canberra get the chance to tell Peter Dutton and Christian Porter that raiding some Chinese journalists, hardly deep-cover agents, might invite retaliation in kind? Was the lure of building an ALP-linked Chinese influence case, with Professor Chen Hong’s earlier work for Bob Hawke thrown in, simply too much to resist? Continue reading »
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Australian Media in the Asian Century
Aided by the media frenzy,the Government blitz on China continues and Tony Abbott takes a job serving Boris Johnson. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century
Our main stream media just does not understand Asia. It’s ignorance and hostility is on display day after day.It relies on news ‘drops’ from our security and defence agencies. Continue reading »
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His country, weak or strong (Inside Story 3 August, 2020)
Xi Jinping is standing in an open military vehicle as it rolls down Beijing’s Avenue of Heavenly Peace. He greets the thousands of troops lined up on either side: “Comrades, thank you for your work!” Heads swivelling to keep their gaze on him, the soldiers shout back, “And you for your work!” Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century
As it turned out, Marise Payne seemed to be using the John Howard playbook of alliance management in the Washington visit. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century
Australian media lead the anti-China campaign. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century
It’s actually less august journos in the Murdoch chain of tabloids that are getting Xi Jinping’s goat and setting relations with China into a downward spiral, at some cost to Australian exporters. Continue reading »
