Writer
Marcus Reubenstein
Marcus Reubenstein is an independent journalist with more than twenty-five years of media experience, having previously been a staffer with a federal Liberal Party senator from 1992 to 1994. He spent five years at Seven News in Sydney and seven years at SBS World News where he was a senior correspondent. As a print journalist he has contributed to most of Australia’s major news outlets. Internationally he has worked on assignments for CNN, Eurosport and the Olympic Games Broadcasting Service. He is the founder and editor of Asian business new website, APAC Business Review.
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Chinese dance spectacular, Shen Yun faces allegations of child trafficking and abuse
As Shen Yun gears up for its annual multi-million-dollar tour of Australia, the U.S.-based Chinese dance group is facing a class action lawsuit for multiple counts of child trafficking, abusive practices and breaching a slew of U.S. labour laws. Continue reading »
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The Electoral Reform Bill is stalled but the party is far from over
The Australian Uniparty— also known as the cosy ALP/LNP coalition of self-interest—is jockeying for electoral reform. Talks between Labor and the LNP have broken down so those reforms are not coming in any time soon but, as former New South Wales Labor premier Jack Lang was fond of saying, “Always back the horse named ‘self-interest’, Continue reading »
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Passing of Tony Pun a great loss for all Australians
Prominent Chinese community leader, Dr Anthony “Tony” Pun died last night in Sydney, aged 77. In 1989 he came to public prominence when he lobbied then prime minister Bob Hawke to allow Chinese students to remain in Australia, in the wake of the crackdown on Chinese student protests that led to the Tiananmen Square incident. Continue reading »
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The National Press Club exemplifies the erosion of journalism
The National Press Club sells access to influential journalists to organisations with vested interests in shaping government policy and self-promotion. Continue reading »
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The ‘independent’ think tank that writes its own history!
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s claims of fearless independence ring hollow as foreign governments and corporate entities shower it with money. Continue reading »
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Star spangled propaganda: ASPI to open office in the US so as to be close to the military and business complex.
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light? It’s a new dawn for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) as it succumbs to the irrefutable truth it is nothing more than a vassal for American interests, opening a US office. Continue reading »
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Dungeons and dragons: The China threat fiction
China is an increasingly authoritarian state, actively asserting its will regionally and within its own borders giving rise to a dangerous fiction. Continue reading »
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ASPI sponsors collect billions from Defence
Scott Morrison’s latest billion-dollar missile spend was leaked to the media and then talked up by ASPI whose sponsors have raked in $51 billion in Defence Department contracts whilst doling cash to the highly-conflicted “think-tank” Continue reading »
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Being Chinese in Australia: the good, the bad and the ugly
A snapshot of the life for Chinese-Australians shows three quarters say they are happy living in Australia, yet in the past 12 months one in five has reported being physically threatened or attacked. Continue reading »
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US presidents love to play a round
The US presidency is said to be the office of the “leader of the free world” yet, as highlighted by the dying days of Donald Trump’s presidency, one of the most challenging handicaps for US presidents seems to have been on the golf course. Continue reading »
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Undue influence? University grants questioned after ASPI US-funded research
The Australian Research Council launched an investigation into Australian academics solely on the basis of US government-funded research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Continue reading »
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Agents of foreign influence. What about the Australian Strategic Policy Institute?
The Australia-China relationship has hit new lows, with China’s ban on a range of imports threatening $20 billion of Australian exports. However, just in the past few days Scott Morrison has said Australia’s position has been wrongly interpreted as siding with the United States over China, and that his government would not make a “binary Continue reading »
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Abetz committee shuts down critics
A top Chinese community leader Dr Tony Pun, who was highly critical of Eric Abetz was silenced by the Senate committee looking into diaspora communities, while a pro-Trump Chinese media outlet was welcomed to make public comment. Editor’s note: After publication of this article on the APAC.News website yesterday, the Senate released a transcript of evidence Continue reading »
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ASPI’s Broadcasting Corporation?
Is ABC management complicit in letting senior on-air talent promote the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and its sponsors, without declaring conflicts of interest? Continue reading »
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US prison labour, foreign weapons-makers finance Australian government think tank ASPI
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank owned by the Commonwealth and funded by the Defence Department, also receives millions from foreign governments, weapons manufacturers, and US corporations that have used or are using prison workers paid as little as 23 cents an hour. Continue reading »
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Chinese interference overblown
Floating the idea of a Foreign Interference Commissioner in the face of a diplomatic storm front is not going to steer us into calmer waters Continue reading »
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Sino-Australian media ‘cold war’ on ice
The shock and indignation of the Australian media over the forced departure of two China correspondents has quickly dissipated following revelations that ASIO raided the homes of four Chinese journalists two months earlier Continue reading »
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US sanctions policy ‘on steroids’: a legitimate tool or is Donald Trump using it for retribution? (Michael West August 10, 2020)
The Trump Administration is adding foreign individuals and entities to US sanctions lists at a rate never before seen and it’s increasingly been done without Congressional oversight, judicial review or any requirement to produce evidence, writes Marcus Reubenstein. Continue reading »
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Uncle Sam grabs CCP playbook (APAC News, 3 August 2020)
The US State Department is quietly funding a Chinese-language news service in Australia, a move more typically associated with China’s state media propagandists. Continue reading »
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“Independent” think-tank ASPI behind push for more defence spending rakes in advisory fees
Funded by the Department of Defence, the Australia Strategic Policy Institute collects millions more as it drives the “China threat” narrative. As Marcus Reubenstein reports, while ASPI is the media’s go-to experts for public comment, ASPI is remarkably coy about revealing all its funding sources. Continue reading »
