Michael Sainsbury

Michael Sainsbury is a former China correspondent (now based in South-East Asia), with more than 20 years’ experience writing about business, business politics and human rights across Australia and the Asia Pacific.

Michael's recent articles

"US influenced Sinophobia”: The incarceration of Australian citizen Daniel Duggan

"US influenced Sinophobia”: The incarceration of Australian citizen Daniel Duggan

The horrific incarceration of Australian Daniel Duggan, a political prisoner in his own country, will have lasted two years next week.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Back to basics for Pope at huge Tokyo Mass (UCA News 25-11-19)

Francis warns against the consumerism and isolation that wealthy societies can create

Things haven't been this bad between Australia and China in 30 years (Crikey, 14 August 2019)

The Morrison governments increasing ties to the Trump administration is, by consequence, achieving quite the opposite of its previous goal of resetting Australias relationship with China.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Australian Catholic Church - reform or die.

Australia's Catholic bishops appear to have ceded control of the direction of wholesale reform in the church, with the announcement of a sweeping and unprecedented review into the management of dioceses and parishes by a group whose six-members include just one member of the clergy and three women including a nun.

Scott John Morrison: Where the bloody hell did he come from? (Michael West)

Its not every Prime Minister who loses a vote on his governments own legislation. The man who ended an80 year run not only definitely deserves a special mention in Australias political history but a closer look at just where the hell he came from. Michael Sainsbury unpacks the peripatetic pre-parliamentary adventures of Scott John Morrison.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY Vatican names two reconciled bishops to head Chinese dioceses Catholic News Service, 17.12.18)

SYDNEY (CNS) -- As part of its ongoing efforts to reconcile China's Catholic communities, the Vatican recognized two previously excommunicated Chinese bishops as heads of dioceses.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Beijing's spin on Xinjiang camps is not fooling anyone.

Communist regime has offered a string of justifications for its inhumane treatment of the Uyghur people. This article was published by UCA News on the 6th of November.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Rohingya refugee crisis hits Myanmar's economy (UCANews, 30.10.18))

While the Rohingya crisisand the escalating problems in Kachin and northern ShanState are grabbing headlines, Myanmar's sagging economy and the withdrawal of investment by Western nations threaten to hit the largely impoverished nation the hardest.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. ScoMos Turnaround: Peter Dutton and Stuart Robert ride to the rescue

The Chronicles of a Fleeting Prime Minister And so he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from The Destruction. Then came the season of The Renewal, and now, The Turnaround is upon the people. With 50 days and 50 nights in office, PM Scott Morrison just smote the record of Arthur Fadden, our fourth shortest-serving PM, and is on his way to vanquish the fifth, Chris Watson. Michael Sainsburyreports.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Not Gonski yet: ScoMo, schools, tools and the battle for Wentworth.

The ScoMo-ment, Episode II: Scott prevails for another week, consolidating his drive to not become Australias fourth shortest prime minister. Michael Sainsbury reports as the by-election battle for Malcolm Turnbulls seat of Wentworth heats up.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Scott Morrison smashes shortest Prime Minister records.

Is Scott Morrison really on his way to a full half-term? As Liberal MPs flee the parliament and by-elections mushroom, the Member for Cook has already failed to earn the distinction of Australias fastest prime ministership. But will he vanquish the record of Arthur Fadden? Michael Sainsbury reports.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY Can a woman save Wentworth for the Libs? (Crikey, 12.09.18)

Liberal candidate Andrew Bragg has bowed out of the race for Wentworth, citing a need for women candidates. But will it be enough?

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Tim Murray, Labors best chance in Wentworth since Jessie Street?

If you thought that Australian politics could not get more bizarre, its time to think again. The race is on for one of the Liberal Partys blue chip seats with the official retirement of Malcolm Turnbull, the Member for Wentworth.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Payne can give proper attention to Asia that Bishop failed to do- (Crikey)

Australias new Foreign Minister Marise Payne has plenty to learn from Julie Bishops significant missteps and indeed non-steps in the same role.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Malaysia's 'new' 92-year-old leader is an old man in a hurry.(UCANEWS on 30 June 2018)

In multi-ethnic, religiously diverse Penang most people couldnt be happier, but the government has plenty of work to do.

JOSE BELO and MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Timor-Leste's new leaders warn president

Former presidents Xanana Gusmao and Tuar Matan Ruak scotch unity government talk Overwhelmingly Catholic Timor-Leste could be heading for more political strife despite a coalition headed by independence heroXanana Gusmao having a clear win in May 12 elections.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY AND THOMAS ORA. Timor-Leste's young government teeters on collapse

Asias most Catholic country faces the prospect of a second election inside nine months after government fractures

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. In defence of the tragic, impotent silence of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Can Pope Francis help with her effective silence over the Rohingya crisis being perpetrated by Myanmars military that is a measure of her governments helplessness?

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Religious and ethnic persecution sours ASEAN's birthday party

Against the backdrop of a rising China, positive news out of the region is being undermined by several major crises.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. A shonky affair.

Here lies the exquisite dilemma for the Packer lobbyists: help push the Chinese side to get a better deal, perhaps an exchange program for their incarcerated staff, or strike another deal, leaving all those ill-gotten gains sloshing around Sydney and Melbourne and finding their way to the Packer gaming tables.

MICHAELSAINSBURY. Xi who must be obeyed

Already China is prodding at the U.S. at this delicate time when it is shifting administrations, testing the waters, as it were with its capture of an underwater drone not far from the Philippines this week. Internally, he faces the 19th Congress as his test.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY. Packer kowtows after cash cow slough, Macau Crown row.

James Packer's ignominious retreat from his once-lauded international strategy is continuing apace as 17 staff from Crown Resorts, the company he controls with 48% of its stock, continue to languish in Chinese detention centres.

Michael Sainsbury. FIRB credibility shot with execution of Chinese gangster.

Liu Han, the Chinese criminal whose billion dollar bidfor Australian mining company Sundance Resources sailed through the Foreign Investment Review Board with barely the bat of an eyelid has been executed along with his brother, Liu Wei once one of Chinas ten most wanted murderers. So endeth one of the most embarrassing episodes in recent Australian corporate history that exposed the incompetence not just of FIRB but of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as well. It was very clear by stories published in the media and in publicly available information thatLiu was a very questionable character,almost certainly...

Michael Kelly and Michael Sainsbury on The Pope and the President.

When the Chinese government confirmed Xi Jingpin as the countrys president in March 2013, among the congratulatory letters received in Beijing was one from the newly elected Pope Francis. It was a nice touch from the leader of one regime to another, since the two have been at odds for decades over religious freedom. Over the years, many observers have remarked on the similarity between the two dogmatic, highly regimented and stratified organizations operated by powerful but opaque ruling cliques, regimes that have brooked no opposition to their official diktat from the centre. The two leaders command the...

Michael Sainsbury. Will Chinas crackdown save or sink the Communist Party?

In launching an investigation into former security chief Zhou Yongkang, Chinese President Xi Jinping has entered uncharted and possibly dangerous territory. It not only raises the stakes for Xis increasingly iron fisted rule, but also for the Communist Party itself. The case announced last week targets an official who until recently was ranked the third most senior member of the party hierarchy as a senior member of the elite seven-man Politburo.Zhou controlled the police, paramilitary, courts and state security. Never before has such a senior figure faced a corruption probe in Communist China, a sign that Xi is...

Refugees to Cambodia

The Australian government appears to have struck a deal with Cambodia to house 100 refugees in exchange for a massive increase in foreign aid. But Cambodia is far from a safe place to settle.

Michael Sainsbury. Australia and Cambodia's shady asylum seeker deal.

Australias history of dealing with asylum seekers continues to spin into a dizzying spiral of contempt. Already under fire for shutting its doors to some of the worlds most vulnerable people, the Canberra government is now in talks with Cambodia, the latest in a rollcall of poor, dysfunctional neighbors to whom it will outsource its so-called asylum seeker problem. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who counts as a success every asylum seeker he can banish, last week became the second member of Prime Minister Tony Abbotts Cabinet to visit Cambodia this year, following Foreign Minister Julie Bishops whistle-stop trip to...

Michael Sainsbury. Tables have turned on Chinas ex-security chief

The imminent purge of Zhou Yongkang, Chinas security chief from 2007 to 2012, brings to mind that wonderful Chinese expression: The fish rots from the head down. Since the major clearout after Mao Zedongs death in 1976, Zhou is now the most senior Communist Party official to be fingered by its internal affairs division, the Central Discipline Committee. He is the first former member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) to be cast out by the Party. His casehas implicated a reported 300 allies and relatives with total assets of US$14.5 billion. Zhou is the star victim...

Michael Sainsbury: Are Chinese leaders cleaning up or cracking down.

In April 2009 Dr Fan Yafeng was sacked from his job as a legal researcher at a prestigious think tank, China Academy of Social Sciences. Its not that he was no good at his job to help the countrys government formulate its constitutional and religious policy.Rather, it was that he was an openly proselytising Christian, a member of a Protestant house church and signatory of Charter 08, a manifesto calling for fundamental changes in China including an independent legal system, freedom of association and the elimination of one-party rule. Fan was sanguine about this turn of events...

Insults in our region continue

Sometime late last year, the Australian government made the seemingly innocuous decision to revert, after 18 months, to calling the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar by its British name Burma. One of Tony Abbotts growing list of regional insults.

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