25 November 2024

Obtuse China Policy and the "International Rules-Based Order" in a Trumpian world

In the ballyhooed, strident context of Trumpian change, if not, hysterical disruption, it is especially important to pinpoint and consider the real and the factually alternative content of Chinese foreign policy and international relations.

10 December 2023

Sino-US normalisation: the real legacy of the late Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissingers role in expediting the Sino-US normalization and recognition process represented one of the greatest feats in modern diplomatic history.

2 November 2023

Xi and Albanese navigate the virtuous circle of Sino-Australian dialogue

Prime Minister Albaneses much anticipated visit to Beijing raises a key question. What rules of behaviour are most likely to energise genuinely robust dialogue, re-establishing trust in Chinas relations with the West and setting the pace for wider regional and international multilateral responses to the economic, social, security and environmental crises currently affecting humanity?

1 September 2023

AUKUS as morbid Deterrence

There is a curious Chinese saying that cautions against calling a stag, a horse. As the Qin empire disintegrated, the wily Prime Minister Zhao Gao fed the second Qin dynasty Emperor (221-206 BC) false reports of imperial military victories. Lining up all the ministers at court, Zhao showed them a stag and demanded that they swear the stag was a horse. Most agreed. The few who boldly refused were executed.

13 August 2023

Post-strategic ambiguity and Australias Taiwan problem

What will Australia do in the event of a US-PRC war over Taiwan? is now a question that must be openly and deliberately addressed. Across nine presidential administrations, strategic ambiguity promoted regional stability. The flip-flops of the current Biden Administration have cast doubt on the efficacy of strategic ambiguity, as the means of deterring war over Taiwan, as American pundits, generals and politicians loudly anticipate imminent conflict in the next three to five years.

10 June 2023

Coming to terms with the China Threat

Is it not a great irony that the Chinese are now more supportive of the post-war Bretton Woods system than the Americans?