Stephen FitzGerald
Stephen FitzGerald AO is a Board Member of China Matters, Distinguished Fellow of the Whitlam Institute, Associate Professor, Australia China Institute for Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University. He was the first Ambassador of Australia to the PRC.
Stephen's recent articles
24 August 2024
The best daily analysis of issues in world affairs and Australia’s foreign relations of any media in Australia
Pearls and Irritations provides quite the best daily analysis of issues in world affairs and Australia’s foreign relations of any media in Australia
7 March 2023
Will Albanese and Wong repudiate this war hysteria?
In the name of all the good and honourable politicians who have gone before them in crafting a relationship with our giant and, yes, challenging neighbour and partner, I ask Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong to call out this rubbish, repudiate it, and forcefully assert that it is wrong.
1 January 2023
Best of 2022: Pivotal Moment: Albanese and Xi in 2022 mirror Whitlam and Zhou in 1971
The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping put me in mind of the public reaction in Australia when Whitlam met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971.
9 December 2022
"Opening the Australian mind": 50 years of Australia-China relations
Id like to offer a reflection on where we started out, Australia with China, and what I think we need to do now.
16 November 2022
Pivotal Moment: Albanese and Xi in 2022 mirror Whitlam and Zhou in 1971
The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping put me in mind of the public reaction in Australia when Whitlam met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971.
7 September 2022
What a contrast in professionalism and civility. The 7/30 Report
You have to admire the PRC Ambassador, Xiao Qian. After the uncivil behaviour, and gotcha questioning, and the visible personal animus journalists gave him at the National Press Club four weeks ago, hed have been forgiven if he declined to make himself available to speak to Australian media for a while. Or at least, if he did so, only on agreed terms of civility.
11 August 2022
The Chinese Ambassador and our ignorant and hostile media
We should be alarmed, if not ashamed, at how some of these journalists behaved and reported.
25 May 2022
Getting the Australia-China Relationship back on track
While we should not yet abandon hope for a more realistic, nuanced and sophisticated China policy under the Labor government, Prime Minister Albaneses initial statements from Tokyo in response to an overture from PRC Prime Minister Li Keqiang are not encouraging.
7 December 2020
We have lost our way on immigration and multiculturalism
On this question of the settlement of newcomers into Australia its pretty evident that weve lost the plot.
2 April 2020
STEPHEN FITZGERALD supports Pearls and Irritations.
Pearls and Irritations provides quite the best daily analysis of issues in world affairs and Australia's foreign relations of any media in Australia - traditional or online.
10 March 2019
STEPHEN FITZGERALD. At 'Espionage in Australia Exhibition' at the The Whitlam Institute (8 March 2019)
The Whitlam Institute mightnt seem an obvious place to have an exhibition about spies. But I think it is. Not that its a spy agency (if it were, it would have a budget many multiples greater than it has), but because of the driving idea in what it does: democracy, in our society and our history. And spies have a lot to do with democracy - defending it, sometimes perverting it. And theres more, connected with the Whitlam story. Whitlam wasnt a spy, either. He was in fact a man more spied against than spying. But, more than any other...
16 July 2018
KARL WILSON with Steve FitzGerald - Opening-up: The view from down under (China Daily 12/07/18)
Stephen FitzGerald (right) and former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam meet Chairman Mao Zedong on Nov 2, 1973, in Beijing. Australia's first ambassador to the People's Republic of China reflects on decades of transformation Editor's note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of China's reform and opening-up policy. China Daily talks to some people from overseas who have experienced or witnessed the important drive.
31 May 2018
STEPHEN FITZGERALD AND LINDA JAKOBSON. Is there aproblem with Australias China narrative?
Australias China policy is flawed. Diplomatic relations between Canberra and Beijing are strained, to the extent that Australias prime minister and foreign minister have not been welcome to visit the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Yet at a time when Australian leaders have been frozen out, leaders from countries experiencing far more serious issues with the PRC than Australia have been visiting Beijing.The poor state of the relationship is a result not so much of what Australia has done as what Australia has said and signalled.
1 March 2018
STEPHEN FITZGERALD AND LINDA JAKOBSON. Engaging with China does not mean being an agent of China
[A letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 27 February 2018] Clive Hamilton conveys a message which must be challenged, namely the insinuation that any person who engages with the Communist Party of China (CPC) should be viewed with suspicion or as belonging to a CPC fifth column (Powerful relations raises a red flag, February 24-25). It is wrong and indeed damaging to Australia's interests if people (Hamilton refers to unnamed powerful corporate figures) who have dealings with the CPC are to be looked upon as untrustworthy.
10 November 2016
STEPHEN FITZGERALD. Donald Trump. Seizing the opportunity to strengthen relations with countries in Asia.
Kim Beazley, as shocked as anyone by the election result, has said: We do have one advantage going for us with a Trump presidency, and thats this. We are a member of the only American alliance that the Trump people unreservedly approve of. So at least weve got a basis of a discussion with them. Kim seems to believe this is some kind of plus. But I think it is frightening. The favoured client of the Trump people! If that is true, what does it say about us, and the expectations of us in regional and international affairs as the...
29 September 2016
China's deepening engagement in Australian society: is it a concern?
The PRC government's influence in domestic Australia - long active but not altogether visible or much remarked - is now emerging as a big, contentious and potentially disruptive issue in the relationship, and a thorny one for policy-makers. In some respects, it may be more challenging and more pressing than other more prominent issues like the South China Sea. Unlike PRC actions in the South China Sea it is difficult to ascertain what precise actions the PRC is taking within Australia and what influence these actions are having.
22 July 2016
STEPHEN FITZGERALD. Security in the region. (Repost from Policy Series)
Paul Keating and Gareth Evans used to claim, with justification, that by the mid-1990s Australia had become the odd man in in Asia. This was in significant part because of the headway theyd made in Southeast Asia, with ASEAN countries, in gaining acceptance of Australia as one of them. This was no slogan. Behind it lay a geostrategic idea of Southeast Asian countries as natural partners into the long term future, in a world dominated by competing great powers, and offering the entree to what Keating called finding our security in not from Asia. Keating and President Suhartos Agreement on...
10 May 2015
Stephen FitzGerald. Security in the region.
Fairness, Opportunity and Security. A policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue. Paul Keating and Gareth Evans used to claim, with justification, that by the mid-1990s Australia had become the odd man in in Asia. This was in significant part because of the headway theyd made in Southeast Asia, with ASEAN countries, in gaining acceptance of Australia as one of them. This was no slogan. Behind it lay a geostrategic idea of Southeast Asian countries as natural partners into the long term future, in a world dominated by competing great powers, and offering the entree to what Keating...
26 January 2014
Stephen FitzGerald. Abbott's relations with China.
Can you believe the Abbott government has any idea where its headed on relations with China? Whatever you think of Chinas politics, you cant just take sides against China or meddle in the tense and volatile issue of China-Japan relations without there being some consequence for our bilateral relations. But the government doesnt seem to care. From what you can divine from the little it says publicly, it thinks the Chinese will back down under Australias glare, and get over it. Like the Indonesians will get over it. But the Indonesians, whose thinking we know more clearly, arent going to...