28 December 2023

In the Australia-China relationship, Australia will always follow the US-A repost from October 16,2023

From Chinas perspective, Australia will always follow the US no matter what. And the US is out to contain China there is nothing that China could do to change that. Australia has made relatively little effort to change this perception. This means for China, there is little point in putting much effort into dealing with Australia directly. The only way for the China-Australia relationship to be noticeably improved is for the China-US relationship to be improved first. This all sounds dismal. But in fact, nothing is inevitable. Both sides have agency to change those perceptions.

22 April 2023

Australias China illiteracy has dangerous consequences

The deficiency of Australias Asia literacy and as a subset, China literacy has been recognised for decades by successive federal governments. Despite government investments to boost Asia literacy, the result has been dismal.

26 February 2023

Australia needs to think beyond China about data security

The discussion on TikTok and Hikvision infiltration in Australian government departments has centred inarticulately and dogmatically on the country of origin. But there are other more realistic and probable security threats lurking in plain sight.

15 October 2020

Why are the loyalties of Chinese- Australians questioned constantly in the public arena?

In my opening statement to the Senate Committee, I talked about the toxic environment for Chinese-Australians who engage in public policy debates right now. In particular, I mentioned that one of the reasons Chinese-Australians are choosing to remain silent is because they don't want their loyalties to be questioned constantly in the public arena.

15 July 2020

Guilty until proven innocent? (The China Story 15.7.20)

Media reporting and public commentary on Chinas foreign interference efforts in Australia have focused heavily on alleged associations and links between Australian organisations or individuals and the Chinese Communist Partys United Front system.