John Menadue
Publisher and Editor
Callum Foote
Associate Editor
Subscribe to our newsletter
Category Archives: World Affairs
How Trump could win
It is increasingly evident that Trump is determined to be re-elected, whatever the cost. At what point will referring to him as “leader of the free world” become an oxymoron?
Posted in World Affairs
Leave a comment
The scary picture of a failed Australia-China trade relations ?
The mainstream newspapers in Australia do not shed much light about the real situation of the Cold trade war between Australia and China. If we look hard enough, we may find factual reporting about this subject in an English language … Continue reading
Posted in China, Politics
7 Comments
Remember the Stasi who ran East Germany’s government
The question taxing many, and one to be answered, is why are our security services and not the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade running our relationship with China?
Downer on Palestine: to the Manor Born
The powerful prey mercilessly on the vulnerable and the mainstream media let them get away with it.
European disarray pushes Iran, Turkey into China camp (Asia Times Sep 17, 2020)
If Tehran and Ankara were to fall out of Europe’s orbit it would be a strategically costly error for the West.
Widodo, a man of contradictions; a book review (Inside Indonesia Sep 9, 2020)
The complex research that Bland is demanding has existed for decades, and it is not too difficult to find…
Posted in Asia, Politics
Leave a comment
The Transformation of Diplomacy: How to Save the State Department (Foreign Affairs Sep 23, 2020)
The Trump administration also learned early on that people matter, and so it made them the primary target of what the White House aide Steve Bannon termed “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
Leave a comment
Australian media in the Asian Century
The struggles and contradictions in media understanding of China.
Posted in China, Media, Politics
5 Comments
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
Posted in China
9 Comments
The South China Sea: Grasping at Straws and Whistling Past the Graveyard
As their struggle for dominance in the region heats up, China and the U.S. are cranking up pressure on Southeast Asian countries to choose between them. As they become ever more desperate, officials and pundits are now ‘grasping at … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, World Affairs
3 Comments
Our challenges in dealing with China
America was built on the Bible, the gun and slavery.Our interests in dealing with China are not the same as America’s interests. We have differences with China, but we must handle them in our own way rather than joining Trump’s … Continue reading
Posted in China, Politics
3 Comments
‘You will be put into detention’: Former ABC bureau chief tells story of fleeing China for first time (ABC News Sep 21, 2020)
It was late on a Friday evening and I was about to head home from the ABC’s Beijing office when the telephone rang.
Posted in China
28 Comments
US spy plane impersonates Malaysian aircraft, apparently to fool China (Popular Mechanics Sep 10, 2020)
A US Air Force RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft carried out several flights off China’s Hainan island. The plane switched its transponder code in mid-flight, mysteriously becoming a Malaysian airplane. The RC-135W was likely trying to keep a low profile while it spied … Continue reading
Brave Thai students put government in a quandary
Student-led protesters in Bangkok are publicly demanding a fundamental change that was once merely thinkable – reform of the monarchy
Posted in Asia
4 Comments
Military and Economic Deals aren’t ‘peace arrangements’ just because Trump says so (Canberra Times Sep 19, 2020)
‘Peace’ is not in the air, (Carlill, Canberra Times, 16/9). The deal done between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE, boastfully brokered by President Trump, has little to do with ‘peace’, but much with military hardware and hoped for economic gain.
Posted in Defence/Security, World Affairs
1 Comment
The Revenge of the Special Relationship (Project Syndicate Sep 7, 2020)
Of all the older democracies, it is in Britain and the United States that right-wing populists have taken over conservative parties and rule their respective countries. This is not an accident, but rather an outcome that has been 75 years … Continue reading
Driving in the dark in our conflict with China
There is a co-ordinated front from the defence and security establishments, the Coalition back-bench, US-financed think tanks and the Murdoch-dominated media in attacks on China
Posted in China, Politics, World Affairs
19 Comments
The UN at 75: a real declaration of intent, or multilateral virtue signalling?
An atmosphere of unreality is building in advance of the virtual meeting of world leaders to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations (UN). Nothing demonstrates this more than the proposed draft declaration. Rather than reaffirming the UN’s centrality, … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
2 Comments
Is Hong Kong a repeat of the CIA-sponsored Iranian coup?
The unmistakable parallels between Hong Kong SAR 2019 protests and the CIA sponsored 1953 Iranian Coup d’état is yet another ‘(c)overt’ U.S. government interference to influence and disrupt other states that challenge American hegemony.
Posted in Defence/Security, World Affairs
14 Comments
No one wins in a race to the bottom on national security: Let the Chinese academics back in (The China Story Sep 15, 2020)
If politicians don’t change course, the deterioration of Australia’s relationship with China will go hand in hand with the erosion of our civil liberties.
Chinese academics in Australia shocked, fear ‘chilling effect’ after Canberra revokes visas of two scholars (SCMP Sep 11, 2020)
Chinese-born academics in Australia have expressed shock, as well as their fears of a chill on scholarship and Sino-Australian engagement, after two leading figures linked to Canberra’s cultural diplomacy efforts had their visas revoked on national security grounds.
Posted in China, Politics
2 Comments
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
Posted in China, Politics
4 Comments
Brexit – a crash landing in prospect
Brexit is done but its end-shape is not. The final stages of the post-Brexit negotiations are shrouded in mistrust, misrepresentations, and most recently an intended breach of international law. The real intentions of the negotiators, both sides, remain clouded.
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
1 Comment
Johnson’s breaking of Brexit pledge is smart-arse duplicity (Irish Times Sep 11, 2020)
Everybody knows Boris Johnson can lie for England. To his supporters, it was one of his best assets.
Posted in World Affairs
3 Comments
A tit for tat with no end point (AFR Sep 10, 2020)
A get-tough policy on China with no apparent goal has left Austral as the only developed country with no media representation in the country.
Posted in China, Politics
4 Comments
When Canberra ponders Beijing, Beijing may wonder the same
When some elements within Canberra express their dislike for Beijing subtly and hazard a guess at Beijing’s next step, Beijing may see Canberra’s ‘China Policy’ as being bizarre.
Posted in China, Politics
4 Comments
The Ideology Delusion: America’s Competition With China Is Not About Doctrine (Foreign Affairs Sep 4, 2020)
Early in the Cold War, the United States faced a similar crossroads. Some figures, such as President Dwight Eisenhower, took a tough line on the Soviet Union but counseled the need to be selective in confrontations, steering US foreign policy … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
3 Comments
Avoiding military conflict and restoring Australia-PRC relations: a pragmatic way forward (Australia-China Institute Sep 4, 2020)
Never have ties between Australia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) been so estranged in the nearly five decades since Canberra and Beijing established diplomatic relations. As Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador to the PRC, remarked at the … Continue reading
Posted in China, Politics
10 Comments
The strategic mirror: the Pentagon’s China report reveals converging power and strategy
From Australia’s perspective, the Pentagon’s 2020 Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China Report is valuable for two reasons. It reinforces the absurdity of Australia planning to participate in high-intensity conflict against China under any circumstances. Additionally, … Continue reading
Biden and Australia (Asia Link Sep 8, 2020)
With the polls pointing to a Joe Biden victory in the US presidential race, the stakes for Australia, and its interests in a stable Indo-Pacific, are high. Former ambassador to the United States and Asialink senior adviser John McCarthy breaks … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
3 Comments