World Affairs
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How to engage with China
The Chinese government’s overriding goals are unity, stability, security, and prosperity. They arose from its “century of humiliation” (1839-1949) when it underwent invasion, addiction, civil war, and destitution. The Great Leap Forward campaign (1958-62) triggered famine and the Red Guard riots (1966-67) destroyed heritage and education. All post-Mao governments have brutally cracked down on internal… Continue reading »
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Australian Media in the Asian Century
Scott Morrison calling. It’s been another fortnight of triumph in world forums for Scott Morrison, if you’ve read the headlines and lead paragraphs in The Australian and the Australian Financial Review…. Continue reading »
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Witness K: was his guilty plea coerced?
After years of suffering oppression, delays and injustice from his employer the Federal Government, Witness K, finally pleaded guilty before a closed court for disclosing classified Commonwealth material to his lawyer about Australia’s dirty antics against East Timor. Two days of sentencing hearing are set down for Thursday and Friday. But was his guilt plea… Continue reading »
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As Biden inflicts a new cold war, his acolyte Morrison shows he has learned nothing from his blunders on China
Morrison’s first trip overseas since COVID has shown him as one-eyed, unfair and unwise in his attempt to push his anti-China agenda on the world stage. He has succeeded in making a bad situation even worse. His worship-America policy has helped Biden into a new cold war, this time aimed against China…. Continue reading »
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Israel’s Government of change – or is it?
Israel now has the most diverse “unity” government in its history and it’s all thanks to one man: Benjamin Netanyahu. Without the visceral contempt for Netanyahu, engendered during his 12-year reign as Prime Minister, the possibility of such an assortment of parties coming together would have been unthinkable…. Continue reading »
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The G7, NATO and the demonisation of China
The G7 and NATO summits have made it abundantly clear that the global economic and military focus will remain on China. The demonisation of China has taken a serious step forward as Biden’s mantra-like statement that ‘America is back’ begins to sound even more ominous…. Continue reading »
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Tiananmen Square “Massacre” is a difficult story to handle
The event, when it occurred on 4 June,1989, aroused deep emotions in Hong Kong. It led to a mass street demonstration in which tens of thousands participated; many office workers left their desks to join in the march from Central to Victoria Park. It was entirely spontaneous and peaceful. Since then it has been “commemorated”… Continue reading »
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What actually is the G7? Is it a Western Club?
Climate change was a major theme and Australia was the shag on this rock. Morrison trotted out his usual line about doing what was in Australian interests which will not impress anyone outside of the naysayers back home…. Continue reading »
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The Tiananmen Square massacre: the one sided story
If you thought we knew everything about the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 3-4, 1989, think again. Mysteries remain. Some are so significant we need to review our ideas about what was going on in China at that time…. Continue reading »
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London reports on Hong Kong: politics undercut analysis
The British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) issued its latest “six-monthly” report on Hong Kong on 10 June.[1] Although this report has emerged five and half months after the end of the period it covers, from 1 July to 31 December 2020, the delayed delivery does not appear to have improved its substance…. Continue reading »
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On climate and Covid emergencies, G7 judged a ‘colossal failure’ for all the world to see
“Never in the history of the G7 has there been a bigger gap between their actions and the needs of the world. In the face of these challenges the G7 have chosen to cook the books on vaccines and continue to cook the planet.”… Continue reading »
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Chandran Nair.The world is woke to Western posturing and global white privilege
The West’s disingenuous position on Israel and its coordinated attacks on China have blown the cover of the liberal narratives it uses to hide a postcolonial, imperialist agenda Its hypocrisy has been further exposed by its hoarding of coronavirus vaccines and the systemic racism that prompted the Black Lives Matter protests and fuelled attacks on… Continue reading »
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The ‘final’ downfall of Israel was predicted by Einstein
It doesn’t take a genius to see that the failing Zionist project called Israel is coming apart at the seams. It was a genius, though, who predicted the demise of the fledgling state when he was asked to help raise funds for its terrorist cells…. Continue reading »
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Deepfake maps could really mess with your sense of the world
Satellite images showing the expansion of large detention camps in Xinjiang, China, between 2016 and 2018 provided some of the strongest evidence of a government crackdown on more than a million Muslims, triggering international condemnation and sanctions…. Continue reading »
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The Tamil family: cruelty beggars belief
The continued detention of the Tamil Biloela family, let alone the threat to deport them, confirms the government’s fascination with cruelty as policy. To demonstrate their bravery in defending Australia’s borders, Ministers think that to protect comfortable and fortunate Australians, they must show a wanton disregard of the interests of the powerless and vulnerable…. Continue reading »
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Detaining Refugees Indefinitely: The Executive v The Judiciary
Recently, a Federal Court Judge ordered the immediate release of a young man from immigration detention. The man had been in immigration detention for five years. The Federal Government wasn’t happy. It introduced legislation into the Commonwealth Parliament to make sure that no such release could happen again. The Government’s power to detain non-citizens indefinitely… Continue reading »
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The value pack relationship with China
Relations with China are increasingly discussed in terms of values. “Liberal values” featured in the Prime Minister’s speech in Perth this week. I propose the need to define the term and to rectify the name, as Confucius said, and to consider how and where it is applied. Then, and only then, can we bring such dialogue… Continue reading »
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Why the Western narrative of China’s ‘debt trap diplomacy’ is another big lie
To work well, the lie must be introduced early, repeated often and insulated from contradiction by a narrative of “fake news” and accusations of “witch hunts”…. Continue reading »
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Pentagon Papers failed to cure servile pro-war media
The mainstream media nowadays often show more distrust and indignation about peace than about war…. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong is not dying after all.
On 25 May, the China Centre at Jesus College, Cambridge University, hosted a significant online, two-hour seminar on The Future of Hong Kong…. Continue reading »
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India’s suspect ‘Quad’ credentials
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s carefully cultivated competence bubble has been punctured by his government’s ineffectiveness amid the second wave of the COVID-19 virus that has ravaged his country…. Continue reading »
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The politics of anti-Asian racism
The celebration of the Asian Heritage Month in May is marred by the fact that Asian communities around the world — from the United States, Canada, Europe to Australia — are experiencing a spike in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes. While the slaying of Asian women in Atlanta in March was the most violent of these crimes, much of the racism directed at… Continue reading »
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Slouching towards Jerusalem: Australia as an Israeli apologist
“The Australian government has become an apologist for Israeli war crimes and a wrecker of sacred international humanitarian law principles.”… Continue reading »
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Do free markets still beat central planning?
Institutional arrangements are complex systems, shaped by history, geography, and culture. The objective should not be to identify a one-size-fits-all approach, but rather to devise the combination of characteristics that would deliver the greatest good for the greatest number of people, with the right checks and balances…. Continue reading »
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Three things I learned as a white Australian academic in China
The term ‘nuance’ is often used to capture the multiple grey areas in our quest to understand China. The experience of teaching in a Chinese university led me to find a way to pinpoint and locate some of these nuanced spaces through an honest recognition of my own cultural and historical baggage…. Continue reading »
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Was there a Wuhan lab leak? Why an inquiry won’t dig out the truth
A year ago, the idea that Covid-19 leaked from a lab in Wuhan – a short distance from the wet market that is usually claimed to be the source of the virus – was dismissed as a crackpot theory, supported only by Donald Trump, QAnon and hawks on the right looking to escalate tensions dangerously… Continue reading »
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President Xi asks Chinese media, diplomats to tone down aggressive approach
Asked whether China will take a different approach in its diplomatic efforts in the light of Xi’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here on Wednesday that the comments were in line with China’s “peaceful development”…. Continue reading »
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Australian academics open letter in solidarity with Palestine and call for action
As scholars, academics and students in Australia, a settler colony built on the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we stand in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation and against Israeli settler colonialism. In the past month, Palestinians have faced brutal Israeli settler colonial violence in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of… Continue reading »
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Australia’s Blind Spot: The US, China, Africa and Global Hegemony
As the global balance of power shifts towards the Asia-Pacific region and tension between the United States and China escalates, Australia is being forced to confront its historical reliance on great and powerful friends in defining our strategic priorities…. Continue reading »
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We have to handle our relationship with China, not leave it to others
How should we manage relations with China – New Zealand’s most complex foreign policy issue in the 21st century?… Continue reading »
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