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- Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
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Category Archives: World Affairs
What should Australia do to manage risk in its relationship with the PRC? (China Matters 26.6.20)
The biggest challenge facing Australia’s strategic policy is to help craft a new strategic equilibrium in the Indo-Pacific. It must reflect the reality of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) economic and strategic weight.
Posted in China Series, Politics
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A ‘yellow peril’ revival fuelling Western fears of China’s rise (East Asia Forum 5.6.2019) REPOST
Most Western portrayals of China’s emergence as a great power lack balance. They tend to highlight negative dimensions of China’s rise but omit the positive dimensions.
Posted in China Series, Politics
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The mainstream media fails on Australia’s foreign policy
Our media avoids any discussion or analysis of the literally hundreds of United States military bases that are situated in proximity to China, and similarly the hundreds of military bases aimed at “containing” Russia.
Posted in Asia, Politics
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Neoliberalism and corporate plunder of India (Part 1/2)
Dalrymple’s The Anarchy is about the East India Company, its strategies, artifice, grand corruption, and the consequences of unbridled corporate greed; an account acutely relevant today. Continue reading
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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Canberra Shuffles its China Briefcase to decouple,rather than improve relations.
After more than half a year’s delay, Foreign Minister Maryse Payne has announced the appointment of a new Chair of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, Ms Pru Bennett, a senior advisor to the global strategic advisory Brunswick Group.
Posted in China Series, Politics
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Pathological philanthropy in the Australia-US Alliance
With confirmed coronavirus cases in excess of two million, the number of new, confirmed cases across the country approaching 45,000 per day for most of the last ten weeks, and resultant deaths in excess of 126,000 (and climbing), the decisions … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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Habemus Taoiseach: Ireland has a new government at last
Last Friday evening, as white smoke wafted from the chimney above Ireland’s parliament building, Leinster House in Dublin, the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) came out onto the steps and announced to the assembled throng in Kildare Street, ‘Habemus Taoiseach’ (We have … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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The Myth of Chinese Money in Australia
Fears amongst the Australian public of China buying up the country run deep. Opportunistic politicians and commentators have long shown a willingness to tap into this unease to boost their own following.
Posted in China Series, Politics
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ABC sending a strange message to the region.
The slashing and burning of ABC workers, their goodies and services seems to have missed the overseas TV service ABC Australia. That’s no reason to whoop. Further cuts will kill.
Posted in Asia, Media
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West Bank annexation – ‘Another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism ’?
It is an anxious time for an unlikely combination of Benjamin Netanyahu and the publishers of world atlases and gazetteers. Will they have to pulp existing supplies because of his intentions? Or will he fail for a change and save … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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Why Australia needs to join global condemnation of Israel’s annexation plans (SMH 25.6.20)
As early as next week, Israel proposes to forcibly annex up to a third of the Palestinian West Bank, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism”.
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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Australian Soaps to the Pacific – Good Diplomacy?
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade launched an initiative to send commercial (soaps) Australian television programs to stations in the South Pacific. This will do little to enhance vigorous and discerning projection of Australian news and values in the … Continue reading
Posted in Arts and Media, Asia, Politics
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In the Australia-China relationship, name calling won’t help.
It is easy for governments to disguise their inability to manage the complex Australia-China relationship by resorting to finger-pointing and name-calling. Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Education
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The inevitability of fundamental change in the world and what China wants
“The coronavirus pandemic will change the world order forever. When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, institutions in many countries will look as if they have failed. It is not a question of whether this judgment is correct from an objective … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Politics
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A China Air Defence Identification Zone in the South China Sea – Is the Sky About to Fall?
In 2013, when China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, alarmists warned that China would soon declare one for the South China Sea. But the sky did not fall in the East China Sea … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
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Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 3
To enter into a sustained and productive dialogue with China, Australia needs to do its homework. As indicated In Parts 1 and 2, both government and society have to cultivate a better understanding of contemporary China, its history, culture, economy … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
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Washington’s ‘Cold War’ with Beijing exposes its true view of Australia
Even before the onset of coronavirus, it had become something of a truism to talk of US–China relations plunging into a new era of heightened geopolitical competition.
Posted in World Affairs
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Row erupts over the New Zealand Government’s Covid crisis mistake.
The internationally acclaimed excellent performance by the New Zealand Government against the Carona virus has been marred by a mistake. It may damage the Government’s credibility as an election approaches.
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 2
In Part 1 we saw that the post-1945 Western dominated world order is rapidly giving way to a multicentric world, in which different players, each with its own system of governance and civilisational inheritance, are vying for power and influence. … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
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Coronavirus, racism and Asian-Australian representation. Part 2 of a series on racism.
The emergence of the coronavirus in Wuhan China has led to a rise and return of racist and xenophobic attitudes in Australia towards Chinese-Australians and those of seemingly “Chinese” appearance. The fear, anxiety and uncertainty of the pandemic have fuelled … Continue reading
Justice impossible with secret trials
Over in the United States, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump, John Bolton, has a book about to hit the newsstands. It is very critical of, and indiscreet about, his former boss. It shows Trump double dealing with … Continue reading
Posted in Human Rights, Politics, World Affairs
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Living with China: There is a way, but is there a will? Part 1
There is a growing sense that it’s time to step off the merry-go-round of China bashing and the Australia bashing that inevitably follows. But what is to take its place? Many would like to see a more solid foundation for … Continue reading
Posted in World Affairs
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The US and China: can “peer competitors” cooperate?
Extensive talks in Hawaii on 18 June between US Secretary of State Pompeo and Chinese Politburo member responsible for international affairs, Yang Jiechi, could have been a significant step in the two powers’ difficult relationship, but security has been tight … Continue reading
Posted in Asia
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Vietnam’s remarkable rise deserves more attention from Canberra
Vietnam’s response to COVID-19 has highlighted its competence as a country. It has unequivocally won the peace. It manages its relations with China with firmness and diplomacy.
Posted in Asia
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A Politics of Deceit: Israel/US Annexation of Palestinian Lands
In response to Israel’s intention to annex up to 30% of the West Bank, respect for truth by all the parties involved, Israeli, Palestinian, US, European and Australian, has been replaced by calculations about the benefits of deceit.
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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Pressing the pause button on Sinophobia
China is an authoritarian state, and an increasingly assertive one. But there are ways of expressing our concern that are not counterproductive to our national interests.
Posted in World Affairs
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Our strategic partnerships with China, India, Japan and the US
The signature of a strategic agreement between Australia and India is being hailed as a success. Certainly our construction of positive relations with India has lagged, although efforts to do better began in the 1980s. But what’s it all about? … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Defence/Security
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China Matters: Letter to the editor of Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun.
The article by Ms Ellen Whinnett in the 14 June 2020 edition of both The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun contained demonstrable falsehoods and defamatory insinuations about the work of China Matters, and the supporter circle of the organisation.
The US does not need a wannabe Lincoln or Churchill, it needs a Leo Amery
Trump likes to see himself as a wartime president like Churchill or Lincoln. The Brits flattered the first proposity by giving him dinner in Churchill’s birthplace, Blenheim Palace.
Posted in Politics, World Affairs
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What Does China Want domestically under the Leadership of President Xi? Part 2 of 2
What President Xi wants domestically is to uphold the leadership of the CCP, upgrade China’s manufacturing capacities to middle and upper end of the production chain so as to make China strong and the people wealthy.
Posted in Asia
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