Asia
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Sacrificing pawns in the USA’s geopolitical game
Ahead of its elections, Taiwan needs to be forewarned of putting too many eggs into the USA basket. A significant body of evidence warns that the people of Taiwan may find themselves nothing but pawns, to be sacrificed in the USA’s geopolitical game. Continue reading »
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America, why don’t you get your bloodied hands off Hong Kong
Weaponising human rights against the city and mainland China only becomes more farcical when the US and its close allies are busy violating them. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong and a tale of three museums
Three museums in Hong Kong help us understand the complexity of Hong Kong’s past and future and highlight the importance of Asia literacy in Australia. Continue reading »
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Indonesia’s soldiers: Back where they don’t belong
In Indonesia old soldiers never die; they just infiltrate civic affairs, then grab jobs from the worthy and talented young, slowing the economy. Continue reading »
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The ghosts in the vote machine in Indonesia
Indonesian politics is about personalities, not policy. Some among the 20,000 candidates for national and regional office at the globe’s biggest one-day ballot next year must be driven by altruism. But how to vote? Who do the dead recommend? Continue reading »
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Humanity on trial in Gaza onslaught – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Support for war erodes trust in Global North. Plus: Australians proxy-Americans in Asia; Xi-Biden summit might reassure region; ‘Don’t you feel shame’ at voting No? Chinese military ‘relentless’ on Taiwan; Memories of time US, China fought together. Continue reading »
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Indonesia, Malaysia blame and accuse Israel – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: War is ‘against the Palestinian people’. Plus: Voice defeat ‘undercuts regional stance’; Indian court rejects same-sex marriage; Xi marks BRI anniversary with new funding; Democracy ‘put to the test’; Gaol and caning for rape. Continue reading »
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Asia, China, Government, Politics, World
The Wily Occidentals
Can Australia reconcile the American and Chinese strands of its foreign policy? Continue reading »
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Morrison’s Taiwan visit designed to goad China into war
The speech by former Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison in Taipei on Wednesday 11 October, 2023, was clearly designed to undermine the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Albanese to Beijing. It continued to drive forward the American objective of goading China into war over Taiwan. Continue reading »
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China-US in disinformation warfare – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: America must show it has answers to global problems. Plus: Thai government talks of gun control; Australia-China de-coupling is impossible; Myanmar military’s killing, torture and rape; Cold War returns to Korean Peninsula; China’s EV makers have edge over US. Continue reading »
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New study shows what really happened in Hong Kong in 2019
The world is told a simplistic black and white tale about Hong Kong’s troubles in 2019, with heroic “pro-democracy” activists crushed by Beijing. What really happened was very different and far more complex, says a detailed new book by top Hong Kong academic Daniel F. Vukovich. Continue reading »
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Strategic ambiguity: a weapon of mass destruction
Strategic ambiguity is the greatest oral weapon of mass destruction that the Western world has ever invented. Continue reading »
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Trudeau ruins India’s global triumph – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Canada, India tensions have sorry history. Plus: BRI shows most countries shun ‘decoupling’; Myanmar rebels ‘will never give up’; China to dominate green car market; Putin and Kim lead ‘axis of outcasts’; China decline the fashionable chatter in Washington. Continue reading »
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Singapore censors ANU’s East Asia Forum website
Growing touchiness as scandals mount. Continue reading »
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The ‘China Threat’: Can we escape the historical legacy of Anti-Chinese Racism?
How ironic that mainstream newspapers and conservative commentators should lambast former prime minister Paul Keating for living in the past when he denounced the AUKUS agreement and the Labor government’s fulsome support of it. It was, of course, the AUKUS agreement itself, entered into by Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden in 2022, that Continue reading »
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Korean Catholics continue fight against coal power
South Korea is among the nations with the highest coal power generation. Continue reading »
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Biden forging Cold War security bloc – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Hanoi, but not Jakarta, a deliberate choice. Plus: ASEAN must ease great power tensions; G20 starts with Xi’s snub of the West; global inflation to last for years; BRICS the real challenge to US-led order; Indonesia supports bloc but will not join; Manila ‘taking defence seriously’. Continue reading »
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Life on a geopolitical fault line
Hong Kong can do nothing right, it seems. But it’s not the community’s fault: it lives on a fault line, trying to balance between two much larger, more powerful entities. Richard Cullen recalls a different occasion when two big powers, the US and the UK, had a difference of opinion. Often, much smaller communities end Continue reading »
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BRICS adds heavyweights in push for global reforms – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Bloc steps up challenge to old world system. Plus: Xi and Modi agree to ease border tensions; West loses ‘plebiscite’ on rules-based order; three-way ‘alliance’ confronts China, North Korea; US media support new China narrative; Biden to visit New Delhi but skip Jakarta; new Thailand PM a Thaksin confidant. Continue reading »
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Tomahawk missiles over Indonesia? No worries, they’re only passing by
In the early 1960s, the then USSR started building missile sites in Cuba, near enough to Florida for endurance swimmers. This almost led to the Cold War turning flaming hot. Now Australia is to buy more than 200 US missiles and stage them close to Indonesia. Continue reading »
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The United States has troops operating inside China
There’s a lot of controversy over what China is doing in the South China Sea, but there seems to be very little in the way of perspective. The recent “water attack” on Philippines vessels was not a hostile act by a military nation, it was a Chinese Coastguard ship deterring another nation from building on Continue reading »
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Indonesia has what we lack – a day of unity
It’s banners and bunting season in Southeast Asia as our neighbours celebrate independence. Singapore finished its wavings on 9 August and Malaysia’s moments of pomp will come on 16 September. Like Australia, both won sovereignty through diplomacy. Continue reading »
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Post-strategic ambiguity and Australia’s Taiwan problem
“What will Australia do in the event of a US-PRC war over Taiwan?” is now a question that must be openly and deliberately addressed. Across nine presidential administrations, “strategic ambiguity” promoted regional stability. The flip-flops of the current Biden Administration have cast doubt on the efficacy of “strategic ambiguity”, as the means of deterring war Continue reading »
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Hiroshima remembered: When will we ever learn?
To be here in Hiroshima, invited to perform at one of numerous peace concerts commemorating the destruction of the dropping on this city of the first atomic bomb, 6th August 1945, is somewhat special, though of course tinged with sadness that humanity could descend to such barbarism. Continue reading »
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Heatwaves, drought, floods, disease across region – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Urban poor the worst climate victims. Plus: Pakistan goes to the polls, without Imran Khan; China blocks Philippine ships near Spratly shoal; Alliance changing Asia-Pacific peace and stability; International currency changes on BRICS agenda; Barbenheimer memes not harmless fun. Continue reading »
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AUSMIN death knell for diplomacy
The AUSMIN talks confirmed Australia’s status as a client state of the United States. Its shift has taken years but this is a significant change from the previous status of a friend, or ally, because it hands a significant slice of Australian sovereignty to a foreign power. The degree of military integration foreshadowed by Secretary Continue reading »
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Unlike Indonesia we are outsourcing our defence to a foreign power
Did colonialism ever die? Distant major powers are making life-and-death decisions that will impact Indonesia, ironically on the eve of the Republic’s 17 August national day celebrating Soekarno’s 1945 proclamation of independence from three centuries of Dutch rule. Continue reading »
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No ASEAN without Indonesia
Indonesia looks poised for an economic boom that can spur its quest for a higher international political profile. Many scholars, politicians, and corporate figures in Indonesia believe the nation has the attributes to become more than the regional power it is now. Continue reading »
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Democracy in ASEAN at low ebb – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Assaults on democracy in Cambodia, Thailand. Plus: Thaksin sets date for his return; Opportunity for BRICS to seize, or squander; ‘End of regime’- blunt message to North Korea; ‘Swimming in circles’ on South China Sea. Continue reading »
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Offshore refugee processing funding allegations: How did we get here?
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have published serious allegations about millions of dollars of Australian government funding for Offshore Processing Centres finding their way through contractors to bank accounts controlled by South Pacific politicians. This comes on top of a history of criticism by the Auditor-General on how providers were selected and contracts Continue reading »
