Asia
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ANDREW CHUBB. China’s assertive maritime policy is older than Xi (East Asia Forum)
The toughening of China’s policies in the South and East China Seas is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. But while it is true that the PRC has become more assertive in its maritime disputes under Xi, China had already been on such a trajectory since 2006. Many changes in Continue reading »
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ANTHONY PUN. A response from the Chinese Community Council of Australia (CCCA)
The Chinese Australian community warmly thanks Prof Bob Carr for speaking out for the Chinese Australians and giving a detailed analysis of China panic over a period of more than 2 years. Prof Carr’s suggestion of a community response based on the Jewish model is a great suggestion and plans can be made to initiate Continue reading »
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TIM LINDSEY. Indonesia goes to the polls: rematch or replay? (University of Melbourne, 15 April 2019)
Indonesia goes to the polls on 17 April, with the same presidential candidates as five years ago: the incumbent, Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi), a self-made former furniture exporter and former governor of Jakarta, and Prabowo Subianto, a former general who was once a son-in-law of Soeharto, the authoritarian former president who ruled for three Continue reading »
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. Indonesia – after the count – chaos?
The alphabet of election campaign hyperbole runs from Absurd through Fatuous and Stupid to Zero (as in logic). Most statements are ephemeral for the nonsense spruikers know little is taken seriously once the losers are trampled by the triumphant. But in Indonesia pledges by the former champion of the 1998 ‘People’s Power Revolution’ are causing deep disquiet. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. China’s Efforts to Curb Australia’s Academic Freedom: What Universities Can Do.
There’s been a vigorous debate of late in Australia about the extent of Chinese government interference in domestic politics. Less has been said about what occurs on our university campuses. Pressure from the Chinese government comes in numerous ways, including censoring discussion topics, putting students from China under surveillance, and threatening those who participate in Continue reading »
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GEOFF RABY. Wresting China diplomacy back from the securicrats.
In the fading days of the Morrison Government, two important decisions are likely to be overlooked. Both came last week. One was to establish the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations and the other the appointment of a new Ambassador to China. Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Real diplomacy could have avoided China’s coal revenge (Australian Financial Review, 3 April 2019)
The ban on Huawei itself isn’t the problem, but the way that some arms of the government rubbed China’s face in it. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The anti- China ‘think tank’ receives farewell largesse from the Coalition
In this week’s budget the Australian Strategic Policy Institute received an enormous increase in government funding from $3.528m in 2017/18 to $20m in 2018/19.( Budget Papers -3.1.2 Grants ,Tables 39 and 40) .If the grant is for more than one year why is it all lumped together in 2018/19. Is it because ASPI fears that Continue reading »
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ANTHONY PUN. The battle for the Chinese Australian vote.
Important lessons learned in the last state elections in Victoria and NSW point to the ubiquitous use of social media “WeChat” in influencing voters in the Chinese Australian community and the realisation that their votes could be pivotal in changing governments. The current battle for the Chinese Australian vote is on! Continue reading »
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CAMERON DOUGLAS. Thailand’s elections – horse-trading, according to plan
The results of Thailand’s first post-coup elections went well for the military junta, following their script for keeping control of government in the name, and name only, of democracy. Continue reading »
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MAX HAYTON. Jacinda Ardern leads a nation in grief.
Under a remarkable young woman New Zealand is discovering deep resources of kindness and compassion. In the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre people touched by the tragedy built mountains of flowers and in their thousands attended rallies in support of the Muslims living in their communities. Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS : The Hanoi Summit and aftermath – a South Korean perspective
Special Advisor to President Moon assesses the Hanoi Summit as not a failure but a setback. China and the ROK continue to agree the need for a US:DPRK agreed roadmap to move past the present stalemate towards the longer term common objective of the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. At the same time the ROK Continue reading »
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GWYNNE DYER. New Zealand vs. Australia: Terrorism and the difference (Japan Times 19.03.19)
LONDON – Extreme right-wing terrorism, mostly of the “white nationalist” variety, is becoming as big a problem as Islamist terrorism in many places. That’s certainly the case in the United States, where the U.S. Government Accounting Office calculated last year that 119 Americans have been killed by Islamist extremists since the 9/11 attacks, and 106 Continue reading »
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New Zealand’s Loss of Innocence (Project Syndicate, 17 March 2019)
Like the assassination of Olof Palme in Sweden in 1986, the 9/11 attacks in the US, and the murderous rampage of Anders Breivik in Norway in 2011, March 15 will mark the day New Zealand lost its innocence and entered the age of postmodern mass terror. Fortunately, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s response has so far Continue reading »
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Asian Australians: Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling (2019 Asialink Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop Lecture, Sydney, 13 March 2019)
The award of this year’s Weary Dunlop Asialink medal to one of our most distinguished Asian-Australians seems to me an opportune moment to revisit the question of whether we as a nation are making the most – in terms of both our external relations and our internal national development – of the vast store of Continue reading »
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JOCELYN CHEY. Cyber-security need not tear countries apart
Telecommunications company Huawei legal action against the US Government’s ban on their involvement in 5G roll-out is a counter attack on claims that their involvement would impact national security. Exaggerated fears about cyber threat are part of a US campaign to contain China, and form the background to this week’s warning to the UK Government Continue reading »
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CAVAN HOGUE. What does Kim Jong Un really want?
There has been much speculation about what Kim wants and what happened at the summit. When dealing with characters like Trump and Bolton anything is possible but Kim is much more focussed and any consideration of current events should never lose sight of the fundamentals that underlie anything Kim does. He wants to stay in Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Some Coalition legacies that a new government must confront
There are several major issues that dominate public life today and require resolution. Those issues are –the growing existential threat of climate change, the dire consequences following the Iraq invasion, tax cuts during the mining boom that result in continuing budget deficits and debt increases, the NBN debacle, hostility to refugees and asylum seekers, and Continue reading »
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EMANUEL PASTREICH. Fractured governance fractures the Hanoi summit (Korean Times, 3 March 2019)
The sudden cancellation of the joint statement on February 28 at the end of the Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, was one of the most complex and contradictory historical events in my memory. Of course the adlib briefing by Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo immediately after was not complex at all. It was a banal Continue reading »
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JAMES LAURENCESON. Australia’s China debate.
Australia’s China debate is frequently cast in terms of ‘doves’ versus ‘hawks’, with the former also receiving the tag of being ‘pro-China’ and the latter designated ‘anti-China’. In fact, the common ground between these two groups is expansive. Continue reading »
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RICHARD BROINOWSKI. Ambiguity in Hanoi
The Trump-Kim summit began and ended in Hanoi on 28 February with Donald Trump peremptorily terminating his discussions with Kim Jong-un. According to media reports, Trump claims Kim demanded the lifting of all US-imposed sanctions in exchange for closing the nuclear complex at Yongpyon. Kim claims he only asked for a partial lifting of sanctions Continue reading »
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Trump-Kim summitry a work in progress (Japan Times, 1 March 2019)
CANBERRA – The cameras are gone, the lights have dimmed, the scribes have filed their reports and returned home and Hanoi has faded from host of a potentially life-and-death summit to being merely the capital of a booming Southeast Asian country. Attention will now turn fully to the simmering crisis in Kashmir. Continue reading »
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What’s next in India and Pakistan flareup ( Interview on NPR)
NPR’s Steve Inskeep speaks with Ramesh Thakur of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament at the Australian National University about the latest conflict between India and Pakistan. Continue reading »
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MOTOKO RICH. ‘We Are Koreans’: Diaspora in Japan Looks to Trump-Kim Summit With Hope (New York Times).
Every time Jiro Oshima wants to see his siblings, he must travel to North Korea. Continue reading »
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DAVID HUTT, PHNOM PENH. Vietnam’s new view of an old war (Asia Times).
Hanoi marked the 40th anniversary of its bloody 1979 border war with China with unprecedented candor, a revisionist reflection of declining contemporary ties Continue reading »
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Reasons for cautious optimism in Hanoi (The Japan Times).
Americans seem to be afflicted by a curious historical amnesia. The facts are indisputable. The number of non-nuclear countries to have been attacked and invaded by the United States since 1945 is legion. Conversely, not one country with the bomb has been attacked. This equation, more than any other, drives the decision-making calculus of countries Continue reading »
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ERIK PAUL. Resurgent racism in Australia’s foreign policy.
Australia’s banning Huawei points to a resurgent racism in foreign relations. Australian foreign policy should disengage from the military alliance with the US and adopt a more sustainable economy and independent foreign policy. Continue reading »
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PATRICK JORY. Explaining a Thai royal’s aborted electoral debut (East Asia Forum).
On 8 February 2019, Thai Raksa Chart (a Thai political party aligned with exiled, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) made the bombshell announcement that it was nominating King Vajiralongkorn’s elder sister, Ubolratana, as its candidate for prime minister. Late that same night, the King issued a royal command, almost as explosive, effectively forbidding the nomination. Continue reading »
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MOBO GAO. The Chinese United Front Strategy: Its History and Present.
Amidst the fear of political interference of the Chinese government there is often a reference to one organ of the Chinese State, i.e., the United Front (UF). In some Australian news stories about the China, UF is sometimes dangled to the unsuspecting Australian public as an all-purpose threat in the same way the Red under Continue reading »
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HUGH WHITE. The US shouldn’t go to war with China over Taiwan—and nor should Australia (ASPI: THE STRATEGIST, 13 Feb 2019)
Paul Dibb, in his recent Strategist post, writes that America’s strategic position in Asia would be fatally undermined if it didn’t go to war with China if China attacked Taiwan, and that Australia’s alliance with America would be fatally undermined if we didn’t then go to war with China too. The conclusion he draws is that, in the Continue reading »
