China
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American anxiety
Bad-tempered coverage of China continues to flourish across the entire US media. It ranges from fire-breathing to pearl-clutching. Most commentators look daggers at Beijing in a dozen different over-cooked ways – and especially at the Communist Party of China – while reminding readers and viewers of America’s continuing paramount superpower status. Continue reading »
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A divided US needs an ‘enemy’ like Beijing more than it ever did
When something becomes too complicated, psychologists say we go for ‘rules of thumb’. In Washington today, that rule is ‘the China threat’. Continue reading »
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The biggest sporting event the West has never heard of
The last week in September saw the much delayed (due to Covid) opening of the 19th Asian Games. This event which is held on a four-year cycle involves participants from 45 nations, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the enormous populations in this part of the world sees a larger number of athletes taking part than even Continue reading »
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Rethinking China and the new world order
The world is now experiencing a new era of multilateralism. The Quad (India, US, Japan, Australia) now sits alongside the G20, the G7, and has been joined by AUKUS (Australia, UK, US), and the great new vision of the Indo Pacific. BRICS, around for almost two decades, looks like it might expand to become a Continue reading »
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Upholding peace as China crosses the threshold of world power
Today, we live in an era of high tension between China, our largest trading partner and the US, our closest ally. We risk being goaded into war by the Australian and American hawks and their Chinese equivalents in reaction. Of seeing our sovereignty eroded and becoming the “USS Terra Australis” the largest aircraft carrier in Continue reading »
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How has the Belt and Road Initiative changed the world?
The ten years of the Belt and Road Initiative has proven that the rise of China has not brought colonialism, disaster, war, refugees, and crises. Instead, it brought the world trade, commodities, tourists, infrastructure, economic growth and civilisation. No matter how Western politicians, media, and think tanks vilify the BRI, they cannot cover up a Continue reading »
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Militarising exclusive maritime zones – a new global US security doctrine?
International law of the sea is set to be subverted as America seeks to exercise extraterritorial defence claims over foreign exclusive economic zones beyond those of three Pacific island states. Continue reading »
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Why China is not planning to conquer other nations
Besides settling and securing its borders, China has no claims on other nations. Countries with grandiose territorial ambitions make no secret of them. This second article in a three-part series explores why China is not planning to conquer and occupy any other nation. Continue reading »
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Australia-China relations are stabilising
After three years’ pause, the Australia-China High-Level Dialogue held its 7th meeting in Beijing on 7 September. This continues the process of stabilisation in bilateral relations since the Albanese government came to power 16 months ago. A closed-door meeting where no extensive media coverage was possible, it was nonetheless understood that the two sides considered Continue reading »
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Why China is not a threat: Sinophobia Unites Americans
Hatred of China is now the single issue that unites Democrats and Republicans. Having a perceived foe helps unite a deeply divided America internally, unless, of course, it becomes a losing cause. This three-part series explores how US narratives on the ‘China threat’ have become entrenched in the West, and why China is not a Continue reading »
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Waiting for the collapse of the ‘China collapse’ prediction
For the past one month or so, my wife has been on a self-guided tour of Europe, visiting friends and scenic spots. She told me on the phone recently that she could not help but argue with her friends and new acquaintances when they tried to convince her that China would “collapse” in two to Continue reading »
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Did Penny Wong really just suggest China is an ‘existential’ threat?
The Australian Government has a big problem with its security narrative. Preparing for a putative war with China is the nation’s top security priority, while the government’s knowledge of the growing existential threat of climate disruption and their security consequences remains a closely-guarded secret. Continue reading »
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Anti-China rhetoric threatens thriving technology partnerships with China
Australia’s existing relationships and collaborations with China give Australian Industry and consumers a head start in the cost-effective use of some of the most important technologies of the future, including those vital to achieving net zero emissions. Most countries would give anything to be at the forefront of such developments, but Australian University researchers are 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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There is more to the Xinjiang story than meets Western media eyes
According to independent observers who visited the region, Beijing has implemented policies to help Uygurs after crushing terrorist threat. Continue reading »
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Xinjiang: A personal perspective
The fact is that between 2010 and 2016, Xinjiang was on the brink of chaos. Unlike America’s war on terror, characterised by US troops invading the wrong countries, destroying infrastructure, pillaging resources, terrorizing locals and conducting drone strikes that killed civilians and journalists, as Julian Assange valiantly exposed on WikiLeaks, China’s approach to counter terrorist Continue reading »
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Understanding the rules of the China debate
China wants to expand its sphere of influence; the West, thankfully, is devoid of such base instincts. 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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China spy cases sound like more Western paranoia
The China threat has much more to do with the insecurity and indecision of the West towards the country, the emerging multipolar world and the erosion of Western dominance. Continue reading »
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The mirage of China’s offensive nuclear strategy
In previous articles, I’ve articulated why I adopted a skeptical and analytical mindset from a young age, particularly in the realm of geopolitical claims made by nation-states in the nuclear age. Now, let’s shift our focus to China’s nuclear strategy. Continue reading »
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China, innovation, and competition with the US
The real American terror is not that the Chinese economy will grow bigger than the American economy – if it is not already – but that the Chinese mixed economy model will prove superior to the rampant free-market, greed model US billionaires and their peddlers promote. Continue reading »
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Filling the ricebowl: The mainstream media’s anti-China obsession
I chanced upon an article written by Peter Hartcher in The Age today (12/09/2023) and was astounded by how puerile the present mainstream media can be. Continue reading »
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Our media won’t tell us but Huawei’s Mate60 is set to challenge iPhone
The moon waxes and wanes, the tide ebbs and flows, empires come and go but some empires come more than once. This is, once again, China’s time. While there have been moves to prevent this from occurring, one recent event proves they are unsuccessful. Continue reading »
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The paranoia of China going global
Empires are anxious creatures, run by those predatory types with egos vast and awareness minimal. The awareness only gets pricked when risks are posed to the financial returns, military security, what might be called, at a stretch, their way of living. Such risks can come in many forms, and for the US imperium, it’s less Continue reading »
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It’s time Canberra took back strategic autonomy
That Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose to confirm his visit to China almost two months in advance after his “frank and constructive” meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta last week shows his earnestness to further improve Sino-Australian relations. Continue reading »
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Biden: Chinese among “bad folks” who do “bad things”
At a political fundraiser in Utah on 10 August, U.S. President Joe Biden described China’s economy as a “ticking time bomb”, adding that “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”. It’s not only an unusually undiplomatic comment, but an unfair one that borders on the ridiculous. Continue reading »
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Australia only has itself to blame for trade woes with China after siding with the US
Australia has no business playing the victim when the lines between strategy and economic interests have become increasingly blurred. Continue reading »
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Xi highlights people-to-people links
China’s president has stressed the great value of strong China-US contacts at grassroots level. Continue reading »
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China’s artificial intelligence is a great leap forward: Australia’s opportunity?
Australian entrepreneurs and investors are already looking to the new developments in our region for inspirations and opportunities. They might look no further than China. Continue reading »
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China: Perspectives beyond the mainstream media
China looms large in the Australian psyche. On a practical level, what happens in China largely determines the success of global action to deal with climate change, the profitability of our rural economy and the financing of our universities. Our national leaders are concerned about rising tensions in our region and the interplay of US-China Continue reading »
