China
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Anthony Albanese must get real about China
Penny Wong is professional and diligent, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs to change his advisers on China. Continue reading »
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Remarks on the Australia-China divide at the AsiaLink launch of Happy Together, by David Walker and Li Yao.
The juxtaposition and interweaving of life stories from Australia and China make for endlessly fascinating reading. Continue reading »
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When words matter: Reviewing the Wong-Wang meeting
Failure to recognise linguistic nuances partly explains the misinterpretation of the meeting by Birtles and other journalists. Continue reading »
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Liu Xiaobo and his Nobel peace prize
Wednesday, 13 July 2022, will mark the fifth anniversary of the passing of China’s human rights activist, Liu Xiaobo. The controversy surrounding his Nobel Peace award and his death is revisited. Continue reading »
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An open letter to Boris Johnson about his ignorance of Hong Kong
On the 25th Anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in the British national interest, there should be a correct understanding of the situation in Hong Kong. It is important for there to be a healthier relationship with China. Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese on China – What next? The Taiwan conflict
The large Chinese diaspora that helped Labor win office in the hope of better relations with China could switch its support to less hawkish Teal candidates likely to contest Labor seats at the next election. Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese on China – What next on the human rights dilemma?
China is reported as undemocratic, persecuting Tibetan and Uighur minorities, incarcerating Hong Kong separatists, and having border skirmishes. But many other countries fit that label too, yet we court them rather than shun them. A notable example is Myanmar, where Australia refuses to join other Western nations in imposing sanctions on the military junta for Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese on China – What Next? Who started the trade war?
Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese is perpetuating the myth that China’s action in 2020 to restrict Australian exports was a bolt out of the blue that was uncalled for. Continue reading »
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What is Anthony Albanese up to!
Anthony Albanese has shown during his recent trip to Europe that he is a prime minister addicted to hyperbole and oblivious to how countries can change in unexpected ways. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong is weathering the storm very well despite the usual critics.
Nine months ago, and 15 months on from the implementation of the new national security law in Hong Kong P&I published a piece I put together summarising developments over those 15 months. Nine months later as Hong Kong celebrates the 25th anniversary of the handover in 1997 and two years on from the implementation of Continue reading »
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The Albanese government’s policy on China so far is beyond disappointing
Prime Minister Albanese is happy to begin his prime ministership by fawning on the U.S., Japan and NATO, while all three move further away from China as a systemic competitor, threat or worse. Continue reading »
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The Hong Kong diaries: Patten revives colonialism, trying to attract interest
Although the United Kingdom traditionally regarded Hong Kong as a colony, this changed over time. Continue reading »
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Peter Drysdale and Shiro Armstrong: Australia must find common purpose with China
Both nations depend heavily on a multilateral trading system. Strengthening it together is a way of managing their troubled bilateral relationship. Continue reading »
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A word on war with China
Professor Hugh White argues, in an essay, ’If growing US-China rivalry leads to ‘the worst war ever’, what should Australia do?’ published in Pearls and Irritations on 26 June, that, ‘..the very real possibility that a war with China launched to preserve the US’s position in Asia might end up destroying it, just as the Continue reading »
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If growing US-China rivalry leads to ‘the worst war ever’, what should Australia do?
Should Australia join the United States in a war against China to prevent China taking the US’s place as the dominant power in East Asia? Until a few years ago the question would have seemed merely hypothetical, but not anymore. Continue reading »
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Reflections on Criminal Justice in Hong Kong since 1997
The judiciary, the prosecutions division and the police force have all faced great challenges since 1997, and they have all learnt from their experiences and emerged stronger.That is not what the anti-China media have told us. Continue reading »
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Anti-China is in the Australian DNA
Is there any hope for Australia-China relations? I have spent most of a 60 year career on the periphery of those relations – in Canberra, Hong Kong, Moscow and Japan, with some time in China mainly during the crucial Cultural Revolution period. Continue reading »
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China, a country of the mind
China has always been a country of the mind, a big Rorschach test into which we pour all our dreams or hopes of good and evil. But it has rarely matched those dreams. Continue reading »
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China’s peace keeping soft power and its new MOOTW regulations
On 15 June President Xi Jinping signed into force new regulations regarding China’s Military Operations Other Than War usually abbreviated as MOOTW. Eryk Bagshaw of the Sydney Morning Herald immediately declared them to be “an expansion of his country’s military capabilities, giving the defence forces the power to protect its interests abroad”. The Herald offers Continue reading »
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US hysterics over a Cambodian naval pier
The Chinese navy will struggle to threaten the region or launch a war from a tiny pier earmarked for upgrade at the Ream Naval Base. Continue reading »
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Is America’s ‘Strategic Ambiguity’ over Taiwan a thing of the past?
During President Biden’s recent visit to Tokyo for the Quad meeting, he said the US would intervene militarily in defence of Taiwan, if China were to attack it. Continue reading »
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How reliable is the ‘research’ of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on forced labour in Xinjiang
My Paper concludes that, at best, the work of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch amounts to junk research. Continue reading »
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Bachelet in China: Insights into Human Rights and Xinjiang
UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s recent visit to China did not impress an international press that has made the treatment of the mainly Muslim Uighur people of Xinjiang province a major ground for the West’s political attacks on China. Their negative comments have missed the main point of the visit, which has opened a Continue reading »
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Bachelet in China: Will the truth about Xinjiang be uncovered?
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet arrived in China on 22 May, the first such high-level visit since 2005. During her six days in China she will visit the far west province of Xinjiang where the Uighur minority people have been subject to several rights violations, as admitted by her office last Continue reading »
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The US is priming Asia-Pacific for war
For Washington, containing China is more important than risking the lives of millions in the region. Such a war will, after all, be fought on the other side of the world, so far as ordinary Americans – already sold on the evil of communist China and the benevolence of their own country – are concerned. Continue reading »
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Getting the Australia-China Relationship back on track
While we should not yet abandon hope for a more realistic, nuanced and sophisticated China policy under the Labor government, Prime Minister Albanese’s initial statements from Tokyo in response to an overture from PRC Prime Minister Li Keqiang are not encouraging. Continue reading »
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David Goodman and others – An Open letter to the New Government on relations with China
To Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong, Continue reading »
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With a new Australian government and foreign minister comes fresh hope for Australia-China relations
An Albanese government in Canberra means an improved trajectory in Australia-China relations is a real possibility. Sure, there will be no “re-set” like we saw in the heady days of 2015. The world has changed; Australia and China certainly have. Continue reading »
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The Solomons have quite simply forgotten their place
The disciplines and sub-disciples of Political Science and International Relations are frequently embarrassed by their collective inabilities to provide comprehensive understandings of events ostensibly within their purview because, as disciplines, they suffer from constrained, even constipated imaginations. Continue reading »
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Government loses foreign policy edge
The last time a foreign policy/defence issue went really bad for a Liberal Party Government was just over half a century ago – but it also concerned China. Needless to say, the Labor Party was accused of being soft on China. A recurring theme: from the early 1960s the Menzies Government’s election campaigning always included Continue reading »
