China
-
Provoking China to please the US.
The Morrison government is pushing Australia towards a confrontation with Beijing, mainly to be seen as a fawning acolyte in Washington. Continue reading »
-
Hong Kong’s success continues despite foreign critics.
China has its own version of good governance and understanding of civil society, law and order and financial system. Dismiss them at your peril. Continue reading »
-
Taiwan quo vadis: Is reunification inevitable?
With time on Beijing’s side, is there any other option than Taiwan and Mainland China reuniting? Continue reading »
-
Here’s how many people are really leaving Hong Kong
The world is told one thing, the data says another Continue reading »
-
How Much Does China Benefit from the Taliban Victory over the United States?
A backward impoverished country, led by a radical Islamist group, has defeated the twenty-year occupation of various Western powers led by the superpower, the United States. Taken by surprise at the speed of the Taliban victory, all these powers could do was to organize the retreat and departure of their own people and Afghan followers, Continue reading »
-
Can China win the next war?
Lately there has been a lot of casual talk about the possibility of war with China, in some cases apparently encouraging such a war. This is against a background of Chinese threats to Taiwan, suppression of Islamic radicalism in Xinjiang and policies towards Hong Kong. Equally many people in China tell me that the Chinese Continue reading »
-
Beijing’s delta barricades an echo of 1970s Berlin
It feels as if COVID-19 is lapping at the city gates. Nanjing is locked down for mandatory testing of its entire population. Wuhan, where it all began, is under severe restrictions. Stories of outbreaks are coming from different parts of the country – Chengdu in the far south-west, Dalian in the north-east, Tianjin near Beijing. Continue reading »
-
A patch up for Australia-China relations?
Last week we commented on the divorce between Australia and China as a family relation that has broken down, instigated by the US ‘Mother-in-Law’. This week we will explore the broken relations and try to find means for a family reconciliation, if any possibility exists. Continue reading »
-
The China push for a cleaner and cooler planet
Not a day passes without our media damning China for some imagined infamy or other. So many stories, so many column inches, and nothing positive to be found. At the same time, our television screens are full of other images; real images of a disaster that is enveloping us all. Continue reading »
-
The Dragon has been awakened!
There is a common denominator in the demonisation of China-news media. Continue reading »
-
Three things West gets wrong about China
China is woefully misrepresented, says a Harvard Business Review report. More people in China actively trade their shares than Americans, Europeans or Hongkongers; more than 93% of adults are homeowners; and citizens like their system and support their leadership. Continue reading »
-
Western media is destroying its own credibility
Eric Xun Li has the answer to the problem of the relentlessly negative press that China is receiving. And it’s simpler than one might expect. Continue reading »
-
Hong Kong can borrow from foreign security laws including Australia to combat foreign interference.
The US government had invested lots of resources in building up an espionage base in Hong Kong, and made tremendous efforts to recruit their anti-China agents here and provided them with training and resources, hoping that they could successfully mount the 2019 riots to seize control over Hong Kong to hurt the central government in Continue reading »
-
The usual China-thumping and sanctimonious censuring have continued as intensely as ever.
Late 1989 is rightly regarded as a singular historical turning point when geopolitical business-as-usual was unambiguously interrupted: The Berlin Wall opened up and then came down. Major changes to previous regimes across Eastern Europe swiftly followed and by late 1991, the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had become Russia, again. Continue reading »
-
The price of primacy: Can the United States stop China becoming the dominant regional power?
In this episode of Democracy Sausage, eminent strategic studies expert Hugh White joins Mark Kenny to examine Australia’s strategy for dealing with rising tensions between the United States and China and the prospects for armed conflict in the region. Continue reading »
-
China threatens the West’s primacy, not its democratic systems
Some Western leaders, including Scott Morrison, have begun to describe the contest with China in starkly ideological terms, as a defence of democracy against authoritarianism. They say China threatens to replace the democratically-based “liberal international order” with a new order founded on the principles and practices of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which would endanger democratic Continue reading »
-
Hong Kong Journalist Association plays to the Washington gallery.
When it comes to grandstanding, the Hong Kong Journalists Association wins hands down. In this, it can take great pride, and to outdo the prima donnas of bodies like the Hong Kong Bar Association is no mean feat. Continue reading »
-
China grievances conflated into demands.
Peter Hartcher on the ABC presented China’s list of grievances as if they were some kind of official demarche made on the Australian Government. He intones repeatedly about these ‘demands’ as if they had the status of Martin Luther’s 95 theses nailed to the chapel door at Wittenberg University which started the Reformation. That is Continue reading »
-
Between the lines with Tom Switzer: China, friend or foe?
The western world’s relationships with Beijing are at their worst in more than half a century. How do we account for the rapid deterioration in Australia’s dealings with China? With Peter Hartcher,described by Tom Switzer as a ‘China scholar’ and David Brophy. Continue reading »
-
China: A big threat to our future or misunderstood hegemon?
David Brophy and Jocelyn Chey speaking at the Politics in the Pub Forum on relations with China. Continue reading »
-
After a century of achievements, the CPC’s next critical phase begins now
The Communist Party of China (CPC) commemorated its 100-year anniversary on July 1, 2021, a day that was met with celebratory Chinese introspection and no small amount of criticism from China’s detractors. I had the privilege of being invited to speak at two international conferences to mark the celebration, one of which was attended by Continue reading »
-
A Flight with Henry Kissinger to Beijing that Changed the World
On this particular night in July 1971, we were told to get ready for a 3 AM departure. Continue reading »
-
The Afghanistan failure is history repeating itself but there may be profound consequences.
Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban will do much to change the balance of power in Heartland central Asia. Continue reading »
-
The CCP’s greatest strength is “Self-Reinvention”
An advocate for China argues the party’s capacity for renewal has kept it at the vanguard of the nation’s youth. Continue reading »
-
Boris sends naval fleet to revive British colonialism on the Chinese coast
Double standards: In the shipping war games it’s Freedom of Navigation for one side and an unwelcome intrusion into our waters for the other. Continue reading »
-
Did China buy Cambridge?
The front cover of The Spectator magazine of 10 July 2021 reads, ‘How China bought Cambridge’ (framed by temptations to read stories such as ‘Is Boris becoming Prince Harry?’ and ‘The joy of streaking’). The “Cambridge” in question is the university, and an article by Ian Williams with the same title sets out the case Continue reading »
-
Rule of law in Hong Kong: Judicial safety and foreign hypocrites
In the Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the United Nations’ General Assembly on the Rule of Law at the National and International Levels, adopted in 2012, it is stated that “the advancement of the rule of law is essential for sustained and inclusive economic growth, sustainable development, the eradication of poverty and hunger and Continue reading »
-
What did we do to China?
Half of us reckon China is responsible for improving the relationship between our countries, forty per cent expect China to attack us, and two-thirds say its interference in our affairs is a major problem. The Lowy Institute’s Natasha Kassam says, “No other country in the world – not Taiwan, Japan or South Korea – is Continue reading »
-
Henry Kissinger marks 50 years since first China visit with call for talks to avoid ‘catastrophe’
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger called for serious dialogue between China and the United States to avoid “catastrophe”, during a Beijing event celebrating his historic trip to China 50 years ago. Continue reading »
-
Tim I Gurung -Hongkongers should learn from how Britain treated the Gurkhas
Britain’s recently adopted policy to grant Hongkongers with British National (Overseas) passports a pathway to citizenship in the UK seems to be a pretty generous offer. Indeed, many Hongkongers have already taken advantage of it. Continue reading »
