China
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Australia has more to lose in a human rights ‘face off’ with China
China is stepping up human rights accusations against Australia following numerous condemnations Australia has made on the same grounds. Before intensifying criticisms of China’s human rights, Australia should recognize that this can be a double-edged sword. Continue reading »
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Will the Alaska meeting ease tensions or worsen relations between the US and China?
There is an important face to face meeting between the US and China on Thursday in Alaska. But our media seems disinterested. Continue reading »
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Ignorance and Prejudice on China is now entrenched in Australian media – Part 2
With a mainstream media climate like this on China and dissenting voices being discouraged, it is hard to see any early prospect of easing tensions. The Australian people have been badly let down on China by our policy elites. Continue reading »
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QUAD: A public relations exercise to disguise Big Pharma’s obstruction and to combat Chinese vaccine successes
QUAD (US, Japan, India and Australia) was regarded as a strategic bloc to contain China. However, the recent virtual meeting between President Biden and Prime Ministers Suga, Modhi and Morrison ,whilst highlighting the provision vaccines to the region was really about curbing Chinese vaccine successes- an expression of soft power. Continue reading »
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The long Chinese march into Indonesia with vaccines
Chinese officials in Australia rarely miss an opportunity to chill relations by turning down the thermostat on our democratic values and way of seeing the world. Meanwhile, the Middle Kingdom’s men in Jakarta are playing a long and warming game.So far about four million have had their first vaccine shot and around 1.5 million needle Continue reading »
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‘Ignorance and prejudice on China are now entrenched in Australian media’. Part 1
Ignorance and prejudice on China are now entrenched in Australia, fed by media repetition of false narratives; possibly encouraged by US and UK origin foreign influences; and enabled by stubborn and inept Australian political leadership. Continue reading »
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The continuing mystery of the Belt and Road Initiative
It has been almost eight years yet enormous issues remain around the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing knows them all but, with face saving widely recognized as the imperative of its foreign policy, prefers not to disclose them publicly. In fact, the BRI is not and never has been a strategy, but is an assemblage Continue reading »
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The “Chinese” are a very diverse group.
The so-called “Chinese Australian community” is a myth. It is a much less homogeneous group than widely assumed in public debate. Recognising differences within the group would not deny their commonality but instead, serve the ultimate purposes of multiculturalism and social cohesion. Continue reading »
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Sunday essay: Sino American duet is turning into a Danse Macabre
Of late, the bilateral relationship has evolved into something akin to a Danse Macabre. Continue reading »
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A better Biden approach in the South China Sea
President Joe Biden’s Defense Department has created a taskforce to review US military relations with China and recommend any necessary changes. But what needs to be changed? Continue reading »
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Being Chinese in Australia: the good, the bad and the ugly
A snapshot of the life for Chinese-Australians shows three quarters say they are happy living in Australia, yet in the past 12 months one in five has reported being physically threatened or attacked. Continue reading »
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The Year of the Ox more productive than Year of the Rat, but reset in Australia-China relations still unlikely
Oxen are more useful to humanity than rats. Here’s hoping that the year of the ox, which started on 12 February, will be better than the year of the rat. But, in terms of China’s relations with the West, and specifically Australia, it hasn’t started well. Several factors, especially differing concepts of human rights and Continue reading »
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China stands ready as the West fails its own test of moral leadership
Growing inequality, corruption and the monopolisation of power by a “rich-get-richer” self-serving elite have revealed democracy to be a sham. Meanwhile, China exports its vaccine to 27 overwhelmingly developing nations. From Covid to climate change to international trade and globalisation, Xi Jinping is trying to present China as a responsible global power. Continue reading »
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An unsentimental China policy: The case for putting vital interests first
Fifty years ago come July, US President Richard Nixon announced what would become his signature foreign policy achievement: the opening to China. The following February, in what the press called “the week that shook the world”, he flew to Beijing to meet Mao Zedong, the leader of communist China. So began a half-century of US Continue reading »
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Keeping an open mind: rules based order needs to be malleable
As countries like China continue to integrate into the world economy, the liberal “rules-based” order – centred around political governance and the military – needs to remain flexible. Continue reading »
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What is the Japanese Embassy in Canberra up to?
Is it trying to stoke anti-China sentiment in Australia? Continue reading »
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People in glass houses should be careful about throwing stones
A group of Australian journalists in their never-ending hostility to China keep throwing stones at China for human rights breaches in Xinjiang, but largely ignore Australian and other breaches. Their ignorance of China explains a lot. Continue reading »
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Morrison can barely hide his disdain for China; Labor fears being wedged
Until there is more positive signalling out of Washington, the Australia–China relationship will remain frozen. Neither Morrison nor Albanese has the grace, courage, or diplomatic skills to challenge the status quo. Continue reading »
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Why should Australia be concerned about rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait?
The pivotal reason that peace has endured for 70 years has disappeared. President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping has declared he wants to oversee movement toward unification during his lifetime. Continue reading »
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Stalemate in Australia-China relations
The People’s Republic of China continues to reject overtures for high-level ministerial dialogue while maintaining that Australia bears the lion’s share of responsibility to create a situation in which the relationship can be improved. Continue reading »
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Biden China team puts militarist cart before the diplomatic horse
By doubling down on Trump’s ‘in your face’ pursuit of military domination, the Biden China team seems to be proffering more of the same to the region — instability and a drift toward confrontation and conflict. Continue reading »
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China’s vision of hegemony: the view from India – Vijay Gokhale
China speaks of the ‘community of the shared future for mankind’, and ‘win–win cooperation’; it plays balance-of-power politics and acts in ways that take advantage of others in adversity. China’s aim is to establish its supremacy in areas of productive technology, trade networks and financing options in ways that shut out competition. Continue reading »
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Nine’s international editor’s demonising of a ‘genocidal China’ is downright dangerous
Using such a loaded term as “genocide” as a kind of throwaway is irresponsible, especially when it’s designed to sneer at nuance. Sneering at anybody wanting more nuance in analysing Australia-China relations is not only unwise but dangerous. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong’s passports: London fixes mess created by imperialist push
The key acknowledgement behind the UK’s new immigrations scheme is that the UK no longer fears being swamped by Asians but on the contrary sees potential financial benefit from an influx of wealthy and well-educated Hong Kong families. Continue reading »
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Taiwan: to war or not to war, is that the question?
Are we at risk of stumbling into a war with China over Taiwan – as happened in 1914 over a war with a rising Germany? Continue reading »
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Attempts to build a new anti-China alliance will fail
A massive economic ecosystem centred on China is evolving in the region. Yet Australia is playing itself out of the game. It dug itself into a hole when it humiliated China by calling for an international inquiry into Covid-19. All of Asia is watching to see who will blink first, and it is unlikely to Continue reading »
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How ping pong brought Australia and China together: a story from 1971
As the 50th anniversary of Australia’s 1971 opening to China approaches it is time to tell the true story of how a team of confused ping pong players and journalists hunting for a scoop opened Australia/China relations. Continue reading »
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An ‘ugly plot’ by the ‘Democrats’ in Hong Kong
The arrest of 53 persons on January 6-7 this year in Hong Kong on suspicion of subversion has, once again, raised a frenzy of condemnation by western leaders and the media. Continue reading »
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Pompeo and Blinken are wrong: China is not committing genocide in Xinjiang
On his last day as US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo declared China’s human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region constituted “genocide” against ethnic Uighur Muslims. This outrageous declaration was the last of many that Pompeo has issued in a deliberate attempt to destroy relations with China on his way out of office. Continue reading »
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Recognising China. How it was done.
It is almost 50 years since Australia and China agreed to enter into diplomatic relations. The path to agreement had its complications and soon after I retired from DFAT I set about refreshing my memory and that of others involved at the time. The result of this research was published in “Quadrant” in March 1998 Continue reading »
