China
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Is China Australia’s biggest security threat?
No, it’s catastrophic climate change. Avoiding that threat needs co-operation with countries like China, not conflict. Australia’s challenge is to get our priorities right and be a constructive player in addressing the existential climate threat that all nations face. Continue reading »
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A difficult relationship is not in the interests of our two countries
The recent bilateral meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Albanese on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali has charted the course for the future development of the China-Australia relationship. Continue reading »
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Australian studies in China: the ways ahead
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the formal diplomatic relationship between our two countries. It heralds the start of a new and mature bilateral relationship. I firmly trust that Australian Studies in China will further expand and flourish in the years to come. Continue reading »
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Listening to Chinese whispers shielded Beijing from COVID-19 blame
China was wracked with unprecedented anti-zero-COVID protests in late November 2022. They started with a fire in Urumqi city, Xinjiang. Continue reading »
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Challenging the “Uyghur genocide narrative”
The “Uyghur genocide narrative” is falling apart and Jaq James, an Australian socio-legal research consultant is one of the main architects of the collapse. Continue reading »
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China keeps aggressively surrounding itself with US bases: notes from the edge of The Narrative Matrix
It still amazes me how many people who fancy themselves anti-establishment critical thinkers will spend all day mindlessly regurgitating mainstream media lines about China. Continue reading »
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Yes, the Chinese protests are about politics and freedom. But they are also about what COVID might do if it is let loose now
While a lot of attention has been given to the unprecedented protests in China about the “dynamic zero COVID” policy, not much has been written about the wider political context, and particularly the young people leading the protests. Continue reading »
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Should WeChat be banned? Australian users say no
Banning WeChat/Weixin would mean cutting Australian users’ “lifeline” to China; it would risk further alienating an already alienated community amid the anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia. For non-Chinese WeChat users in Australia, banning the platform would deprive them of individual choice and agency. Continue reading »
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The central importance of China’s common prosperity
Nikkei diplomatic correspondent Ken Moriyasu debunks the notion that Xi Jinping has been set up as some sort of President-for-life, stressing that Xi’s tenure is conspicuously dependent on maintaining overall performance legitimacy at a time when head winds look set to dominate. Continue reading »
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The coming Sinophobic calamity
Neither the red wave nor the blue one materialised in the latest election, which removes some of the impetus for the coming congressional Sinophobic rampage. Continue reading »
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What caused the Anthony Albanese China change? Better advisors?
To say that the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has been poorly advised would be an understatement. For reasons best known to himself he picked up and ran with a posse of advisers from the corrupt and inept Morrison regime. A big mistake. Continue reading »
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Albanese’s China reset leaves national security establishment in the cold
We should all welcome a bilateral decision between Australia and China to tone down the language, lower the temperature and to resume discussions of mutual interests. Continue reading »
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To understand the rise of China examine what we have in common
One hundred years ago in China the May 4th Movement announced that “Science and Socialism” would save the nation. In Australia, thirteen years prior, a workers party has already taken national government for the first time in history. Continue reading »
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What Kevin Rudd got wrong on China: Taiwan and the great rejuvenation twenty five years ago
The renowned China hand mistook Beijing’s linking of Taiwan and the “great rejuvenation” as a recent development and failed to trace the origin of the “great rejuvenation” of the Chinese nation back to at least 1997. Continue reading »
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Australia’s path forward: 50 years of relations with China
Cooperate where we can, disagree where we must. It’s time to start the next 50 years of the Australia-China relationship on a more positive footing. Exactly as our predecessors did in December 1972. Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping? 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. President Xi will have a very different view. Continue reading »
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The battle over development and democracy in the South Pacific
United States-Australian policy toward China demonstrates an increasing tension over what development and democracy means for people of the South Pacific. There is wide agreement that over the last forty years China has been exemplary for its rate of growth. Until relatively recently, this favourable assessment has been made by linking growth with development and Continue reading »
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‘Peaceful modernisation’: China’s offering to the Global South
Xi Jinping just offered the Global South a stark alternative to decades of western diktats, war, and economic duress. ‘Peaceful modernisation’ will establish sovereignty, economy, and independence for the world’s struggling states. Continue reading »
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Will we choose war or peace with China?
Surely we know from daily life that a bit of friendly dialogue with prospective “enemies” really can help defuse conflict? Continue reading »
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The remarkable resilience of Hong Kong
Vibrancy and efficiency combined with a particularly safe living environment all remain evident in Hong Kong in a way not commonly seen in other large, modern global cities. Still, the series of tests which the HKSAR faces today are acutely demanding. This, though, resonates with the position faced in most jurisdictions worldwide. Hong Kong, meanwhile, Continue reading »
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The story behind China’s fourth generation nuclear reactors
The fact that only China has implemented a Small Modular Nuclear Reactors is a testament to the skills and capacities of Chinese nuclear engineers and the policy makers that the West, despite renewed interest in the idea, will find difficult to match. Continue reading »
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Stan Grant and China knowledge: how do we measure up?
Stan Grant’s recent article on China demonstrates that our media’s knowledge of China is less than adequate. We do not need to say anything about the other self-described ‘China experts’ in the Australian media who are far less qualified. Continue reading »
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The party decides: review of the CCP National Congress
More of the same. That’s the outcome of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which concluded at the weekend. The implication for Australia is that we had better get used to it. Continue reading »
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Australia’s fear of China: renewed trust a matter of dialogue and respect
Fear of China is currently dominant in Australia’s public discourse, as reflected in recent opinion polls, surveys, and mainstream media. Fear of China is of course not new in Australia. It was a driver of Federation at the end of the 19th Century and the first act of the new Federal Parliament was long recognised Continue reading »
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China policy: A casualty of Australia’s addiction to imperial power
It’s now close to five months since Labor came to office, but little has changed in the government’s position on China or the dangerous escalation in great power tensions. Continue reading »
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The Australian electorate is being misled by its media
A well informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy. Yet, on China, Australians are being misled by our mainstream media. Continue reading »
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US Asia Policy seems to be in disarray
The China-bashing broadside delivered by US Vice President Kamala Harris at the end of September in Japan raises questions of who is in charge of China and Asia policy and what it is. Continue reading »
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Western anxiety attacks intensify with the Chinese National Congress
On October 16, President Xi Jinping delivered his report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). During the weeks prior to this, we witnessed a conspicuous intensification of Sino-phobic censures from across the Mainstream Western Media, triggered by the approaching National Congress. Leading commentators and core Western politicians have been Continue reading »
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China: How do I fear thee? Let me count the ways
A deep-seated ontological fear is complicating any possible moves towards restoring some semblance of normality in relations with China. There are many strands in this tangled skein. Let me try to pick some of them apart. Continue reading »
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Truss misrepresentations on China
While the campaign for the UK prime ministership was more about domestic issues than foreign policy, China still made fleeting appearances. Prime Minister Liz Truss had long pushed for a more ‘hawkish’ approach to China, commenting in the past about the need for the United Kingdom to avoid ‘dependency’ on the People’s Republic. Continue reading »
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