World Affairs
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The ‘enemy within the gates’-the key to American politics
It is not at all clear how much more stress, how many more incendiary inputs into its inflammable politics, the American Republic can stand before it becomes fully dysfunctional and unworkable…. Continue reading »
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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 »
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Russia’s vaccine curse
The Sputnik V vaccine was an incredible achievement for Russian science. The measure of success, however, will depend on the ability to vaccinate a majority of the Russian population in order to reach herd immunity…. Continue reading »
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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 »
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Women’s rights in Afghanistan-a lost opportunity in the 1970s.
In Afghanistan today the US calls for the rights of women to be respected. But it was the US that acted in 1978 so that women’s rights would suffer…. Continue reading »
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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 »
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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 »
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The Forever War in Afghanistan is Far From Over
Simple-minded analogies with Vietnam in 1975 are misleading. The Taliban does not have anything like the military might of the North Vietnamese army. Moreover, Afghanistan is a mosaic of ethnic communities, tribes and regions, which the Taliban will struggle to rule whatever happens to the Kabul government…. Continue reading »
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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 »
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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 »
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Peace and global citizenship: student’s present concerns and future hopes
Zoom conversations with students from Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, France, India, Bangladesh and Ghana, reveal dismay about universal cruelties but also their hopes to experience peaceful futures…. Continue reading »
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Fear God, not the pandemic in Indonesia.
July 20 will be a big day in Indonesia. It marks the end of more than two weeks of lockdown, and it’s Bloody Tuesday – Idul Adha, the feast of the sacrifice. This year participants may become victims…. Continue reading »
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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 »
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William H. Overholt- Biden cannot counter China with a team that lacks expertise
President Biden’s foreign policy team says China is the priority, but the team lacks China expertise. Other than trade experience at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Biden’s Cabinet has no China expertise…. Continue reading »
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Peak Sinophobia in Australia?
How can the collapse of the Australia-China diplomatic relationship be explained? Despite a recent flurry of articles and books, the answer isn’t a mystery nor is it complex…. Continue reading »
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Julian Assange and the culture of revenge
To lessen the macabre prospect of Julian Assange spending 175 years in a US maximum security prison, the US Department of Justice suggests that he could serve prison time in Australia. In a decades long tragedy, this latest act looks like nurture for an all consuming culture of revenge in which legal theatre has provided… Continue reading »
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The world is in a crisis of our own making – is it sowing the seeds of change?
The world is in a crisis. And many of our leaders are failing us. People are despondent, angry and sad, many unable to see their loved ones, many more not knowing how to cope. There is no end in sight, unless we look beyond the concreted corridors of power…. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong returns to its old self: economically rich but politically neutral
The city is not losing a democracy it never had but simply going back to being an apolitical community focusing on finance and trade, as it had always been, after a brief and anomalous period of intense and often violent politicisation…. Continue reading »
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The battle of the two lines: media comments on the Communist Party of China
Ongoing celebrations in China of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are crafted to build patriotism and national pride and are domestically focussed. Western press reports say that President Xi’s speech and the 1 July parade demonstrate that China is threatening the rest of the world by demonstrating its… Continue reading »
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How accurate is western media on China?
One of the most important skills a journalist needs is the skill of research. Proper research and investigation even into the most simple of stories is vitally important, news should be accurate, verified and unbiased. However, when it comes to China, Western news is often very wrong. Sometimes erroneous but given the number of errors,… Continue reading »
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Su-Lin Tan-China-Australia relations: US coal continues to fill void left by ban on Australian exports, Canberra report says
The United States continued shipping more coal to China in May – supporting an upward trend seen in recent months and filling the gap left by Australian coal banned by Chinese authorities, newly released trade data and reports show…. Continue reading »
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Kishore Mahbubani: Can America lose to China?
The real danger of the demonization of China is that it leads even thoughtful Americans to believe that an open society like America has many natural advantages over a closed autocratic system like China’s. By framing it in this way, Americans cannot even conceive of the possibility of losing out to China…. Continue reading »
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A close run thing in Hong Kong in 2019.
What Hong Kong faced was an insurgency, the overthrow of the government, nothing less. … Continue reading »
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Virtuous and vicious virology
If virologists are independent seekers after scientific truth, dedicated to advancing human wellbeing, recent revelations about their profession make it look more like mud-wrestling…. Continue reading »
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Jeffrey Sachs and Juliana Bartels.The G20 must act now to vaccinate the world
It is imperative that the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Venice this week act to provide the COVID-19 vaccines needed to achieve worldwide comprehensive adult immunization by early 2022. Given current production, this should not be a problem, so long as a global plan is quickly implemented…. Continue reading »
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Chronicle of a Defeat Foretold Why America Failed in Afghanistan
In 2008, I interviewed the United Kingdom’s then outgoing military commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, in a dusty firebase in Helmand Province, where international troops had been battling the Taliban on a daily basis for territory that kept slipping away…. Continue reading »
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Hong Kong and Taiwan: seeking perspectives
My intention here is to provide some information on Hong Kong and Taiwan, having regard to media failure and the general drought of information in Australia. Policy and public sentiment is being driven by passions and our tendency to prefer conflictual in news and argument…. Continue reading »
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Xi Jinping’s CPC centenary speech: Is there cause for alarm?
A speech to commemorate 100 years of the Communist Party of China by its leader Xi Jinping prompted another flurry of anxiety in the Australian media over the ‘China threat’. But former diplomat Colin Heseltine argues Xi’s speech was aimed at a domestic audience and departed little from standard lines on national security issues…. Continue reading »
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Lockdown’s compulsory in Indonesia – if you like
Luhut Binsar Panjaitan doesn’t read Pearls & Irritations. That’s obvious because the former general and Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s Mr Fixit alleged he was blindsided by the latest tsunami of Covid 19…. Continue reading »
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Alex Lo-How ‘Five Eyes’ allies eat Australia’s lunch over China trade
The US and Canada have been more than happy to substitute supplies from Down Under to China with their own while denouncing Beijing’s ‘economic coercion’… Continue reading »
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