World Affairs
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North Korea able to strike US mainland – Asian Media report
In Asian Media this week: Pyongyang using Pacific as firing range. Plus: opposing views on Asian security; democracy-vs-autocracy a false division; China’s population to plummet; Thailand’s global standing at low point; man-made threat to sea life. Continue reading »
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Sanitising the unforgettable
I hope this article will turn out to be a short communication because my hand trembles with indignation as I write. I refer to the article “Why history does not disqualify Japan as an ally: a reply to Richard Cullen” by Robert Cribb Feb 21, 2023. Continue reading »
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Anti-China rhetoric is off the charts: what explains the mass hysteria in the West?
A key feature of following the news and reporting from mainstream Western media today is the relentless China bashing. It is off the charts, tiring, and often regurgitated trivia or fabricated stories with no evidence to support callous statements about the country, demonstrating a deep lack of understanding. But it continues to be churned out Continue reading »
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Ukraine, the war and a Chinese hope for settlement
The anniversary of the war in Ukraine was accompanied by high level visits to both Moscow and Kviv. Continue reading »
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A plan for human survival
Among the world’s many pressing needs, the most urgent of all is a plan for human survival. And Australia should be the country to lead its creation. Continue reading »
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What would war with China look like for Australia? Part 2
Australians could wake up one morning to the news that we are at war with China. Continue reading »
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Whom can we trust? some reflections on social trends in China and Australia
China continues to lead the world in trust, according to the influential Edelman Trust Barometer. The 2023 latest survey repeats similar previous rankings and gives the lie to commentators who continually maintain that the Communist Party of China is losing its legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens. Continue reading »
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What would war with China look like for Australia? Part 1
If Australia sleepwalks into a war with China, as many analysts fear is happening right now, then amid our strategic slumber we should at least ask one question: what would war with China mean for Australia? Continue reading »
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Why history does not disqualify Japan as an ally: a reply to Richard Cullen
Richard Cullen’s article, ‘Why Japan is not an acceptable military ally’, published in Pearls and Irritations (5 Jan. 2023) is an unfortunate piece of historical muck-raking. Continue reading »
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In Kashmir’s cycles of violence, progeny of former counterinsurgents are trapped in traumatic past
Ganderbal, India – The sun has just come out on a grey wintery afternoon and the snow-clad peaks of Harmukh are shining in the distance, casting sharp reflections over the horizon. Continue reading »
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Troubled US could learn from its differences with China, rather than simply challenge them
Difference is intrinsically good, a vital force behind creativity and innovation, and an essential ingredient for international competition. It becomes a negative force only when people or governments try to impose those differences on others, and this is not something China has done. Continue reading »
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China formulates its own future
Despite countless Western bossy-boots beavering away in the media and beyond, generating worst-case projections as they strain to create a collective storyboard for “China: The Disaster Movie”, China, exasperatingly, keeps successfully pressing on towards its own clearly considered, affirmative future. Continue reading »
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CCTV cameras: of arrogance and ignorance
What motivated the Australian government when it announced that it would get rid of CCTV cameras on public buildings because they were Chinese devices? They are to be discarded not because they malfunction but because they function all too well. Continue reading »
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Exposed: the US ‘atrocity fabrication’ industry demonising rival states
Shocking false narratives are concocted by the west to create animosity towards rivals, says 500-page study from University of London researcher. Continue reading »
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Why did Australia oppose an ICJ advisory opinion on Israeli settlements?
Surely the Australian people are entitled to an explanation as to why in December last year the government voted against an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Continue reading »
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China statecraft must avoid war with US and keep Taiwan peace
It would be a grave mistake for Beijing to respond in kind in the face of incessant provocations and escalations by America and its allies. Continue reading »
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Indonesia seeks Myanmar peace talks
Indonesia is chair of ASEAN this year and using its position to try and end the two-year crisis in Myanmar that’s already cost more than 3,000 lives. Continue reading »
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Platitudes don’t bring peace to occupied Palestine
The blood bath that was 2022 in occupied Palestine claimed the lives of more than 230 Palestinians. The Israeli Occupation Forces and the heavily armed illegal Jewish settlers in the West Bank have continued their feral killing spree into 2023 unabated. Continue reading »
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China containment line buttressed: Asian Media report
In Asian media this week – Taiwan key to first island chain control. Plus: US fosters belief war is inevitable; why the West thinks it speaks for the world; independence anniversary but nothing to celebrate; balloon saga shows why US must act tough; nothing can live in Manila Bay. Continue reading »
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Amnesty International’s submission to UN committee highlights Xinjiang
Amnesty International just made a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and some of it surprised me. Continue reading »
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Australia’s Taiwan nightmare
Australia has been persuaded, enticed and strongarmed into taking gravely dangerous decisions. But Australia is a sovereign state and its fingerprints are, ultimately, all over the formation of its terrible abdication of national independence. Continue reading »
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US policies: killing our region while we sit silent
We live in an integrated and connected world, not well understood by political leaders or military moguls. Nowhere is this more important than in East Asia. Destructive action towards important neighbours who are central to our trade with the world is of course contrary to our national strategic interests. We should not sit silent. Continue reading »
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Twisting in the wind: A view from Hong Kong
The year of the Rabbit has arrived, and Hong Kong is bouncing back with a vengeance. Continue reading »
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Netanyahu’s collective punishment of Palestinians
Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-right government’s reported response to the “terrorism” of the Palestinian who killed seven people at a synagogue in east Jerusalem on 27 January 2023 includes the likely collective punishment of the family of the attacker, such as loss of citizenship, house demolition and deportation. Continue reading »
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Australia needs a royal commission into immigration detention
Australia needs a Royal Commission into its heinous, wasteful, privatised immigration detention policy. This is imperative in order to uncover immigration detention’s secrets, racism and appalling costs, to change public attitudes and to explore humane alternatives. Continue reading »
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Mr Blinken goes to China
There is in the American psyche, the Hollywood psyche, the false notion that any other major power will be just like America. The view can be terrible but wrong. Continue reading »
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Occupation: are we indifferent to the cruelty imposed on Palestinians?
The actions of Israeli Defence Force troops last Wednesday — entering the Jenin refugee camp and killing nine Palestinians — seemed inexplicable from the brief reports I heard on the ABC and SBS. Continue reading »
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Explaining Israel’s oppression: cruelty, evil, apartheid and colonisation
On January 27, Israeli forces kill 10 Palestinians in Jenin, including two youths and an elderly woman. The following day a lone Palestinian gunman shoots dead seven Israelis as they leave a synagogue in a settlement in East Jerusalem. Continue reading »
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Japan – failed peace state?
A little over 75 years ago, a Japan-designed Asia-Pacific community collapsed, leaving not only Japan itself but much of the region in chaos, millions dead, cities in ruins. Continue reading »
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Timor-Leste shaping up for legislative elections
The Timor-Leste March 2022 Presidential elections gave a resounding win in the second round to Nobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, and this provided leverage for Xanana Gusmão in his efforts to wrest back the executive power he apologetically relinquished in February 2015. Continue reading »
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