November 28, 2022

US officials concern about world press freedoms while assaulting them

I will never get used to living in a world where our rulers will openly imprison a journalist for telling the truth and then self-righteously pontificate about the need to stop authoritarian regimes from persecuting journalists.

October 27, 2024

Capitalism’s in-house critic: Hedges’ Monbiot interview

Capitalism would need to invent a Guardian, if it did not already exist, writes Jonathan Cook. And in turn, The Guardian would need to invent a George Monbiot if he was not already one of its columnists.

October 8, 2024

Cornell study shows LNG worse for climate than coal

“LNG is not a bridge fuel to clean energy,” said one expert. “It’s a highway to climate hell.”

March 9, 2024

Geopolitical rivalry as hypermasculinity contests: The case of Australia-Philippines strategic partnership

The Australian-Filipino strategic partnership is contrived in hypermasculine terms. This has potentially catastrophic consequences for the region and the planet.

February 13, 2024

A green driving force

_China plays a key role in accelerating the global development of the electric vehicle industry _

December 22, 2023

Caged and dismembered: Israels Unchilding policy for Palestinian children

The victimisation by Israel of Palestinian children is so profound that Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkain, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem law professor, has described it as Unchilding, that is, in order to eliminate the next generation of Palestinians, Israel treats Palestinian children as both nobodies who are unworthy of global children’s rights and as dangerous and killable bodies needing to be caged and dismembered, physically and mentally.

January 8, 2023

Seeking justice in the name of hate: In Defence of BDS

As long as Germany declares the Jews to be an inferior race, poisoning and persecuting them,decent, self-respecting Jews cannot deal with Germany in any way,buy or sell or maintain any manner of commerce with Germany or travel on German Boats.

December 9, 2021

The price of inequality: vaccine nationalism and the Omicron variant

Australia’s ability to move on from the pandemic has been possible by hoarding vaccines and ignoring the vast majority of the world’s population.

November 28, 2024

Imran Khan and Pakistan’s deepening chaos

Even as more than 40 lives were lost last week in the latest resurgence of sectarian violence on Pakistan’s northwestern flank bordering Afghanistan, the nation’s media remained focused primarily on a nationwide “do or die” protest focused on the capital, Islamabad, and organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

December 26, 2023

The false equivalence of the colonised and coloniser

Following Hamas October 7 attacks on Israel that caused more than 1,200 fatalities, there was a barrage of injunctions from Western mainstream media, politicians, and pundits insisting that anybody wishing to express an opinion on the events and the ensuing Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza, first denounce Hamas before expressing any other view. The failure to explicitly do so or any attempt to put events in their historical context or emphasise the root causes of the conflict were interpreted as condoning Hamass actions (that the speaker was a Hamas sympathiser) and conflated with antisemitism.

November 17, 2023

Biden confirms hes not the intellect he once was

Once again Biden confirms hes not the intellect he once was. People will remember years ago when Biden was a smart, intelligent and incisive man. He was always easy to disagree with but never easy to dismiss. Now, there is a serious danger whenever he goes off-script. As he left a meeting with Xi Jinping, he did so again by calling Xi Jinping a dictator.

January 3, 2022

Australias damaging and deluded retreat from Asia

Obsessed with demonising China, the Morrison government appears to exult in its destruction of one of Australia’s most valuable relationships.

December 17, 2021

From our readers: Labor needs the right leaders

In letters to the editor: the case for Tanya Plibersek as Labor deputy leader, the dishonesty of our Parliament, and the climate crisis.

January 30, 2025

Only pathetic bootlickers spend their energy criticising China

The buzz around Xiaohongshu and then DeepSeek has had an unusually high volume of westerners speaking positively about China for the last couple of weeks, which of course means we’re also seeing many westerners falling all over themselves to say “Well actually China is actually quite bad actually” in response.

January 6, 2025

A history of humiliation

After a history of U.S. bullying and humiliation — from a broken promise not to expand NATO to deceit over Minsk — it can’t be assumed Moscow is bluffing when it warns of nuclear war.

January 5, 2025

Israel is killing civilians in Gaza on purpose, and it's not even debatable

Just so we’re all clear, it is a fully established fact that the IDF is directly, deliberately killing civilians in Gaza. There was a time in the early days of the genocide when this could be disputed, but that is no longer true. The facts are in and the case is closed. It’s happening.

October 17, 2024

Sulking over China

Western leaders live in a special fairyland where they believe they know what is best for China.

March 17, 2024

Hong Kong is losing competitiveness to cities on the mainland

The danger Hong Kong faces is not that it might become just another mainland city, but that it is already subpar to many of its urban cousins across the border.

December 14, 2023

Gaza is deliberately being made uninhabitable

Infectious diseases are tearing through Gaza, whose healthcare system has been rendered almost nonexistent, and people are beginning to starve in massive numbers. All of this is due to concrete policy decisions made by Israel in its horrific assault on the Gaza Strip.

November 19, 2023

The most successful military raid of this century: the October 7 Hamas assault on Israel

There is a truism that I often cite when discussing the various analytical approaches to assessing the wide variety of geopolitical problems facing the world todayyou cant solve a problem unless you first properly define it. The gist of the argument is quite simpleany solution which has nothing to do with the problem involved is, literally, no solution at all.

October 8, 2023

They're repeating the word 'Unprovoked' again, this time in defense of Israel

March 5, 2023

US Ambassador to China: "we're the leader" of the Indo-Pacific

A recent US Chamber of Commerce InSTEP program hosted three empire managers to talk about Washington’s top three enemies, with the US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discussing the PRC, the odious Victoria Nuland discussing Russia, and the US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides talking about Iran.

January 28, 2023

Mariupol: the battle-scarred city

How has the battle-scarred Ukrainian city of Mariupol changed after eight months under Russian control?

January 1, 2023

Best of 2022: Pivotal Moment: Albanese and Xi in 2022 mirror Whitlam and Zhou in 1971

_The meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping put me in mind of the public reaction in Australia when Whitlam met Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1971.

December 31, 2024

US cyber weapon can ‘frame other countries’ for its own espionage operations

China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre on Monday released its latest report on Volt Typhoon, once again exposing cyber espionage and disinformation operations conducted by US government agencies, including a US cyber weapon that can mislead investigation and frame other countries for its own cyber espionage activities.

January 11, 2024

A crack in the 75-year-old wall of impunity: South Africas court challenge of Israeli genocide

1948 was a year of tragic irony.

February 21, 2023

By law, 50% of political candidates in Tunisia must be women

But is the Arab country’s pioneering gender parity laws and the ‘State Feminism’ introduced in the 1950s by Habib Bourguiba under threat from President Kaîs Saïed’s new electoral law?

February 8, 2023

Vale Richard Woolcott: one of the last great Australian diplomats

Richard Woolcott leaves a legacy that all modern diplomats could emulate.

January 12, 2023

Western journalists are cowardly, approval-seeking losers

Research conducted by New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics into Russian trolling behaviour on Twitter in the lead-up to the 2016 US presidential election has found “no evidence of a meaningful relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and changes in attitudes, polarisation, or voting behaviour.”

December 27, 2021

Making an enemy of China: how we got into this mess

Australia’s attitude to China has many contradictions. As Australia beats the drums of war, it continues to sell its iron ore to China.

December 10, 2021

In the Asian media: democracy recession, Olympic boycott and Squid Game

Around Asia, the media is covering democracy conferences with scepticism, and the Olympic boycott with caution.

October 23, 2021

The Australian retreat from Asia is becoming a rout.

Nine years ago I gave the speech below. I was then pessimistic about our understanding of Asia. The situation has got markedly worse since then, writ large in the unremitting attacks on China stemming from ignorance and parochialism, particularly in our White Man’s Media.

October 21, 2024

Israel has no place among the family of nations at the UN

Given its murderous attacks on UN staff in Gaza and declaration of its chief as ‘persona non grata’, it’s about time to invoke Article 6 of the UN Charter to expel the rogue state.

October 9, 2024

Hong Kong, a unique bridge between East and West

The “one country, two systems” framework is not a hindrance, but rather, a strategic advantage that allows Hong Kong to serve as a bridge between East and West for global professionals, writes Virginia Lee.

February 6, 2024

Western coverage of Gaza: A textbook case of colonisers journalism

Israels war on Gaza has exposed the true nature and purpose of Western media.

January 31, 2024

In waging war on the UN refugee agency, the West is openly siding with Israeli genocide

Israel has long plotted the downfall of UNRWA, aware that it is one of the biggest obstacles to eradicating the Palestinians as a people.

January 27, 2024

From Jewish school days in Tehran, to a wish and a prayer from Hiroshima

A few weeks ago walking past the Hiroshima A-Bomb Dome, I came upon a candle-light ceremony for the Israel/Gaza war. A young couple she Jewish and he Muslim were chanting prayers in Hebrew and Arabic, holding hands and weeping openly. Seeing the depth of pain leaders in our region have caused these young people filled me with anger and shame. We are tired of ruthless despots, tired of their obscurantism and small-mindedness, tired of seeing religion used and abused to unleash so much suffering.

November 29, 2023

War is not abstracted anymore

Pentagon contractor Elon Musk and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu had a conversation that they broadcast on Twitter during Musks apology pilgrimage to Israel in a desperate bid to salvage his public image amid costly accusations of antisemitism.

October 20, 2023

Two global leaders poles apart on the same issue

Chinas stance on war is very clear, in fact, it could not be more clear. In every conflict on the globe China calls for peaceful resolution and dialogue to resolve differences rather than force. A recently released White Paper, on the White Paper, on the Belt and Road Initiative, emphasised this calling for global peace, security and safety. China is nothing, if not consistent in this.

March 19, 2023

The not-so-winding road from Iraq to Ukraine

March 19th marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. and Britishinvasionof Iraq. This seminal event in the short history of the 21st century not only continues to plague Iraqi society to this day, but it also looms large over the current crisis in Ukraine, making itimpossiblefor most of the Global South to see the war in Ukraine through the same prism as U.S. and Western politicians.

November 2, 2024

Genocidal scorecard

A United Nations report, published on Monday, lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate “the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine.” This genocidal project, the report ominously warns, “is now metastasizing to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

October 11, 2024

Historic ICC war crimes complaint names 1,000 Israeli soldiers

“This complaint is not only the largest ever submitted to the ICC, but it is also a milestone in documenting Israeli war crimes for future generations.”

February 12, 2024

Point of no return: the techno-barbaric state of Israel

With no peaceful options left in the Israel-Palestine conflict, the pendulum swings back to the war already being fought by the axis of resistance and likely to widen into a regional war at any moment.

March 28, 2023

China warns US of three red lines over Hong Kong

With the cancellation of the much hated Mask mandate on March 1, Hong Kong is now onto the final strait of its recovery from both the 2019/2020 western supported insurrection and the subsequent pandemic.

March 1, 2023

Nuclear armament is a lose-lose-lose for South Korea

The path toward acquiring nuclear weapons could jeopardise Korea’s survival, endanger its prosperity, and damage its prestige in the international community.

December 26, 2021

Climate reality: A realistic path to a brighter future

The challenge for this generation of young people is to guide humanity and other life on our planet to a bright future.

December 13, 2021

Bad sport: harsh training regimes amount to human rights abuses

The International Olympic Committee should step up to protect athletes from brutal treatment while training for elite competition.

October 29, 2021

What is going on in China?

How China made ‘common prosperity’ a major political issue for Xi Jinping and his government.

December 19, 2024

Chinese-Australian and Chinese-American views on news: A comparative study

In recent years, media speculation about a possible conflict between the PRC and the US — and Australia’s role in the war as an ally of the US — has gained significant momentum in both countries. Both Chinese-Australians and Chinese-Americans face the geopolitical reality of living in a country that increasingly sees the PRC as a hostile nation. Possibly for this reason, they share a range of sentiments and views.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal