The Six Faces of Globalization is an important new book, which prompts reflection on how Western media outlets have shaped our understanding of globalization and how China’s distinctive perspective on globalization may be yet do likewise. (more…)
Richard Cullen
-
Japan’s Asian future in the 21st century
The case for Japan to move firmly away from being bound to serve the paramount interests of the US in East Asia and beyond – as seen, erratically, from Washington – while emphasizing that Japanese interests are its foremost concern, is now demonstrably clear. (more…)
-
The birth of global narrative power by the West
Once significantly devoted to explaining, advancing and celebrating Western universal values, western media outlets today are now far more engaged in manufacturing hostility towards China. (more…)
-
Nervous neighbour: Why Canada should be worried about US democracy.But is Australia?
The US is headed down a very dark road, and Canada should prepare to deal with the cracking of the American polity.
-
Beware Sinophobia over Xinjiang: the charge of genocide should never be made lightly
The treatment of the Uyghur people of Xinjiang Province under Chinese rule is a major talking point in diplomacy. There is a more nuanced view. (more…)
-
Gunboat diplomacy: Joined at the hip to the war-addicted US
After 40 years of successful diplomacy with China, Australia has hitched itself to a permanently warlike, self-seeking United States. How on earth did it come to this?
-
Taiwan quo vadis: Is reunification inevitable?
With time on Beijing’s side, is there any other option than Taiwan and Mainland China reuniting?
-
White Man’s Media: anxious and aggressive
It is useful to recall how so much Western media coverage, from Hong Kong, of the deeply intimidating, three-month shut-down of arterial roads in 2014 and the unremitting violence of the 2019 multi-month insurrection was, in each case, dominated, first, by a constant retelling of narratives supplied by the activists and secondly, by intense coverage of all perceived lapses in official and police reactions. Added to this was a steady degree of media support for the protestors – regularly spilling over into acclamation – regardless, typically, of the unfolding disruption, chaos and destruction.
-
The usual China-thumping and sanctimonious censuring have continued as intensely as ever.
Late 1989 is rightly regarded as a singular historical turning point when geopolitical business-as-usual was unambiguously interrupted: The Berlin Wall opened up and then came down. Major changes to previous regimes across Eastern Europe swiftly followed and by late 1991, the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had become Russia, again. (more…)
-
Boris Fawlty
Remember Basil Fawlty? When dressed in civilian clothes he called himself John Cleese. In real life, he and his wife Sybil ran a rather pretty hotel, which carried the Fawlty name, in a seaside resort in southwest England. (more…)
-
A review of ‘The Dance of Folly: or how theatrics have tarnished the rule of law in Hong Kong
A series of acute points are made by Henry Litton in his new book, The Dance of Folly. These typically pivot on his observations of how judges, across various courts in Hong Kong, have been drawn away – by lawyers – from what he argues is the essence of well-grounded, common law reasoning towards playing dubious games with legalized expressions and theory-based arguments. The result is that dangerous stress has increasingly been placed on the operation of the One Country Two Systems (OCTS) framework, which governs the relationship between Hong Kong and China.
-
How many are fleeing Hong Kong?
Google, “fleeing Hong Kong”, today, and over 100 headlines immediately present themselves. Most speak of deep fear and plans to escape. (more…)
-
Hong Kong is not dying after all.
On 25 May, the China Centre at Jesus College, Cambridge University, hosted a significant online, two-hour seminar on The Future of Hong Kong. (more…)
-
The rejected murder suspect and the Taiwan Government’s lack of interest in the Rule of Law.
A Hong Kong resident, Chan, Tong-kai murdered his pregnant Hong Kong girlfriend, whilst they were holidaying together in Taiwan in mid-February, 2018. After killing her and disposing of her body, he fled back to Hong Kong, admitting to his crimes. Significant CCTV circumstantial evidence helped confirm what had happened, but the murderer has yet to be tried. (more…)
-
Covid political stress testing
In July, 2020, Armend Bekaj, writing on the News Website of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), in Sweden, argued that those who are democracy practitioners and promoters are regrettably being drawn into a misguided debate about “which political system is better at tackling the [Covid] pandemic, democracies or autocracies”. He noted the already countless articles on this topic.
-
Hong Kong judge concerned with US intervention in Hong Kong affairs
A former Hong Kong legislator from the Civic Party, Jeremy Tam, recently applied for bail in the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Mr Tam has been charged with subversion under the new National Security Law (NSL) which has applied in the HKSAR since July 1, 2020. The NSL was drafted for the HKSAR by Beijing as a direct response to the exceptionally violent and destructive multi-month insurrection, which began in mid-2019. (more…)
-
Hong Kong’s housing crisis- an underlying factor in the 2019 riots.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has a serious housing problem. There has been much discussion over the last several years about how this has amplified social discontent. This conversation intensified during the major 2019 protests that became a lengthy anti-government and anti-Beijing rebellion.
-
British meddling in Hong Kong’s court of appeal
The British Government still maintains significant influence in Hong Kong through the appointing of British subjects within Hong Kong’s highest court, the Court of Final Appeal, and have used this influence for geopolitical advantage.
-
Protests or riots? First-hand retelling of Hong Kong’s ‘democracy’ struggle
Western media’s perception of the 2019-20 Hong Kong democracy protests, to some the riots, is a carefully cultivated and curated version of events. Testimony of those who witnessed them first hand should not be pushed aside to give space to the dominant narrative of the media.