A Lowy Institute survey issued in April this year showed that the balance of Chinese-American influence in Southeast Asia had shifted in China’s favour over the last few years. Specifically, in overall diplomatic, defence, economic and cultural influence, the balance was 52 to 48 in China’s favour in 2018 but its lead increased to 54 to 46 in 2022. Two points in the survey are worth adding. One is that the countries where the U.S. lost out most in overall terms included Malaysia and Indonesia. The other is that the areas favouring American influence are military and cultural, while those favouring Chinese are economic and diplomatic. (more…)
Category: China
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Coming to terms with the ‘China Threat’
Is it not a great irony that the Chinese are now more supportive of the post-war Bretton Woods system than the Americans? (more…)
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In the 1930s, scholars made remarkably accurate predictions on the China of 2030
“This nation, after three thousand years of grandeur and decay… exhibits today all the physical and mental vitality that we find in its most creative periods… Very probably such wealth will be produced in China [by 2030] as even America has never known and once again, as so often in the past, China will lead the world in luxury and the art of life.” – Will Durant, 1935. (more…)
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Aukus leaders prefer posturing and provocation over dialogue
Shangri-La Dialogue was a missed opportunity for talks as defence chiefs Austin and Marles insisted on belligerence and doublespeak. (more…)
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The G7 is copying China’s homework
Many of the G7’s hopes and wants for the world appear to have been lifted directly from official documents of the Communist Party of China (CPC). There’s no real benefit to debating whether the G7 is copying the CPC’s policy program, although it smells of plagiarism. China is pleased that more countries are willing to study, absorb and even copy China’s experience. There are so many similarities between the G7 communiqué and China’s propositions, there is no reason to be unhappy. (more…)
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Australia catching up with the Asian century at last?
Every word of Anthony Albanese’s address to the Shangri-La dialogue on 2 June was chosen with care. It was a balancing act, with the Prime Minister poised between peace and war, defence and diplomacy, the US and China, in a high-wire performance his Coalition predecessors wouldn’t have attempted. (more…)
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How psy-ops warriors fooled me about Tiananmen Square: a warning
The myth of the “Tiananmen Square massacre” is arguably the most successful disinformation campaign of modern times, according to western and eastern sources—so much so that proud psychological warfare specialists recently used it to ADVERTISE their news manipulation skills. We’ll get to that below. (more…)
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China – The Middle Kingdom
The Chinese character for China, denotes China as the middle kingdom and understandably so: (more…)
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3 reasons why China is not a threat
The recent ‘Red Alert’ series, along with statements by some U.S, and Australian military leaders would have us believe that Chinese military forces could soon in waves be running up Bondi Beach invading our erstwhile peaceful land. Strange then, given this immediacy of threat, our military preparations are increasingly linked to AUKUS, its central plank being Australia’s acquisition of nuclear powered submarines some 20 or more years hence. In an atmosphere of hyped up Sino-phobia I hope to allay fears by recourse to history, logic and military realities. (more…)
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US, Australian military staff tour China’s Beijing garrison despite freeze on top brass talks
Military attaches from the United States and Australia were among the dozens invited to tour the People’s Liberation Army’s garrison in Beijing last week, the first event of its kind since the pandemic. The event signals willingness in China for exchanges with Western forces, observers say. (more…)
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Democracy versus socialism in the US-China relationship
There are two major dimensions to the US/China strategic competition. One is ideology; the other is economics. Who will eventually win depends on who has a better combination of the two; discounting a war in which all will lose. (more…)
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China and the axis of the sanctioned: how America’s divide-and-rule strategy in the Middle East backfired
A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign minister Wang Yi delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There he was, standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban. They were awkwardly shaking hands on an agreement to reestablish mutual diplomatic ties. That picture should have brought to mind a 1993 photo of President Bill Clinton hosting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn as they agreed to the Oslo Accords. And that long-gone moment was itself an after-effect of the halo of invincibility the United States had gained in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the overwhelming American victory in the 1991 Gulf War. (more…)
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60 Minutes Australia keeps churning out war-with-China propaganda
60 Minutes Australia has been playing a leading role in saturating Australian airwaves with consent-manufacturing messaging in support of militarising to participate in a US war against China. (more…)
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The contracting echo chambers of the Transatlantic powers
“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
The pithy words spoken by US President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 has been said to be his ideal policy for the US. But in recent years, the “big stick” diplomacy has proven to be too simplistic for the world they used to dominate. (more…)
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Who started the trade war with China?
There is a sharp contradiction at the heart of the Albanese government’s attempt to stabilise trade with China, whilst at the same time preparing for war with China in support of the United States. (more…)
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In Xi’an, a meeting of five Central-Asian leaders marks a changing world order
It’d be fair to say that there are two competing entities on the world stage right now. One composed of the G7, and the other a less structured group of countries that were once exploited by the G7. (more…)
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China should not be blamed for decay of ‘liberal international order’
In recent years, to contain and isolate China, the United States has repeatedly accused China of continuously ignoring, abusing, distorting, undermining, or violating the rules and institutions of the “rules-based” “liberal international order” (LIO). (more…)
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White Man’s Media: Anti-China media beat ups continue…
This time over possible Chinese naval bases in the South Pacific. (more…)
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Australian expat accused of spying for China is no ‘James Bond’, was ‘working innocently’: lawyer
Alexander Csergo, accused of ‘reckless foreign interference’, is being held in a top-security jail cell in Australia. His case is a ‘show trial’, his lawyer says, which reflects ‘an absolute hypocrisy in our approach to doing business with China’. (more…)
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Intriguing tale of China’s speedy pandemic recovery
No jurisdiction has managed a flawless COVID response, says Richard Cullen. But China, despite its imperfect COVID management experience, did better than any other major jurisdiction and, in fact, displayed many examples of early-best-practice unseen elsewhere. Exasperatingly, the West found, yet again, that it there is much it can learn from China – and then, naturally, it got back to lecturing China on how to do things properly! (more…)
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A worst case scenario for the South China Sea
The increasing militarisation of the South China Sea disputes sets the stage for the worst case scenario—frequent and widespread conflict that eventually results in a military confrontation between China and the US. To avoid this scenario, the reality is that China, its rival claimants and the U.S. have to compromise. (more…)
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‘Red scare’ in US causes multi-year flood of refugees with PhDs to China
OECD data shows China sustains net gain of scientists while US suffers net loss as ethnic Chinese researchers fear US government surveillance and prosecution. (more…)
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China, America and the Saudi-Iranian normalisation
The Saudi-Iranian normalisation deal brokered by China has sent shockwaves throughout the region. Regional actors had not expected China to suddenly desire a political role in the Persian Gulf. Others were skeptical of Beijing’s diplomatic capacity and skills. Few, however, were as surprised as foreign policy hands in Washington – even though it is the United States’ actions and missteps that inadvertently created both the opportunity for Beijing to mediate and the environment that compelled regional actors to sue for peace. (more…)
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Human Rights and ethnic-regional autonomy in China
When the western media and politicians speak of China’s treatment of minorities it is always taken for granted that such treatment is a violation of the minority’s human rights. I would venture to differ. China has a complex framework of ethnic-regional autonomy enshrined in its constitution that is poorly understood in the West. Having worked extensively in China, I have found that the two aspects that the Government are most concerned about are internal stability and territorial integrity. (more…)
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‘National Defence’ takes Australia closer to war with China
The 2023 Defence Strategic Review has recommended Australia adopt a new strategic conceptual framework dubbed ‘National Defence’ that incorporates a ‘strategy of denial’. This approach is tied to a broader concept of ‘collective security’ in the Indo-Pacific and is aligned with America’s framework for ‘integrated deterrence’ of China. ‘National Defence’ is consistent with American force structure designs to develop the northern Australian expanse as an increasingly important base of operations for force-projection.
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Reminder: the media once bashed Trump for transgressing the One-China Policy the US now spits on
The US has been increasingly treating Taiwan like a sovereign nation with whom diplomatic relationships and alliances can be formed, in violation of its longstanding One-China policy that has kept the peace for decades. And I just think it’s worth noting that the western media who’ve lately been condoning these moves became outraged at Donald Trump just a few years ago for doing the same thing to a far lesser degree. (more…)
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Let’s not talk down to China, but remember its past civilisation
Tianxia, ‘under Heaven’, is a concept deriving from ancient China, but undergoing numerous interpretations over the ages. It refers to an idealised territorial/moral world order, equal but harmonious. (more…)
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$368 billion on submarines: not a chance in hell!
This week the Federal ALP Government announced a significant cutback in the number of tanks to be stationed in the north to repel whatever is expected to land there to take our beautiful country away from us. Why – because tanks just won’t do the job in future. (more…)
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France bets on future by backing best global alternative
Recently, the former senior Singaporean diplomat and respected geopolitical consultant Kishore Mahbubani offered Australia some acute advice: Stop betting on the past. Mahbubani’s article was figuratively bookended with visits to Beijing by President Emmanuel Macron of France (shortly before publication) and President Lula da Silva of Brazil (soon after publication). (more…)
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Chinese scientists create sodium car
Breakthroughs set to make a big difference in energy sector (more…)