China is much more powerful than Australia and no amount of criticism from us will change this. In a fight with China, we must lose. Calm analysis must replace jingoistic hot air. Why are they really attacking us and what can we do about it now? (more…)
Category: China
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An all-out trade war with China would cost Australia 6% of GDP
China accounts for more than a third of export dollars earned by Australia. (more…)
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Australia against China: a face-off which must be avoided
It may be a statement of the bleeding obvious, but a face-off with the People’s Republic of China would not be a good idea. (more…)
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Morrison has misread China
The Prime Minister thinks he can set the terms with Beijing. But hard choices and compromises are required to manage our region’s ruthless great power. (more…)
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China-Australia relations: ex-Australia foreign minister says Canberra must drop adversarial approach to fix ‘frozen’ relationship (South China Morning Post Nov 24, 2020)
Only a herculean shift in foreign policy, a change of government or major external event will thaw a “frozen” relationship between China and Australia that has been damaged by a lack of diplomacy from Canberra that has compounded over the past three years, according to former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr.
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Australia and China: Getting out of the hole
The Scottish Independent Labour Party leader in the 1930s, Jimmy Maxton, summed up the challenge of political leadership as well as anybody ever has: “If you can’t ride two bloody horses at once, you shouldn’t be in the bloody circus”. (more…)
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Understanding ‘Beijing expansionism’
Canberra’s shift to anti-China rhetoric and expanded military spending is said to be due to China’s shift to expansionist and aggressive policies. And just in case there is some truth in the ‘Beijing expansionism’ claim let’s look at the claimed evidence.
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Australia has made itself an outlier in its dealing with China
The Prime Minister’s dash to Japan to meet the new Japanese Prime Minister – the first foreign leader to do so – should be welcomed. It is unusual in terms of diplomatic protocol for an established leader to visit a newly appointed leader, not the other way around, unless it is the US for which normal protocol seldom applies.
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Hong Kong is part of China. Our media fails to grasp this basic point.
Hong Kong was seized by Britain to facilitate its opium trade. After a century of humiliation for China, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under a complex arrangement. Foreign countries should keep out of what is a domestic issue for China. CIA, take note. (more…)
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Henry Kissinger urges U.S. resumption of engagement with China
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Monday called for Joe Biden to restore communication with China and warned that otherwise the world would suffer a catastrophe like World War I. (more…)
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Media in the Asian Century. The past week’s regional diplomacy passed through the media in a blur.
Drop-catching in Canberra
China’s embassy in Canberra has belatedly woken up to the way things are done in our capital, it seems, and got into the business of “dropping” newsworthy material into the laps of selected press gallery members. (more…)
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Academic engagement with China is not a security risk: it is an investment in a shared more liberal world
The Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill 2020 currently before the Parliament would require State and Territory entities to seek the approval of the Minister for Foreign Affairs for any proposed ‘arrangement’ with a ‘core foreign entity’; existing ‘arrangements’ would also be subject to approval. The bill may be presented as ‘country agnostic’ but there is little doubt that its intent is to constrain ‘arrangements’ State and Territory entities have with China in particular. Included in the definition of ‘entities’ are universities. (more…)
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Brace for impact: Back to wearing seat belts in relationship with China
China continues to bamboozle us every step of the way. But how we respond to the latest escalation is important. We must remember that our bipartisan position on China has served Australia well and that a political split is exactly what China wants. (more…)
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China’s marginal RCEP gains will not offset trade war impact on economy, studies show
Studies show the benefits of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will not outweigh the negative impact of the long-running US trade war on China’s economy. However, analysts agree the trade pact, which covers 30 per cent of the global economy, is far more strategically significant than in direct economic impact.
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Peter Drysdale and Yongjun Zhang. How Australia and China can begin the great defrost
Australia and China may find it helpful to look to Asian cooperation centred on ASEAN for the circuit-breaker needed to begin repair in their bilateral relationship.
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Downfall of Hong Kong’s Gang of Four
When the Hong Kong government disqualified four members of the Legislative Council, prompting the resignation of all other pro-democracy legislators, the Council was effectively turned into a rubber stamp. (more…)
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Australia caught in a time warp
Contemporary Australia has some sorry echoes of a less-liberal past, especially as our relations with China continue to deteriorate
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Fear and loathing of China is poppycock
Australia seems often to act like a junior gang member who is hyper anxious to impress the leader of the gang….Annoying China is good politics but bad leadership. (more…)
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China tells Australia to ‘reflect on its own deeds’ as it imposes new import bans (SCMP 6.11.20)
Chinese importers advised to stop buying Australian barley, sugar, red wine, timber, coal, lobster, copper ore and copper concentrates. Foreign ministry says moves are justified and blames Canberra for downward spiral in relations. (more…)
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Australia-China relations: a downward spiral that can be reversed
Is the current state of Australia-China relations inevitable? Understanding why there’s been a rapid deterioration over the last five years offers ideas for how tensions could be managed more effectively.
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Australia-China ties are at their lowest point in history, former ambassador says (ABC Nov 4, 2020)
A former Australian ambassador to China has called on the Federal Government to rethink its relationship with Beijing amid what he calls “the greatest power shift that has occurred in modern history”.
(more…)
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Australia’s anti-China witch hunt isn’t just harmful, it turns people against each other as governments escape scrutiny (SCMP Nov 1, 2020)
This isn’t banter or trolling – this is cancel culture that seeks to extinguish the opinions of those who don’t conform to the view of certain politicians or media outlets. It is a phenomenon that has the ironic and harmful effect of undermining democratic values, including the right to free speech.
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Why Australia must steer clear of America’s moral crusade against China (SCMP 28.10.20)
America’s global standing is in decline, on the back of its single-minded pursuit of military might and consistent flouting of the rules-based order it helped create. Anti-China enthusiasts in Australia also need to view China’s record in a historical context. (more…)
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Finding our place in the new world order – book extract (AFR 30.10.2020)
Central to understanding the emerging world order is to comprehend China’s strategic intentions and potential. The question of whether China is an expansionary power or not becomes crucial in understanding how the new order will unfold. (more…)
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What does loving China mean? The Communist Party decides (SCMP Oct 25, 2020)
“My country, right or wrong” seems to be the mantra to which Chinese people must adhere whether via indoctrination in schools or by command of the national security law. However, noted the British writer G.K. Chesterton in a 1901 essay, that phrase was “the last thing” that a true patriot would say. Patriotism involved principles and behaviour, not to be conflated with the specific actions of one’s national government. (more…)
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The main game must be to get US, China relations on a better footing
Whoever wins the imminent US Presidential election, US-China relations will continue to be the most important geo-political issue for the world, and for Australia. (more…)
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ASPI’s Broadcasting Corporation?
Is ABC management complicit in letting senior on-air talent promote the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and its sponsors, without declaring conflicts of interest? (more…)
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Threats or inducements in dealing with China?
The day after US State Secretary Mike Pompeo announced he’ll be visiting India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia this month to try and keep the Indian Ocean nations on side, his rival for the region’s attention ,China, was making its pitch courtesy of an Indonesian think tank. The approaches were remarkably unalike – one a clenched fist, the other an apparently open hand. (more…)
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Our ignorance of China is a disgrace
It’s a disgrace that after half a century or so of multiculturalism, it is still possible that Australian Chinese can be made to feel disloyal merely on the basis of their ethnic background. That’s exactly what happened when right-wing Senator Eric Abetz asked three Chinese-heritage Australians before a Senate committee whether they were willing unconditionally to condemn the Chinese Communist Party.
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Indonesia Can Lead the Way for ASEAN on US and China – Just say ‘No’ to both.
The U.S. has been pressing many Southeast Asian states to join it in its efforts to politically and militarily contain China. Indonesia – the de facto leader of ASEAN – can show the way for ASEAN members by just saying “no” to requests and actions from both the U.S. and China that it judges are contrary to its interests.