While the world looks on with trepidation at regional wars in Israel and Ukraine, a far more dangerous global crisis is quietly building at the other end of Eurasia, along an island chain that has served as the front line for America’s national defence for endless decades. (more…)
Tag: China
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America selects green reverse gear
America was once a marketplace leader in so many areas. Now the US faces a range of pivotal global markets focused on a greener future, dominated by China, that are developing rapidly without it. (more…)
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Sulking over China
Western leaders live in a special fairyland where they believe they know what is best for China. (more…)
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Taiwan: Is reunification with China a dead issue?
On January 13 this year, Taiwan, amid high hopes in the ruling party, held its quadrennial presidential/vice presidential/legislative election. It was expected to be a very consequential election. Taiwan’s future was said to be at stake. (more…)
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The unresolved tension at the core of Australia’s strategic policy
Australia wants to constrain China, but without tying itself to America’s own ambitions and all that might mean. (more…)
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All-out China-EU trade war looming – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Europe’s China business chief says conflict unavoidable. Plus: US lacks strategy for China confrontation; Japan’s new PM calls snap election; Junta’s election “census” a counter-insurgency ploy; America’s Gaza failure shakes confidence in rules-based order; Seoul has no answer for Pyongyang’s dirty campaign. (more…)
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While you weren’t looking: Meeting China in Sydney
While elsewhere the China discourse in the Australian media may have been on geopolitical tensions and defence and security concerns, community leaders, students and academics from seven universities in Australia and 15 universities in China and Taiwan met in Parramatta on the campus of Western Sydney University a few days ago. (more…)
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Kishore Mahbubani: China’s ‘wiser’ long-term strategy paves way to No. 1 world power
Veteran Singapore envoy on what the West gets wrong about China, ASEAN as a bellwether region and why the US should prepare for No. 2 status. (more…)
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China unveiled: how moving East shattered my Western illusions
Moving to China has opened my eyes in a way I never expected. The stories I grew up hearing, the ones I accepted without much thought, started to unravel. One of the toughest things I’ve had to face is realising that the West, where I’ve spent most of my life, might not always be the “good guys” I thought they were. This was a hard pill to swallow. (more…)
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New China has much to celebrate on its 75th birthday
The People’s Republic of China has much to be proud of on its 75th birthday. Within a relatively short span of 75 years, China has made stunning progress in multiple areas of human development, and its achievement deserves to be globally recognised. (more…)
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Beijing’s big policy shift signals new approach to state-market ties
Much more than a cyclical adjustment, Beijing’s latest policy shift marks a milestone in the history of its economic management. (more…)
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The impact of China’s rising soft power
A recent article in the US journal Foreign Affairs, written by Daniel Mattingly of Yale University argues persuasively that: “China’s Soft Sell of Autocracy is Working”. (more…)
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Chinese economists were pleading for government action
Ren Zeping’s almost frantic call one week ahead of Beijing’s dramatic loosening of monetary policy. (more…)
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China needs boldness from its economic policymakers
China is in the middle of its third major deflationary episode in the past three decades. The country’s global footprint is now so large that uncertainty over the timing of its exit from the current episode is one of the most important questions in the global economy today. Prior episodes offer some useful guidance on the best way forward. (more…)
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China solar giant Trina seeks approval for biggest battery project in Australia
The Chinese-based solar giant Trina Solar has submitted plans to build what would be the biggest battery storage facility in Australia, at Kemerton in an industrial zone south of Perth. (more…)
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Delusion and defeat in Ukraine
As the war in Ukraine heads into its third winter, Western leaders appear to be sinking further every day into a delusional belief in the success of their hydra-headed attempts to first defenestrate Russia before moving on to do the same to China. (more…)
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On green growth land, we meet each other
As the curtain of the Paris Olympics fell, I was thinking of the first Olympics I had experienced and reported back in 2000 when I was a Chinese correspondent based in Canberra. (more…)
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For a pacific Pacific: thoughts about how to promote peace
Naval and air standoffs, sabre-rattling and accusations of underhand dealings are heightening tensions in the Asia-Pacific region and causing a security dilemma. It does not have to be like this. Diplomacy and referral to international dispute resolution mechanisms can make a difference. (more…)
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We’re right behind you: The AUKUS delusion
The series Blackadder, set in World War 1, was full of farce built around black humour. In the final episode it has been determined by High Command to send those involved to go “over the top” in a hopeless race toward German machine-guns. The night before they are visited by their commanding general who pompously informs them that when they go tomorrow, High Command will be “right behind them” to which their captain replies, “yes, about 30 miles behind us.” (more…)
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Avoiding an ‘exclusion’ disaster in the Pacific – a different lesson from Ukraine
The most senior US officials, including President Joe Biden himself, refer to US alliances with individual or groups of countries in the Indo-Pacific as benign and defensive in nature. These references contrast with warnings about the possible “knock-on” effect of a Russian victory in Ukraine which, it is said, could encourage China to seek to incorporate Taiwan by force. However, an examination of the situation in Europe provides a different lesson for our part of the world; that is that building an alliance system which excludes the most important country in a region can have disastrous effects. (more…)
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Australian wheat and the BRI: The economic geography of the world’s grain trading
The global wheat trade is undergoing a transformation, shaped by geopolitical shifts, strategic investments, and historical legacies. Central to this evolution is China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its expected impact on traditional trade relationships, including those with Australia. (more…)
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The loss of global influence by the United States is China’s gain
The world doesn’t see an “indispensable nation” in America, only one that is ‘dysfunctional at home and pursuing naked self-interest abroad’ (more…)
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Next year’s US Taiwan policy: Trump versus Harris
Very much on the minds of the government as well as residents in Taiwan is the November election in the United States. The question is which candidate, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, will oversee a more friendly policy toward Taiwan? (more…)
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From Deng to Xi, the China miracle
On 22 August, China commemorated the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth. The third Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China in 1978 marked the beginning of China’s reform and opening-up under the leadership of Deng. His reforms transformed China from one of the poorest countries to the world’s second-largest economy. China’s gross domestic product expanded at what economists have described as a “miracle rate”. (more…)
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The United States and its allies need to avoid caricaturing China in their foreign policies
Nicholas Ross Smith, from the University of Canterbury, argues that the temptation to essentialise China as simply being a Xi-led CCP monolith that will stop at nothing to re-integrate Taiwan and seek global domination overlooks the complexity of domestic politics in China. Basing policy on a simple caricature of China is a recipe for disaster. (more…)
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Professor Wang Gungwu: important recent China reflections
Prof Wang Gungwu, who is now 94, is an historian without equal. When someone alerted me that he would be giving an online lecture at HELP University in Kuala Lumpur on 10 August, I lost no time in signing up for a seat at the university’s Damansara auditorium. (more…)
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India’s loss in Bangladesh not necessarily China’s gain
The fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in Bangladesh has been described as a strategic loss for India and a potential gain for China. But various obstacles may hinder China from gaining greater influence in the region. Political instability, economic challenges, and India’s enduring importance to Bangladesh will limit the extent of China’s influential inroads. (more…)
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Burning the EV bridges with China is risky
While Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are engaged in a tight presidential race by highlighting their differences, they share similar perspectives about China. They both hold the common belief that the imposition of higher tariffs will stimulate economic growth. However, the intricate network of tariffs implemented by both the Trump and Biden administrations is generating trade tensions, adversely affecting American consumers, and hindering innovation. (more…)
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Chinese culture helps advance modernisation
China’s traditional culture has contributed greatly to the country’s modernisation. Yet it is not the only factor that has advanced Chinese modernisation. The process of modernisation has been driven by factors such as industrialisation and greater equality brought about by socialism, which have been provided by the leadership of the Communist Party of China. (more…)
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Aiming for the messy truth: The first Australian journalist returns to China
Will Glasgow’s report from Beijing in the Weekend Australian of 24/25 August is cause for celebration. Since the last Australian journalist left China four years ago, reports on this most important neighbour and on matters of concern to both countries have been either second-hand or coming from non-Australian sources. (more…)