An invitation to visit Beijing was issued late last year to Stephen Chow, Sau-yan, the Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong. His recently completed visit is the first by a Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong to the Mainland since the recovery of Hong Kong by China in July, 1997. It may help provide a strengthened framework for the continuing dialogue between the Vatican and Beijing as they each proceed with their diplomatic long-game. (more…)
Tag: International relations
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AUKUS this ANZAC Day
‘I’m proud of what we did in less than 24 hours.’ That was Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s 4 March comment this year on the time he took back in 2021 to decide on supporting the then Liberal government’s startling AUKUS agreement. (more…)
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Soft power is the way forward
Having worked in all developing countries in East Asia and several in South Asia (World Bank definition), I am very conscious of the value of soft power. Australia is a very small country in all aspects except size and my experience has been that soft power is the best way of expressing our good intentions. (more…)
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Australia’s China illiteracy has dangerous consequences
The deficiency of Australia’s Asia literacy — and as a subset, China literacy — has been recognised for decades by successive federal governments. Despite government investments to boost Asia literacy, the result has been dismal. (more…)
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Gaping contradiction in Australian Foreign Policy
Dear friends, an excellent piece has been published by Professor Hugh White in the Lowy Interpreter that highlights a contradiction in our federal government’s foreign policy. (more…)
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US hypocrisy: serial rules-breaker forfeits global credibility
On May 3, 2021, when the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was interviewed by 60 Minutes, he said, “Our purpose is not to contain China, to hold it back, to keep it down. It is to uphold the rules-based order that China is posing a threat to.” (more…)
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AUKUS and Australia’s national sovereignty
The value of AUKUS depends critically on how far it increases the chances of Australia being dragged into an unnecessary and potentially catastrophic war at the behest of the US. (more…)
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Wong’s two card trick on Australians
Minister Wong’s speech to the National Press Club demonstrates that when she lays her cards on the table they do not present truly. A mathematician would advise to multiply her claims by minus one. Australia is well along on a path to make, not avert, war with China. Peace holds no weight with this government. Australians must count on failed leadership from our leaders, henceforth. (more…)
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Thaksin party spurns coup-makers – Asian Media Report April 22
In Asian Media this week: Shinawatra daughter aims to follow father and aunt. Plus: Rare diplomatic success on Taiwan; meet the new word for US bosses its allies; Indian government and court in same-sex showdown; EV rules block foreign competitors; estimates of big cat survival numbers. (more…)
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The Asia-Pacific: strategic equilibrium, not primacy
When there has been so much loose talk about what would be a catastrophic war between the world’s two major powers, it is both significant and welcome that Foreign Minister Penny Wong has authoritatively stated her position that the Asia-Pacific is a multipolar region, and that this is Australia’s national policy at this time. (more…)
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Racial discrimination and imperialistic standards of power: my experience at the Commission on the Status of Women
When I first visited New York last September, I did not anticipate being physically assaulted in broad daylight within my first 24 hours in the country. (more…)
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The troubled States of America
The two biggest television events of the year so far in the United States have been the all-cable-all-streaming-live-chopper-coverage of Donald Trump’s motorcade from Mar-a-Lago to the courtroom in Manhattan where he became the first former president to be indicted. And, in Succession, the death of media mogul Logan Roy on his plane en route to the biggest deal of his life. (more…)
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Anti-China witch hunt intensifies with Csergo arrest
In the Csergo case the big question is: does the prosecution have any evidence of a real crime and not just a breach of the ridiculous Reckless Foreign Interference law? (more…)
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A tainted Defence Strategic Review
P&I Editorial:
Conflicts of interest at the heart of AUKUS and the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) – including the principal author of the DSR benefitting from US State Department funding designed to build support for AUKUS and the US alliance – demand independent investigation. (more…)
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Safe travels in no-go zones
The countries where it’s not safe for Australians to travel have multiplied, but not because of COVID. They include the places where we fought the war on terror. (more…)
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The lessons from America are stark
From his stronghold at Princeton University, Sheldon Wolin watched his political system collapse. In the latter days of his life, Wolin erupted into utter despair. His final testimony was heartbreaking: America had become ‘the showcase of how democracy can be managed without appearing to be suppressed.’ No opinion critical of the set-up is in any way acceptable, and no change will be tolerated. The lessons from America are stark. (more…)
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In thy God I don’t trust
I don’t indulge in religion, but in this instance and at this particular time of the year, I feel I must. Let us agree from the start that we are all accidents of birth. None of us had a choice as to our parents, in what country we were born or into what religion. This, I think, will save us a lot of argument about indoctrination, belief, piety and fanaticism. (more…)
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The dangerous one is the U.S.
The implication of AUKUS is that China constitutes a danger to Australian security. It borders on official Australian policy that China is an aggressive power bent on domination. But the history of the People’s Republic suggests its military is for defence, not aggression and that the cases where it has used external military force are very few. Under Xi Jinping it may be assertive and keen to extend influence, especially economic, but it shows no signs of political/military aggression. On the contrary, it is the U.S. that constantly uses external military force and is bent on maintaining domination at all costs. (more…)
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Japan-North Korea top secret negotiations
In East West relations it has become something of a habit. First you reach an agreement promising flowers and chocolates. The other side reacts with concessions and hopes for a brighter future. Then your hawks move in. They say you should never have made those promises. The agreement is forgotten or denied, but only after your side has gained what the other side promised. (more…)
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We are being groomed for war with China
Orchestrated components are coming together to enable the US to recruit Australia in future wars of choice. Our media must begin to ask questions about the crude but successful ways the Australian people are being groomed to provide passive or enthusiastic consent. (more…)
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Depleted Ukrainians
Fighting in Ukraine continues, sometimes fiercely, sometimes spasmodically. So do the unending appeals from Vladimir Zelensky for more and better weapons from the West. He is now to get from Britain anti-tank shells made from depleted uranium, which will increase radiation and chemical pollution where they are used. (more…)
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NATO and Australia: vital partners in a new world war?
Two recent news stories say it all. On the 4th of April the Sydney Morning Herald carried a report of an interview with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, in which he claimed that Australia was a vital partner in the organisation’s campaign to confront the security challenges posed by China and in particular NATO’s plans to defend Taiwan. Quite clearly this came as a surprise to many Australians. (more…)
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President Biden resorts to extortion
President Biden has resorted to extortion to destroy one of China’s leading digital companies ByteDance, the owner of the highly successful social media group, TikTok. (more…)
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Indonesian politics scores an own goal
It’s the biggest story next door but barged offside by the Australian media for the Trump indictment and the ‘No’. There’s another factor: Soccer’s not our national game. (more…)
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NATO’s mission creep remains a threat to European and world peace
In September 2014, in the aftermath of the Maidan coup that saw yet another in the distressingly long list of US-engineered regime change coups in foreign lands where the government proved insufficiently deferential to the ruling Washington foreign policy elite, I argued that NATO’s mission creep had become a threat to European and world peace. The article was published in The Japan Times on 9 September 2014 and reprinted in Pearls and Irritations on 29 October 2016. (more…)
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Australia prepares legal case for war over ‘non-sovereign nation’ Taiwan
Australia is inventing an unheard-of way to go to war at the invitation of a ‘non-sovereign nation’ – an obvious reference to Taiwan. The Government’s intent seems to be to have it ready for the conflict with China that US Generals keep telling us is coming. (more…)
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Nihilism in Israel, what possible response?
April 5, in Jerusalem, Israeli police using stun grenades and firing rubber coated steel bullets invade the Al Aqsa Mosque. Hundreds of worshippers are arrested. Fourteen Palestinians are wounded by bullets, beatings and tear gas inhalation. (more…)
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A fizzled campaign to muzzle free speech
Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is a scourge and Australia has not been immune to it. Traditional antisemitism is not hard to identify or call out whether it is in graffiti, slogans or slurs. However, when it comes to debate over Israel and Palestine, what is or is not antisemitic is a highly political issue. (more…)
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AUKUS and Aotearoa New Zealand: the costs of attraction and repulsion
When the ALP Government led by Anthony Albanese came to power in 2022 it was confronted by the AUKUS minefield laid by its predecessor, the LNC Government led by Scott Morrison. (more…)
