We often look to history or contemporary events to help explain issues and to seek guidance. Thus Graham Allison went back millennia to explain America’s current drive to war with China in his Thucydides Trap. Recently Gregory Clark joined others in making the natural comparison between Ukraine and Taiwan. Analogies are admittedly fraught with danger Continue reading »
Asia
The bearded pig — the native wild boar that has dominated the jungles of the huge island of Borneo for thousands of years — may be close to extinction. First the Penan – the people known to the outside world as the Borneo jungle nomads – started to come across dead wild boar in the Continue reading »
Despite all the determined, and well-funded, efforts of Greg Sheridan, his mates at ASPI and in the media to beat the war drums and the legal shenanigans around the role of the Governor General in declaring war, it is by no means inevitable that Australia will go to war against China. There is opposition at Continue reading »
Promising to double its “defence” expenditure over the coming five-year period and placing huge orders for US military equipment to help it to do so, the sometime “peace state” of Japan is moving into high gear on militarisation. The transformation is plainest in the case of its Southwestern islands that stretch over 1,300 kms from Continue reading »
US and British arms industry companies and their little mentioned but crucial support cast of Taiwanese military, lawmakers and government official counterparts are opposed to China-Taiwan reunification, because the current situation acts as their ATM, generating billions of dollars in profit. The recent visit to China by former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou – the first Continue reading »
It seems that Hong Kong is at risk of losing its twin city status! Travel around almost any part of the UK and Europe and you will pass innumerable signs saying that such and such a city/town/village is twinned with a similar city/town/village in another country. Hong Kong’s twinning is somewhat different as since the Continue reading »
It is understandable that Australian leaders may feel insecure, even paranoid, about Australia’s future in the Asian twenty-first century. As Western power recedes from the world – especially from East Asia – Australia and New Zealand will be left stranded as lonely Western outposts in Asia. But it’s fatal to find emotionally comfortable solutions to Continue reading »
By some strange reasoning NATO, the US and the pundits seem to think the current war between Russia – Ukraine is a precursor to hostilities they expect to see between Taiwan and China. It is an unlikely scenario. Travel between Taiwan and China is frequent. Official Taiwan figures for people permitted to work in China Continue reading »
It’s 1444 on the Islamic calendar and the holy month of Ramadan is well advanced with four weeks of fasting, prayer, introspection and goodwill. All commendable – though in the land next door the noise spoils the values. Unlike WA which has jarrah street poles or SA with Stobies, Indonesia uses hollow metal pipes to Continue reading »