Asia

Created
Mon, 06/02/2023 - 04:56
We live in an integrated and connected world, not well understood by political leaders or military moguls. Nowhere is this more important than in East Asia. Destructive action towards important neighbours who are central to our trade with the world is of course contrary to our national strategic interests. We should not sit silent. For Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 06/02/2023 - 04:57
Australia has been persuaded, enticed and strongarmed into taking gravely dangerous decisions. But Australia is a sovereign state and its fingerprints are, ultimately, all over the formation of its terrible abdication of national independence. We need to pay particular attention to a definitive insight advanced by Paul Keating: Taiwan is not a vital Australian interest. Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 31/01/2023 - 04:54
The Timor-Leste March 2022 Presidential elections gave a resounding win in the second round to Nobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, and this provided leverage for Xanana Gusmão in his efforts to wrest back the executive power he apologetically relinquished in February 2015. But Gusmão and his National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) must still win Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 23/01/2023 - 04:50
The connection between economic integration and political security has long attracted attention. Integration through intensive trade and investment relations has led to greater interdependence and made conflict more costly, helping states to maintain peace and stability. But interdependence can also increase the risk that geopolitical tensions might turn into open conflict. The situation in East Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 22/01/2023 - 04:56
Jimmy Carter called the US ‘the most warlike nation in the history of the world,’ and said that ‘peaceful’ China is ‘ahead of us in almost every way’. Japan bashing, depicting atrocities committed by the Japanese empire, serves to further shift public opinion to support Australia’s military alliance with the US, preparing for war against Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 21/01/2023 - 04:58
In Asian media this week: Developing world rejects nonsensical Cold War; Japan moves from ‘shield’ to ‘spear’; opinion against military build-up; court asked to review new penal code; vote-buying an investment in graft; and differing views of Xinjiang. The world is divided into three blocs as a new Cold War starts, says commentator Andrew Sheng. Continue reading »
Created
Fri, 20/01/2023 - 04:56
When is a purge a genocide? When a young Australian researcher finds solid evidence that’s long eluded international scholars, proving the minds of millions have been poisoned with lies. Dr Jess Melvin is an award-winning academic at Sydney Uni. In 2018 she published The Army and the Indonesian Genocide using official Indonesian documents. Her book Continue reading »