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. Well before the present US-China tensions, Prof Continue reading »
China
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. Continue reading »
China intervened in the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), insisting Pacific leaders remove any mention of Taiwan from their communique on the forum.
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. The Continue reading »
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. Although it is ironic that the Continue reading »
As China commemorates the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth, the Post examines his legacy across generations. In the final part of a three-part series, we look at Deng’s vision for Hong Kong and how much of it has been realised. Here is part one and two. In late 1991, Hong Kong businessman Frederick Ma Si-hang desperately wanted Continue reading »
Our understanding of the darker foundations of US thinking about the US China relationship is obscured by the public utterances of Presidents, politicians and public policy commentators. This is the froth and bubble of policy but it does little to reveal the foundations of this visceral fear of Ch Continue reading »
Deng Xiaoping (1904-97) was born in Guang’an, Sichuan province, 120 years ago. By the age of 74, the man who had witnessed nearly the entire 20th century changed China’s trajectory and indirectly shaped the world as we know it today. In my quest to enrich my understanding of China, a significant encounter has been with Continue reading »
As China commemorates the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth, in the second instalment of a three-part series, we look at the impact of his policies – from the factories to the countryside. A year after Deng Xiaoping stepped down as China’s paramount leader, Mindy Guo took a risk and left her secure job in Continue reading »
As China commemorates the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth, the Post examines his legacy across generations. In the first of a three-part series, we look at Deng’s continuing resonance with the ruling Communist Party’s leadership. Chairman Mao Zedong called him the “steel factory” for his uncompromising resolve. Yet he was also a master of Continue reading »