At a time when China is becoming increasingly more important to the Australian economy as well as to our stability and security in the Asia-Pacific, the overall decline in Australia’s China knowledge capability runs counter to our national sovereign interests. The opportunity to congratulate Colin Mackerras on his six-decade long involvement with China is bitter-sweet. Continue reading »
China
It is sometimes said that America bombs while China builds. What’s the evidence, and where are the statistics? Let’s examine the origin and nature of the broad global footprints of America and China which are evident across the world today. The US grew to become a world-striding superpower over 100 years ago. Three hundred years Continue reading »
China displays more understanding than Western powers on needs of less-developed nations. The growing importance of the Global South in the evolution of the international order has become clear over the past few decades. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, recently acknowledged that “the era of Western dominance has indeed definitively ended”. He warned Continue reading »
China’s economic policymaking over the past few decades is a fascinating example of adaptive planning and strategic foresight. From pivoting away from reliance on globalisation to emphasising domestic infrastructure and poverty alleviation, tilting towards the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and now focusing on “high-quality development” (simultaneously upscaling advanced manufacturing while deflating the property bubble), Continue reading »
As a China-watching think tank winds up after Morrison-era cuts, a respected analyst reviews government funding for security-related research and education. One Sunday morning nearly four years ago Kevin McCann was surprised to learn that an organisation he chaired was being hounded in the News Corp tabloids for being in “China’s grip” and “lobbying against Continue reading »
China knows that, if it has to, it can stand alone and that it can defend itself. It knows, too, that most nations of the world, other than America (which is, despite itself, somewhat conflicted), want to do business with it; to connect with its growing confidence and with its strengthening brand of non-threatening, non-coercive, Continue reading »
The director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a lobby group for big tech and foreign agencies, claims that China’s alleged targeting of the agency “should be of concern to all Australians”. In an op-ed written for the Canberra Times, Justin Bassi said the “revelation” of a foreign government taking aim at an Australian institution “should be Continue reading »
During its long history, Chinese dynasties were as often the victims of outside aggression as they were invaders of foreign land. Was China ever an imperialist state? There was in the past few weeks a lively debate between two scholars about precisely this question in Pearls and Irritations (P&I), the Australian current affairs online journal, Continue reading »
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi recently unveiled its first electric vehicle (EV), the SU7, igniting a spark of excitement. At the launch event, Xiaomi’s founder and CEO Lei Jun, whose vision includes creating “a dream car on a par with Porsche and Tesla,” said that from design to batteries, intelligent driving to cockpit controls, the SU7 Continue reading »
Manifest Destiny, now more commonly called American Exceptionalism is a traditional and widespread view in the US. American views of its relationship with the world vary from isolationism to leadership, but the underlying base is always that the US is something special. While some may be more subtle than others, how many Americans could accept Continue reading »