Growing problems for China

China’s communist leaders successfully adopted the free market while maintaining political hegemony, but without academic freedom and rule of law it’s hard to see how China’s economy can continue to grow so fast.

Appeasement of China won’t save Taiwan

The democratic world has done little to oppose Communist China’s militarisation of the South China Sea, wholesale cyber-theft and brutal internal repression. Further appeasement of Xi’s designs on Taiwan would be disastrous, but deterring an attack can work.

Abbot warns of Chinese designs on Taiwan

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has warned that communist China could soon “lash out disastrously” at Taiwan.

Beijing’s boomerang ban on Australian coal

The Chinese Communist Party’s use of economic muscle to bully other nations into political acquiescence is backfiring when it comes to China’s de-facto ban on imports of Australian coal.

Back to the future

Xi Jinping dominates China’s Communist Party as completely as Chairman Mao before him, but as he eyes an invasion of Taiwan and ever greater global power, he may struggle to take a younger generation along with him.

Dealing with a different China

China’s fortification of the South and East China Seas, crushing of Hong Kong’s freedoms, oppression of Uyghurs and other minorities, and extension of Xi Jinping’s leadership from a decade to life signal the need for a strengthening in allied policy to contain its growing ambitions.

Fighting back

There can be no return to a trusting ‘win–win’ relationship with Beijing at the same time as we are being spied on and robbed blind by its hackers. It’s time to fight back.

Red zone

Peter Hartcher’s new book provides a forensic analysis of the deterioration in the Australia-China relationship, with insights and insider information to support his argument that Australia needs to toughen its protections against China.

Standing up to China

It is not racist or ‘anti-Asian’ to oppose China’s bullying affronts to human rights and the international rule of law.

China’s actions, not Australia’s words, are the problem

Naming the problem is a prerequisite to finding a solution and so a ‘country agnostic’ approach to the causes of regional insecurity is not credible and distorts public debate.

Closing Australia’s China policy gaps

The policy shift that has been underway since 2015 recognises that Australia’s previous policy can’t work in a world where China is asserting its power so overtly in ways that bring security and strategic differences into the foreground.

Australian clarity, Chinese bluster and Kiwi equivocation

Australia’s strong stance against Chinese bullying stands in stark contrast to New Zealand’s increasingly mealy-mouthed approach.