• Ukraine’s drone triumph gives hope to Taiwan

    Open Forum     |      June 8, 2025

    The stunning success of Ukraine’s drone attack on Russia’s bombers offers a fearful lesson for the Chinese invasion force preparing to attack Taiwan.

  • Regimes don’t have the rights of nations

    John Fitzgerald     |      May 24, 2025

    The Chinese Communist Party presents itself as synonymous with the Chinese nation to bolster its legitimacy but democratic nations should not play along with its charade.

  • China rules the waves

    Euan Graham     |      May 22, 2025

    China’s remorseless quest for dominance in the South China Sea is merely part of its strategy to bludgeon its neighbours into subservience without a shot being fired.

  • Brand Xi

    Stefanie Kam Li Yee     |      May 11, 2025

    Since coming to power in 2013, Xi has recentralised authority in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, using a mix of patriotism, brutality and convenient events like the COVID pandemic.

  • Lessons from China

    David Livingstone     |      April 12, 2025

    China is a brutal autocracy intent on international expansion but its success in renewing its internal infrastructure and industrial power offers lessons the West would do well to learn if we are to compete.

  • Naval gazing

    Edward Sing Yue Chan     |      April 8, 2025

    Australia must respond with clarity to China’s growing naval capabilities and take control of the region’s strategic future in partnership with its allies, lest it cede the seas to a hostile foreign power intent on asserting dominance.

  • Softly softly isn’t working working

    Malcolm Davis     |      February 16, 2025

    Australia’s timid approach to increasing Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and the Northern Approaches serves only to embolden ever more hostile actions by Bejing.

  • The shape of things to come

    Bill Sweetman     |      January 19, 2025

    In the past Chinese military aviation relied on crude copies of Soviet planes. Today’s Chinese airforce fields large numbers of modern aircraft based on stolen Western designs. Tomorrows Chinese airforce may take the lead, just as China has in other areas of techology, and the “J-XX” may be the shape of things to come.

  • China’s ‘airborne cruiser’

    Bill Sweetman     |      January 10, 2025

    China’s new large strike aircraft may be the first of a new class of plane which extends its threat across Asia and the Pacific.

  • Jaw jaw is better than war war

    Jonathan Ping     |      December 15, 2024

    Competing development models in the Indo-Pacific highlight tensions between US-led openness and China’s revisionist socialism. Their impact on regional stability and the potential for cooperation through shared goals like sustainability and human security is all encompassing, highlighting the need to rethink state-to-state relations.

  • Enter the dragon

    John West     |      November 16, 2024

    Kevin Rudd’s new book, “On Xi Jinping,” offers insightful analysis of the transformation of Chinese politics, economics, and foreign policy under Xi Jinping’s leadership, highlighting the renewed role of ideology in shaping policy.

  • The Red Emperor

    Robert Wihtol     |      October 21, 2024

    The Red Emperor offers an eye-opening portrait of Xi Jinping, the man who rules as an absolute dictator over the lives of 1.4 billion people and the second largest economy on earth.