China is busy making enemies

From the warm waters of the South China Sea, to the snows of the Himalayas and the streets of Hong Kong, China’s relentless bullying of its neighbours is turning the international community against it.

Crouching media, hidden agenda

Recent Chinese state-owned media have been using colourful headlines and articles to describe Australia. This is a tried and trusted method that has been used for at least a quarter century.

Building a grand strategy for China

The complicated and complex nature of Australia’s relations with China calls for a well-designed grand strategy that maximises the economic benefits while limiting the political costs.

Taking off the red-tinted glasses

The advocates of closer economic relations with China have dominated the debate for years, but China’s ever more outrageous behaviour is forcing even its most blinkered apologists to come to grips with reality.

China plays the race card against Australia

China’s latest travel and education warnings over Australian racism don’t stand up to scrutiny because they don’t have to. Our problem is not racism, it is Xi.

The party speaks for you

The Chinese Communist Party is strengthening its influence by co-opting representatives of ethnic minority groups, religious movements, and business, science and political groups in China and overseas, including Australia.

Business must look beyond the bottom line

The reaction of some in the business community to China’s threats of an economic boycott reflect an acute over-reliance on China. This in itself is symptomatic of the Australian business community’s lack of imagination.

Standing up to China

Australia needs more cowboy and less kowtow in its current dispute with China. Our foreign, security and trade policies need more principle and less of the ‘pragmatism’ that has brought us to this sorry point of affairs.

China will lose in the blame game

In the space of a few short weeks, popular perceptions of the Chinese state in Australia have shifted in ways that, if replicated elsewhere, are going to be truly damaging to China’s international standing in the years to come.

Let’s not ‘snap back’ towards China

The one thing Australia can’t do as we get the pandemic under control is ‘snap back’ to the old ways of doing business with the one-party state that is the People’s Republic of China.

Are we too reliant on Chinese trade?

Is Australia trading too much with China and too dependent on the Chinese economy, as a lot of the public commentary would have you believe?

Field notes from the new Cold War

The growing pace of strategic change means that every week brings more data points charting the Indo-Pacific’s slide towards a riskier, more dangerous reality.