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China’s rising interests in Qatar

It has been a year since Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar. Saudi Arabia and the UAE led the boycott, instituting an economic and trade embargo that isolated Qatar by air, land, and sea from its neighbours, sternly restricting Qatari-bound

By Anas Iqtait

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Trump-Kim summit: China smiles

As analysts and pundits rake through the breadcrumbs dropped after the Trump–Kim summit in Singapore, one thing is for certain: the People’s Republic of China (hereafter “China”) is happy. The relationship between China and North Korea has been described as “as close as lips and teeth

By Merriden Varrall

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Time for reason, not emotion, in the “China influence” debate

What’s at stake in the “China influence” debate? According to one view, China’s rise, if unchecked, will leave Australia a mere vassal state, while the United Front Work Department rends the fabric of our democracy from within. Viewed another way, Australia’s future

By Matthew Sussex

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Name shame: China’s trouble with Taiwan

Beijing’s campaign to isolate Taiwan may be having unintended consequences that work in Taipei’s favour. Rather than weakening Taiwan’s ties with the world, China’s actions seem to be increasing sympathy for Taiwan and strengthening Taiwan’s unofficial ties in the Indo-Pacific. Since its

By Charlie Lyons Jones, Merriden Varrall

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Redesigning a nation: Guo Pei

Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world, and the world’s view of us.Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928) In 2003, then president of the French Fashion Federation, Didier Grumbach, had only one

By Bernadette Anvia

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China eyes its next prize – the Mekong

Beijing’s islands-building in the South China Sea and their militarisation, replete with surface-to-air missiles, is near complete. With guile, threat, and coercion, China can now seize control of one of the main transport arteries of Southeast Asia, making a mockery of

By Elliot Brennan

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A study in controversy: Chinese students in Australia

According to the caricature in the popular media, Chinese international students in Australia are devoted agents of the Chinese Government. They are “brainwashed from birth” and, in this compromised state, pose a threat to Australian universities and the values they espouse. In this context,

By Bo Seo

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Has the PLA really overlooked its amphibious force?

It might surprise the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to learn they’ve short-changed themselves on amphibious capability. Sam Roggeveen wrote on The Interpreter recently (“Why China isn’t planning to storm Taiwan’s beaches”) that “China’s navy has grown dramatically over the past two

By Grant Newsham

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A stocktake of Australia’s China policy debate

Australia’s not-so-old tendency to avoid tension that could jeopardise our economic and trade relationship with China had the unfortunate effect of making China dismissive of Australia’s regional interests. For too long, too few of us thought hard, if at all, about what a region deterred by

By Andrew Forrest

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Beyond the “Chinese debt trap”

As China’s commercial and military presence grows across Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, other major powers are growing increasingly alarmed about Beijing leading partner nations into “debt traps”. In response, at the recent Commonwealth meeting, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada

By Wenyuan Wu

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China’s looming financial crisis

Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia Philip Lowe’s speech last week highlighting the risks to the Chinese financial system from shadow banks – non-bank financial institutions often operating in more lightly regulated wholesale markets – has once again drawn attention to the

By Stephen Joske

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The Wenchuan earthquake, ten years on

This article is based on Episode 24 of the Little Red Podcast, focused on a panel at the Association for Asian Studies featuring Louisa Lim, Christian Sorace, Maria Repnikova, Xu Bin, and Yi Kang. Throughout our podcast series, we’ve asked many of our guests to nominate what

By Graeme Smith

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Xinjiang’s “transformation through education” camps

Over the last year there has been a steady stream of anecdotal and eyewitness reports of China’s construction of a system of “transformation through education” (jiaoyu zhuanhua) centres in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), in the northwest of the country,

By Michael Clarke

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The Moon is still strategic

Decades after the Moon became covered in American flags and footprints, the nearest world in space is becoming strategic again. Recently, China launched a satellite to orbit the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrange point. This is an imaginary point in space hovering over the far side of the Moon (not the “

By Morris Jones

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Will China finally end its one-child policy?

Recent media reports indicate Beijing may lift all restrictions on family size, possibly by the end of this year. Of course, there have been premature predictions about the end of the policy ever since China switched to a nationwide two-child policy two years ago. This misunderstanding

By Mei Fong

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Why China isn’t planning to storm Taiwan’s beaches

China’s navy has grown dramatically over the past two decades, but with one surprising exception: its amphibious forces. On Monday, the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre published my contribution to its Centre of Gravity essay series. The paper is titled&

By Sam Roggeveen

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Missed opportunities in the internationalised university

With government investment in higher education continuing to decrease, Australian universities are becoming more and more financially reliant on international student fees. As has been the case for a number of years, students from the People’s Republic of China are the largest group by a wide

By Fran Martin

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China opens its financial institutions to the world – sort of

If you believe the headlines, a new era of financial openness has started in China. Certainly, the number of recent announcements is unprecedented in terms of scope. This month saw index provider MSCI announce details about the inclusion of “China A” shares in its much-followed emerging

By Fraser Howie

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The misunderstood AIIB

China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been viewed through the wider debate over whether a rising China will overturn or uphold the US-led “rules-based liberal international order”. As the first significant international organisation established by China, the AIIB is often

By Shahar Hameiri, Lee Jones

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All’s not fair in US–China trade stoush

As tense trade talks between the US and China continue, a growing chorus of US commentators seem to have concluded that, whatever their misgivings about President Donald Trump, he’s right in taking on China for its unfair trade and being an economic cheat (for instance, see here and

By Roland Rajah

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China’s first homebuilt carrier sails: so what?

For weeks now, the online community that follows Chinese military affairs has speculated about photos indicating China’s first homebuilt aircraft carrier, known for the moment as the Type-001A, would sail for the first time. The carrier looked finished, cleaning crews appeared to be making

By Sam Roggeveen

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Confucius Institutes and the challenge of academic freedom

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Peking University last week ahead of its 120th anniversary. In a speech to students and teachers, Xi called on them to “uphold the [Communist] Party’s leadership over colleges and universities”, and “adhere to the direction of socialist

By Jackson Kwok

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The India–China summit in Wuhan was no reset

The “informal summit” in Wuhan, China, between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping last month generated a wave of commentary in India, China, and further afield. The Chinese media played it up, heralding a major breakthrough in

By Dhruva Jaishankar

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China is catching up to the US, except on this key measure

US Army General Robert Brown told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute dinner in Canberra this week that, on his last visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese military chiefs, he noticed that: ... something was different ... I realised that China ... used to fear us and respect us. They don’t

By Sam Roggeveen

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Soft-power dressing: China’s moment in the US

Wearing the right dress can be the first step to success. Pictures of an American teenage girl sporting a red Chinese cheongsam to her prom have gone viral and sparked controversies on the internet. People in the US have called her racist, but some in China applauded her choice of

By Vivienne Chow

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The language of cross-strait tensions

The video, titled “God of War”, runs for almost four minutes and features the usual propaganda claims and military posturing expected from a video released by the China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force. It follows a reporter from Shenzhen, in south-east China, as she traces the history

By Jason Lim

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China: magic weapons and “plausible deniability”

This article is based on Episode 20 of The Little Red Podcast with Gerry Groot of the University of Adelaide. We’re also pleased to announce The Little Red Podcast is a finalist in this year’s Australian Podcast Awards, in the News and Current Affairs

By Graeme Smith

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Clamorous response to a Silent Invasion

An ill-fated business deal, a major corruption case, and protestations from Beijing about the visit of a dissident made the year 2009 something of an annus horribilis for Australia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China. It also marked the collapse of the Labor–Liberal

By Geremie R Barmé

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Australia’s Chinese ballistic missile problem

Late last year in Australia, there was sudden interest shown in ballistic missile defence (BMD). Although the driver was North Korea’s missile testing, the real issue is China. China’s latest ballistic missiles, combined with its new island bases, are steadily undercutting Australia’s

By Peter Layton

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The Beijing way of trade punishment

On 18 April, The Australian newspaper reported that Chinese students had “defied” warnings from their government about safety in Australia and enrolled in record numbers in the country’s universities for 2018. It was a nice image, of brave families and their children

By Richard McGregor

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Australian warships challenged in South China Sea

How should we react to news reports that China challenged Australian warships in the course of transiting the South China Sea, on their way from Subic Bay in the Philippines to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam? Without knowing where the challenge occurred (was it inside 12 nautical miles of a

By Euan Graham

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Will China’s new aid agency be effective?

China has a new International Development Cooperation Agency (IDCA). The IDCA will respond directly to the State Council and integrate the aid functions of the Ministries of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Foreign Affairs. The reform aims to reduce bureaucratic frictions and make aid better serve China

By Marina Rudyak

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China influence: in defence of parliamentary sovereignty

Despite their other disagreements, several fans and critics of Clive Hamilton’s Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia converge around the claim that his comments on national sovereignty are overstated. The Chinese Government’s influence operations, we are assured

By John Fitzgerald

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Is Japan’s rare earth discovery fool’s gold?

Rare earth. The term sounds like something derived from the imagination of J. R. R. Tolkien, but these composites of seventeen rare minerals are a silent but central foundation of global industry. Rare earth metals are critical to the production of a massive array of industrial goods,

By Frederick Kuo

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Caught in a pincer

China, China, China. All the talk is of increasing Chinese influence in our region. But this is to wilfully ignore the elephant in the room. Contrary to most commentary, the biggest destabilising player in Melanesia over the past five years has not been China, but Indonesia. Through

By Ben Bohane

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Is Trump ready to bear the cost of a trade war?

Agree or disagree with his conclusions, we owe Hugh White thanks for forcing us to grapple with “the China challenge”. White’s writings have stripped away much of the easy, high-sounding rhetoric about dealing with Beijing and honed in on the central feature of US–China relations in the

By Brad Glosserman

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Boao Forum, through the eyes of China’s state media

Chinese state media reporting on the recently concluded Boao Forum strongly emphasised the theme of “confidence”. The message for domestic consumption was that Chinese people can have confidence in China’s approach to development; confidence that China is well on the way to emerging

By Charlie Lyons Jones, Merriden Varrall

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With China or without?

Originally published in Nikkei Asian Review

By Richard McGregor

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The Boao confidence

President Xi Jinping’s speech to the Boao Forum for Asia, held on the tropical island of Hainan on 10 April, displayed a new skill China has been given free rein to refine before global audiences in the Donald Trump era. With Mr Trump tweeting all manner of ribald attacks on

By Richard McGregor

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Australia vs China, Europe vs Russia

The “bitter split among Australia academics” (reported in the Financial Times) with regard to attitudes towards China, and the Skripal poisoning incident that prompted an unprecedented number of European countries to take highly symbolic measures against Russia, have a common denominator

By Daniel Woker

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The many questions about China’s Vanuatu ambition

What to make of the extraordinary story in Australia’s Fairfax newspapers on Tuesday about reported discussions between China and Vanuatu that could allow the People’s Liberation Army to establish a presence in the South Pacific nation? If true, there would be significant cause for

By Rory Medcalf

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Xi’s big bureaucratic shake-up

Beijing is shaking up its bureaucracy. Two blueprints, released on 17 and 21 March, launched a major reform which will make crucial changes to the balance between the Communist Party and the state, and between central and local governments. Underpinning these reforms is a critical effort to make

By Camille Boullenois

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American trade policy returns to “aggressive unilateralism”

America’s new haphazard and confrontational approach to trade policy under President Donald Trump is rapidly taking shape. Risks of escalating protectionism and a damaging trade conflict between the US and China are rising. The two have already exchanged tit-for-tat moves with regard to Trump’

By Roland Rajah

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Chinese belts and roads stir mixed reactions in Europe

In February, in his last formal speech as foreign affairs minister of Germany, China’s biggest European trade partner, Sigmar Gabriel repeated an earlier warning. China’s new Silk Road Initiative, he said, is part of its efforts to establish an alternative world system

By Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr, Bjørnar Sverdrup-Thygeson

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China: the party, the state, and the new anti-graft body

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese state are two distinct although intertwined entities, with different types of power. For example, the Politburo (a high level party organ) may develop broad guidelines for the economy, and the job of the People’s Bank of China (a state organ)

By Charlie Lyons Jones, Merriden Varrall

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Leslie – 15 years on

I first heard Leslie Cheung’s voice when I was five years old, sitting in the passenger seat of my parent’s car. A Cantonese song came on the radio: “Let me hide from the bustle of life / What is the mood like in heaven? / What new scenery will I get to enjoy?” I asked my dad who was singing

By Ting Huang

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Deterrence under the dragon’s shadow: Vietnam’s military modernisation

On 5 March the USS Carl Vinson made a port call to Danang, in central Vietnam. It was the first time since the War (the Vietnam War to Americans, and the American War to Vietnamese) that a US aircraft carrier anchored in Vietnamese waters – by invitation this time – for an official visit. The

By Wu Shang-Su

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Hot take: what does Kim Jong-un’s trip to China mean?

So it’s now confirmed that Kim Jong-un went to China in the past few days to meet Xi Jinping. And apparently Xi will now go to Pyongyang. Breaking: Photos of secret talks between Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping emerge in the Chinese media https://t.co/kdnPKQixGq pic.twitter.com/G7tQh0Amd8 — Javier

By Robert E Kelly

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South China Sea: the Philippine fissure

A new normal is evident in the South China Sea disputes. Last week, Philippine Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana revealed that China continues to exchange radio challenges and responses with Philippine aircraft patrols and resupply missions in the West Philippine Sea. With Manila keen to

By Jay Batongbacal

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Happiness and the “China Dream”

In his report delivered at the 19th Party Congress, Xi Jinping declared that it was the Chinese Communist Party’s aspiration and mission to seek happiness for the Chinese people. Hu Angang, one of China’s leading economists, predicts that by 2030 China will be one of the happiest countries

By Gerda Wielander

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