Asia
Economic diplomacy brief: Who’s our biggest partner, Asian business capability, Globalisation 2.0
Buying friends
The debate over Australia’s most valuable economic partners hit fever pitch this month with new arguments over old measuring sticks for an increasingly contested…
China, America and the Thucydides Trap: An interview with Graham Allison
Graham Allison, Director of Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs from 1995 until July 2017, is a leading analyst of US national security and defence…
Burn the books, bury the scholars!
Chinese censorship has come a long way.
During his rule in the 2nd century BC, the First Emperor of a unified China famously quelled the intellectual diversity of his day by …
The unacceptable dangers of accepting a nuclear North Korea
The crisis on the Korean Peninsula has for the first time introduced an element of confusion over the strategic goal pursued by the US and its allies in dealing with North Korea.
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What the US would need to deter China
I am reassured to see from Ely Ratner's most recent post in our exchange on US-China relations and the South China Sea how much he and I agree about, because I have such a high…
Wolf Warrior II: Chinese exceptionalism is box office gold
Wolf Warrior II (WWII) has stormed the Chinese box office, becoming the highest-grossing film ever in China. After only 12 days in cinemas the film had taken 3.4…
India feeling the heat on Belt and Road
In May, when China organised a major summit in Beijing around its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as 'One Belt, One Road', or OBOR), one invited country was…
Big job ahead for China’s new envoy to North Korea
Competition for the world’s most thankless jobs is hotting up. Donald Trump’s chief of staff, the Premier of China, the official standing next to the UK’s Panglossian Secretary of…
Indonesia's unorthodox toll road debt
In 2016 Indonesia’s Ministry of Public Works dramatically underestimated the funds it needed to acquire land for toll road development. To try to keep development on schedule, the…
South China Sea: Beijing raises the temperature again
Something significant is happening in the South China Sea. Philippine media has reported that, over the past week, a flotilla of Chinese fishing vessels, accompanied by PLA Navy…