The film reflects the increasingly widespread view in China that it has thrown off the shackles of a century of humiliation and emerged as a power equal to - if not better than - its Western counterparts.

A growing political-military nexus between China and Pakistan, as currently seems likely, will further aggravate security competition with India.

Australia's best hope is that Canada, which shares our position as a major net user of IP, will work hard in the NAFTA negotiations to defend our common interests.

Westerners in general remain a target, as do Shi’a and Sunni governments who Salafists believe are constraining their activities.

Kong Xuanyou will have to have a thick skin because he is dealing with some of the world’s most prodigiously talented producers of invective.

Highlights from The Interpreter this week.

Borrowing at a low interest rate might look attractive but, in the long term, the government - and its citizens - pay through higher cost of finance.

Asia has acquired yet another flashpoint, one that China has deliberately picked at a time and location of its choosing.

The thing that puts New Zealand on the world map is rugby, and New Zealanders will do everything in their power to retain their rugby primacy.

The stakes – who gets to construct the legal, economic, and military architecture of an integrated Indo-Pacific region – are enormous. Without bold policy from the US and India, the answer will be China.

The count in the final undeclared seat in Papua New Guinea’s 2017 national elections has resumed – more than five weeks after polling was supposed to end.

On New Zealand, Turnbull, Pyne and Bishop have engaged in poor foreign policy at the behest of even worse domestic politicking.

Should Timor-Leste not become the 11th ASEAN member by the end of 2017, momentum may be lost and ascension indefinitely delayed.

This week's links also include a comparison of various citizenship laws and India's reported plan to deport 40,000 Rohingya Muslims.

The obvious wrinkle in the PM’s ANZUS pledge is what happens if the US strikes first and North Korea retaliates by attacking South Korea.

The only person responsible for the death of his children was Khalid Sharrouf himself.

With elections slated within the next year, the Malaysian government is running out of time to secure its economic future.

Julie Bishop speaking on Australia's new approach to the Pacific, violence in PNG's Highland provinces, the real danger facing Guam and more.

Gulf states have decided to try a carrot-based approach towards Iraq Shia leaders in attempting to blunt Iranian influence.

'This cholera scandal is entirely man-made by the conflicting parties and those beyond Yemen’s borders, who are leading, supplying, fighting and perpetuating the fear and fighting,'

The Republican Congress is demonstrating a growing readiness to push back against this Republican President with both words and votes.

The returning officer told us that as many as one in four intending voters in Talsea were being turned away, their names not on the list.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's speech was memorable for both the agenda it set out for relations between Australia and the countries in the Pacific, and the way this was expressed.

The White House seems to regard FONOPs as a means to induce Chinese concessions on the North Korean nuclear issue. This is not what these patrols are designed for.

Each month – each week – brings new and alarming developments in US-Russian relations. The only question is: how much worse can things get?

Enterprises that benefit from the deep social and legal infrastructure needed to make its operations possible should pay a fair tax somewhere.

This week's links also include the case against linking corruption to poverty and how global income equality has shifted since the GFC.

Far from dragging Qatar into the fold as intended, the rift between Qatar and its neighbours is likely to continue to expand.

If there is another armed conflict on the Korean peninsula, it's unlikely an Australian government would feel bound by historical precedent or outdated legal instruments.

The prospects of North Korea using nuclear weapons are greater than generally acknowledged.

Reports that Thailand, with Chinese money, is planning to build a new canal between the Pacific and Indian Oceans have set off a new wave of alarm bells over China’s plans to dominate the region.

Australia's same-sex marriage and republicanism debates, Chinese propaganda, a return to Abenomics and more.

According to sources on the ground in northeastern China, the new sanctions appear to have set off a diplomatic row between Beijing and Pyongyang.

The most surprising thing about the 2017 Papua New Guinea Election was the number of sitting MPs who were defeated.

It is one thing to recognise the realities of current sensibilities; quite another to let them mask the more substantial arguments required to win a greater measure of popular support than in 1999.

The closest a US president has come to anticipating Trump's shockingly bellicose statement was Harry Truman, during the Korean War.

There are two broad narratives in the international coverage of Australia. First, the country is no longer a beacon for human rights. Second, its politics are parochial and often paralysing,

Relying on commercial ties to add ballast to bilateral diplomatic relations can quickly come undone if the deals start going wrong.

The proclivity for extremism in Asia has spread beyond the ‘usual suspects’.

The kidnapping will be seized upon by Vietnam's human rights critics in Europe who will have their say when debating the important FTA.

This weeks links include the death of an asylum seeker on Manus Island, the RAISE act, and refugees, migration and trafficking in the Gulf.

As Commander-in-Chief, President Trump has been superb.

This weeks links include PNG's election results, the exploitation of seasonal workers in Australia and managing tribal warfare in PNG's highlands.

If you're frustrated that this dispute seems stuck with no way out, here are two things worth thinking about.

Young journalists are told professionalism is relative: no media are interest-free, and if you work for Chinese state media, you should represent the interest of the Chinese state.

President Trump likes to apply business-oriented thinking to national economic policy, seeing global trade in terms of individual deals.

Domestic economic reform and constitutional reform should always have been two sides of the same coin.

The UK is a middle-size European country with very few alternatives in free trade, immigration matters or anything else to those open to its continental cousins.

Xi Jinping will soon announce his key slogan to take its place in the Chinese Communist Party charter alongside those of Mao, Deng, Jiang and Hu.

The current account and fiscal deficits played a key role in the growth deceleration that started a few years ago and have so far only been partially unwound.