Recent news that David Cameron has been placed on the naughty step by China after his meeting with the Dalai Lama caused much concern in UK business circles.
Reports suggested the Chinese sovereign wealth…
Defence minister Stephen Smith, prime minister Julia Gillard and Commander of Defence Forces David Hurley at the launch of the Defence White Paper.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Australia’s new Defence White Paper reflects a revolution in the way in which Australia thinks about its strategic geography.
The “Indo-Pacific” has now decisively displaced the “Asia-Pacific” as defence…
In the last few years, both China and the US have ramped up efforts to address climate change.
Stefano Paltera/US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon
Ambition has awakened the global energy giants, China and the United States. Both nations have recently strengthened commitments to address climate change and announced plans to strengthen collaboration…
Mining for rare earth elements is taking China down the track to environmental degradation.
Göran Höglund (Kartläsarn)/Flickr
Environmental pollution is currently a white-hot topic in China, but what if western consumers are driving the issue?
A storm of activity recently occurred on Sina Weibo, triggered by reports that industries…
Australian policymakers need to acquaint themselves with the changing nature of regional governance in Asia.
www.shutterstock.com
The growing competition between Japan and China over regional primacy is changing the face of Asian regional governance — but not necessarily in predictable ways.
While observers have focused on Asia…
By agreeing to work with China on climate change, the Australian Government has further entrenched the carbon price.
AAP Image/Office of the Prime Minister
A recent agreement between Australia and China to cooperate on climate change could be a tipping point that makes the Coalition’s pledge to repeal the carbon price unachievable.
Under the agreement, Australia…
Will China’s copycat culture spawn a host of smartglasses?
SewPixie
The tech press reported recently that Chinese search giant Baidu.com was working on a new “smartglasses” device, dubbed Baidu Eye – a computerised headset with a small LCD screen, voice commands, image…
Julia Gillard has achieved a significant foreign policy coup in China, although progress has stalled on a bilateral free-trade agreement.
AAP
If you believe the opinion polls, Julia Gillard has had a very busy week in China setting the China policy direction and institutional framework for a future Coalition government.
Tony Abbott must be…
China’s people and politicians are keenly interested in reducing emissions: what can we learn from each other?
EPA/Wu Hong
China’s political commitment and ambition on climate change allow it to take global leadership. Australia is well placed to provide guidance on suitable policy approaches, sharing its experiences with…
Is photographing dogs dressed in suspenders and stockings just another internet fad or a strange reflection on human sexuality?
Sharp Daily
When I was little, maybe five or six, I got the idea to slip my spaniel’s feet into freezer bags and watch her slide around on the kitchen floor.
Sure, this episode could have sparked in me a yen for…
The scale of China’s off-balance sheet lending may seem extensive, but it’s not the scary beast that many commentators have made it out to be.
Philip Jagenstedt/Flickr
In recent months, talk of an emerging crisis in China’s financial sector has been getting louder. A few weeks ago such chatter reached a crescendo, at least in terms of a narrative, when two Nomura economists…
China’s fast-track urbanisation doesn’t have to be unsustainable.
Flickr/dcmaster
China is urbanising faster than any other country in history. It now has 120 cities with over one million people and 36 cities with over two million. By 2030 there will be one billion people living in…
A currency conversion deal between Australia and China, which would allow the renminbi to be traded directly against the Australian dollar, would slash costs for thousands of businesses.
AAP
Julia Gillard leaves Australia for China tomorrow, her second trip to the Middle Kingdom as Prime Minister. As befits China’s status as Australia’s most important trading partner, the trip has attracted…
Kim Jong-un’s threats against South Korea and the US have become more dramatic.
EPA/Yonhap News Agency
Western commentators seem generally mesmerised by North Korea’s quixotic behaviour. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is described as “delusional”, “fruitcake”, “reckless”, and the actions of North Korea…
The conviction of Rio Tinto executive and Australian citizen Stern Hu for industrial espionage in 2010 highlighted the importance of managing issues of ethnic identity in China.
AAP
The 21st century is predicted to be Asia’s century. As the leading economic power in Asia, China has become a popular business partner for many countries notably Australia. With increasing business interactions…
Campaigners say the Australian government should take a stronger stance against Chinese occupation and human rights abuse in Tibet.
EPA/Narendra Shrestha
In the past week, the number of Tibetan self-immolations in protest against the Chinese occupation has risen to 111 since 2009. Despite the increasing numbers of Tibetans self-immolating and general unrest…
China’s solar photovoltaic industry has exploded in the last decade.
AAP/Chinese Solar Energy.
By John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
The bankruptcy of Chinese solar energy company Suntech Wuxi is being depicted in the media as a sign of chaos in the solar industry.
The industry is said to be suffering from disastrous price falls created…
Thousands of dead pigs pulled from a Chinese river are pushing China’s parliament to take the environment more seriously.
Philippe Semanaz
In a joke currently circulating on China’s most popular social media, Sina Weibo, a Beijing resident boasts about his happy life in the badly air-polluted capital, saying that every morning when he opens…
China’s “little emperors” may have been unfairly characterised.
Saf'
People born in China under the one-child policy (OCP) – a policy applied since 1979, restricting urban couples to having only one child – are less trusting, trustworthy, competitive, conscientious, risk…
Foxconn will hold its first-ever democratic labour union election but freedom of association in China remains limited.
AAP Pictures
Apple’s China-based contractor, Foxconn, is following a trend of increasing unionisation at transnational corporations in China by holding its first-ever democratic labour union elections.
As reported…
Social stability is the main driver behind the release of China’s reform guidelines on income equality, which contained frank admissions of the drivers of inequality.
flickr/svigier
For all the economic success that China has enjoyed in recent decades, such as record levels of poverty reduction and growth in real per capita consumption, a consistent conclusion of academic research…
Trade in emissions entitlements has struck some large practical problems.
EPA/MARK
Emissions growth in the 21st century was overwhelmingly concentrated in developing countries. My own calculations on “business as usual” emissions for the Climate Change Review Update suggested that in…
Chinese police in Tibet are equipped with guns and a fire extinguisher to deal with any person protesting through self immolation.
AAP/STR
On January 12, a young Tibetan man, Tsering Tashi, set himself on fire in a nomadic area in China’s Gansu province, while calling for the long life of the Dalai Lama and a free Tibet. Less than a week…
Four major hydroelectric projects are planned for the upper Yangtze River valley.
Steb Fisher
The 2012 China Ecological Footprint Report has highlighted the cost to biodiversity of China’s rapid economic development.
Biodiversity in China is under pressure because of loss of habitat. In our study…
Heavy smog is descending on Beijing again, a week after record air pollution choked China’s capital and much of northern China.
AAP/EPA/Adrian Bradshaw
Beijing has been smothered by a dense and dangerous smog this month, which has set new air pollution records over several days.
The World Health Organization advises that the acceptable level of fine…
On the international stage, China is reluctant to cut emissions. Back home, its new emissions trading scheme will be the world’s second largest.
Flickr/peregrinari
In the United Nation’s annual climate change conference held in Doha last December, delegates from 194 countries came together at the last minute to extend the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol is a legally…
China’s new government has to decide if its economic and social agenda can progress without political liberalisation.
EPA/Fan Siding
Chinese newspaper the Southern Weekly has gone back to print after a public standoff about censorship, leading to wider scrutiny of the Chinese government’s hold over press freedom.
Optimism about more…
China’s economic growth has been underpinned by a favourable demographic dividend – but China’s demographic story is not always so clear.
Flickr
China’s exceptional economic growth performance in the last three decades has coincided with equally remarkable demographic change. There is now plenty of evidence to suggest the potential demographic…
This week marks the 40th anniversary of Australia’s bilateral relationship with China.
AAP
The optics of this week’s official celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations with China could not be more pertinent.
Culminating in tonight’s banquet hosted by Julia Gillard at…
With a growing economy and closer links to China, Taiwan offers great potential for Australian trade and investment.
AAP
As noted by the Prime Minister’s White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century, managing the opportunities presented by the profound changes underway in the Asia‑Pacific is a major challenge for all regional…
China’s growing investment in research and development could leave Australia by the wayside.
AAP
When it comes to innovation, China is not renowned for being cutting-edge; it is better known for adapting existing technology rather than creating its own.
Yet, as Xi Jinping stated in his first speech…
A little awkward: Australia has been caught between two trade talks.
AAP
Australian politicians are keen to project our participation in two major international trade talks – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – as…
China’s economic miracle will see it become the world’s greatest financial power; but it critical for the country’s new leaders to ensure its workers aren’t left behind.
AAP
China’s Communist Party has overseen an economic miracle over the past 20 years, but they are now facing the consequences of becoming the fastest growing economy on the planet.
With China’s GDP now standing…
Energy planning is complicated, but China is way ahead of us on creating a future energy system.
Triin Noorkoiv
By John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Over the past few weeks China and Australia have both released white papers on energy. The two documents could not be more different.
Australia’s white paper is largely about our continued obsession with…
The Chinese province of Xinjiang, bordering Kazakhstan, is planning fibre optic security dubbed the “Great Fence of China”; the technology was pioneered by an Australian firm, but China’s rapid technological adaption signifies another chapter in its evolution as a world power.
AAP
As Borat tends to his pigs on his comely estate situated on the border of Kazakhstan and China, one of them flies across in a desperate attempt to look for better opportunities in the Fabled Land of Exploding…
Australia needs to engage with Indonesia, but in the region there is the perception it makes mistakes.
AAP
The dust has settled on the Asian Century White Paper. It is time to reflect on the challenges the Australian government might have in getting the rest of the country to engage with Asia, in particular…
Bo Xilai may be the most “lurid” example of corruption in China, but he is not alone.
AAP/Dennis M. Sabangan
By Kenneth Chern, Swinburne University of Technology
China’s new leaders are aware of the danger that corruption poses to the nation’s social stability and economic development.
But entrenched corruption at the local and national levels, including among…
New president Xi Jinping (centre) flanked by He Guoqiang (left) and Jia Qinglin (right) at the closing ceremony of the 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing.
AAP/How Hwee Young
CHINA IN TRANSITION: As China goes through its secretive but widely anticipated leadership transition, the rest of the world is watching. This week, The Conversation takes an in depth look at the National…
China’s new leaders must decide whether to reform the country’s state-owned enterprises, or remain dependent on export markets.
AAP
With the dust settling on Barack Obama’s second term in the White House and as Washington nervously approaches the precarious precipice of its looming fiscal cliff, all eyes are on the grey matter of the…
US President Barack Obama meets with his soon to be Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping earlier this year.
EPA/Martin H. Simon
CHINA IN TRANSITION: As China goes through its secretive but widely anticipated leadership transition, the rest of the world is watching. This week, The Conversation takes an in depth look at the National…
Delegates at the 18th China Communist Party Congress listen to outgoing president Hu Jintao’s address.
EPA/How Hwee Young
CHINA IN TRANSITION: As China goes through its secretive but widely anticipated leadership transition, the rest of the world is watching. This week, The Conversation takes an in depth look at the National…
President Barack Obama, pictured here with Chinese President Hu Jintao, will continue to ‘pivot’ to Asia.
EPA/Alex Wong
Sitting in New York, in the aftermath of an American election dominated by a domestic agenda, it is easy to lose sight of both the pressing external problems that the US continues to face, and the impact…
Communist Party officials meeting in the Great Hall of the People, Where the new leadership will be anointed in a once in a decade ceremony.
Xinhua/Gao Jie
China is Australia’s largest trading partner and alongside the United States, the nation of greatest importance to our future prosperity and security. But unlike the US, where the presidential election…
Hopes and anxieties: the US' approach to China’s economy is often tempered by its foreign policy outlook.
AAP
When I taught foreign policy in the United States, my students would often answer one question incorrectly, albeit in a way that speaks to a larger truth about US foreign policy. In lecturing on President…
The Asian Century White Paper offers a lot of grand rhetoric, but little in the way of serious policy ideas.
AAP
The Australia in the Asian Century White Paper has vaulting ambitions equally matched by a limited set of policy ideas for institutional reform.
Unlike Ross Garnaut’s 1989 report, Australia and the Northeast…
Republican candidate Mitt Romney has promised a tougher stance on China, but his policy responses have left a lot to be desired.
EPA/Bryan Bedder
With less than a month to go in the presidential campaign, the next two debates provide President Barack Obama with a chance to be more assertive against Republican candidate Mitt Romney following his…
It’s usually in the shadow of regional power China, but Australians would do well to remember the benefits of a strong relationship with Taiwan.
Bonnetmaker
It is clear that Taiwan shares much in common with Australia. It is an island in the Pacific with a population of 23 million people, a population of indigenous people with a long history, and is a country…
Traditional burials take up space that could be used for forest or farmland.
Stuck in Customs/Flick
By Yuan Gao, University of Melbourne and Roger Short, University of Melbourne
How we die, as well as how we live, has profound and lasting effects on the environment. Nowhere is this more true than in China, the most populous nation on Earth.
According to the National Bureau of…
Obama met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009 in what was seen as a further sign of a strong emerging relationship between the two countries.
EPA/Shawn Thew
Any American presidential election reverberates around global policy corners but, for India, the 2012 contest carries unusual significance.
With its economy slowing, national government under severe pressure…
Looking to Asian schools is exactly what we shouldn’t be doing.
Chalkboard image www.shutterstock.com
It was fun while it lasted Finland, but we’re going cold on you. We thought your schools had the secret but our new infatuation is with Asian school systems.
The Prime Minister seems to agree. The government…
By 2030, China is projected to be at the centre of the world’s economic activity. Just how Australia positions itself will be crucial.
Syzmon Kochanski/Flikr
Welcome to The Conversation’s series on megatrends. What are the compelling economic, social, environmental, political and technological changes Australia must grapple with over the coming decades?
In…
Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals announced this week it was delaying $1.6 billion in investments as iron ore spot prices continued to fall: but is it really time to panic about China’s manufacturing sector?
AAP
This week we learnt that Australia’s GDP growth fell significantly in the second quarter compared with the first. The fact that GDP growth is a lagging indicator raises serious questions about the current…
Chinese investment in smaller iron-ore suppliers in Western Australia not only presents challenges for the market power of the Big 3 mining companies, but also for the viability of iron ore projects in Australia.
AAP
With several major mining projects being put on ice this week, talk has quickly turned to whether the Australian mining boom is about to go bust.
Jumping on comments by the Resources Minister that “the…
Tony Abbott finds himself caught between competing interests on his foreign investment policy.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Foreign investment, like any other policy, is a complex juggling act. A balance between welcoming foreign investment – without which Australia cannot survive – and protecting Australian interests in not…
If China opens up its capital account, there will be significant ramifications for Australia.
epSos.de
In previous articles on The Conversation, I have noted that our economic relationship with China stands on only one leg.
In contrast to two-way trade – merchandise trade topped $120 billlion in the year…
President Nixon’s meeting with China’s Communist Party Leader Mao Tse Tung in 1972 began closer ties between the two countries.
Wikimedia/Office of Presidential Libraries
Now, as at the time of the Vietnam war, the global primacy of the United States is increasingly being questioned.
Among the reasons are its role in the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the continued and…
Tony Abbott has taken aim at Chinese investment that comes with government connections, arguing that such investment is not in Australia’s national interest.
AAP
Opposition leader Tony Abbott made headlines recently when during a visit to China, he declared that “it would rarely be in Australia’s national interest to allow a foreign government or its agencies to…
Tony Abbott is seeking credibility on foreign policy issues, but his recent rhetoric on China has done him few favours.
AAP
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s recent overseas trip to help burnish his international credentials has revealed more of the potential direction of the Coalition’s foreign policy. Following his visit…
Does Western media jump on Chinese “censorship” stories with a little too much zeal?
Thomas Hawk
Last week, Chinese internet users noticed the two Mandarin characters for “truth” could not be searched on Sina Weibo, the most popular microblogging platform in China.
On July 12,Tom Philips, Shanghai…
Is there a lack of literacy about Chinese culture among Australia’s commentators?
Last week I attended the 24th Annual Conference of the Chinese Economics Society of Australia (CESA), a network of mostly Australian academics with research expertise in the Chinese economy.
At this conference…
Within hours of launching, the New York Times Sina Weibo account was suspended.
cn.nytimes.com
The New York Times' (NYT) entry into the Chinese media market is off to a seemingly rocky start. Two days ago, the company launched its Chinese website – cn.nytimes.com – and a corresponding Sina Weibo…
The media tends to portray Chinese achievements as lacking credibility.
Trey Ratcliffe
Recent analyses that China’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions might be 1.2 gigatonnes or 20% higher than previously estimated have generated something of a feeding frenzy in the media; and not just the daily…
What’s the true picture of Chinese economic stimulus? China’s decision to cut interest rates actually has modest implications for Australia.
AAP
Last week’s decision by China to cut interest rates by 0.25% seemed to attract almost as much attention in Australia as the same decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) several days earlier.
The…
China’s citizens are catching up to the government-monitored web.
Mike Licht
In part four of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, John Keane takes a look at the Chinese regime’s troubled relationship with the cyber world.
Global challenge 4: How can genuine democracy…
Chinese paramilitary police prepare for a storm in the South China Sea.
EPA/str
The lines traversing the surface of the globe are legal fictions that determine the fates of nations. Nowhere is this truer than in the South China Sea.
China’s infamous U-shaped line claims most of this…
The bodies of people, including children, that anti-government activists claimed were killed by the Syrian Army in Houla.
The appalling massacre of civilians, including children, in the town of Houla, near the Syrian city of Homs, was a senseless act beyond the unacceptable and ultimately self-defeating goal of crushing all…
China’s 690 million urban dwellers now account for 51.3 percent of China’s total population of 1.35 billion.
AAP
Last year marked a milestone in China’s several-thousand-year history: for the first time, more people lived in cities and towns than in the countryside.
The country’s 690 million urban dwellers now account…
Slow boat to China? Foreign Minister Bob Carr encountered pressure over Australia’s relationship with the US on his recent trip to Beijing.
Foreignminister.gov.au/Photographer - Yu Chuzhong.
Australian foreign minister Bob Carr was interrogated about Australia’s alliance with the US in three separate meetings with Beijing’s leaders last week.
“Make no mistake, the re-emergence of China, and…
Barrow Island off Western Australia may hold the key to our energy future.
AAP/Bill Hatto
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.
Here, Dr Tina Hunter looks at the…
Growing income inequality in China will continue to hamper its transition from a middle-income to high-income country.
oliverlaumann
Can the economic rise of new middle-income countries such as China, Brazil, India and even Indonesia continue until they become high-income countries like Australia? Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan…
Chinese airlines are on the rise.
AAP/James Morgan
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.
Here, Professor Brian King crunches…
Australia can learn from US companies such as Mattell about keeping brands Australian, while manufacturing products in China.
EPA/Wilson Wen
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.
In this instalment, Dr Richard Pomfret…
It’s time for policymakers to address Australia’s poor record in attracting Chinese investment.
AAP
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.
Today, Dr James Laurenceson asks…
Raul Castro has been looking to China’s economic model to relieve Cuba of its stagnant output and mounting foreign debt.
AAP
Dashing the opposition’s hopes, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba last month ended up resembling that of his predecessor John Paul II fourteen years prior. The island’s leaders emerged from both visits…
Falun Gong protestors outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney in 2008.
AAP/Dean Lewins
UPDATE: The Chinese nationals have now elected to stay in Australia, where they will seek asylum.
A group of ten Chinese people fleeing persecution in their home country has presented Australian authorities…
We might expect dramatic sex ratio fluctuations when a whole population experiences extreme food shortages.
Teeejayy
People often ask me whether natural selection continues to operate on modern humans in industrialised societies, even though technology has liberated so many from hunger and early death. My answer is always…
Censorship has now caught up with new social media and technology in China.
Flickr/bfishadow
This week’s temporary suspension of comments on China’s two largest micro-blogging services Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo highlight the ruling party’s discomfort with social media’s growing popularity…
China will dominate global steel production, but Australia can have a future in high value steel making – if we don’t lose our nerve.
AAP
Recently, I met a friend at a conference in Japan. My friend is a specialist in steelmaking technology and, after a long successful career in Japan, had taken up a position in a Chinese Steel company called…
The level of business crime is lower in China than other emerging economies – but bribery and forgery are more frequent than in Australia.
AAP
Few crime victim surveys have been conducted with Chinese populations, but a recently released study, Business and the Risk of Crime in China, analyses the results of the first large scale victimisation…
Talk of a Chinese property bubble has been greatly exaggerated.
Spiffy0777
Five years on, the US economy remains sluggish after the bursting of a house price bubble. More recently, the focus has been on China, the world’s second largest economy, and whether it too might be overwhelmed…
Over the space of 25 years, Huawei has shaken off its humble beginnings and transformed into a global telecommunications juggernaut.
Konrad Andrews
Up until last week, many Australians were probably unaware of Chinese telcommunications company Huawei. But the decision by the federal government to ban Huawei from any involvement in the National Broadband…
Huawei has trumpeted its private-sector credentials, but it is a critical supplier of technology to the People’s Liberation Army and has strong links to the CCP.
AAP
In response to the Australian government’s decision to prevent Huawei from tendering for National Broadband Network projects, Huawei Australia went on the offensive. Former foreign minister and current…
The Australian government faces a difficult task in balancing relationships with China and the US.
EPA/Minoru Iwasaki/Pool
The recommendation by intelligence agency ASIO that Chinese telecommunications company Huawei be banned from tendering in the National Broadband Network because of cyber security concerns, raises serious…
Chinese telco giant Huawei’s preclusion from tendering for the NBN will have far-reaching implications for investment by Chinese-controlled companies in Australia.
AAP
It will no doubt be surprising to the former Liberal Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, and former Victorian Labor Premier, John Brumby, that they sit on the board of a corporate entity apparently judged…
The viability of Indian villages such as Purushwadi will determine India’s prosperity in the future.
Harry Dillon
In October 2011, the birth of an unidentified baby marked the seven billionth human. With more than 1.2 billion people and a world-leading national birth rate of about 50 per minute, India is more likely…
The looming joint exit of Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao will significantly affect all aspects of policy.
AAP
As the once-in-a-decade transfer of political power in China looms, the consequences for the country’s foreign policy, economic development, political reform, and military affairs is hard to overstate…
State guidance of the economy is not just a tool for emerging markets, but also for developing economies that wish to maintain their technological advantage.
mckaysavage
As governments rushed in to prop up collapsing economies in response to the 2008 financial meltdown, the myth of free-market capitalism was suddenly put to the test and found wanting. But it has been…
US-China competition could lead to a brighter clean energy future, or a trade war.
whitehouse.gov
There is a trade war brewing between the United States and China over intellectual property relating to clean technologies – particularly solar power.
Steven Chu, a scientist, Nobel Laureate in Physics…
A slowdown in China’s economy is not yet cause for concern in Australia.
AAP
These days, most economic commentators in Australia sing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to discussing our economic prospects: while the ongoing gloom in the US and the outright deterioration in…
Senator Arthur Sinodinos makes his maiden speech earlier this year.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Welcome to this In Conversation between Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos and Macquarie University politics expert Craig Mark.
Sinodinos is a political paradox: he’s the newest member of the Australian…
Despite President Barack Obama’s charms, Australia must focus on China.
AAP Image/ Scott Barbour
Australia’s recent fleeting love affair with President Barack Obama notwithstanding, Australia’s future lies with China and the North, not the Pacific and the East.
This is not simply a matter of economics…
Gillard made ground with Pacific leaders at the APEC summit, but Australia has much work left to do.
AAP
Australia’s future is clearly linked to the dynamism of North Asia and Indonesia, Vietnam and other economies in the region. Yet many significant challenges confront Australia in realising the promised…
Strategic friendships: will Australia’s decision to sign up to Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement impact on our relationship with China?
AAP
The task of simultaneously negotiating our traditional security and cultural ties with the US, and our burgeoning economic relationship with China, can justifiably be described as the “great foreign policy…
Has Australia managed to make the most of our opportunities to tap into the Chinese market?
Flickr/peregrinari
I recall attending a World Tourism Organisation [WTO] Conference in Tasmania ten years ago, where it was predicted that China would become the both the largest outbound travel market as well as the largest…
China’s government has made a massive investment in research, and student funding. Australia can learn a lot.
AFP/Information Services Department
In recent weeks two commentary strands have intertwined and are extremely important to Australia’s future, and with special resonance for the higher education sector.
Beginning with the announcement of…
Chinese students may have a different take on the media, but universities in Australia can learn from them.
Flickr/badbrother
There is a vast difference between how China is reported inside and outside the country. And that extends to how media and communication is taught in China and Australia.
One of my new PhD students, who…
China is becoming a superpower in space as well as on earth.
AAP
In the early hours of this morning, the tranquility of the remote Gobi desert was shattered by the sound of a brand new spacecraft hurtling towards the sky.
The rocket, Shenzhou-8 or “Divine Vessel…
Developing smaller urban areas may mean better employment and living conditions for migrant workers.
AFP
SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE: The world’s seven billionth person is likely to be born today. Beatriz Carrillo Garcia, lecturer in China Studies at the University of Sydney looks at effect a growing population…
It’s wrong to assume that China makes no effort to reform its political system because its culture does not support such change.
Flickr/Katherina
The skepticism of contemporary China’s multilayered and painful efforts to achieve legal and political reform makes many wonder if democracy can really grow in the Chinese soil. This is such a haunting…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has signalled a shift towards Japan in our foreign and trade policy – but is this the right direction?.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s comments in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian newspapers point to a shift in Coalition trade policy that would give Japan higher priority over China.
So why…
Chinese women have always worked, but now they’re making waves in business.
Flickr/IISG
There’s a new generation of women quietly getting things done in China. They are insiders: well connected in the Communist Party, and flourishing in the business world.
In Chinese, capable and shrewd…
By 2050, China’s economy is projected to be as large as the US and India combined.
AAP
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has sparked some controversy with his suggestion that Australia’s trade emphasis should be on Japan, rather than China.
Abbott’s suggestion that it would be easier to negotiate…
The East Asia Summit could be a useful start on the road towards a ‘concert of powers’.
EPA/Christophe Archambault/Pool
AUSTRALIA IN ASIA: In the eighth part of our series, Sandy Gordon of the Australian National University looks at the possibility of an agreement which would draw the key Asian states together.
The CIA…
Despite strong export data, Australia’s trade relationship with China isn’t as developed as we think.
AAP
AUSTRALIA IN ASIA: In the seventh part of our series, James Laurenceson looks at the challenges in doing business with China.
The headline numbers surrounding Australia’s exports to China make for impressive…
Julia Gillard has to strike a balance between forging meaningful links with Asian countries, and managing relationships with older allies.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
AUSTRALIA IN ASIA: In the third part of our series, former diplomat Alison Broinowski of the Australian National University examines our rocky relationship with our Asian neighbours.
“Australia hasn’t…
Julia Gillard could play a pivotal role in ensuring Asia’s security, and improve Australia’s economy in the process.
AFP/Minoru Iwasaki
AUSTRALIA IN ASIA: In the second of our series Nick Bisley of La Trobe University examines the responsibilities Australia must take on to ensure security in Asia.
Asia’s economic powerhouses are booming…
Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi wants closer ties with China – but Europe shouldn’t believe this will save the EU.
AAP
Earlier this week, reports emerged that Italian finance officials had held talks with their Chinese counterparts regarding the possibility of China making significant purchases of Italy’s public debt…
In a speech in Sydney earlier this week, World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, lent his support to an appreciation of the renminbi (RMB).
As has become the norm, this support was couched in terms of…
China may appear strong now compared to the troubled US, but still lags behind in technology and per-capita wealth.
Flickr/futureatlas.com
Europe is on the decline. The US has its own problems. Meanwhile, China and India appear strong. But is it too soon pick the next global superpower?
In this Q+A, Professor Geoffrey Garrett, CEO of the…
As a new global financial crisis looms, Australia shouldn’t overestimate its dependence on China.
AAP
Amidst the widening global financial turmoil, a strong Chinese economy is certainly one positive for the Australian economy.
But should we believe it is only factor that will save the day? The answer…
Car ownership is tightly regulated in Chinese cities such as Shanghai.
Dr Matthew Burke
How often do we hear the argument that Australia’s moves to limit carbon emissions will achieve nothing unless China finally takes some action?
This fails to recognise that China’s city mayors, the government…
Pacific nations participated enthusiastically in the Shanghai Expo last year.
Flickr/thoth188
China’s relations with its Pacific neighbours are nothing if not complex. Its trade in the region quadrupled between 1999 and 2006. And if it delivers all of the promised resources, it will become second…
Designer shopping in China can lead to an experience like no other.
Flickr/Gadgetdan
China’s phenomenal economic growth during the last three decades has significantly altered its pattern of social stratification. One of the most equal countries in the world has become one of the most…
China can easily rouse its banks, but awakening its consumers will be tougher.
AAP
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett’s bold claim on Friday that his state was looking “over the horizon” past Canberra to forge stronger links with China capped off a few weeks of strong rhetoric from…
Ambassador Geoff Raby and Kevin Rudd need to build a resilient relationship with China.
AAP/Dan Peled
“To speak Chinese is not to know China,” our man in Beijing announced this week. “Many examples can be found of people who speak Mandarin to a high level but who do not understand how China works. They…
Our relationship with China has been marked by misunderstandings and spats.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard returned from her visit to China last month having locked down a series of cooperation agreements between countries – including a $600 million iron ore deal – which many hope…
Australia has little to fear from China’s latest five-year plan.
AAP
There are two main fears about the possible implications for Australia in China’s latest five-year economic plan, but in reality, we have little to worry about.
In fact, Australia has much to gain from…
