One of the more noteworthy features of Xi Jinping’s presidency has been his apparently genuine and effective efforts to crack down on corruption. Like everything else in China, the scale of the problem…
Bob Hawke on a 1984 visit to China. His government implemented policies which boosted Asian engagement.
National Archives
The Hawke government in the 1980s is widely considered to be the most competent and effective of recent years. Some may say this is not setting the bar terribly high, but the cabinet papers of 1988-89…
A woman sniffs a glass of wine during a tasting event in Beijing.
Reuters
China may not be poised for world domination in wine, but it’s industry has grown wildly in recent years, and it’s now producing some well-regarded vintages.
As the last remaining protesters were being cleared from Hong Kong’s streets, many Westerners lamented the silencing of what they saw as China’s only pro-democracy voice. To them, the umbrella movement…
Where would Confucius place the balance between environmental conservation and economic development today?
Kevinsmithnyc
Conventional wisdom holds that China - the world’s most populous country - is an inveterate polluter, that it puts economic goals above conservation in every instance. So China’s recent moves toward an…
Increasing Chinese investment in renewables is driving costs down.
The Danish Wind Industry Association / Vindmølleindustrien/Flickr
Mining is the fourth-largest energy consumer in Australia, using roughly 10% of Australia’s total. Some of this comes from the electricity grid — but much is supplied offgrid in the form of diesel and…
The number of university students in China, including those in part-time higher adult education, expanded from 12.3m students in 2000 to 34.6m in 2013. China has become an exceptional example of increasing…
Handshakes as the Lima conference went into overtime to deliver an agreement. But there is still plenty of uncertainty about how next year’s Paris deal might look.
EPA/COP20
The world is a step closer to a new climate agreement that will see all countries, not just developed ones, take action on greenhouse emissions after 2020. The two-week Lima climate summit, which ran two…
It is a name that most will have heard of, but few, perhaps, actually know much about. But Marco Polo, an epic ten-episode programme hosted by Netflix, may change that. The show has already been dubbed…
UN negotiators will struggle to balance the demands of countries that want binding emissions targets, and those that don’t.
EPA/Paolo Aguilar
Could the preoccupation with legally binding targets sink the next climate deal in Paris in 2015? In the run-up to this week’s Lima talks, widely seen as a precursor to the Paris summit, the Abbott government…
Chinese president Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
EPA/Harish Tyagi
At the UN Climate Negotiations underway in Lima, Peru, foreign minister Julie Bishop has called on China and India to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In her address to the conference on Wednesday…
East Asian academic success is based on culture rather than teaching methods. And Australia can’t, and shouldn’t, imitate that culture.
Shutterstock
Since Shanghai, China, emerged at the top of international league tables of educational performance such as the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), there have been repeated calls…
Australia’s love affair with China is grounded on more than proximity and fascination.
William West/AFP/AAP
Pop quiz: in 2014 the quantity of Australian iron ore demanded by China has: a) fallen sharply, b) fallen modestly, c) remained the same, d) increased modestly, e) increased sharply? The answer in just…
Australia is now the most China-dependent economy in the world – does this pose a problem for our future?
AAP/Alan Porritt
If something can’t go on for ever, it won’t. – Herb Stein, chief economic adviser to former US president Richard Nixon. China’s economic rise has been a good news story for Australia. According to most…
Amid clouds of teargas, the Hong Kong ‘Umbrella Man’ defies police attempts to end the protest.
Wikimedia Commons/Pasu Au Yeung
The haunting image of a masked protester defiantly hoisting two black umbrellas amid a cloud of tear gas flickered across global social media platforms in the seconds and minutes after the Umbrella uprising…
The recent report on foreign investment in Australian property failed to address how to solve affordability issues.
Joel Carrett/AAP
The federal government has missed an opportunity to give serious thought to housing affordability in Australia. The House Standing Committee on Economics recently released its report on individual foreign…
Will this relationship get better or worse?
Petar Kujundzic/Reuters
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
The People’s Bank of China recently cut interest rates to stimulate the economy. But it probably won’t fix the real problem.
Reuters
China’s central bank surprised most observers last month when it announced its first interest rate cut in more than two years. The move is intended to bolster growth in the world’s second-largest economy…
Police move in on protesters who marched on the Hong Kong Chief Executive’s office in some of the worst clashes in the two-month pro-democracy demonstrations.
EPA/Jerome Favre
The umbrellas were out in full force on Monday night in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong – but mainly because it was actually raining. A few hundred people, myself included, had shown up to listen to…
Supporters celebrate after Ko Wen-je, an independent candidate, won the Taipiei mayor’s seat in local elections in which the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party suffered heavy losses across the nation.
EPA/Henry Lin
Taiwan’s opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has won an unprecedented landslide victory in the country’s local elections. The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) won only one of Taiwan’s six largest “special…