Today is a public holiday in South Africa – Human Rights Day. There’s a certain irony in spending the day focusing on China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vladimir Putin, knee-deep in a human rights disaster.
What one makes of the Ukraine crisis increasingly maps on where one lives. This is made clear by a remarkable new set of polling data recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations ...
Country: Australia
U.S., UK and Australia Sign Landmark Defense Pact, Prompting Dark Warning from Beijing
The leaders of the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, members of the so-called AUKUS alliance, signed a landmark pact valued at nearly $400 billion that will allow Australia to deploy long-range nuclear-powered submarines for the first time. Australia will procure at ...
Chinese Government Warns AUKUS Submarine Deal Will Trigger a New Arms Race in Asia-Pacific
The Chinese government warned that the deployment of nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia would provoke a dangerous new arms race and undermine the increasingly fragile stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin issued a blunt response when ...
Uneasy About Australia’s New Submarine Deal with the U.S. and UK, Indonesia Echoes China’s Concerns About Asia-Pacific Arms Race
Indonesia's Foreign Ministry took to Twitter on Tuesday to restate its longstanding concern that Australia's acquisition of U.S. and UK-made nuclear-powered attack submarines could destabilize the Asia-Pacific region and violate the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) of which Australia is a signatory. Jakarta's statement ...
Why “Encirclement” has Become a Chinese Talking Point
This year-old map produced by the UK-based think tank Council on Geostrategy is circulating widely on Twitter this week following Tuesday's AUKUS summit in California and last week's comments by President Xi Jinping that the U.S. and its allies are "encircling" China.
China is the “Clear and Present Danger” Facing Australia, Warn Security Analysts
Australia should prepare for a U.S.-China war within three years and should consider reinstating the draft and reintroducing nuclear weapons. These were some of the talking points at a recent roundtable convened by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on national ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Xi Bets on Global South in Moscow
Chinese Foreign Ministry Releases Details of Qin Gang’s G20 Meetings With Other Foreign Ministers
While stark differences over the war in Ukraine made it impossible for G20 foreign ministers to reach a consensus at last week's meeting in New Delhi, China's Qin Gang nonetheless took advantage of the opportunity to hold a number of bilateral meetings with key counterparts.
WEEK IN REVIEW: First Shipment of Australian Coal in Two Years Will Soon Be Offloaded in China
The first shipment of Australian coal in two years will soon be offloaded in China, offering evidence that trade ties between the two countries are thawing. The shipment is anchored off the Chinese port of Zhanjiang, a major steel hub. China imposed a block on trade with Australia ...
Why Chinese Lending to Pacific Island Countries Has Steadily Declined in Recent Years
Chinese lending to Pacific Island Countries (PICs) is now at its lowest level in 15 years, according to new data published by the Australian think tank Lowy Institute. The findings may come as a surprise, given China's heightened diplomatic and security ...
Why a Chinese Coal Buy From Australia Should Worry Some Developing Countries
One of China's largest coal importers, the China Energy Investment Corp., bought at least two shipments of Australian coal on Friday in the latest sign of thawing ties between the two countries. While the amount purchased is not significant, it's the first ...
Why Rapprochement Between China and Australia Could Have Far-Ranging Consequences on Developing Countries
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrived in the Chinese capital on Tuesday night for a landmark visit that points to a thaw in the icy relations between the two Pacific powers. In fact, she's the first Australian FM to travel to Beijing since ...