China is hosting the G20 meeting of the world’s most powerful nations on the weekend, and one Australian China analyst has some stern advice for Malcolm Turnbull when he meets with his Chinese counterpart. Read more
China wants what we have, so it won’t risk a spat
China’s hosting of the premier international forum for co-operation on global economic governance in picturesque Hangzhou this weekend is testimony to China’s newly acquired economic weight and influence. Read more
South China Sea, what happens next?
Last week the Hague handed down it’s judgement in the dispute between China and the Philippines. It found that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights over most of the South China Sea and it therefore ruled against China.
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The People Back Beijing
He Xiaoliang is a 23-year-old electrician who lives with his parents in Shanghai. Every night, his family gather around the dinner table and argue about current affairs. But on Tuesday night they were in total agreement. Read more
China picks an unlikely fight in its battle for territory in the South China Sea
Less than a week after an Indonesian warship clashed with a fleet of Chinese fishing vessels off the coast of the Natuna Islands, the symbolism was unmistakable.
On Thursday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo presided over a cabinet meeting on the exact same ship, the KRI Imam Bonjol, near where the clash took place, more than 1000km north of his usual political areana in the capital Jakarta. Read more
China accused of being more hostile in South China Sea
Maritime security analysts say the Chinese are using fishing fleets and armed civilian forces to strengthen control in the South China Sea. Beijing and several countries in the region have overlapping claims over islands in the resource-rich area.
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China’s mixed messages confuse it’s friends as well as it’s perceived enemies
One of the great difficulties in assessing China’s broader aims and goals is the apparent contradiction between its uncompromising security policy and the accommodating allure of its economic outreach. While aggressively asserting its maritime claims in the Western Pacific, Beijing is simultaneously wooing the world with the seductive vision of a new Silk Road that promises benefits for all who sign up.
Australia caught in the US-China crossfire
The simmering strategic rivalry between the US and China is entering a new, and more dangerous phase that will recast the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific region and pose increasingly difficult policy choices for the next government.
After an extended period of policy confusion and vacillation about how to respond to China’s determined thrust into the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Washington is now pushing back with surprising vigour. Blunt warnings about the unacceptability of China’s land reclamation activities in the South China Sea and desire for regional hegemony are flowing thick and fast from the Pentagon along with military assistance to Southeast Asian countries, many of which have had a contentious relationship with the US in the past.
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How China’s fishermen are fighting a covert war in the South China Sea
Dr Alan Dupont speaks with Washington Post correspondent, Simon Denyer.
“China is using its vast fishing fleet as the advance guard to press its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, experts say. That is not only putting Beijing on a collision course with its Asian neighbors, but also introducing a degree of unpredictability that raises the risks of periodic crises.
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Beijing must beware the Thucydides trap
It’s rare for an Australian Prime Minister to quote from a classical Greek text and even rarer in the context of Australia’s relations with the US and China. But in his recent speech to a prominent US think tank in Washington, Malcolm Turnbull cited the great Athenian historian, Thucydides, in warning of the heightened risk of conflict when a rising power challenges the existing international order and the position of the previously dominant state – the so called Thucydides Trap.
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