"An absolute resolve to stand together and defend democracy itself." Australian PM Albanese on defending democracy. A line with far-reaching implications given the active threat to one particular democracy in our region. www.pm.gov.au/media/addres...

"Funding deal for research program about Australia's polar security rejected by Tasmanian government." A lot to unpack here.

"Classified US intelligence warns of China's preparations for Taiwan invasion." Yes.

Those were the days. A 594 page reading pack.

Call in the Hobart Mercury for "multipolarity", a codeword for great power spheres of influence and abandoning the liberal principle of universal human rights.

New regulations on transnational education, or 中外合作办学 Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools just released.

Important speech by University of Canberra VC Bill Shorten, with much to commend it, but still treating academic knowledge as a resource to be extracted, not a field to be tended. www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/med...

ABC report on the Victorian state government delegation in China, with important comments from John Fitzgerald and the revelation that the Victoria-China MOU on public education cooperation is "confidential". www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzXb...

Tell me you don't understand Taiwan without telling me you don't understand Taiwan. "German reunification could offer lessons for Beijing on Taiwan: government adviser"

Imagine trying to teach about Taiwan at any Victorian education institution under this agreement, or being a student who identifies as Taiwanese-Australian.

"The landmark Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria and China’s Ministry of Education will establish the Working Group, driving educational cooperation from the primary to the tertiary level." This is an abrogation of Australia's national sovereignty. www.premier.vic.gov.au/historic-agr...

More troubling is how the policy statement actively conflates the People's Republic of China with the diverse communities in Victoria that can be ascribed the label "Chinese".

"Victoria’s China Strategy: For a New Golden Era" Released coincident with dire economic data for China, a new "China strategy" for the Victorian state government that, typically for these sorts of documents, has little to say about China itself. www.vic.gov.au/victorias-ch...

With a combination of malice and ignorance, it looks like ICE managed to activate decades of trauma in South Korea from its history of authoritarian violence.

"Representation of the CCP's Concept of the United Front as Part of the the Theory of Contradictions." This from Lyman P. Van Slyke in 1967 still lands.

Excellent commentary in the China Daily on the Japan–Australia 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations. www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202509/07/...

Come for the pop philosophy, stay for the Wade-Giles. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Extreme example of cognitive dissonance on ABC Insiders, from Raf Epstein and AshleighRaper, vehemently asserting it is unacceptable to be seen with Putin and Kim, et al, but explicitly excluding Xi Jinping himself - who hosted them - from that judgement.

Nice save.

Powerful piece about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, democracy and solidarity, and Daniel Andrews. www.smh.com.au/world/asia/i...

Heroic effort by @heldavidson.bsky.social to push back against the tidal wave of historical revisionism coming from Beijing and being channeled by enablers in Australia.

“Trade is one thing, and tourism, but military parades … I would honestly stop and think seriously about that,” she said. Important comments by fmr Queensland premier Palaszczuk, trying to define one of the most poorly defined concepts in 🇦🇺 foreign policy, "engagement".

PRC ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian rewrites Australian history on our behalf in his call for joint commemoration of WWII between Australia and the People's Republic of China. www.afr.com/policy/forei...

"Why cognitive warfare is Beijing's greatest weapon" From Lavina Lee and John Lee, on China's nuclear weapons and how Beijing has deeply internalised its ideology and outlook into foreign systems, including Australia's, for strategic advantage.

Racers kidnapped with giant nets and ransomed. Others smuggled on to high-speed trains to get to the finish line faster. Performance enhancing drugs. Millions in alleged gambling. Our story on the wild world of Taiwan's pigeon racing, with pics by An Rong Xu www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Thank you so much Lev from me and Catherine.

I am honored to have reviewed @catielila.bsky.social and @mhar4.bsky.social's book "Revolutionary Taiwan: Making Nationhood in a Changing World Order" for The China Quarterly. I highly recommend this book, and I hope my review convinces you to check it out! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Powerful piece from John Fitzgerald, responding to the PRC ambassador's call for Australia to commemorate what the CCP defines as the World Anti-Fascist War and reminder of the importance of defending the telling of Australian history. www.aspistrategist.org.au/where-were-y...

Very good from Richard McGregor, except for the headline. Whether it is political warfare or military warfare (in practice a combination), China will always need a war to take Taiwan and the destruction of Taiwanese society will always be the outcome. www.afr.com/world/asia/s...

Another piece in an Australian newspaper by the PRC ambassador, this one pushing Beijing's efforts to conflate PRC and ROC history for tactical purposes. But if you appropriate the ROC and the KMT completely, they'll never get back into power in Taiwan, and then what, ambassador?

"Taiwanese Views of National Identity" is a graph of post-authoritarian democratic state-building.

Latest TPOF survey on identity and politics in Taiwan, including capturing some of the complex views in the electorate on the recall elections. www.tpof.org/wp-content/u...

This timeline.

From ASIO director Mike Burgess, 2025 Annual Hawke Lecture, identifying Antarctic research as a target for espionage, and much else.

"G7 Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) Statement on Hong Kong Arrest Warrants" Statement on transnational repression, including Australia as signatory. www.dfat.gov.au/news/media-r...

Substantive piece from John Fitzgerald on PRC transnational security activities in Australia.

"But nervousness in official circles comes not from fears of communist attack or subversion but of loss of power to the Taiwanese majority." Plus ça change. Great account of Taiwanese politics in the early 1970s from William Glenn in the Far Eastern Economic Review.

"China does not interfere with other countries, a state-controlled newspaper has claimed, after a woman was alleged to have been sent by Beijing to spy on a Canberra Buddhist group." 🤔

An important story with quite a robust response from Westfarmers, and should caution the number of Australian universities who have partnerships with PRC universities directly involved in Beijing's policies in Xinjiang. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

"Chinese national charged with foreign interference offence in Canberra" AFP statement: www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/...

Very robust piece on green steel and China's pursuit of geopolitical domination through industrial policy. archive.is/a8r99

There are those who, in normalising China's military threat, genuinely believe that excluding Taiwan from the international system is a condition for peace. They're wrong. www.ft.com/content/2157...

Great report from Kathleen Calderwood on the recall elections in Taiwan today. "...Taiwan elected a pro-sovereignty president in Lai Ching-te..." 🥹 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv9H...

From the author in 2011. "Another twenty years of GDP growth, even at slightly lower levels of around 7.5 percent, as seems likely..." But that didn't happen. Lessons about hype still to learn to avoid repeating the same mistakes in 🇦🇺🇨🇳 relations. theconversation.com/why-every-ch...

"Choose to work with, not fear, our neighbours" Although China's era of growth is over, PM Albanese's visit has led to a resuscitation of early 2010s-style "rise of China" hyperbole. Needless to say, "work with" and "fear" are not the choices Australia faces.

Great piece on the recall elections in Taiwan from @heldavidson.bsky.social. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

"I was a diplomat in Taiwan. Australia’s security depends on it" Terrific defence of the Australia-Taiwan relationship from former representative Jenny Bloomfield. www.afr.com/policy/forei...

Here's ChatGPT extolling the benefits of Australia-China youth exchanges. It's too good

Excellent from Bang Xiao on a soft power initiative from Beijing to shape China discourse in Australia. Australian institutions fall for this use of a progressive aesthetic to serve the PRC system and its ideological and security interests every time. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...