China's Grand Strategy and Australia's Future in the New Global Order


Book Description

Disruption has blown the old world apart. The rise of China, Trump's America First policies, division within Europe and successful defiance by authoritarian states are affecting the shape of the emerging new order. Human rights, rule of law, free media and longstanding global institutions all seem set to be weakened. Autocracies are exercising greater control over world affairs. Australia will need to engage heightened levels of diplomacy to forge relations with countries of opposing principles. It will need to be agile in pursuing a realistic foreign policy agenda. China's Grand Strategy and Australia's Future in the New Global Order contains answers for how Australia must position itself for this possibly dystopian future.




Silent Invasion


Book Description

In 2008 Clive Hamilton was at Parliament House in Canberra when the Beijing Olympic torch relay passed through. He watched in bewilderment as a small pro-Tibet protest was overrun by thousands of angry Chinese students. Where did they come from? Why were they so aggressive? And what gave them the right to shut down others exercising their democratic right to protest? The authorities did nothing about it, and what he saw stayed with him. In 2016 it was revealed that wealthy Chinese businessmen linked to the Chinese Communist Party had become the largest donors to both major political parties. Hamilton realised something big was happening, and decided to investigate the Chinese government’s influence in Australia. What he found shocked him. From politics to culture, real estate to agriculture, universities to unions, and even in our primary schools, he uncovered compelling evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Australia. Sophisticated influence operations target Australia’s elites, and parts of the large Chinese-Australian diaspora have been mobilised to buy access to politicians, limit academic freedom, intimidate critics, collect information for Chinese intelligence agencies, and protest in the streets against Australian government policy. It’s no exaggeration to say the Chinese Communist Party and Australian democracy are on a collision course. The CCP is determined to win, while Australia looks the other way. Thoroughly researched and powerfully argued, Silent Invasionis a sobering examination of the mounting threats to democratic freedoms Australians have for too long taken for granted. Yes, China is important to our economic prosperity; but, Hamilton asks, how much is our sovereignty as a nation worth? ‘Anyone keen to understand how China draws other countries into its sphere of influence should start with Silent Invasion. This is an important book for the future of Australia. But tug on the threads of China’s influence networks in Australia and its global network of influence operations starts to unravel.’ –Professor John Fitzgerald, author of Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia




China Panic


Book Description

In 2014, Chinese president Xi Jinping said there was an ‘ocean of goodwill’ between our country and his. Since then, that ocean has shown dramatic signs of freezing over. Australia is in the grip of a China panic. How did we get here, and what’s the way out? In this brilliant book, David Brophy takes apart Australia’s China debate – its strange alliances and diplomatic failures. Justified criticism of China has too often given way to paranoia and exaggeration. While the xenophobic right hovers in the wings, some of the loudest voices decrying Chinese subversion come, unexpectedly, from the left. They call for new security laws, increased scrutiny of Chinese Australians and, if necessary, military force – a prescription for a sharp rightward turn in Australian politics. In China Panic, Brophy offers a progressive alternative. Instead of punitive moves and chest-beating that will only make Australia more like China, we need solutions and strategies that strengthen Australian democracy. ‘The most stimulating book I've read on the most important question facing Australian foreign and strategic policy. Brophy is not just answering questions others have asked, he's asking new questions.’—Allan Gyngell, author of Fear of Abandonment ‘Anyone who wants to know how and why Australia’s China narrative has descended to such a dismal point needs to read China Panic.’—Wanning Sun, professor of media and communications, UTS ‘David Brophy dissects the clichés and prejudices . . . China Panic is essential reading.’’—Linda Jaivin, author of The Shortest History of China




Red Zone


Book Description

What does China want from Australia? In this incisive and original book, Peter Hartcher reveals how decades of economic dependence left Australia open to the strategic ambitions of the most successful authoritarian regime in modern history. He shows how ideology, paranoia and Xi Jinping’s personal story have reshaped China, and shines new light on Beijing’s overt and covert campaign for influence – over trade and defence, media and politics. Australia has now woken up to China’s challenge, from passing foreign interference laws to banning Huawei from our 5G network. But at what cost? Will we see a further slump in relations? How best to protect our security, economy and identity? Drawing on interviews with Scott Morrison, Malcolm Turnbull and other key policymakers, as well as a rare interview with Australia’s spy chief, Red Zone is a gripping look at China’s power and Australia’s future. “Australia is on the front lines of the global struggle between China and the West over democratic values, and Peter Hartcher, one of the country’s foremost journalists, presents a clear-eyed and utterly frightening account of the challenge we face. Highly recommended ”—Francis Fukuyama “Hartcher’s analysis of Australia’s place in the world is sharp and tenacious. He continues to make an outsized contribution to our democracy.”—Penny Wong “Hartcher’s clear-eyed analysis of the Australia–China relationship is as keen as it is unsettling.”—Malcolm Turnbull




Australia-China Relations post 1949


Book Description

This book challenges the common perceptions of Australian dependence upon great-power allies in the conduct of its foreign relations through a critical examination of Australia's relations with the People's Republic of China. The author focuses on the economic and political dimensions of the policy-making process from the founding of the PRC in 1949 to the present era, against an analytical framework that takes into account both internal and external factors in the formulation and implementation of Australian foreign policy. Informed by political science and international relations, the book differs from the conventional literature on Sino-Australian relations, which has either focused on pure economic analysis or concentrated on chronicling historical events. The author weaves theoretical insights from political science and international relations into the historical analysis while seeking to examine the interplay between political and economic factors over time in shaping policy outcomes. The book draws not only on primary and secondary sources but also on information and insights obtained from interviews with a vast array of direct participants in the policy process, including almost all the former ambassadors from both China and Australia, covering the entire period of the diplomatic relationship. As a result, the book breaks new ground, especially from the Hawke era onwards, revealing hitherto overlooked details of interest in the policy process.




The China Choice


Book Description

How should the West respond to the inexorable rise of China? Hugh White attempts to answer the key geopolitcal question of the 21st century - one which will have momentous consequences for us all.




Australia's Relations with China


Book Description

The Australia-China bilateral relationship is very significant to Australia and is mostly based on substantial trade ties. Crucially, China accounts for around a third of Australia’s total export income, however diplomatic and economic relations are currently at a low point. Globally, China is asserting its emerging superpower status and it appears actions by the communist party leadership in Beijing are primarily responsible for the deterioration in the bilateral relationship – however both sides have made mistakes, and Australia is not without fault. China’s blunt use of repeated trade sanctions to penalise Australia for alleged slights risks the mutually beneficial trading relationship being undermined by damaging political interference. What are the various grievances and points of difference between these two countries? How can Australia serve its own national and strategic interests and maintain its foreign policy objectives, without needlessly antagonising China? Can we end the trade war and repair relations?




The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement


Book Description

This book provides readers with a unique opportunity to learn about one of the new regional trade agreements (RTAs), the China–Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), that has been operational since December 2015 and is now at the forefront of the field. This new agreement reflects many of the modern and up-to-date approaches within the international economic legal order that must now exist within a very different environment than that of the late eighties and early nineties, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created. The book, therefore, explores many new features that were not present when the WTO or early RTAs were negotiated. It provides insights and lessons about new and important trade issues for the twenty-first century, such as the latest approaches to the regulation of investment, twenty-first century services and the emerging digital/knowledge economy. In addition, this book provides new understandings of the latest RTA approaches of China and Australia. The book's contributors, all foremost experts on their subject matter within this field, explore the inclusion of many traditional trade and investment agreement features in the ChAFTA, showing their continuing relevance in modern contexts.




Transcultural Connections: Australia and China


Book Description

This book is a unique and original contribution to the knowledge of transcultural engagement between the ‘East’ and the ‘West’; notably between China and Australia.The collection explores how the global system universally interrelates East and West, showing how this interrelatedness offers the promise of progress but can evoke the counteracting trend of tribal nationalism. The book addresses the connectedness of human progress by exploring how globalization creates new dynamic interfaces between East and West and how rather than clashes of culture there are growing forms of reciprocity between civilizations and a shared awareness of how humanity is connected through knowledge and international mobility.




The China Alternative


Book Description

In this collection, 17 leading scholars based in Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and China analyse key dimensions of the changing relationship between China and the Pacific Islands and explore the strategic, economic and diplomatic implications for regional actors. The China Alternative includes chapters on growing great power competition in the region, as well as the response to China’s rise by the US and its Western allies and the island countries themselves. Other chapters examine key dimensions of China’s Pacific engagement, including Beijing’s programs of aid and diplomacy, as well as the massive investments of the Belt and Road Initiative. The impact of China’s rivalry for recognition with Taiwan is examined, and several chapters analyse Chinese communities in the Pacific, and their relationships with local societies. The China Alternative provides ample material for informed judgements about the ability of island leaders to maintain their agency in the changing regional order, as well as other issues of significance to the peoples of the region. ‘China’s “discovery” of the diverse Pacific islands, intriguingly resonant of the era of European explorers, is impacting on this too-long-overlooked region through multiple currents that this important book guides us through.’ —Rowan Callick, Griffith University ‘The China Alternative is a must-read for all students and practitioners interested in understanding the new geopolitics of the Pacific. It assembles a stellar cast of Pacific scholars to deeply explore the impact of the changing role of China on the Pacific islands region. Significantly, it also puts the Pacific island states at the centre of this analysis by questioning the collective agency they might have in this rapidly evolving strategic context.’ —Greg Fry, The Australian National University