The big positive from the federal government cancelling Beijing’s two Belt and Road Initiative agreements with the Victorian government is that Australia is getting coherent policy nationally. That national policy is centred on not wanting …
Articles by: "Michael Shoebridge"
US President Joe Biden has done what Barack Obama and Donald Trump wanted to do when they were in office but couldn’t—get a plan in place for a total US and partner military withdrawal from …
Since becoming US president on 20 January, Joe Biden has shown that he’s a changed animal to the vice president he was under Barack Obama. He’s learned some important lessons since then and is applying …
Last week’s meetings in Alaska constituted phase two in high-level US–China contact under the Biden administration. And it was consistent with phase one—Joe Biden’s phone call with Xi Jinping in February. Beyond the histrionics are …
Four years ago, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue was something only officials, not ministers, could engage in and there were studious denials that the grouping had anything to do with China’s use of power and economic …
Debate on Australia’s future submarines is understandably focused on the information that floats out of the Defence Department about France’s Naval Group and the $80 billion program to design and build the boats. It’s very …
US President Joe Biden has hit the ground running. In his first two days in office, he signed 17 executive orders—more than any previous US president over the same period. He rejoined the World Health …
Xi Jinping’s control over the China Coast Guard, together with a new law that authorises the coastguard to use force against foreign ships in places China defines as in its own, is a big change …
Originally published 16 May 2020. Can Australia stop the Chinese government’s economic coercion against our government and businesses? Yes. All it would take is for Australian political leaders and parliaments to align our national policies, …
Christmas sometimes brings presents you don’t expect—this year, for me, an excitingly titled ‘Request for expressions of interest’ that appeared on AusTender is one of them. It’s about Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of …
So, all Australian coal exports to China seem to have stopped. As usual, the Chinese government is keeping its actual decisions to itself and letting them leach out through state media and other sources. In this …
The contrast between Australia’s open system of government and China’s authoritarian system was put on graphic display yesterday through Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, when he tweeted a fake image and criticised Australia for human …