The West seems to have forgotten there are several precedents for a solution in Ukraine. When North Ireland was torn apart by sectarian religious violence the solution eventually became obvious -. separate the two, by barbed wire if necessary. When Spain was being hit by sectarian language differences, in Basque
MoreChina-US recognition The key clause in the Jan 1, 1979, joint communique for the establishment of US-China relations said: The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. The US at the time claimed that
MoreNo one seems to have noticed the fatal Quad flaw: India weeks ago refused passage of Japanese aircraft carrying aid to Ukraine. India-Russia attachment is very strong. BTW. Russia is finally doing what it should have done from the start – attack into the Russian speaking areas of the Donbas –
MoreThe Solomon Islands fiasco confirms what some of us have long known – the gradual decline in the quality of Australian foreign policy. The Bougainville copper mine and subsequent conflicts gave Australia a commercial and political interest in the islands going back to the sixties An experienced and ranking diplomatic
MoreBy Geoff Miller At the time of the Vietnam War Gregory Clark, an Australian diplomat who resigned from government service because he disagreed with Australian policy in regard to the war, wrote a well-received book titled “In Fear of China”. The recent outcry over the Solomons’ agreement with China shows
MoreWhile Western news agencies and media have been falling over each other in the rush to cover the Ukrainian side of the story the Russian side of the story has been ignored. When two cluster bombs recently killed some fifty people at the Kramatorsk railway station in the Donetsk region
MoreFor eight years Ukraine’s military and ultra-nationalists militias have felt free to try to ravage the two Donbas hold-outs. It is a well-known saying: In war the first casualty is the truth. Maybe that can now be changed: In war the first casualty is the claimed reasons for the war.
MoreThe threat of an increasingly aggressive NATO moving into Ukraine -Russia’s backyard – was real and had to be stopped. Most impartial observers agree. Strong personal and historical links were an even larger reason. Many Ukrainian families have connections with the other side of the border with Russia. They speak
MoreSo the inevitable has happened. Did the Kiev authorities in Ukraine really believe they could continue forever to ignore the Minsk autonomy agreements they had signed in 2015 while maintaining a constant bombardment on civilians in the two pro-Russian holdouts of Donetsk and Lugansk? It was inevitable Moscow would eventually
MoreIn Australia we like to believe that the US Pacific Fleet saved us from Japanese attack in 1942-1944, but that is only partly true. According to Japanese war history expert, Moteki Hiromichi, it is also true that but for a mistake in Japan’s wartime strategy the US Pacific Fleet would
MoreAs France works to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine, the anti-Russian media will need to find another bone to chew on. Vive la France. During the Cold War Charles de Gaulle’s France did much to restrain the Anglo-American ingrained hostility to Russia by refusing to go along with the creation of
MoreThe use by China critics of a tennis player’s broken relationship with a senior party official to paint the regime in Beijing as evil is absurd. China bashing has just got a lot easier. Now you do not have to go all the way to Xinjiang or Tibet to find
MoreThe complex state of Beijing-Taipei relations that the anti-China hawks do not understand or probably worse don’t want to understand. It’s a sad day when Paul Keating is virtually the only eloquent voice from Australia to mock Canberra’s dangerously amateurish anti-China rhetoric. And those remarks are especially welcome coming from
MoreJapan does not have to speak forever with only one voice. For a remarkable moment in 2002 Tokyo’s moderates were poised to have Japan move to policies that would have ended the years of hostility to North Korea and Pyongyang’s push to acquire nuclear weapons. The move was only killed
MoreThe US and China established full diplomatic relations in 1979, but that year the US Congress wrote its own script for Taiwan. Today, what the Chinese side interprets as word games by the US may wreak deadly consequences. As the pressure heats up over Taiwan there seems to be some
MoreSince the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal our mainstream media experts have doubled down on the claim Beijing is expansionist. Since few of them can read or speak Chinese maybe I can help them. First of all there are two entities claiming to represent China. One is the communist government in
MoreWhen the ANZUS Treaty was signed 70 years ago, Japan was considered a dangerous aggressor, and China was a friend. Scott Morrison, speaking in the House of Representatives on the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty, said the treaty dealt with the world “honestly as it is, in the hope
MoreElections to select a new leader for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could finally see some clarity over Tokyo’s policy towards China. To date that policy has been muddled. The hawks under former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, are dominant in the party. And while their policy to China seems
MoreWho rules eastern Europe commands the Heartland Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; Who rules the World-Island commands the world. — Halford Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality, 1904 Mackinder’s thinking, still not completely outdated, has had more influence than is often realised. It inspired Hitler’s attack on the Soviet
MoreASPI – Australian Strategic Policy Institute – claims to have some of Australia’s foremost strategic thinkers working for it. Number-two ASPI staffer, Mr Michael Shoebridge, appeared on a YouTube video some time back warning about Russian plans to attack Ukraine by moving troops to the Ukrainian border, and the measures
MoreIf you thought we knew everything about the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 3-4, 1989, think again. Mysteries remain. Some are so significant we need to review our ideas about what was going on in China at that time. Until very recently if you typed the words Tiananmen Massacre into
MoreI find it hard to understand the logic of anti-tobashi reasoning set out in Richard’s posting below. The logic seems to say this: when markets collapse it may be inevitable that some banks will be reluctant to extend loans to some distressed borrowers. But so be it. Those who cannot
MoreWorking on Canberra’s China desk, some time after the 1958 Taiwan Straits crisis, we knew already from various sources what Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg has now formally disclosed – that at the height of the crisis the US was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Quemoy, a Taiwan-held
MoreTokyo’s security apparatus must have followed with amazement that excellent series by Max Suich in the AFR of 16-18 May, revealing the anti-China antics of their Australian opposite numbers. A elected member of Australia’s parliament driven out in disgrace for maintaining a relationship with suspected Chinese government agents? In Japan
MoreThe year was 1962. As Canberra’s first trainee in Chinese I had been placed on the Department of External Affairs China desk and told to monitor rising tension along the Sino-Indian Himalayan frontier. Beijing was complaining about repeated Indian frontier violations and warning there would be consequences if India went
MoreIn concert, the US and the UK in the 1960s seized the island of Diego Garcia, expelled its inhabitants and converted it into a massive airbase for the bombing of Middle Eastern and African targets. Both countries continue to defy a ruling by the International Court of Justice to transfer the
MoreBegins: Today our intelligence agencies and bureaucrats tell us that China is the enemy. But less than 50 years ago the same agencies and bureaucrats (or their predecessors) were warning us that the enemy against which we had to prepare was Japan . The story begins in the early
MoreA paper delivered at the annual Amagi Conference devoted to the topic of Japan -50 years after the war end – also published in The Japan Times. by Gregory Clark, Tokyo (Gregory Clark is a former diplomat and policy adviser to the Australian government. He is currently a professor of
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The Sino/Soviet Dispute The Background to the Dispute – Summary When the Chinese Communist armies defeated their Nationalist opponents in 1949 only two things stood between them and final victory – the island of Taiwan still occupied by the fleeing Nationalist armies and a scattering of islands close to
MoreTHE SINO/INDIAN DISPUTE An outline of the Tibetan question is needed to understand the very important role that country has played in Sino/Indian relations. India had, on gaining independence in 1947, inherited the British “special position” in Tibet, along with the Mission in Lhasa and trade agencies in larger towns.
MoreWith Australia, India, Japan and US set to meet in Tokyo to collectively counter China, it’s not clear Beijing represents a threat By GREGORY CLARK OCTOBER 5, 2020 Memories are short. On Tuesday, as foreign ministers of Australia, Japan, India and the United States meet in Tokyo to form what
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(Reprinted from “Australian,” 22nd and 23rd December, 1965) I. THE 20-YEAR MARCH OF THOSE GROUPS WHICH THE WEST WANTS TO COUNTER The ancient Chinese had a saying: “Know your opponent and yourself and in a hundred battles you will have a hundred victories.” Throughout the 20 years since the war,
MoreLIFE STORY Summary Chapter 1 – Growing Up Chapter 2 – From Australia to China Chapter 3 – Discovering China Chapter 4 – Canberra’s Blind Sinophobia Chapter 5 – Into the USSR Chapter 6 – The Bill Morrison Affair Chapter 7 – Post-Morrison Chapter 8 – KGB Traps Chapter 9
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Summary This is the story of an Australian boy, born in England in 1936 to the economist, Colin Clark, taken to live in wartime Queensland and then raised on a small farm outside Brisbane. At age 16
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Chapter 1 – From Australia to Oxford 1. The Australian Connection2. The Santamaria Influence3. Into Oxford4. Into Europe5. A Yugoslavia Connection My birth certificate says I was born May 19, 1936. It also says I was born
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. Back to Australia2. Into Canberra3. Into External Affairs4. A China Connection5. Into Hong Kong When I finished up at Oxford university, future career was far from certain. I had decided I did not want to stay
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Into China – via Hong Kong and Taiwan, and Japan 1. Suez Canal Lessons2. Journalist Spies3. Chinese Reality4. Learning the Language5. Into Taiwan6. Hospitality, KMT Style7. Gently into Japan The two years in Hong Kong (December 59-February
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Into Canberra, and some Asian Realities 1. Via North Borneo and Sarawak2. On The China Desk3. The Lee Kwan Yew Election4. China and the Korean War5. How Personalist Biases sway Policy 6. The Sino-Indian Frontier Dispute By the
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES En Route to the USSR, Via the US 1. Posted to Moscow2. Learning the Language3. Across the USA4. Across the Iron Curtain5. Australian Embassy, Moscow Late 1962. I am due to move again The Moscow embassy has
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. The KGB has pounced2. The Drama in the Saferoom3. The Russian Speakers Dilemma It was one of those beautifully warm early Moscow summer weekends when all life and nature seemed at ease with itself and the idea
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. Footloose in the USSR2. Searching for D.3. D. in Japan, with Husband With Morrison gone and his replacement in place (a nice enough man called Pethybridge), the Embassy settled down to its regular routine of basically
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES A Night in Podolsk 1. The Pressure Rises2. The Student, and his Wife3. The Night in Podolsk4. Escaping the KGB Trap5. Some Serious Self Reflection6. A Difficult Decision: New York or Out7. The Vietnam Factor8. Hasluck in Moscow9.
More1. A Difficult Decision2. The Vietnam Factor3. The Seeming Hasluck Farce4. Hasluck: Acting at US Request?5. A Global Tragedy: The Mistaken Views of the Sino-Soviet Dispute6. The Burchett Factor: A Decision to Leave My career was at a crossroads. At the very young age of 28 I had already been
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Trying to Leave the USSR 1. A New Career? Japan?2. The KGB Strikes, Again3. Some Siberian Truths4. Getting out of Moscow5. More KGB Tricks?6. Back to Canberra, via Israel My first and rather impetuous move was to
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. A New Career2. ANU Connections3. The China Slot. Giving it Away?4. Discovering Canberra’s True Role over Vietnam5.Becoming a Student Again6. Discovering the World Outside7. Cutting the Umbilical Cord?8. The External Affairs ‘Family’9. Rude Reality 1. A
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. My Foolish Disclosure2. ASIO Dogs Unleashed3. The Suspicious Telephone Call4. The Fake Telephone Call5: ASIO: The Bumblers6. Final Decision: Out of EA It happened like this: Having arranged with EA for my study leave, I had
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA; BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Fighting Windmills, Getting Nowhere 1. Connecting with the The Australian 2. Joining the Vietnam War Debate3. A Run-in with The Bulletin4. The Australian Institute of Political Science5. The Asian Languages Fiasco September 1965. After almost a decade
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA;BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Confused, and too Involved: 1. A Book about China?2. Back to the PhD – Learning Economics 3. Learning Japanese4. The Sino-Soviet Dispute5. Jim Cairns, and Vietnam Solutions6. The Enclave Solution for Vietnam7. Finding a Publisher Attachment: The Sino-Soviet
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES The Early Years – Getting Organised 1. The Hitotsubashi Connection2. The Ajiken Connection 3. Organising a life in Japan 4. The China Book emerges Early 1967. I am already well into the second year of my ANU scholarship, having spent
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. PAFTA Japan’s New Trade Policy2. PAFTA becomes PAFTA3. APEC to the Rescue4. Australia claims the Limelight In the 1960’s the Japanese rightwing, Kojima included, had a problem. The then strong leftwing was arguing that Japan’s postwar
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. The Devil’s Language2. Listening Problems3. Chinese Connections4. Chinese-origin Homophones5. Bad Romanisations6. Reading Japanese That one year in Japan – 1967-68 – was to be even more difficult than the two years in Moscow. And not just
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Relying on the Sub-Conscious 1. The Power of the Sub-Conscious2. Creating the Language Computer3. Free Conversation?4. Deep Listening5. Language as a Song6. MultiLingualism7. Reading Difficulties: ‘Listen’ to what you Read It is said that some 80 percent
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES En Route to Australia, via Southeast Asia including Thailand 1. An Unusual Research Technique2. The Thai Car Industry Model3. A Model of the Rest of the World4. The Market as a Factor of Production The year allowed for
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES 1. ‘In Fear of China’2. The China Quarterly3. Publishing Problems4. Book Hegemony5. Publishing Mistakes6. More Book Reviews7. ANU Books8. Crawford’s Position9. The Vietnam View10. A Serious Reaction in Japan Eventually the hard-cover book emerged. Almost 400 pages
MoreBETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA;BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Caught between Witlam and Cairns 1. Whitlam and Vietnam2. Chinese ‘Invaders.’3. Living with Jim Cairns4. Neil Batt: The Australian Politician who got it Right5. The Idiotic Whitlam Response In 1965-66, returning from
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