Is it time for Australia to acquire its own nuclear weapons?
Is it time for Australia to consider acquiring nuclear weapons? It sounds outrageous. Stay with me. Donald Trump is blowing up world trade. After a period of turmoil, it will probably settle into a new state where the US economy is substantially weaker. Trump is also trashing post-war alliances, including NATO, prompting US allies to decide America cannot […]
Are we in a Cold War with China?
Clive Hamilton It is remarkable how entrenched Cold War thinking is, even among those, like the editorial board of the New York Times, who warn against ‘glib invocations of the Cold War’ in United States policy towards China. Like a number of others pushing back against bi-partisan efforts to limit China’s rise to strategic dominance, […]
Plucky country: world now sees Australia in a new light
Clive Hamilton When speaking with analysts and journalists in Europe, I’m surprised to find that Australia is no longer seen as a bit player in the Indo-Pacific region but as a substantial power. They speak of the high regard in Europe for our resolve and express a degree of confidence in our role and abilities […]
How to lose friends and influence the future security of your nation
It’s uncomfortable when a belief you have long held is contradicted by new facts. Even more so if an entire worldview comes under pressure from the evidence. Psychologists call it ‘‘cognitive dissonance’’ and it explains why it is so hard to change our minds even though we flatter ourselves that we base our opinions on […]
Keating: Intelligence chiefs are “nutters”, clean them out
Published in The Daily Telegraph, May 7 2018 When U.S. intelligence chiefs presented Donald Trump with information that made him uncomfortable, he flew into a rage, accusing them of leaking “fake news” and acting like “Nazi Germany”. Now Paul Keating has done the same. Australia’s intelligence chiefs are “nutters”, he said on Sunday. They’ve “gone […]
Chinese Communist Party influence: Why the critics are wrong
Published in Policy Forum, 9 April 2018 How committed is Australia to its foundational liberal values? Some of the responses to the emerging debate on CCP influence in the country provide plenty of reason for concern, Clive Hamilton writes. My book, Silent Invasion: The Influence of China in Australia, has been met with an impassioned reception […]
Why do we keep turning a blind eye to China’s political interference?
Academics in Australia might reflect on the fact that scholarly books critical of the Chinese Communist Party are now shunned by publishers. Scholars who work on China know that continued access to the country requires them to play by Beijing’s rules, which for most means self-censorship – the dirty secret of China studies in Australia. […]
Open Letter to David Shoebridge MLC
18 March 2018 Dear David As you know, I was disappointed when you cancelled the launch event for my book that you had enthusiastically agreed to host. I’m more disappointed to read the justification you have given for your actions in your recent Facebook post. I would expect you, as a barrister, to take account […]
I expected to be attacked as racist – just not by Tim Soutphommasane
Published by The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 March 2018 When writing my book Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, I expected Communist Party spokespersons in Beijing to attack me as racist and “anti-China”. I didn’t expect people like Tim Soutphommasane, our Race Discrimination Commissioner, to parrot those criticisms in The Age and The Sydney Morning […]
Labor has a cancer growing in it that must be cut out
Published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 February, 2018 Canberra is finally beginning to push back against Beijing’s long-running campaign to seduce our elites so completely that the nation kow-tows before China’s wishes. The first phase of the pushback culminated in December with the Turnbull government introducing legislation to outlaw foreign interference operations and novel […]