Commentary

FAST FOCUS | The Trump-Xi summit

Fast Focus by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ACRI) provides concise, informed commentary by UTS:ACRI...

Trump Goes to Beijing: What to Watch

China’s belated confirmation of the visit reflects Beijing’s broader approach to Washington under Trump’s second administration: do not initiate, do not...

ASIO is an expensive and blunt tool in combating Chinese interference

Applying a securitisation lens to Chinese-Australian communities casts them as a potential threat and erodes trust. A universal, rights-oriented approach would...

PERSPECTIVES | What you shouldn’t miss in the Trump-Xi summit: The bargain over AI dominance

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on May 12 2026. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

FAST FOCUS | Chinese investment in Australia

Fast Focus by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ACRI) provides concise, informed commentary by UTS:ACRI...

Chinese companies are increasingly taking on foreign governments. It’s not just the Port of Darwin

Right now, many of these cases claiming unfair treatment are still pending. But the rulings could have big financial implications for governments around the...

Australia risks weakening itself by overcorrecting on China

Australia’s economic relationship with China remains strong, but growing restrictions on investment and research risk undermining long-term economic and...

Taylor, Hume and the Liberal circus are easy prey for hungry journalists. Policy critique is suffering because of it

Journalists are salivating over the fertile hunting ground provided by Angus Taylor and Jane Hume. But for those interested in serious critique? It’s a barren...

PERSPECTIVES | Why Chinese investment is leaving Australia

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on April 28 2026. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

Australian media’s ‘China threat’ narrative is a never-ending story

share_windows This article appeared in the East Asia Forum on April 22 2026.

Finland’s president Alexander Stubb has some ideas to save the international order – and ourselves

Alexander Stubb’s book Triangle of Power is a reminder that we are a quite intelligent species, even if we continue to do unbelievably stupid things.

Geopolitics may affect Midwest farmers in the US, but they don’t necessarily blame Trump

Like everyone else, Ted pays a lot of attention to news about what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz, hoping that the crisis will be resolved as soon as...

China's elusive energy security and the South China Sea

share_windows This article appeared in South China Sea NewsWire.

The long horizon

Five decades of a layered energy strategy will help China weather the Hormuz oil disruption.

China’s response to war is strategy, not opportunism

As war disrupts the Middle East, China is focused on stability and long-term strategy – but much of the commentary in Australia continues to misread its...

Stop dumbing down the debate on Chinese uni students

Public debate about international students, especially Chinese students, rarely addresses several key underlying questions.

Australia’s EU critical minerals deal is no quick fix for its China dependence

Europe can provide capital, technology and market access, but it cannot quickly replace China’s unmatched role as a buyer, processor and integrated industrial...

The uncomfortable middle ground in the Australia-China research relationship

share_windows This article appeared in E-International Relations on April 2 2026.

China’s $120bn minerals blitz – and what Australia stands to lose

share_windows This article appeared in the Lowy Institute's Interpreter on March 20 2026.

How China’s AI-powered robots could reshape the global order

share_windows This article appeared in The Diplomat on March 13 2026.

Crikey speaks to ex-MP Keith Wolahan and asks: Was the Liberal wipeout all Jane Hume’s fault?

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on March 11 2026.

Navigating the new risk triangle in Australia’s trade with China

share_windows This article appeared in Asialink's Insights on March 10 2026.

Nine’s ‘Red Alert’ series was nonsense. But the China threat narrative in Australia isn’t dying down anytime soon

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on March 9 2026.

How Japan’s Prime Minister 'hijacked' a deep-sea rare earth exploration

share_windows This article appeared in E-International Relations on February 27 2026.

China is our region’s great power. We need to make the best of that

share_windows This article appeared in The Strategist on February 27 2026.

China’s dancing robots are a wake-up call for Australia on policy and productivity

share_windows This article appeared in The Conversation on February 25 2026.

Year of the Horse presents new hopes for Liberals to finally claw back Chinese voters

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on February 23 2026.

Senator Hume’s ‘apology’ for her ‘Chinese spies’ remarks rings hollow for many

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on February 16 2026.

PERSPECTIVES | After the spill

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on February 13 2026. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

Estimating the PRC’s economic espionage threat to Australia

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on February 6 2026. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

China and Australia: A possible pathway to collective action on climate change?

share_windows This article appeared in Melbourne Asia Review on February 5 2026.

China’s new literary star had 19 jobs before ‘writer’

Delivering parcels is just one of the 19 different jobs Hu Anyan cycles through over 20 years, as tracked in his Chinese bestseller.

Is the South China Sea a military springboard for Beijing?

share_windows This article appeared in South China Sea NewsWire on January 31 2026.

‘Growing by greening’ and the future of China-Africa cooperation

share_windows This article appeared in East Asia Forum on January 30 2026.

Hardware not enough

share_windows This article appeared in the China Daily on January 28 2026.

Mark Carney and the middle power moment

share_windows This article appeared in Pearls and Irritations on January 25 2026.

Policymaking in troubled times: The long and the short of it

share_windows This article appeared in Global Policy on January 22 2026.

Our allies have a Plan B as geopolitical tectonic plates shift, and Australia needs one too

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on January 21 2026.

FAST FOCUS | The 2026 outlook for Australia-PRC relations

Fast Focus by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ACRI) provides concise, informed commentary by UTS:ACRI...

When code has a passport: How the China-US AI war sparked a new regulatory tug-of-war

share_windows This article appeared in The Diplomat on January 15 2026.

Despite new tariffs on beef, China is far from closing the door on trade with Australia

Australia has been reminded once again that China isn’t always a reliable trading partner.

In the face of a Trump administration launching extraordinary attacks (see: Venezuela), Australia needs to change

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on January 8 2026.

China's biggest test

share_windows This article appeared in Inside Story on January 7 2026.

PERSPECTIVES | ChAFTA at 10: A decade in review

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on December 19 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

Why Australia needs a critical minerals compact with ASEAN

share_windows This article appeared in Asialink on December 11 2025.

America’s national security strategy forces Australia to take a cold shower

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on December 8 2025.

PERSPECTIVES | The PRC, arms control, non-proliferation and nuclear order

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on December 9 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

Hypocrisy and folly: why Australia’s subservience to Trump’s America is past its use-by date

share_windows This article appeared in The Conversation on December 1 2025.Clinton Fernandes has established himself as one of the most original and insightful...

Healthy arteries

share_windows This article appeared in China Daily on November 26 2025.China has become an essential force in global climate governance and the backbone of the...

What Australians think of China and the US in the Trump era

share_windows This article appeared in The Diplomat on November 19 2025.

AUKUS is finding public support despite its many problems. Why?

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on November 19 2025.

Australians are markedly more worried about the US, still wary about China: New poll

share_windows This article appeared in The Conversation on November 18 2025.

Why the west can’t escape China’s rare earth dominance – yet

share_windows This article appeared in The Diplomat on November 8 2025.

Compromise, not a zero-sum game, has delivered results for Trump and Xi — for now

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on November 3 2025.

Understanding Australia-China research mobility

share_windows This article appeared in Pearls and Irritations on November 1 2025.

PERSPECTIVES | Australia-China policy: Guardrails, not walls

This week, I attended the Australia-China Business Council’s (ACBC) annual Canberra Networking Day. For over two decades, the ACBC has brought together miners,...

The missing piece in Australia’s critical mineral deal lies East

share_windows This article appeared in the Australian Financial Review on October 28 2025.

AUKUS proves why Australia is no longer a middle power with sovereignty and autonomy

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on October 24 2025.

The China factor in Australia-US relations

share_windows This article appeared in The Diplomat on October 23 2025.

PERSPECTIVES | Managing great power rhythms: Assessing the Albanese-Trump meeting

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on October 21 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

Trump lashes China over trade controls but there may be a silver lining.

US President Donald Trump lashed out at the weekend at Beijing’s planned tightening of restrictions over crucial rare-earth minerals. In response, Trump has...

The sovereignty tax: What the TikTok deal means for the digital order

When US President Donald Trump ordered ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US data operations in September 2025, the White House called it a national security move. In...

Abandon AUKUS: The case for independence

share_windows This article appeared in Global Policy on October 8 2025.

Is China’s reported ban on BHP a bluff, or a glimpse of the future?

If reports are true, the ‘ban’ is less of a final break than a negotiation tactic. It is China’s way of showing Australia the old rules no longer apply.

Between ‘throwing bombs’ and ‘lying flat’: The psychology of China’s economy

share_windows This article appeared in The Diplomat on September 26 2025.

PERSPECTIVES | China’s new white paper on Xinjiang

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on September 24 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

PERSPECTIVES | Four myths about Australia-China trade that just won’t die

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on September 17 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

PERSPECTIVES | How China messaging reveals Liberal Party fault lines

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on September 16 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

Australia’s strategy of denial in engaging with its ‘Pacific family’

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on September 15 2025.

Australia’s alliance dilemma sharpens

share_windows This article appeared in East Asia Forum on September 12 2025.

How Australia can make the most of China’s biotech boom

share_windows This article appeared in The Policymaker on September 4 2025.

Bob Carr, China’s big parade, and Australia’s inconvenient WWII history

share_windows This article appeared in Crikey on September 2 2025.

PERSPECTIVES | A tale of two lists: How geopolitics shaped the attendance of China’s parade

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on August 29 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

AI won’t drive productivity without targeted govt policy

share_windows This article appeared in InnovationAus.com on August 21 2025.

Building civil preparedness for cyber catastrophe

This article appeared in The Strategist on August 20 2025.

PERSPECTIVES | Talking tough? The politics of naming China a threat

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on August 19 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

A map for the AI economy: What Chalmers’ roundtable should decide

This article appeared in Australian Outlook on August 18 2025.

Actually, China can’t put Australia over an economic barrel

share_windows This article appeared in The Strategist on August 18 2025.

How the AI race is rewiring the digital order

This article appeared in The Diplomat on August 15 2025.

PERSPECTIVES | Security and social cohesion: Australia’s foreign interference challenge

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on August 14 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

PERSPECTIVES | Bridging rhetoric and reality in Australia-China clean energy cooperation

This article appeared in UTS:ACRI's Perspectives on August 5 2025. Perspectives is the commentary series of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the...

Australia’s path: Alliance credibility without conformity

share_windows This article appeared in Australian Outlook on July 28 2025.

How Chinese diaspora voters reshape Australian and US politics

This article appeared in the East Asia Forum on July 26 2025.

Albanese is not a panda hugger; he’s brutally pragmatic

This article appeared in Crikey on July 23 2025.

Beyond rare earths in the resource cold war: why - and how - Australia should counter China’s tungsten squeeze

This article appeared in Australian Outlook on July 22 2025.

An independent China policy suited to the times

This article appeared in Asialink on July 21 2025.

Hawks ignore how Australia’s China trade pays for AUKUS

This article appeared in The Australian Financial Review on July 21 2025.

Fast Focus | Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s PRC visit

Fast Focus by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS:ACRI) provides concise, informed commentary by UTS:ACRI...