David Brophy
Tim Robertson reviews 'China Panic: Australia's alternative to paranoia and pandering' by David Brophy
Moral certitude, wrong-headedness, and ignorance inform what passes for debate about China in Australia today. There is so much grandiose proselytising born out of flawed history and tired tropes. Considering how ill-informed the most prominent Australian commentators are about China, it’s quite a feat that they’re often more deceived about their own nation.
... (read more)David Brophy reviews 'Island Off the Coast of Asia' by Clinton Fernandes
Marise Payne’s recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly touted Australia’s support for ‘rules’ and ‘international law’ in creating a global order that works ‘for the benefit of all nations and people’. But are these really the guiding principles of Australian foreign policy ...
... (read more)David Brophy reviews 'Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia' by Clive Hamilton
Lawyers, media organisations, human rights NGOs, and unions have been lining up recently to warn us of a serious threat facing civil liberties in Australia. It comes in the form of Malcolm Turnbull’s new national security laws, which, in the name of combating foreign influence, would criminalise anyone who simply ‘receives ...
... (read more)David Brophy reviews 'Without America: Australia in the New Asia' (Quarterly Essay 68) by Hugh White
For upward of a decade, Hugh White has been sounding a warning: that Australia’s long-standing policy of relying on the United States as guarantor of our security in Asia was approaching its use-by date. As a conspicuous relic of European colonial expansion, Australia has always viewed with trepidation the ...
... (read more)David Brophy reviews 'The Souls of China: The return of religion after Mao' by Ian Johnson
In 1989, as the Chinese Communist Party came to terms with the ongoing significance of religion in post-Mao China, they needed a new formula to explain its survival. Religion was, they said, a long-term phenomenon. It had a mass base; it had national dimensions, in that some of China’s nationalities identified strongly with ...
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