Will Glasgow
@wmdglasgow
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North Asia correspondent @Australian | will.glasgow @theaustralian .com.au
Taipei
Joined September 2011
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
The seven years since the last Chinese Premier visited Australia have left certain 🇦🇺 officials with something like PTSD.
Their 🇨🇳 counterparts blame much of the trouble on the media.
“I don’t know that China is very self-aware,” says one Oz diplomat
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Great pic by
@ellinghausen
on the plane with PM Albo as it flies to Tokyo for the Quad meeting.
There’s Andrew Shearer on the far left. He’s the head of Australia’s peak intelligence assessment agency — and not what you’d call an “old friend of China”
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“I think the worst thing Nancy Pelosi could do is not come because of the precedent it would establish that China can bully senior US politicians,” former Australian defence minister Christopher Pyne told me in an interview in Taipei.
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China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman when asked about India overtaking China as the world’s most populous country:
“We need to look at not just the size but also the quality of the population.” .
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A bit of a surprise to bump into PM
@AlboMP
during a morning walk along the Bund.
Many Shanghainese couldn’t believe how light his security detail was — or that he would talk to passers by as he did.
“This could never happen in China,” one told me
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Today is the 10th day of the Beijing Winter Games.
It’s also the 550th day since Australian journalist Cheng Lei was nabbed by Chinese agents in the
@Beijing2022
host city.
She still hasn’t been allowed to see her two children.
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No corgis have been bludgeoned to death. There is no nightly chorus of banging pots and wails for food.
Omicron has come to Taiwan. The response could hardly be more different to the pandemonium in Shanghai.
My piece here (1)
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Bit of a change in plan, but terrific to be in Taipei, where I’ll now be based as The Australian’s North Asia Correspondent. Here’s my Taiwanese debut — on its formidable quarantine operation
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My taxi driver in Beijing just now after picking me up:
“Wow. It’s very rare to see a foreigner.”
The expat exodus and lack of tourists here really is amazing.
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Disappointed to read a ~2,000 word long-read on China’s menacing of Taiwan published in an Australian national paper that did not include one voice from Taiwan.
Not one.
It didn’t even mention President Tsai Ing-wen, or any figure in Taiwan’s government.
Not once.
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So here’s why I didn’t board my China Southern flight to Guangzhou last Sunday. First Cheng Lei, now this
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I’m seeing a lot of speculation about what just happened in Beijing.
Let’s all just calm down and wait until Xi Jinping explains what on earth just happened at his next press conference.
Early drama: Hu Jintao seen being led out soon after reporters are led into the main hall
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China has issued an extraordinary warning to Australia on the eve of Taiwan’s presidential election, saying that any “miscalculations” in Canberra’s ties with the next Taiwanese government would see the Australian people “pushed over the edge of an abyss”.
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Here’s Cheng Lei, the star of
@QandA
tonight, asked whether Australians should go to China.
She says she has “mixed feelings”, as you can well understand after her horrific 2020-2023, adding:
“If people want to improve their mandarin, they can go to Taiwan.”
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What a photo:
Australian FM Penny Wong gives China’s Wang Yi her “not impressed” look.
Eleven ballistic missiles and rising will do that…
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Looks a lot like China is trying to contain Sweden’s battery industry.
This sort of behaviour provides good reason to question sunny predictions that “China will only become more important” as a trading partner for Australia or any other liberal democracy
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After weeks of furious debate about Taiwan in Canberra, good to hear a Taiwanese voice — and on the front page of The
@australian
Here’s the first part of my interview with Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (pic via
@chihui__lin
)
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Five hazmat wearing cabin crew and eight passengers on my Air China flight for
@Beijing2022
This “shared future” is going to be something else.
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A strong, smart speech by Taiwan’s President Tsai after a week of nasty threats from Beijing.
As
@mhar4
told me: she “struck the confident tone of a very experienced and skilled politician in one of the most difficult leadership positions in the world”
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Published in the Global Times, a vile tabloid sanctioned by the Chinese party-state:
A series of pictures called “Destruction”, which “illustrates the national reunification executed by the People's Liberation Army”.
This is the Presidential Palace in Taipei, being bombed.
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Not only is China refusing to apologise for its hostage diplomacy — Beijing is applauding itself for doing it so successfully. Here’s my piece on this revolting episode:
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Tony Abbott declares “nothing is more pressing right now, than solidarity with Taiwan” in an extraordinary speech delivered in Taipei.
That must be the most stinging critique of China by a former Australian PM since diplomatic relations were established
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“How Australia can help Taiwan” by John Fitzgerald.
Sure there are more than a few lousy China experts at Australian universities.
But there are also more than a few world-class ones, including John. Superb piece here.
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China’s property crisis is immense. The personal toll is awful.
Li is 32. His apartment’s worth ~1/2 what he paid in 2017. His shop went bust. His marriage is in trouble:
“I can only go back to my hometown…find a job and continue to pay back my loans”
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It happened: after an almost three year snub, China’s Foreign Minister spoke to his Australian counterpart.
Here’s Oz FM Penny Wong with Wang Yi in Bali, taking step one on the journey to “stabilise” relations.
Modestly good news on a truly awful Friday.
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Outstanding table service at Beijing’s Shangri-La.
You almost wouldn’t guess it was in the
@Beijing2022
“closed loop”
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Finally, the wait is over: “Xi’s book on governance published in Icelandic,” reports the China Daily.
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Quite right for Paul Keating to express his objections to the AUKUS submarine deal — of course it should be debated.
But really ugly to see a former Australian Prime Minister smear Taiwan as a “so-called ‘democracy’”.
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@HuXijin_GT
Old Hu, I think it's time you came and visited Taiwan again. It's been too long between trips. I think if you visited Taiwan, and spoke to people who live in Taiwan, you might write less casually about China going to war with Taiwan.
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Some amazingly petty behaviour outlined by
@USAmbChina
Nicholas Burns here — including apparently cutting power to a US Embassy organised event.
It makes Beijing’s “San Francisco vision” stuff hard to take seriously, Amb Burns tells
@JChengWSJ
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Mighty geopolitical currents swirling in the Solomon Islands right now:
“It’s a coup with Chinese characteristics,” write Cleo Paskal and Anthony Bergin
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Peter Varghese, one of Australia’s sharpest foreign policy brains, asks some excellent questions here about AUKUS and the Australian national interest.
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Wow. Could China’s Foreign Ministry be more brazen in re-writing Australia’s “One China” policy?
Look how the PRC spokesman in Beijing tells off Australia for breaching the “one-China principle”.
That’s Beijing’s Taiwan formula. Canberra has never had a “one-China principle”.
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Do China Coast Guard members commonly wave axes around? This is the first time I've seen them do it.
CCG personnel violently attached ropes to tow the AFP's RHIB while threatening to injure an AFP soldier w/ a pickaxe. They also employed blaring sirens to create chaos, disrupt communication, and divert the attention of AFP troops, exacerbating the hostile & dangerous situation.
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Taiwan’s former vice-president and Covid guru Chen Chien-jen says it’s time to dial down pandemic anxiety:
“Covid is not the Covid of before.”
A pleasure to interview the Johns Hopkins-trained epidemiologist in Taipei (1)
@australian
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“Spotted by a netizen”?
Not quite,
@shanghaidaily
I took this video. I’m an Australian journalist, allowed a visa to be in China for a few days during the PM’s trip.
Australian Prime Minister
#AnthonyAlbanese
was spotted by a netizen starting his day with a brisk morning run along the iconic Bund during his visit to
#Shanghai
on Nov 5.
#Australia
#China
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An illustrative example of the limits of Chinese diplomacy in the Xi era:
The two Chinese embassy staff will likely be applauded for showing "fighting spirit" as they try to block Cheng Lei from view.
Most Australians will be appalled by their behaivour
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A year ago Cheng Lei — a CGTN anchor and one of the highest profile Aussies in China — was detained by secret police in Beijing. To this day, CGTN’s official slogan, “See the difference”, is the winning entry she made in an all-staff competition
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@joshrogin
@ZichenWanghere
Hi Josh. I've had a fair bit of experience with trolls. Zichen is not one of them. He's one of the most well mannered people in the often very rude China-US debate.
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China’s Foreign Ministry erupts at New Zealand:
“I would like to take some time to make a detailed response,” said spokesman Zhao Lijian at his Beijing press conference.
Even by his windy standards this was something — and full of phrases so familiar to Australians!
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More seriously, what a great example of just how little we all know about Chinese elite politics — even when the reporters are in the room.
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China’s embassy erupts after FM Penny Wong joined the US and Japan in condemning Beijing’s blasting of 11 ballistic missiles towards Taiwan.
Says China “the victim”.
Says Australia should remember behavior of “Japan’s Fascists”.
Says it is the “US that should be condemned”.
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Despite Beijing ban, Lithuania increases exports to Indo-Pacific by 60% — with Taiwan alone almost offsetting China. Amazing numbers, via
@StuartKLau
And — wow! — these comments by a French admiral on the Chinese navy: “We will win if we fight together”
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Heartbreaking: Australian Cheng Lei became emotional when diplomats told her about a campaign of support.
"It means so much that I'm not alone and that I'm remembered and thought about. The appreciation I feel is too big to put into words," she told them from her Chinese prison
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Confidence with Chinese characteristics:
Beijing says it’s “open to having a match to see which country is better governed” — as it blocks Secretary Blinken’s China speech.
Blinken’s big China policy speech, posted by the American embassy four hours ago, has been banned on WeChat.
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The profile of the latest Japanese businessman arrested by Beijing is spooky for China-based expats.
20+ years in China, promoted JP-CN econ ties, was involved in the Chamber of Commerce.
“The era of sending expats is coming to a close,” says his boss
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Readers at Australia’s national business masthead overwhelmingly back Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.
61 per cent support her visit. Only 25 per cent said it was “too provocative”.
Another example of how unpopular China has made itself in Oz, and the rising support for Taiwan
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Wow, didn’t
@MrKRudd
have a few thoughts on Hugh White’s latest Quarterly Essay on the US, China, Australia and Taiwan!
If you’re interested in Australian foreign policy, I highly recommend this tour de force by Oz’s mandarin speaking former PM
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Japan’s former ambassador in Canberra
@YamagamiShingo
writing in today’s
@australian
:
“I was told by several Australians in politics and government to seal my lips on the subject of China…”
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The Chinese government scolds New Zealand, NZ shrugs shoulders: “We have got to stand up for ourselves," said NZ’s foreign minister Winston Peters. “True friendship is based on equality.”
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In Canberra, China’s Ambassador in Australia expounds on Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy in the New Era:
“If you are talking bad about me, why should I meet you?”
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Statement from the
@fccchina
on India joining Australia and Canada.
Between us, our three countries don’t have a single reporter from our media accredited to report in China.
There are also zero journalists from NZ media working in China — although there is noxious Andy Boreham
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When China's Foreign Minister comes to town:
"Chinese officials tried to physically remove cameramen," says a Fijian journalist.
"I watched as Chinese government media and Chinese officials tried to stand in the way of these cameramen so they wouldn’t be able to do their work"
“We were treated like criminals”: Fijian journalist
@LiceMovono
describes the Chinese delegation’s crackdown on local media access to Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Pacific tour.
@bevvo14
#TheWorld
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Why did Beijing finally budge on its barley tariff?
A WTO report, given to Australia and China a few weeks ago, made it clear Beijing is on track to lose this case.
“The Chinese don’t want this report to surface,” one source told me
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I’m out for a walk along the Tamsui River, listening to a (very interesting) panel of Washington experts talk about the “4th Taiwan Strait Crisis”.
Meanwhile in Taiwan right now…
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Good corrective by
@mcgregorrichard
on “peak China”:
“It is true that China may no longer be a 10-foot-tall giant sweeping all aside, as much as it likes to project such strength. But it is not drifting into oblivion...”
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Bad Beijing news: Phil Wen will soon become the first accredited Australian journalist deported from China in the PRC’s 70+ year history.
The Morrison government has expressed its unhappiness with the PRC’s embassy in Canberra
#auspol
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Gee, I feel for the SCMP newsroom in HK right now. It’s creepy enough getting this update - imagine writing it.
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Another beautiful blue sky in Kaoshiung, Taiwan’s southern port city.
Perfect ice cream weather — 25 and sunny (in mid-winter!) — at the former British Consulate.
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BREAKING:
China’s Foreign Minister told Penny Wong the Coalition government was the “root cause” of Canberra and Beijing’s spectacular bilateral breakdown and said four things need change to get the relationship “back on track”.
More here
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Joe Biden’s description of Xi Jinping as a “dictator” was too hot for China’s Foreign Ministry.
Yesterday, Ms Mao called Biden’s comments “extremely ridiculous and irresponsible” and a violation of “China’s political dignity”.
All cut from the transcript
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As Global Times editor-in-chief,
@HuXijin_GT
dismissed Australia as “chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes”.
Today on
@realGuancha
he declares South Korea has become the “New Australia” (“新澳大利亚”).
He does not mean it as a compliment
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Australian politicians have called an end to the era of ‘invisible’ trips to Taiwan.
“There’s nothing to be shy about,"
@JulianHillMP
told me.
"You can’t talk about open democracy and then try and come over here under the shadows," said
@AndrewWallaceMP
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A painful account from Cheng Lei — essential reading for everyone in Australia’s often shouty China debate (and the🇨🇳-focused 🇦🇺 business sector):
“I do not like the feeling I am fodder for China hawks or an unfortunate existence for China doves”
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Here’s the Australian government statement:
“Australia congratulates Dr Lai Ching-te on his victory.
“We also congratulate the people of Taiwan on the peaceful exercise of their democratic rights…”
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Xi Jinping to Xinjiang officials:
“Chinese civilisation is the root of the cultures of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and more work must be done to educate and guide officials and the general public to put the history of Xinjiang and their ethnic groups in the right perspective”
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More from me on 🇹🇼-🇦🇺:
Australia has a reputation for being bold on China where New Zealand is timid.
Is it deserved? Next month NZ will mark 10 years since signing a trade agreement with Taiwan.
Taipei has got exactly no where over that decade with Oz
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Stephen Roach — Stephen Roach! — says underestimating Xi Jinping thought was the “biggest mistake” in his analysis of China’s economy.
Not Roach’s first piece on why he change his mind, but an amazing journey from what he was writing only a few years ago
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Stephen Roach: “When it comes to the Chinese economy, I have been a congenital optimist for more than 25 years. But now I have serious doubts.” He’s often syndicated in the China Daily — no sign of that happening with this piece yet
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Epic opening to this front page story by the China Daily’s Moscow correspondent:
“Thousands of years ago, China envisaged a world where people would live in perfect harmony and be as dear to one another as family. Today, President Xi Jinping has given the world such a vision…”
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Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu calls former PM Tony Abbott a “fair dinkum free trader”.
Absolute privilege to have
@HonTonyAbbott
with us in
#Taiwan
. It's great to break bread with the former prime minister of
#Australia
. He's a fair dinkum free trader & bold backer of our
#CPTPP
bid. Thanks for the support & all the best for the
@yushanforum
keynote, my friend! JW
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Chinese state media on the crackdown on celebrity fan culture: “Fans groups were such an enclosed circle that any doubts or different views about the idol are not permitted. Young fans receive a single narrative and believe their idol is perfect…”
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Kiwi PM
@chrishipkins
got rave reviews from Xi Jinping and the NZ business leaders who travelled with him to China.
But some officials in Taiwan told me they are concerned about the 🇳🇿🇨🇳 joint statement:
“Few advanced countries would use such wording.”
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Why aren’t there any Australian journalists in China – and does it matter?
Australian journalists working for Australian media aren’t in China because the Chinese government won’t issue us visas.
I should know. Here’s a piece on my latest rejection
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Australia’s ambassador in Beijing: “I’m not sure China realises the damage that is occurring both in Australia and internationally. It’s been exposed as quite unreliable as a trading partner and even vindictive”
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“When you are in China, you should follow what Chinese people do,” the Beijing policeman tells me as he enforces a law that doesn’t exist.
My weird introduction to parklife in the PRC...
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Classic moment in Australia-China:
Greens leader
@AdamBandt
says he’s “disturbed” to see a billboard in Melbourne glorifying Hong Kong’s “new era” after the crackdown.
Someone says he’s been reading “too much propaganda” and advises reading more Pearls and Irritations.
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China isn’t happy about Australia’s upgraded security agreement with Japan.
Warns it has upset the recent “positive trend” in relations with Australia.
More here
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ICYMI - Advice from
@SenatorWong
to the Morrison government on the difficult China relationship: “More strategy, less politics. Talk less, do more”. The whole speech is well worth a read
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I interviewed former Prime Minsiter Scott Morrison during his trip to Taipei.
In a keynote address, he said Australia should modernise its “One China” policy — and told me Beijing’s reaction to his visit to Taiwan had only confirmed that opinion
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Not only did Pacific Islands leaders pass on Beijing’s sweeping security and trade pact in Fiji.
They also called on China – the world’s biggest polluter – to do more to address their “greatest threat”: climate change
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🇹🇼 Vice President (and 2024 presidential candidate)
@ChingteLai
at
#WNMC23
last night welcoming media criticism of the Taiwanese government:
“And this applies to media in China as well… They too are free to criticise the government of Taiwan!”
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What UN report into into systematic human rights abuse in Xinjiang?
Beijing’s propaganda machine is trying to “disappear” Michelle Bachelet’s damning work. In China, it’s working.
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One good thing about the collapse of Canberra’s relationship with Beijing is that, since 2021, I've been lucky enough to cover the region from Taipei.
Ministers in Taiwan accept requests for interviews – a refreshing change from my experience in China.
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“This was one of the Press Gallery’s finest moments,” writes Greg Sheridan.
Hear, hear!
Great piece on the Chinese ambassador’s memorable debut at Canberra’s
@PressClubAust
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4.
I get that Taiwan’s politics and history are complicated.
But some things are quite simple.
It is a real place. It is a liberal democracy. 23 million people live here.
And Beijing’s routine threats to annihilate it are appalling.
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BREAKING: China's Ministry of Commerce has just announced the end of its ~200 per cent tariffs on Australian wine.
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The Taiwan Strait looks so tiny on a map — but it seems enormous on the 8 hour long ferry from Matsu (near China’s Fujian province) to Keelung (on Taiwan’s main island). This about half way.
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Good PM Albanese’s Taiwan-CPTPP howler has been cleared up.
Embarrassing these gaffes are so routine for Australian prime ministers.
As I write here, let’s hope the PM can fix a more long lasting error: the 10 year absence of Oz ministers in Taiwan.
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Beijing tried a similar strategy with the US after Biden was elected, saying all problems were the fault of the Trump admin.
You may have noticed, that plan didn't work. More than 18 months on, US-China relations may even be worse.
I predict similar with Australia-China.
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I’m not there because China won’t issue a visa — short term or long. It’s the same with SMH’s
@ErykBagshaw
.
The ABC’s
@billbirtles
and AFR’s
@MikeSmithAFR
aren’t there because after China imprisoned Australian Cheng Lei, Australian officials got worried.
Nothing to do with cost
@GuardianAus
There was, of course, a time when the ABC, ABC, The Fin Review, the SMH the Australian and News Ltd papers had correspondents based in China. Most have withdrawn for cost reasons and of course the ABC for political and “safety” reasons
@MargaretSimons
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A sad sight for Australian wine grape growers in this Beijing supermarket:
It looks like normal Yellow Tail on the shelves. But read the label and see it’s produced and bottled in Chile — to get around 🇨🇳’s ~200 % tariffs on 🇦🇺 wine
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Xi Jinping’s envoy in Canberra was commendably frank in his recent address to the National Press Club.
In the same spirit, let me share some frank advice: China needs to look in the mirror.
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China’s Ambassador in Australia claims there was never any economic coercion against Oz.
In his telling, not a single live Australian lobster has been legally sold in China since Nov 2020 because “Chinese people were angry… and were unwilling to buy”.
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“The man abused my country, my leader. I think it’s my duty,” says Consul-general Zheng.
What an interview here by
@inzyrashid
after Zheng and his colleagues brought some PRC to Manchester.
China’s Manchester Consul-general Zheng Xiyuan accepted Sky News
@inzyrashid
interview and repeated a line Xi Jinping used this week about diplomats upholding ‘the dignity’ of China -
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I agree with Waleed Aly: a robust debate is vital to a healthy democracy.
And I understand his concern about following the US into another war. But Taiwan is not Iraq. Taiwan has it’s own history.
Beijing is the aggressor here. Not Washington.
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Global Times editorial on Chinese Defence Minister Li’s Shangri-La speech:
“After the end of the speech, the applause burst from the crowd, which was obviously different from the polite applause after other speeches.”
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Terrible look for China’s Ambassador in Australia:
This week, Amb Xiao dined with a nasty conspiracy theorist — a person no credible Oz politician would want to be seen in the same room with, let alone invite to their office for dinner.
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Members on previous Australian delegations have been petrified about being photographed near 🇹🇼’s flag.
Not this one led by
@ShayneNeumannMP
and
@AndrewWallaceMP
.
They allowed the cameras in as they met President
@iingwen
— normal for other liberal democracies, but not for 🇦🇺
A warm welcome to the cross-party delegation led by
@ShayneNeumannMP
&
@AndrewWallaceMP
, whose visit highlights
#Taiwan
&
#Australia
’s strong ties. We thank you for speaking up in support of Taiwan’s democracy, and look forward to expanding our bilateral exchanges.
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Here’s the always on point
@mcgregorrichard
:
“The ‘Hong Kong Eight’ are essentially being accused of political crimes, and in some respects, old-fashioned thought crimes, for simply disagreeing with the territory’s National Security Law…”
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