Foreign affairs

There was only one direct mention of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Australia’s Foreign Policy White Paper, released on November 23, and it signalled the Australian Government would continue its cautious approach toward the initiative.

Chinese students in Australia have been a focus of media attention in 2017.

In recent months we’ve seen denunciations of Australian university lecturers who have offended Beijing’s patriotic sensibilities.

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Racial chauvinism is only one of the challenges that Beijing is exporting to universities.1

Chinese students at universities in Australia have their professors walking on eggshells.

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By James Laurenceson

Note: This article appeared in the Australian Institute of International Affairs' blog, Australian Outlook, on November 29 2017.

By Bob Carr

Note: This article appeared in The Australian on November 24 2017.

While the Australian government’s Foreign Policy White Paper was at the printers, it was being overtaken by events.

On November 23 Australia released its first Foreign Policy White Paper in 14 years. Developed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the 2017 paper enjoys broad bipartisan support. Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong, writing in The Australian, stated:[1]

There are currently 131,355 Chinese citizens studying at more than 30 Australian universities. This year the economic and cultural contributions these students make to Australian society have been overshadowed by media coverage of protests directed at Australian academics. To date there have been four reported incidents involving Chinese students, at Monash University, the Australian National University, the University of Sydney and the University of Newcastle respectively. 

By James Laurenceson, Simone van Nieuwenhuizen and Elena Collinson

Note: This article appeared in The Diplomat on November 16 2017.

By James Laurenceson

Note: This article appeared in the East Asia Forum on November 14 2017.

In the week prior to US President Donald Trump embarking on his Asia tour, his National Security Adviser H R McMaster laid out one of the trip’s aims: ‘to promote his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region’.

Executive summary

Following a successful event in Sydney, the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology Sydney welcomed author and historian Robert Macklin to discuss his book, Dragon & Kangaroo (Hachette, 2017) at Holding Redlich in Melbourne.