Just as in neighboring Tibet, the Chinese keep control by military force over the ethnically distinct and hostile population of the Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Articles by Charles Richardson 
News flash: Another Lib leader bites the dust
SA’s opposition leader has Martin Hamilton-Smith announced his resignation. Whoever replaces him faces an uphill battle.
Ronnie Biggs: England’s own Ned Kelly
The divergence of views over Ronnie Biggs is emblematic of the left-right split, says Charles Richardson in the same way as the Australian debate over Ned Kelly: rebel outlaw hero, or bank robber and murderer?
Tory leader throws a bone to the Eurosceptics
David Cameron, leader of Britain’s Conservative Party and (barring some miraculous recovery in Labour’s fortunes) the country’s future prime minister, at least seems to keep his promises.
Inside a rigged election
Election irregularities are a matter of degree. There is no such thing as a perfectly-run election. But in Iran, there were a lot of irregularities.
The battle for Higgins resumes
The Higgins preselection has been an on-again, off-again saga.
A big step backwards in the Middle East
A week after Lebanon’s elections were won by the moderate, pro-western forces, Iran has gone the other way, writes Charles Richardson.
Who wants to be a Liberal MP?
It’s time to clear some dead wood from the Victorian Liberal Party, writes Charles Richardson.
China’s fight for freedom, twenty years on
China will one day have to deal with Tiananmen, but it’s impossible to say how long that might take.
Europeans go to the polls
This week, the second-largest democratic election in the world takes place: an election across the 27 countries of the EU for the 736 members of the European parliament.
He’s no roony: there’s method in Kim’s madness
Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction; it got invaded. North Korea tested a nuclear bomb three years ago; it got a mixture of bribes and angry rhetoric. That explains everything.
Happy birthday, party system!
One hundred years ago today, MPs from what had been two separate parties, Free Traders and Protectionists, met together for the first time, and a a class-based party system was born.
India shows the GFC having impact on global voting
It seems that the global financial crisis has not had the devastating effect on the world’s governments that many were expecting six months ago.
What it takes to trigger an early election
Charles Richardson explains the nuts and bolts of triggering a double dissolution.
Only Benjamin Netanyahu can go to Palestine
Israeli PM Netanyahu agreed to talk, but he gave no hint of the shape of a political settlement he might be willing to accept. Still he’s the best hope for peace.
Redistributions: a make-work project at party HQ
Why do the major political parties put so much effort into a process that they have essentially no influence over?
Death of a Republican
Just as America’s Republican Party is desperately searching for a more marketable identity, comes a reminder of its conflicted legacy with the death of Jack Kemp.
Somalian chaos: the product of international intervention
The problem in Somalia hasn’t been a lack of engagement: it’s been engagement on the wrong side.
South Africa desperately needs a viable Opposition
South Africa faces major challenges, and they can can only be surmounted by the emergence of a strong opposition.
Justice looms for the torture team
The chance of an American president allowing the domestic prosecution of his predecessors for war crimes is essentially zero. American politics just doesn’t work that way.
Piracy on the high seas, not on your computer
Just as piracy is returning to our consciousness with the events off the coast of Somalia, quite different groups of people are being tagged with the same label.
