It is easy to assume China’s notorious authoritarian streak includes cracking down on homosexuality. A visit to a Beijing gay club says otherwise, writes freelance journalist Kway Teow.
READ MORE457 Results
CHINA
Crikey says: look north and calm down on media regs
What had the party rooms buzzing this morning. China is easing up on the media — well, sort of, writes Margaret Simons. Why Christians won’t vote for Julia Gillard next year. We go on board the Rich List super-yachts. And who’s the most powerful journalist in Australia? (We’ll tell you one of them at least).
READ MORE
Driving to the Walls of China
Lake Mungo and the Walls of China. An exotic, ineffable landscape of prehistory: here was Mungo Man, here was Mungo Lady. The endless plains of Mallee scrub. The glistening banks of the Darling. It called; we drove.
READ MORE
No island holiday for Doraemon, caught between Japan and China
Try being a Japanese icon in the Middle Kingdom this week. Kway Teow reports from Beijing that not even Doraemon can calm tensions between two superpowers over disputed islands.
READ MOREChinese filmmakers risk it all to defy government censorship
As several Chinese filmmakers have recently found, alleged offences are often unclear and punitive restrictions can be imposed without notice or warning. Dan Edwards reports.
READ MOREBleich: ‘ridiculous’ to try to contain China, and about those birthers …
It would be ridiculous for the US to try to contain China, and in fact it depends on China’s success, according to the United States’ man in Canberra. Crikey continues its chat with Jeffrey Bleich.
READ MORE
NT election highlights Labor’s decline
There’s one thing we can say about the weekend’s defeat of a Labor government in the Northern Territory — - the decline in the Labor brand continues.
READ MOREToo little too late for climate change action?
Crikey readers have their say.
READ MORE
A half billion dollar cut
At John Hopkins University in the United States they estimate that a fall in the rate of male circumcision from a current 55% rate to Europe’s 10% level would add an annual net $500 million to health care costs.
READ MOREReligion, education and children
Crikey readers have their say.
READ MORE
Media briefs: Smith v Murdoch … ciggie front pages … ad revenue data …
In today’s Media Briefs: Smith v Murdoch: an exercise in vanity … Front Page of the Day … News Corp announces anti-corruption boss … Getty Images bought by private equity …
READ MORE
This week’s phoney reasons to attack Labor’s economic management
Desperate to find problems with Labor’s economic management, the government’s critics find themselves in some strange places.
READ MORE
Think again on uranium sale to illiberal UAE
If our relations with China have taught us one thing, it is that politics is politics and business is business. Lowy Institute fellow Dr Rodger Shanahan reports at The Interpreter.
READ MORE
Media briefs: Oz’s culture wars … China v ABC … Arab news wars …
In today’s Media Briefs: Most contrived culture war? A new contender … Front Page of the Day … China’s backlash against ABC journo … The conflict in Syria is breaking Arab news …
READ MOREPhoney war on foreign policy misses the bigger picture
Recent spats over Australia’s foreign policy amount to a phoney war and mask the lack of debate on the international issues that should matter, writes Rory Medcalf, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute.
READ MOREChina, Canada and our ‘national interest’ in mining investment
Tony Abbott wants to impose more regulation on Chinese investment just when overseas companies are citing Australia’s rules as a better way.
READ MORE
A da xiang in the room: new emissions data
A fresh report on the world’s greenhouse gas emissions shows that a fundamental overhaul of international climate negotiations is needed to restrain global warming.
READ MORE
Why does Australia hate democracy?
The latest Lowy Institute poll contains an alarming statistic for lovers of democracy. Rob Burgess of Business Spectator wonders why we hate our system of government.
READ MORE‘On a collision course’: Hong Kong unrest over Chinese rule
With Leung Chun-yin to be sworn in as the new chief executive of Hong Kong on July 1, the Chinese semiautonomous region is on a collision course. Antonio Castillo writes from Hong Kong.
READ MORE
Why the tensions over the South China Sea?
China imposed a ban on fishing in contested territorial waters in the South China Sea yesterday, as its long-time battle with the Philippines over the territory heated up. Scott Barnes asks the experts to explain the historical tensions.
READ MOREWinds of change blowing in China, but in which direction?
There is a palpable sense of unease in Beijing. Whether pending change will be cultural or cosmetic, or better or worse for China overall, isn’t certain, writes international relations postgrad Ange Fennell.
READ MOREWhere China stands on North Korea
Why has China not condemned North Korea’s many provocations? The status quo is unsustainable but China will go to great lengths to protect its borders, writes Evan Osnos.
READ MORE
Why head for NZ? The Chinese asylum seekers who don’t want to stay
Ten Chinese nationals are currently based on a ferry docked in Darwin after sending a distress signal for Australian Customs officials to collect them after running out of food en route to New Zealand, where they plan to seek asylum.
READ MORELetter from: Beijing … reading China like reading tea leaves
The Communist Party only has one option: it has to avoid a bust at all costs, and continue to make like the fireworks and boom, writes Matthew Clayfield, a freelance correspondent, in Beijing.
READ MORERussia goes its own way over Syria
Last week there was some hope that Russia might be coming on board with the need to do something about the steadily increasing bloodshed in Syria.
READ MORE
