Mark Harrison
@mhar4
Taiwan, China, social theory, ideology, politics, foreign policy.
Gapu Ŋupan, the storytelling collaboration between Yolŋu people in the NT and Amis and Paiwan people from Taiwan, at the Garma Festival this week and the Darwin Festival August 5-6.
Fmr foreign minister Gareth Evans in @thesaturdaypaper.com.au, not just unable to conceptualise a China-Taiwan war and its effect on Australia, but implying that Taiwan's exclusion from the international system (by Beijing's ideological monomania), means Taiwanese lives have less moral worth.
As has been brought to my attention, the speaker has extensive business and political dealing with China focussed on Qingdao back to the early 2000s, through the Australia China Development Company.
At the anti- #AUKUS public inquiry, former federal minister Chris Schacht ranting about Taiwan in a disgraceful display of ignorance and contempt for policy, history and the region, and of course the Taiwanese. The whole exercise is shameful for all involved.
"The war in Iran has also demonstrated how a regional conflict can have global economic implications." As good a defence of AUKUS from @peterkhalilmp.bsky.social that can be made while the Australian government sticks to its reluctance to say "Taiwan".
The Australian government has tabled the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Bill 2026, which includes the inclusion of transnational education arrangements under its provisions, with one consequential caveat.
Op-ed by PRC ambassador to Australia submitted to the Nine Fairfax papers attacking ASIO. Concluding with the phrase Xi Jinping famously said to Putin: "In the face of profound changes unseen in a century, China stands ready to work shoulder-to-shoulder with Australia..."
AUKUS has many issues but @davidshoebridge.bsky.social wants a national security policy that assumes that an authoritarian party-state under the control of one man will be a rational actor and believes that Australia can remain isolated from the effects of China going to war with Taiwan.
From the @nytimes.com interview with @albomp.bsky.social, some long-overdue robust language on China and Beijing's intentions.
And these are the people who are being thusly misunderstood, disregarded and disparaged in order to make an argument about America.
Distressing and wrongheaded comments about a PRC invasion of Taiwan from @australiainstitute.org.au's @leanneminshull.bsky.social, a war that would cost countless lives and destroy a society, and directly devastate Australia's economy and the lives of Chinese and Taiwanese communities in Australia.
At an anti-AUKUS public event in Sydney, a good question about China's threat to Taiwan, a response from @davidshoebridge.bsky.social that starts as uncomprehending and descends into the bizarre.
Australian uni sector peak body Universities Australia promotes a keynote at their annual conference by PRC ambassador Xiao Qian using word-for-word CCP slogans.
Everything described here is true, as some of us had seen some years ago, but there is nothing here about what it means for Australian universities to be integrated into the PRC system in this way, just a market logic that occludes the nature of that system.
Shocking comments by the PRC ambassador to Australia about Taiwan. Disinformation, declaring that Taiwanese who oppose annexation should leave Taiwan, and directly linking Australia's sovereign national debate about regional security and Taiwan to good relations with China.
An escalation of political warfare by the PRC ambassador Xiao Qian in the national Australian media. Disinformation, misrepresentation, and a new explicit demand to accept in silence Taiwan's annexation and its catastrophic consequences.
Shanghai Oceans University with a leadership conference on the 4th Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, with comments by the dean of the UTAS JV Ai'en College with far-reaching implications for the Australian university sector. www.shou.edu.cn/2025/1025/c1...
From Geoffrey Robertson, no less. You can really see where a certain block of Australian elite opinion will go in rationalising a PRC invasion of Taiwan, at least until the global economy crashes, the AUD is at USD25c and emergency interest rates are 30%. www.smh.com.au/national/thi...
University of Tasmania and its Shanghai Oceans University JV Aien College visit the Shanghai office of US-sanctioned PRC AI company SenseTime to sign a partnership. ien.shou.edu.cn/2025/1211/c2...
As Beijing continues military threats and political warfare against Taiwan, PRC Ambassador Xiao Qian warns Australia about "appeasement" of Japan, following PM Takaichi's comments that a PRC war against the Taiwanese would threaten Japan's security.
Generous account of our new @aspi-org.bsky.social @defenceaustralia.bsky.social report "Australian Public and Institutional Responses to Taiwan Strait Crises" from Paul Monk in The Australian, with important insights into facing realities of Beijing's threats against the Taiwanese.
Dreadful and irresponsible from @mattbevan.bsky.social's ABC "If You're Listening" series, on China and Taiwan, blithely and glibly imagining that Taiwan has no history before 1949, so believing that China and Taiwan corresponds to the CCP and the KMT and so getting it all wrong.
The self-ascribed progressive alternative to ABC's The Insiders, #SundayShot, @instanterudite.bsky.social and Bruce Wolpe with dreadful comments about Taiwan, bizarrely claiming the US could cede Taiwan to China as if it is it US territory, erasing 23m people with their own story.
"‘Country could shut down’: Australia has just 28 days of petrol" Racking my brains trying to think of some possible regional crisis that could disrupt Australia's oil imports. www.afr.com/policy/forei...
Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist Academy of Australia Cultural Park, under construction for many years, vandalised with "中国统战部AUS HQ".
"...on the other is the Kuomintang (KMT) party, which has always been friendlier with China, and encouraged more dialogue." Has it, though? www.bbc.com/news/article...