Slightly edited (for coherence) transcript of a Frank Talk discussion with Bill Overholt, Senior Research Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Michael Easson for the International Institute for Strategic Leadership Dialogue, on Saturday 27 March 2021 in Sydney and Friday 26 March 2021 in Boston.
Owen Harries (1930-2020), foreign policy adviser, thinker, gadfly, editor, and advocate of the “national interest” realist tradition, died last week. His influence was profound in Australia and globally. He persuaded, stung, prodded those around him to think.
For seventy-five years, 1942–2017, Joseph Schumpeter’s fearful warning to Americans about the messy breakdown of capitalism and the political order fell short.
Thank you Albert Dadon, the Convenor of the Dialogue, for suggesting this Panel topic. Anyone involved in international politics, in diplomacy, has considered the role and potential of the United Nations.
Welcome, everyone. Today’s topic is much anticipated – China’s Ambition: How Far Can They Go? We are joined by a very distinguished panel – former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott; Business China CEO and Singapore MP Tin Pei Ling; Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, The Honourable Tobias Ellwood; security correspondent and famous Israeli journalist Yossi Melman; and University of Sydney and Hudson Institute academic, Dr. John Lee.
Four Labor elders – Michael Costello, Michael Easson, Bob Hogg and Jim Nolan – have asked for this statement to be circulated around the labour movement for comment.
A few people might have felt cheated at the recent lunches in honour of the Second Deputy President of South Africa and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, F.W. de Klerk.
This week marks another anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacres in 1989. In Australia there will be fewer mourners and protests. In China any organised, public protest will be illegal and suppressed. At its most daring, there will be a few dropping of bottles by students outside of their cloisters.
The Australian government, like the rest of the world, will one day have to make up its mind about Taiwan. But first, the Taiwanese need to decide things for themselves, including their ambiguous legacy and relationship to China. Is Taiwan a province of China? Or should Taiwan become an independent country? That is a decision that might be made by the end of this decade.
During the lonely nights and long days that Chinese students, workers and ordinary citizens gathered in Tiananmen Square, one of the most popular songs was this one.