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.
Mark Harrison
@mhar4.bsky.social
Taiwan, China, social theory, ideology, politics, foreign policy.
The outcome of many decades of campaigning by Siraya people and a milestone for indigenous reconciliation in Taiwan. The PRC rejects the concept of indigenous and defines all 17 tribes as a single "ethnic minority" and would dismantle all this if it annexed Taiwan. focustaiwan.tw/society/2026...
Cabinet officially recognizes Siraya as Taiwan's 17th Indigenous tribe - Focus Taiwan
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) on Thursday approved the official recognition of the Siraya as one of Taiwan's Indigenous tribes, making it the country's 17th officially recognized tribe and the first Plai...
focustaiwan.tw
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.
Mark Harrison@mhar4.bsky.social · 3w agoAt 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.
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..."
The demand to only see the world through the lens of US power and the refusal to see PRC power and the PRC system is the Australian political left's version of the monoculture.
Mark Harrison@mhar4.bsky.social · last mo.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.
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.
Trailer for the documentary In the Making: An Australia–Taiwan Indigenous Art Exchange 生成之間: 澳洲與台灣原住民族藝術交流 An account of the extraordinary multi-year project of exchange and learning between Australia and Taiwan indigenous artists. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYT0...
In The Making 2025 Trailer
YouTube video by Mark
youtube.com
😮💨 Australian progressive activists like @emmashortis.bsky.social, @leanneminshull.bsky.social and @davidshoebridge.bsky.social still haven't been able to develop a critique AUKUS and the US alliance that doesn't rely on misunderstanding, disregarding and even disparaging the Taiwanese.
Mark Harrison@mhar4.bsky.social · 2mo agoDistressing 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.
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.
Another mention of Taiwan in this walled-garden of opinion on Australia foreign policy that is unable to see outside the US alliance (even alluding to the absurd Trump-Xi Iran-Taiwan deal idea). Treating the Taiwanese, and China, as mere metaphors for anti-alliance politics.
The Australia Institute@australiainstitute.org.au · 2mo agoDespite the global upheaval caused by the Trump administration, the Australian government is trying to plough on with AUKUS as if Biden was still in charge. Guardian journalist Ben Doherty joins @emmashortis.bsky.social to discuss Australia's gamble on the AUKUS submarine deal. 🎧 theaus.in/43vlCKI
Tell me again how Taiwan and war in the Taiwan Strait are "not a vital strategic interest" for Australia. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...
Australian exports in jeopardy as 'war risk' costs surge
Australian exporters are facing increasing air and sea freight costs, as well as the possibility of diving consumer confidence.
abc.net.au
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.
Vital step in Taiwan's long journey of truth and reconciliation. Authoritarianism and historical trauma continue to shape politics, culture, identities and inter-generational relations in Taiwan very directly. focustaiwan.tw/politics/202...
Taiwan's Martial Law-era archives fully declassified - Focus Taiwan
Taiwan's top intelligence agency said Monday that it has completely declassified tens of thousands of political archives it possessed from the Martial Law period and transferred them to the National A...
focustaiwan.tw
The rules-based international order really is over. "South Australia secures Australian MotoGP, world-first street circuit announced" www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Breaking: SA secures Australian MotoGP, world-first street circuit announced
The South Australian government has confirmed the Australian MotoGP will move to Adelaide from 2027.
abc.net.au
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.
Superb analysis from @nathanattrill.bsky.social. "Put simply, the scale and persistence of Chinese military activity around Taiwan look less like signalling and more like systematic preparation for the use of force, conducted on Beijing’s own timetable." www.aspistrategist.org.au/that-isnt-si...
That isn't signaling. China’s military is seriously rehearsing around Taiwan | The Strategist
Analysing China’s military activity around Taiwan often invites a simple question: what triggered it? Analysts tend to assume that spikes in aircraft sorties, naval deployments or coast guard operatio...
aspistrategist.org.au
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.
"...do we back the US or China in a battle over Taiwan." As always, Laura Tingle unable to conceptualise backing the Taiwanese, so ends up grotesquely suggesting that Australia could actually support a PRC invasion of Taiwan (with troops? materiel? a UN statement?) www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...
As Rudd leaves his post, questions for Australia's foreign policy swirl
One month after Kevin Rudd leaves his post as Australia's ambassador to Washington, Donald Trump will make his first presidential visit to China in almost 10 years.
abc.net.au
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...
"In Taiwan you can win the lottery just by shopping" www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...
In Taiwan you can win lottery just by shopping
Most shopping receipts in Taiwan are also tickets for a lottery run every second month by the government to increase tax compliance, and there are some big prizes up for grabs.
abc.net.au
Japanese ambassador to Australia responds to PRC ambassador's attack.
Mark Harrison@mhar4.bsky.social · 8mo agoAs 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.
