Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Biden's cabinet picks, Taiwan as a theatre of war, space wars, the end of covid-19, and Australia's rap sheet according to China
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Biden's cabinet picks, Taiwan as a theatre of war, space wars, the end of covid-19, and Australia's rap sheet according to China
This week on GeoPod, Tenjin Consulting's Alexander Downer and Georgina Downer discuss President-elect Joe Biden's picks for his foreign and security policy team. Biden has gone for long-term trusted advisors, most of whom occupied similar roles during the Obama Administration of which Biden was part. Tony Blinken as Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor will be safe and centrist pairs of hands, but query their focus on Asia and how effective their China strategy will be.
This week, CEO of the Cognocenti Group Alan Dupont wrote an important piece on the future of Taiwan and the possibility it might become a trigger for a hot war between the US and China (and of course the US' allies, including Australia). This would put Australia in an incredibly difficult situation: having to choose between supporting an ally or staying out of a fight to avoid severing ties with an important economic partner. Short of Taiwan declaring itself a sovereign state, we don't expect China to launch an attack soon, but it is a clear aspiration of Xi Jinping to incorporate Taiwan into Greater China so clear thinking about the consequences for Australia and others is essential.
This week China launched its first lunar mission to collect some rock samples from the moon. Space has always been a theatre for the chest thumping of great powers, and US-China rivalry is now extending to infinity and beyond. With the growing reliance on satellites for communications and navigation, as well as espionage and military activities, what goes on in space matters, a lot. Currently the US and China don't cooperate in space. Could this be an area for future cooperation and to soothe tensions?
In the midst of a year of doom and gloom and covid-19, it is refreshing to get some good news about the effectiveness of the Pfizer, Moderna and Astra-Zeneca vaccines. Does this mean the end of covid-19 is in sight? Or will people shun the vaccines over health concerns? Getting people vaccinated is only partly a logistical challenge. The politics of vaccines will be tough.
Finally, China's Embassy in Australia released a "14 things I hate about you" list to the Australian media and it made for some stunning reading - banning Huawei, calling for an independent investigation into the origins of covid-19, introducing foreign interference legislation, and criticising China's approach to Hong Kong, Xinjian and Taiwan, and outspoken Aussie MPs were there, to name but a few. But, within a week the Chinese Government was praising Prime Minister Scott Morrison's speech to UK think thank Policy Exchange in which he himself praised China for its unprecedent efforts to bring millions of people out of poverty. Does this mean a thawing in relations is afoot? Time heals all wounds, usually.
View all episodes
By Tenjin ConsultingThis week on GeoPod, Tenjin Consulting's Alexander Downer and Georgina Downer discuss President-elect Joe Biden's picks for his foreign and security policy team. Biden has gone for long-term trusted advisors, most of whom occupied similar roles during the Obama Administration of which Biden was part. Tony Blinken as Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor will be safe and centrist pairs of hands, but query their focus on Asia and how effective their China strategy will be.
This week, CEO of the Cognocenti Group Alan Dupont wrote an important piece on the future of Taiwan and the possibility it might become a trigger for a hot war between the US and China (and of course the US' allies, including Australia). This would put Australia in an incredibly difficult situation: having to choose between supporting an ally or staying out of a fight to avoid severing ties with an important economic partner. Short of Taiwan declaring itself a sovereign state, we don't expect China to launch an attack soon, but it is a clear aspiration of Xi Jinping to incorporate Taiwan into Greater China so clear thinking about the consequences for Australia and others is essential.
This week China launched its first lunar mission to collect some rock samples from the moon. Space has always been a theatre for the chest thumping of great powers, and US-China rivalry is now extending to infinity and beyond. With the growing reliance on satellites for communications and navigation, as well as espionage and military activities, what goes on in space matters, a lot. Currently the US and China don't cooperate in space. Could this be an area for future cooperation and to soothe tensions?
In the midst of a year of doom and gloom and covid-19, it is refreshing to get some good news about the effectiveness of the Pfizer, Moderna and Astra-Zeneca vaccines. Does this mean the end of covid-19 is in sight? Or will people shun the vaccines over health concerns? Getting people vaccinated is only partly a logistical challenge. The politics of vaccines will be tough.
Finally, China's Embassy in Australia released a "14 things I hate about you" list to the Australian media and it made for some stunning reading - banning Huawei, calling for an independent investigation into the origins of covid-19, introducing foreign interference legislation, and criticising China's approach to Hong Kong, Xinjian and Taiwan, and outspoken Aussie MPs were there, to name but a few. But, within a week the Chinese Government was praising Prime Minister Scott Morrison's speech to UK think thank Policy Exchange in which he himself praised China for its unprecedent efforts to bring millions of people out of poverty. Does this mean a thawing in relations is afoot? Time heals all wounds, usually.