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World Politics

Why Is This Still Happening?

Why Is This Still Happening?

The Morrison government has hardened its rhetoric against China in the wake of the Chinese virus pandemic, as well as effectively abolishing the threshold for Foreign Investment Review. If only it would start showing as much trouser as it does mouth. Only last week, I reported on Chinese companies buying

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Simon Briges with Guo Shengkun
NZ

China’s Influence on NZ before the ‘Chinese Virus’

Long before the Chinese Communist party gifted the world the “Chinese virus” they had already infiltrated New Zealand’s political immune system. As lockdown has brought thousands of new readers to the BFD I thought that now would be a good time to bring the following series of articles about

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Peter Dutton Has the Right Enemies

Peter Dutton Has the Right Enemies

You can always tell when someone is telling the truth about China just by observing how furiously China attacks them. Or, if they’re a Chinese citizen, by how quickly they disappear or how excoriating and grovelling their subsequent “self-criticism” and apologies are. Peter Dutton is not a Chinese citizen

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Not so Dolce Vita After All

Not so Dolce Vita After All

While the legacy media would have us believe that Italians are welcoming being locked in their own homes and singing patriotic songs from their balconies in solidarity, things are rapidly deteriorating on the ground. Certainly, in the first week of lockdown, it might have seemed all fun and games and

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Simon Briges with Guo Shengkun
NZ

China’s Influence on NZ before the ‘Chinese Virus’

Long before the Chinese Communist party gifted the world the “Chinese virus” they had already infiltrated New Zealand’s political immune system. As lockdown has brought thousands of new readers to the BFD I thought that now would be a good time to bring the following series of articles about

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Not Happy, Wuhan

Not Happy, Wuhan

Governments might like to boast about “going hard and early” in defiance of the plain facts, but the truth is that they dithered for too long once the fact of the Wuhan virus became known – and then panicked and brought the boot-heel down. Which might play well to the peanut

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Japan Leads the Retreat from China

Japan Leads the Retreat from China

In his recent Insight article, Chris Trotter suggested that China was ready to “step up” in the wake of the Wuhan virus. China’s economy, he argued, was being “slowly cranked up – to the immense relief of the world”. While the first part is certainly true (insofar as we can

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Little Emperors With No Clothes

Little Emperors With No Clothes

When I wrote, in the early days of the Chinese virus, that “the real sheeple are the panic-stricken lemmings of the elite”, I argued that the common folk were keeping calm and carrying on, while the elite were losing their minds. I naturally felt a bit foolish when, just days

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