![Illustration: Dionne Gain](/web/20170405053523im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/c/n/x/u/image.related.landscape.460x307.gvcm0y.png/1491264628635.jpg)
How China built its dominance on our factories
China has played hard and dirty in its breakneck catch-up with the West.
Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a Gold Walkley award winner, a former foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington, and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His latest book is The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made its Own Luck and Could Now Throw it All Away. His 2005 book, Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars, foresaw the collapse of the US housing market and the economic slump that followed.
China has played hard and dirty in its breakneck catch-up with the West.
While the major parties concentrate on their parlour games, winter is coming.
Australia was told to bend over and brace for a kicking from China last week. But, in the event, there was no kicking. Quite the contrary.
Contrary to expectations, Donald Trump seems to be taking time to assess, rather than rushing to irradiate.
In a scene in the ABC TV political satire Utopia, the prime minister's press secretary is explaining to the head of the fictitious Nation Building Authority why he has to ignore feasibility studies.
A parallel universe exists just 200 kilometres from Australia's shores. It's otherwise known as Indonesia. A remarkable event that you haven't heard about has just taken place there.
Pauline Hanson said two remarkable things this week. No, not the customary Muslim-hating. That's entirely routine. It's written into the One Nation policy platform.
Australia's record in preventing terrorist attacks is one of the best in the world, so why would you want to restructure the system responsible for it? This is the threshold question for the push to create a new mega-department along the lines of the US Department of Homeland Security.
It seems to be heyday for the hatemongers. Pauline Hanson's One Nation calls for a ban on Muslim immigrants. Katter's Australia Party wants the same thing by a different name. Jacqui Lambie is antagonistic to Muslims. Cory Bernardi and the Nationals' George Christensen blow the dog-whistle of anti-Islam.
The leader of the Jewish state was in Australia last week. So was the leader of the world's biggest Muslim-majority state.
Search pagination
Save articles for later.
Subscribe for unlimited access to news. Login to save articles.
Return to the homepage by clicking on the site logo.