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Why calls for compassion for refugees don’t work

Why calls for compassion for refugees don’t work

It’s easy to disparage those calling for a more humane approach to the refugee crisis. There’s The Spectator‘s line about moral grandstanding and, locally, Chris Kenny’s call for sobriety in The Australian: ‘Emotion, moral vanity,...
The Chinese capitalist romance

The Chinese capitalist romance

In his new year’s speech, President Xi Jinping told the Chinese people that their nation was in the process of implementing something unprecedented. There would be challenges, he warned, but if China remained united the ultimate goal of creating ‘socialism with...
Family Planning, Chinese Style

Family Planning, Chinese Style

Should the decision to relax the one-child policy be seen as a welcome, humane reform? China’s one-child policy is frequently framed as an economic and social imperative, implemented not wilfully, but rather as a necessity. Those favoring this argument often fail to...
China, the United States and the Politics of Human Rights

China, the United States and the Politics of Human Rights

It’s become a matter of routine that every year the United States and China – from their respective positions of moral superiority – take part in a diplomatic tit-for-tat in which they each document the other’s human rights violations. In America, this...
Shipping out to study in Oz

Shipping out to study in Oz

In the old imperial district of Beijing, a Ming dynasty mansion is now used as an auxiliary campus by Beijing Normal University. In one of the converted classrooms a group of students are making preparations to leave for Australia next semester and begin their...