- Analysis & Opinion
Chongqing police chief disappears
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. February 11, 2012 Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun On the disappearance of the Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun. Bo Xilai is the Party Secretary of the municipality of Chongqing. This huge metropolis is the central government’s hub for growth in the hinterland of China. In China, the Party Secretary is the [...]
A song and dance in China
Brian Hennessy. Cairns and Chongqing. July 3, 2011 A song and dance in China On the reappearance of revolutionary rhetoric What can we make of the reappearance of Maoist-era revolutionary rhetoric in China? This recent phenomenon was first noticed in Chongqing, China’s gateway to the west which is situated on the Yangtze River upstream [...]
Will the real China please stand up
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. September 30, 2010 Will the real China please stand up. International player On September 23, 2010, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao addressed the United Nations General Assembly. Premier Wen said that China was a peace-loving nation and a responsible member of the international community. He pledged that China would firmly take the [...]
On China and Confucianism
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. September 19, 2010 Download Brian's eBook, Culture Shock in China: a guide for foreigners on cultural adaptation, on the Toolbar above. On China and Confucianism. China's cultural environment is radically different from western cultural environments. Although China can boast of the longest continuous civilisation on earth (4000-5000 years), at no time [...]
Watching China
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, CHINA. August 12, 2010 Watching China Recently, a two-star Chinese General, Liu Yazhou, warned the Communist Party and his People’s Liberation Army colleagues that, “China must either embrace US-style democracy or accept Soviet-style collapse.” He continued: ''If a system fails to let its citizens breathe freely and release their creativity to [...]
China, the DPRK, and hope
Brian Hennessy, Chongqing, China. June, 2010 Sport and politics do mix Despite their government's public expressions of fraternity towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK=North Korea), these days Chinese people refuse to be taken in by crude propaganda. They are not fools. Although they understand the geopolitical reasons why the DPRK should not be [...]
Australia: understanding China
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. May 27, 2010 Download Brian's eBook, Culture Shock in China: a guide for foreigners on cultural adaptation, on the Toolbar above. Learning about the nuts & bolts of China "…we need to ramp up the critical mass of Australians who are China literate… Unless we do so, our relations with China risk being [...]
China: on mercantilism.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, CHINA. February 5, 2010 China: on an accusation of mercantilism. Mercantilism and China? I have to say that the term, now used to describe China’s commerce with other countries, is pejorative. England and Holland were mercantile trading nations during the industrial revolution and their time as exploiting colonial powers. Japan and Korea [...]
The law: soldiering on in China.
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, CHINA. January 31, 2010 The law: soldiering on in China. I am an Australian Vietnam veteran. I have a friend here in China who is also a Vietnam veteran. Whereas I fought local Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army regulars in South Vietnam 1966-67, he fought North Vietnamese troops along the China-Vietnam [...]
China’s rise: Why worry?
Brian Hennessy. Chongqing, China. October 3, 2009 Will China become a great power? Why the West should not worry. It’s not time to hit the panic button yet. It is time however, to pause and reflect on the values which have made the West strong, and to ask ourselves whether or not these values have [...]