Democracy in the 21st Century
The world’s tallest green skyscraper, Taipei 101, stands 508 metres above the streets of Taipei’s Xinyi district
For democrats, made in Taiwan is a seductive brand with definite global appeal. ‘Through the promotion of its democratic ideals’, says a stylishly confident...
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The dwindling but still determined protesters in Hong Kong now face a vicious media assault on everything they stand for by central party propagandists in Beijing, writes John Keane.
Now entering its third week, its numbers dwindling but its determination and...
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Are political developments in Hong Kong heading for a second Tiananmen massacre? A fortnight ago, partly to provoke discussion, partly to sound an alarm, I suggested in a radio interview that unless the Chinese government wisely handled the fast-unfolding dynamics, things in...
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The following John Keane's interview with Claude Leblanc, 'Beijing has misjudged the situation in Hong Kong', appeared in the Paris-based newspaper, L'opinion, 30 September 2014.
« Pékin a mal évalué la situation à Hongkong »
John Keane, professeur de sciences politiques
à l’Université de Sydney et au...
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In Hong Kong, public tensions are mounting over Beijing’s recent decision to restrict free and fair elections in 2017. A week-long strike by students begins on September 22. The citizens' initiative Occupy Central with Love and Peace plans to stage...
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(above - The University of Sydney Quadrangle)
Pushed and pulled in different directions by government policies and market forces, modern universities try hard to be public institutions for the public good. Fond of proclamations, their efforts are impressive - sources of...
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The Farce of Democracy in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, Occupy Central plans to stage a mass sit-in on the streets of Central to protest Beijing's decision to restrict free and fair elections in 2017. A week-long strike by students begins...
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The following remarks were presented at a recent public forum in Sydney to celebrate the launch of Kerry Brown’s Carnival China: The People’s Republic in the era of Hu Jintao; Essays on Politics, Society and Culture. They tackle the issue...
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During several decades of contact with writers trapped in stressed and strained political circumstances, I can’t ever recall meeting a literary figure who was brave and principled enough to offer herself up for arrest and imprisonment by the authorities. That’s...
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There’s a time-tested ‘law’ in the history of modern self-government: when a bounded nation-state democracy prosecutes war abroad, the spirit and institutions of its democracy are usually vandalised at home.
The Life and Death of Democracy analyses many historical instances of...
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