Roland Boer's Blog, page 24

Two (of three) articles on Chinese Marxist approaches to human rights

In the process of writing a series of three articles on Chinese Marxist human rights, two pre-publication versions have been posted on – of all things – the website of the Australian Academy of Humanities. I do not quite understand why they asked for them, given the other items, but there you go:

1. The State and Minority Nationalities in China

2. ‘We Have Freedom of Religion’: Understanding Chinese Marxist Approaches to Human Rights

3. Sovereignty and Human Rights: A Chinese Perspective (thi...

An effort to understand Australian Sinophobia

Since I spend my holidays in Australia, I find a need to understand the extraordinarily vicious Sinophobia thereabouts. In our time, perhaps New Zealand is the only country where it is worse, but that is not by much. Russophobia is part of the picture as well, but not as bad as in that very weird country, the United States.

So let me suggest the following:

1. The weakness of Australian governance, especially at a national level. No matter what party has been in power over the last decade or m...

Deng Xiaoping: Basic principles of international engagement

In the context of the 1978 launch the ‘four modernisations’ (agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defence), Deng Xiaoping made the following remarks relating to China’s international engagement:

At present, we are still a relatively poor nation. It is impossible for us to undertake many international proletarian obligations, so our contributions remain small. However, once we have accomplished the four modernizations and the national economy has expanded, our contributi...

2018: The Year Apple Products Became Obsolete

Is 2018 the year that the global symbol of U.S. technological innovation became obsolete? Or is it the year when we began to realise a reality that has actually been the case for a while?

Not so long ago, it was a given that Apple products would be manufactured in China, but that the crucial value-adding would take place in the United States’ infamous Silicon Valley. In this way, companies like Apple could maintain a stranglehold on the global supply chain. No matter that it was often Chinese...

Second Australian China Road Conference

China Road Conference Program

Sponsored by the Academy of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Shandong Academy of Social Sciences

2 December, 2018

9.00-10.25: Plenary Session Ι

Moderator: Tang Zhouyan (Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, secretary of the party committee); Roland Boer (Conference organizer)

9.00－9.10: Address: Grant Osland (Communist Party of Australia, Newcastle branch secretary)

9.10－9.20: Group photo

Addres s and keynote speeches ( 20 minutes ) ：

‘The Essential Charac...

An insight into the socialist market economy

This year marks the 40th anniversary celebrations of the reform and opening up and the development of the socialist market economy (which is different from a capitalist market economy). As part of the celebrations, 100 people who have contributed significantly to the reform and opening up were nominated for awards. As the People’s Daily reports:

The award candidates come from a wide range of professions, including scientists, economists, grass-roots Party cadres, model workers, state firm man...

Between European and Chinese Marxist Approaches to Human Rights

I am completing a series of three articles on the contrasts between European and Chinese Marxist approaches to human rights. The following slides are from a powerpoint that I use in different situations.

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Taiwan SAR votes overwhelmingly in favour of One China

This one is very difficult to spin away from the obvious results. On 24 November, they held the nine-in-one elections in Taiwan SAR, for nine levels of government up to the level of mayors and councillors (similar elections are held in the rest of China on a regular basis). The separatist Democratic Progressive Party suffered a thumping defeat. It managed less than 40 percent of the vote, while the Guomindang managed almost 50 percent. In other words, the Guomindang, which had been going back...

Has Western Europe Lost Its Soul?

(An earlier version of this paper was given at a Sinology conference in Beijing at the beginning of November, 2018)

Has Western Europe lost its soul?

Before beginning, let me set a more personal context. My parents emigrated from the Netherlands to Australia in the late 1950s, so my nationality (or ethnicity) is Dutch, although my citizenship is Australian. To add to these personal connections, my education is in European classical languages, biblical criticism and Western European (and Russi...

The Maopai (Maoist sectarians)

Agence France Presse asked me recently about at item making the rounds in some quarters. It concerns a small group of Maoist sectarians who had travelled south to take part is some worker protests. Coming from a few universities in Beijing, some were put under house arrest upon return. I am told that Cornell University in the United States terminated a cooperative program with Renmin University of China over the issue.

Of course, all of this gains its inevitable spin and the full context is l...