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Rowan Callick is a double Walkley Award winner and a Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. He has worked and lived in Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Beijing.

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WORLD COMMENTARYWorld

A commuter holds a copy of the Apple Daily newspaper while gesturing the pro-democracy slogan âfive demands, not one lessâ inside a train in Hong Kong on August 11, 2020, a day after authorities conducted a search of the newspaper's headquarters after the companyâs founder Jimmy Lai was arrested under the new national security law. - Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested on August 10 and led in handcuffs through his newspaper office as police raided the building, part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent since China imposed a security law on the city. (Photo by ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)

HK mogul guilty of speaking truth to power

Jimmy Lai joins the growing ranks of democrats being arrested under the new national security law imposed on Hong Kong.

Rowan Callick

COMMENTARYWorld

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 28, 2020 shows China's President Xi Jinping voting on a proposal to draft a security law on Hong Kong during the closing session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. - China passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong on June 30, 2020, a historic move that critics and many western governments fear will smother the finance hub's freedoms and hollow out its autonomy. (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP)

Bleak future for HK’s freedom lovers

Opitimism that Hong Kong’s culture of openness and rule of law will survive Xi Jinping’s new security law is doomed.

Rowan Callick

World

Kafkaesque philosophy exacerbates opaque legal system

Australians are discovering, almost daily, just how different the People’s Republic of China remains.

Rowan Callick

Commentary

Protesters wave a Hong Kong colonial flag in a shopping mall during a protest in Hong Kong, Tuesday, June 9, 2020. A year on from the start of Hong Kong's anti-government protests, the leader of the semi-autonomous Chinese city said Tuesday that all sides should learn from the difficulties and challenging times over the past year. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Hong Kong and Chinese lives matter just as much

We must not let the US protests distract us from Beijing’s far more horrific human rights abuses against its own citizens.

Rowan Callick

CommentaryCommentary

L to R: visitors from China, ppose for a Harbour Brisgde selfie while taking in the sights around the Sydney Opera House. Sydney wants to attract more tourists from China. Picture: John Appleyard

Chinese tourists see past Xi’s angry rhetoric

China’s ‘combative diplomacy’ has targeted Germany, France, Israel, New Zealand and now us. But Chinese tourists are more independent than we might think.

Rowan Callick

inquirerInquirer

Riot police guard a protester as a second reading of a controversial national anthem law takes place in Central district, Hong Kong, Wednesday, May 27, 2020. Hong Kong police massed outside the legislature complex Wednesday, ahead of debate on a bill that would criminalize abuse of the Chinese national anthem in the semi-autonomous city. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Hong Kong be damned

While other world leaders remain COVID-consumed, China’s all-powerful ruler Xi Jinping is not letting a pandemic go to waste.

Rowan Callick

inquirerWorld

FILE - In this April 12, 2018, file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, speaks after he reviewed the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy fleet in the South China Sea. From Asia to Africa, London to Berlin, Chinese envoys have set off diplomatic firestorms with a combative defense whenever their country is accused of not acting quickly enough to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP, File)

On top of the world, but Xi is not immune

If China’s economy cannot recapture its mojo, all bets are off. Xi Jinping will be unable to weaponise a weak economy

Rowan Callick

coronavirusInquirer

This photo taken on April 15, 2020 shows venders wearing face masks as the offer prawns for sale at the Wuhan Baishazhou Market in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province. - China's "wet" markets have gained a bad international reputation as the coronavirus roiling the world is believed to have been born in stalls selling live game in Wuhan late last year. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP) / TO GO WITH Health-virus-China,SCENE by Jing Xuan Teng

Wet markets at heart of Chinese agenda

Scott Morrison says the WHO’s support of China’s wet markets is ‘unfathomable’. It’s not. It’s all part of Beijing’s grand plan.

Rowan Callick

inquirerInquirer

TOPSHOT - Members of a medical assistance team from Jiangsu province chant slogans at a ceremony marking their departure after helping with the COVID-19 coronavirus recovery effort, in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on March 19, 2020. - Medical teams from across China began leaving Wuhan this week after the number of new coronavirus infections dropped. China on March 19 reported no new domestic cases of the coronavirus for the first time since it started recording them in January, but recorded a spike in infections from abroad. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT

China’s command and control tactics

Totalitarian methods seem to have worked, but that doesn’t make them acceptable.

Rowan Callick

coronavirusInquirer

A member of a Chinese honor guard wears a face mask as he stands guard on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. China said Tuesday the number of infections from a new virus surpassed 20,000 as medical workers and patients arrived at a new hospital and President Xi Jinping said "we have launched a people's war of prevention of the epidemic." (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Xi’s China shows its true colours

Sometimes disasters illuminate a society’s weakness. Here are 10 lessons the coronavirus epidemic has taught us about China.

Rowan Callick

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/rowan-callick/page/9