Totalitarian systems
Report
The elite embrace
This paper traces the elitist evolution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under leader, Xi Jinping, before examining the gap between Party elites and the masses. The author then outlines how China courts foreign elites, arguing that many Australian corporate, university, state and local government elites are effectively captured by such courting, whilst the general...
Report
Digital authoritarianism, China and COVID
This paper argues that the onus is on democracies to do more to counter the harmful aspects of China’s global technology agenda, and to find ways to harness technology, including artificial intelligence, for the global public good, while preserving hard-won democratic rights and liberties.
Report
Xi’s UN speech: when rhetoric did not meet reality
General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations is a classic example of the Chinese Communist Party’s doublespeak. Almost every statement was hypocritical when examined in light of such CCP actions as the suppression of elements of the Chinese population, the manipulation of international...
Policy report
Cultural erasure: tracing the destruction of Uyghur and Islamic spaces in Xinjiang
The Chinese state has long sought to ‘transform’ and ‘civilise’ Xinjiang, but Xi Jinping and his lieutenants bring a new sense of urgency to this colonialist project. Under the guise of combating perceived ‘religious extremism’ and promoting ‘inter-ethnic mingling’, Chinese officials are slowly but systematically stripping away those elements of Uyghur culture they deem to...
Report
Out of control: failing EU laws for digital surveillance export
This report gives evidence of the gaps in the current European Union (EU) export regulation framework for digital surveillance technologies and provides the EU institutions and its member states with actionable recommendations to improve the protections of human rights.