The Australian journalist who shaped Western China policy
This is a superb profile of John Garnaut - a household name in Australian politics and China-watcher circles.
And if you don’t know him by name you most certainly know the results of his work.
He is the person pretty much responsible for alerting the Australian government to the ideological heart of Xi Jinping, as opposed to the then-prevailing view that China was set on a course of capitalism and possibly even some form of democratisation.
Garnaut was a former China correspondent and made a name for his insightful and well-sourced reporting documenting China’s elite — the so-called Princelings.
He caught the attention of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who was the architect of starting the change of Australia’s China policy to one that we recognise today as security-focussed and certainly far more hawkish.
It was Turnbull for instance, who banned Huawei from 5G and contrary to what is the popular view now, actually ended up leading American thinking on this.
Garnaut’s landmark report on foreign interference in Australian democracy set Turnbull, and Australia, on that course.
This profile by Katrina Northrop captures Garnaut’s character, intellect and impact and charts how Garnaut and Turnbull radically reorganised Australia’s foreign policy.
Sogavare’s mystery mansions
This piece by the Organised Crime and Corruption Report Project examines the booming real estate empire belonging to the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Manasseh Sogavare.
Sogavare only earns around $50,000 per year as PM but has recently built eight new homes that could be worth as much as $3.2 million.
With Sogavare seeking to secure a fifth prime ministerial term in key elections on April 17, anti-corruption experts say his fast-growing real estate portfolio — as well as the large loans he obtained to finance it — deserves closer scrutiny.
“He needs to explain to the people: Where did he get all this money from?” said Ruth Liloqula, who heads the Solomon Islands chapter of Transparency International.
Sogavare did not respond to questions from OCCRP and In-Depth Solomons.
Pompeo pens letter to Johnson
This edition of What I’m Reading comes to you from the beautiful town of Delphi in Greece where I am attending and moderating two sessions at the Delphi Economic Forum.
Ukraine is of course the dominant topic as is the US election which is the cause of huge stress and anxiety in Europe.
Everyone is asking the same questions - will the Republicans pass funding for Ukraine and what happens to European security if Donald Trump wins?
The dynamics inside the GOP are critical to Ukraine’s future. And Mike Pompeo who served as Trump’s Secretary of State is one of the few who have managed to straddle remaining credible on security as well as remaining inside the MAGA tent.
So his letter, co-written with the head of the Hudson Institute, to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to bring on the vote on sending new military aid and funding to Ukraine is well worth reading.
We encourage you to lead with conviction and bring the aid package to a vote. We understand the pressure in an election year to set aside national defence issues “over there” for the sake of domestic needs here.
But none of our challenges at home will be made better by abandoning our Allies at this time of great need, when they are staring down enemies of the free world.
How to brief a prime minister
I loved this interview with Ian Brodie, who served as chief of staff to former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper in which he discuss how various leaders like to be briefed.
(The context for this is a political row engulfing current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about what briefings he received on attempts by China to interfere in Canada’s democracy.)
Brodie recalls Harper’s rather meticulous methods of briefing.
Mr Harper initialized every note that he read. We knew the date he received every note and the date he returned it for filing. There was never any doubt about what he’d been briefed and when it had been briefed.
Boy Swallows Universe
This one is a bit of a cheat as it’s technically what I’ve been watching as opposed to reading but bear with me.
On my flight back to London from Australia last week, Qantas emailed beforehand to say they’d had an in-flight entertainment outage and advised downloading some content before boarding.
While everyone likes to pile on Qantas these days, I wasn’t too upset by this in the end, because I went straight to Netflix and downloaded a show I’ve been trying to find time to watch for ages - Boy Swallows Universe.
I read Trent Dalton’s debut novel when it came out and had a hunch this would be equally brilliant.
Thanks to the outage, a whole section of the plane was blocked off, so straight after take-off, I bagged an entire row to myself and watched the bulk of Boy Swallows Universe before my sleeping pill and two whiskies kicked in.
I’ve not stopped thinking about this show since watching it.
Dalton is an absolute sensation of a writer and the TV adaption did his masterpiece total justice.
To my mind, he is one of the few writers to explode onto the scene with an ability to write about male characters with emotional depth.
His hero, Eli Levy, (who you can’t help but think must be huge chunks of Dalton himself) touched me in a way I haven’t experienced with a fictional male character since I was a teenager and fell in love with Bryce Courtney’s Peekay in Power of One.
Boy Swallows Universe is absolutely magical in both forms.
It perfectly captures Queensland and late-eighties Australia and I’m so thrilled Netflix did such a great job of it.
It’s a must-read and a must-watch.
And that’s my list for this week. This week, at the Delphi Economic Forum, I moderated a discussion on EU competitiveness with Jonathan Hill, former European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union from 2014 until Brexit.
I joined Times Radio to discuss the week’s big topics in the UK and reviewed the newspapers on Moncole Radio.
Please do send me anything that’s caught your eye. And if you like my posts, please consider subscribing and sharing with others who you think might also enjoy this content in their life.
This is great - thanks Latika!