# ASPI jumps the shark on China What happened to the [Australian Strategic Policy Institute](https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/) (ASPI)? A good while back now, it started out as an incredibly promising strategic and defence studies think-tank with the original aim to act as source of public debate—to question the dominance of the Department of Defence and provide alternative sources of informed analysis. Along with sources, such as the Parliamentary Library, and the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at ANU, and the Lowy Institute, it questioned and even challenged orthodoxy—famously even raising concerns about Australia’s involvement in the 2003 Iraq War. Somewhere along the line, as ASPI sought to move away from government funding, its trajectory changed. The subjects it covered contracted and narrowed until one day you turn around after a few years abroad, and near everything concerns China: national security, cyber security, critical technologies, foreign interference, disinformation, the Pacific, intelligence and economic security. Rather than providing alternative sources of informed analysis it magnifies and intensifies a singular position. Today, there’s a fairly clear understanding of its position. It has on several occasions impacted Australia’s relationship with China. It opened an office in Washington, seemingly with the sole purpose of churning out anti-China gibberish. So concerned was a fairly [recent review](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-19/aspi-set-for-public-funding-cut/104746248) of the think-tank, they recommended its government funding reviewed and the Washington office closed. Reading today’s spiel in the ASPI blog, _The Strategist_, I can see why. Now, at this point, I must say, this is a personal blog and I get to say pretty much what I want cos if you don’t like reading it, hey, find some other codswallop to consume. There’s plenty of sh#te that will be right down your alley and tell you everything that you already agree with, probably like the very ASPI piece I’m dissing: “[To deter China, we need a global alliance of democracies](https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/to-deter-china-we-need-a-global-alliance-of-democracies/)” How the f$ck this was ever published, I don’t know. It starts with a warning—always an awesome start for anti-China fluff. “There is a distinct possibility of an enormous war breaking out in the next few years over a Chinese attempt to seize Taiwan.” FFS. Gimme a break. Now, that’s a prize-winning prediction: A great power growing at a steady rate will seek to exert its growing influence by restoring its historical borders as its main rival retreats from its global position because it’s overstretched, increasingly sclerotic, and resembles a late imperial power whose ambitions have outgrown both its capabilities and the quality of its leadership? Yeah, I’d bank on that too. But an anti-China fluff piece is never complete without something about 2027... “Xi has told the armed forces to be ready to go by 2027, according to US intelligence...” Oh, check the box. It’s not hard to tell where the piece goes next. “...we still need to build a new global institution—an alliance of democracies—the D7—_to form an unchallengeable bulwark and deterrent against any further aggression by the autocracies_.” FFS Charlie, this shite is so whack when you walk down the street in Sydney and wonder—just what are we deterring? Are we deterring an assault on our freedoms? Are we deterring restrictions on protest and assembly, speech, privacy and communications, movement, detention, detention without criminal charge, post-sentence detention and supervision, citizenship rights, national-security reporting and whistleblowing, and access to social media? Oh no, that would be the last decade of Australia’s policy agenda.  Are we deterring an assault on our democracy? Are we deterring limited political representation increasingly clustered around a narrow uniparty consensus, dominated by corporate interests and global elites, and reinforced by social media controls to restrict alternative ideas? Oh no, that would be the last decade of Australia’s policy agenda. Are we deterring our rights as citizens to housing, education, healthcare, and public infrastructure? Are we deterring a two-tiered school system dividing families by wealth, while rents soar, home ownership retreats beyond the reach of younger Australians, and families hardly surviving in vans and tents in our cities and suburbs? Are we deterring the privatization of health and pharmaceuticals? Are we deterring an assault on our highly advanced fast train systems? Oh no, that would be the last decade of Australia’s policy agenda. Are we deterring war by working together and forming a big fugly alliance of dis-functioning democracies? Are we deterring wars inspired by [Brzezinski’s visions](https://www.junotane.com/p/re-reading-brzezinski-in-korea) on Ukraine and Iran? The former to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, and the latter to control Iran. You know it’s now going on close to 75 years since Iran’s democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown, replaced with a dictator, and then when popular government was restored in a revolution, it was sanctioned and condemned? Are we deterring war? No, the last ten wars or so were all started by the U.S. with the backing of those same D7 democracies. The author concludes with a simple ask: “Even better would be the formation of a world security community of democratic nations following the European model.” I won’t bother responding to this one because time itself will fill in the gaps. With de-industrialization, unrestricted migration, declining trust in democracy, an unwillingness to accept Russia as a partner, high energy costs, and an unawareness of the growing nationalism within their borders, the countdown has already begun on Europe. The D7... Pointing out that it’s a stupid idea and belies every maxim of IR theory is pretty inane—kind of like pointing to a dog shit after someone’s stepped in it. It could even “develop into a broader security partnership among middle powers” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former prime minister of Denmark, and former secretary-general of NATO—someone hand-picked by the U.S. because he was pliable enough to obey every rule. Yeah, name one, just one, middle power initiative that ever worked without the acquiescence or backing of a great power.  There’s an alarming gap between the elite and the people in Western democracies. We can see it in the U.S., the U.K. Europe, Canada, and Australia. AND right there, is the one thing thing the author gets correct. The author early on states that “The international situation at present bears some alarming similarities with the prelude to World War II.” Well, the international situation in the lead-up to WWII was a direct result of decisions by the global elite set in place twenty years earlier. Twenty years ago, when the 2008 financial crisis hit, Western democracies chose austerity for citizens and rescued the financial institutions whose excesses had produced the crisis. Losses were socialized, assets protected, and the costs pushed downward through cuts, wage stagnation, unemployment and diminished public services. Capital disciplined the citizens, but citizens could not discipline capital. The middle class disappeared. The global elite said f$ck you to every middle class family. The alarming gap between the elite and the people in Western democracies is coming home to roost and no global alliance of democracies is going to stop it. Like I’ve said before, that gap is also visible in Australia’s strategic community and the people they should be writing for. Pushing for war and pushing for war with China sells well to the wankers in Washington, but means nothing to your average Australian—particularly the next generation. Australia’s Gen-Z (and I exclude the go-getters on ASPI junior fellowships or interns) has about as much interest in that shite as I do in the latest trend on TikTok. Ain’t no one fighting for the country when they’re locked out of housing, struggling for secure work, distrustful of politics, and unrepresented. ASPI was once a reputable, objective, and informative source of information and analysis. It’s no longer even a shadow of what it was, and when it gets a proponent of [world government](https://worldsecuritycommunity.org/about/) to push for a global league of democracies to fight China—it has really jumped the shark. *** Espresso - [Buy Me a Coffee](https://buymeacoffee.com/junotane)! ## Related articles - [[2026-09-14 Banana republic boomers ready to send you to war|Banana republic boomers ready to send you to war]] - [[2026-09-23 Coo-ee! Australia calls!|Coo-ee! Australia calls!]] - [[2026-09-19 China will never invade Australia|China will never invade Australia]]