Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

China’s Economic Blackmail Backfires

Monday, April 26, 2021

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

China increasingly wields its economic power as a political weapon, but that often courts a backlash. The latest example is Australia, where Foreign Minister Marise Payne last week exercised new discretionary power to kill two investment agreements between the state of Victoria and the Chinese government.

Beijing had planned to cooperate with Victoria on infrastructure, biotech, advanced manufacturing and technology. A 2018 memorandum of understanding and a 2019 framework agreement, both nixed last week, are part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, which seeks to use money and soft power to expand its global influence.

Australia knows what China’s bare-knuckle economic diplomacy looks like. Canberra banned Chinese telecom companies from its 5G network in 2018 and last year Australia supported an independent probe into the origin of Covid-19. China is Australia’s top trade partner, and the Communist Party has responded with tariffs and trade restrictions targeting Australian wine, beef, coal, lobster, timber, barley, sugar and copper ore.

Economist Marcel Thieliant estimated that “the goods and services already in the firing line are worth nearly a quarter of Australia’s exports to China” and warned that “the escalating trade war is another reason to think that Australia’s economy will never return to its pre-virus path.” That may be overwrought, but there’s no doubt Australia has lost billions of dollars in commodities sales.

This is the context that caused Australia’s Parliament in December to give the foreign minister the authority to review and invalidate agreements between foreign entities and Australian states, territories, local governments or public universities. Lawmakers didn’t want state and local governments cutting deals that undermine Australia’s national interest.

Ms. Payne said last week the agreements between China and Victoria are among those she found “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations.” In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin excoriated Australia for “wantonly disrupting normal exchanges and cooperation between the two countries and gravely undermining the bilateral relations and mutual trust.”

But Beijing’s bullying has consequences, especially in democracies that must respond to public opinion, unlike China’s ruling Communist Party. The world is better when investment flows without political interference. But China’s predatory behavior presents a special challenge. Australia is showing that China’s economic coercion isn’t cost-free.

Photo: Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne speaks in Penrith, Australia, May 18, 2020.
PHOTO: RICK RYCROFT/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-economic-blackmail-backfires-11619384564

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