China

Readers, as ever, think we could be handling relations with China better. Elsewhere, there have been comments in the comments section in an article about whether or nor journalists should read the comments. Bit meta, hey?

Mega props to commenter Edmondo Testa who worked in the pun we were dying to use on the Andrew Hastie story.

On Andrew Hastie’s revelations of potential bribery of UN officials by a prominent Chinese-Australian political donor

Old Fogey writes: So, we can’t have China meddling in our affairs, but it is clearly “OK” for the US to meddle in our affairs. Time we started thinking for ourselves. Not sure that those in power are capable of doing that though.

GideonPolya writes: White Australia’s historical, deep fear of Asia and China derives from basic human xenophobia complicated by British imperial notions of British and white racial superiority and the fear that the vastly more numerous Asians and Chinese might dispossess White Australia just as white Australians robbed the Indigenous Australians of a whole continent in a continuing Aboriginal genocide. It is this latter fear of the so-called “Yellow Peril” that has made Australia a blindly loyal ally of the US that has participated in all post-1950 US-Asian wars.

On whether or not journos should be forced to read the comments

Ruv Draba writes: It’s my personal view that newspapers need to re-envision themselves as the nucleus of a current affairs community. Journalists can report news, but also pose questions and provocations for community discussion. That sort of thing is faked on family news, talkback radio and reader polls, but newspapers can do it in earnest. I think communities want it, too — perhaps need it.

DjBekka writes: Tell the digital marketing people to read the comments and sum them up in a table: serious comment, death threats, etc. Have them do it for a month and then provide recommendations for engagement with each type of comment. (Oh yes, and while they are at it, they could forward any useful comments to you). Just saying…

Send your comments, corrections, clarifications and cock-ups to boss@crikey.com.au. We reserve the right to edit comments for length. Please include your full name.