TOPIC:

Whats Anne Aly going to say about this?

Hope all that voted for her, push her to the front to condemn this action.

I have made my views clear on her before about the Muslim problem so I will not repeat myself over again. In terms of the China trade and the Sprately Islands, it will come down to military muscle in the end. The peace neck is leaving office soon in Washington and there will be a totally new dynamic. If they blockade local or Western shipping in the future, the blockade should be broken by force; it is a very simple game, one winner at the end and it will not be China.

BC wrote: I've come to the conclusion DD that you live in a parallel universe to the rest of us...the $100 billion trade surplus we currently have with China would be replaced with what? Australia has a market of 25 million people and China has 1.3 billion...am I sensing that we would struggle to cover our losses if our trade with China went pear shaped? silly me...why am I trying to make valid points on basic economics 101 with someone who has no idea?

Oh, and you speak for "the rest of us"? How arrogant of you. Maybe you get that arrogance from fluffy Malcolm. When you can't handle a different point of view that person" has no idea " it seems. Lol

Take your rose coloured glasses off BC unemployment is on the rise while manufacturing has disappeared by the day because companies have gone the cheap and nasty route and sent manufacturing to China. Do I have to explain the flow on effects on the economy? Why bother with someone who has no idea! Since record trade with China we have never been in more debt

Grassy wrote:

ArkRoyal wrote: I have made my views clear on her before about the Muslim problem so I will not repeat myself over again. In terms of the China trade and the Sprately Islands, it will come down to military muscle in the end. The peace neck is leaving office soon in Washington and there will be a totally new dynamic. If they blockade local or Western shipping in the future, the blockade should be broken by force; it is a very simple game, one winner at the end and it will not be China.

Won't be any winner if a Major Conflict Blows Up,Lord help us.

Good post Arkroyal, if the Yanks decide to flex their muscles the nips will run for the hills. Don't confuse the Chinese for the Japanese. Two completely different beasts.

Grassy: correct; and that is what the Chinese Communists need to be made to realise in no uncertain terms. They have an obsession with Taiwan, are determined to humiliate and kill Japan, and want to expel the US from the FE. If the latter happens, I promise you Japan and South Korea will develop nuclear weapons and Australia will sign a defence treaty with both nations.

FMD...between you AR and DD I'm going to live in a tent on the Nullabor. It will never, I repeat never come down to a military solution with China. The Chinese and west are too smart for it to ever get to that. This particular situation is analogous to the Bay of Pigs where the Russians saw better of it and the Chinese will do likewise. It will be resolved through diplomacy like most tet-a-tet's are....and anyway, DD has fixed the economy and we're all on the road to prosperity by locking out Australia's biggest trading partner and foregoing a $100 million trade surplus. When Labor comes back into government DD should be the Treasurer as he has Keynes and the rest of us covered...in fact if Labor's last couple of Treasurer's are anything to go by, he's over qualified.

AR on second thoughts, let's bend over to the Mayor of Beijing and let them have their way with us so BC can keep his FIFO job otherwise he might have to work a regular job. How would he cope with just 4 weeks annual leave a year? And BC is waiting for the knock on the door from some Chinese investor to pay him overs for his property portfolio.

hahaha...sorry DD...I'm not a FIFO worker and don't work in the resources sector. But I guess you don't either based on your plan to shut down our exports to China of iron ore, LPG, agribusiness and so on. Although I bet there's plenty who are employed in those industries who would argue with you long and loud, and here you are a rabid socialist and unionist wanting to take jobs off your comrades...go figure.

BC the only country threatening the interruption of trade is China with it antics in the Spratleys; remember, the Americans most definitelly do have a trade imballance with China -- having sold-out their working class -- and there will be increasing calls to do something about it in Washington. Given that the Chinese, in your eyes, seem to be all seeing, and given the trade surplus China has with the US, for me at least BC, it is a bit strange that China should even remotelly endanger America's good will through its aggresive policies in the South China Sea. Most people would agree that building artificial islands and placing missiles on them is aggrssive behaviour, or at the very least highly irregular. I noticed that you made the comparison between Cuba and China, which is interesting, as the Americans did take firm measures on that occasion as you know; establishing a blockade as Kennedy, rightlly did, was one step short of war; it is an option the US navy will have in the future.

Although I have written mostly about the trade aspect of this problem, one should not over play the role of trade in geo-strategy, as if trade was the defining factor of foreign policy, Britain and Germany would never have fought each other in 1914.

Finally, BC, think about the nature of China's policy;

1 the industrialisation of China on the back of the undermining of the manufacturring sector in the West
2 the re-conquest of Taiwan
3 favourable revision of the border with Russia -- which comes up for discussion in around twenty years; these treaties were originally signed with Czarist Russia
4 Humiliation of Japan.
5 Pushing the US fleet out of the Pacific
6 regaining imperial sway over SE Asia

I will remind you too that India, for its part in this drama, although it has never been a pro- Western state and basically sided with the SU in the Cold War, accept in name, is keenly behind the anti-China policy. In fact, recentlly, for the first time ever, there were joint naval exercises between the Royal Australian Navy and the Indian Navy. Wonder why that might be?

Great post AR.
The Chinese know Obama won't do a think.Even the old enemy Vietnam is lobbying the US to do something.
If Trump does half the things he's talking about if elected the next American President the Chinese economic miracle is over.As you state with the trade inbalance.
Picking a blue with President Putin.Good luck with that 1.Only a crazy man like Adolf Hitler would pick a blue with the Russians.