"The question is can Australia and other Western nations work towards untying the China bell around their neck".

Apart from talking about it, Australia doesn't seem to be doing much about it, except trotting off to global organisations that China just ignores - and funds.

"Yes, Australia is a lucky country. However it should not punch above its weight or push its luck", sounds like a threat to me, from a Chinese stooge who claims China has "not thrown its weight around".

It isn't often one can read straight out Chinese "communist" (actually fascist) propaganda but it sure reveals their childish and petulant attitudes.

China better start getting interested in compromise, Mr Lin, because China is rapidly becoming the most hated country on Earth. Everybody now knows that you Chinese created the covid-19 bug now decimating the world, and when China prevented domestic air travel at the time the virus was spreading through China, but allowed international travel, it sure looks like it was a deliberate act.

The Chinese Communist party ran China down so much that most of your historical heritage artefacts now reside in Taiwan because you commies were too stupid to appreciate your own historical artefacts. Lucky for you that the Nationalist Chinese rescued them before your Taliban type government destroyed them. God knows how many Chinese starved to death under that child molesting idiot Mao (who screwed a virgin every night), and the CCP will never tell us. What got you thinking straight was the Gulf War when Chinas military leaders realised just how backward the PLA was. It was time for the Chinese fascists to take over from "the gang of four."

The big mistake the US and the west made was to think that if we were kind to the Chinese and bestowed out advanced technology on them, then made China part of the world community, they would become good global citizens. But totalitarian regimes never think that way.

So now we have a fascist China on the march who's leaders are so insular that they are too dumb too realise that the whole world is ganging up against China. Even Chilean and Argentinean naval vessels are firing on Chinese fishing boats. The Swedes chucked your "Confucius centres" right out of their country. France will never build another virology lab in China again, just so it can be chucked out of the lab it built so the PLA can work on biological warfare. China has no friends it has not bought. And even those are now so in dept to China that they despise you

Either China is the enemy or it isn’t. A prevaricating Government is a big part of the problem.

Then, if this decision is ever made, and we are at war with China, its past time to intern Chinese living in Australia.

There is plenty of precedence for that to happen. EG Japanese internment ww2.

Dan

We didn't make China the enemy! Only Mr Morrison and a few parliamentary colleagues. Who couldn't keep their views less public!

We were not assisted by the loudspeaker diplomacy! He needed to understand that the loss of face, was less preferable in the Asian mind than death!

That said, we do need to break ith China and rearm as if we stood alone against an emerging superpower? Because, as things stand, that may well be our future? Alternatively, we could just roll over and beg for a tummy rub?

We just cannot assume that we are protected by another nation's defence umbrella! I mean what was our alliance really worth when D. Trump was its commander in chief? If one is going to bellow their views from the rooftops? One needs to carry a really big stick!

And for us, that really big stick is nuclear weapons/missiles and nuclear power, i.e., MSR nuclear power and energy so cheap (1 cent PKWH or less) that high tech manufacturing queues to relocate here

One would need to be intellectually challenged, deaf and blind, not to see that! On the flip side, mostly agree with the Morrison sentiments.
Alan B.

The problem with local Chinese is that Bejiing influences the Chinese language press in Australia. The other problem is that we don't know which Chinese are loyal to Australia, as many are, and which are loyal to Beijing. It all comes back to the utter stupidity of multiculturalism. As Dan says, the only way to be sure would be to intern the lot in case of conflict. Our own politicians have brought this threat on us, and all the crap about Chinese market gardeners being here since gold rush days is irrelevant to the CCP and Beijing supporters here now. Overseas Chinese are one of the CCP's weapons of war.

Well we have heard this before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels

Good enough for those who think that murdering Jews was Germany's own "internal affair".
Good enough for those who think that annexing Austria and taking over Poland was just a minor border adjustment to protect the local German population.

If we punch above our weight, then at least we will die an honourable death with a clean conscience, rather than as Kapos who grovel to evil.