Pure verbage from someone who has almost certainly never had a proper job in her entire life. I am not in the least bit interested in whether or not the chinese consider us literate, semiliterate or illiterate. We are an English speaking nation and as far as I am aware, or care, we speak it very well. China is interested in us because of our mineral wealth and if that mineral wealth were to disappear tomorrow so would their interest vanish. There is not a single shred of evidence that supports the view we would benefit economically from learning chinese, mandarin, or rhubarb for that matter. What a load of rubbish. Get a proper job you sycophant. You find them on SEEK, if you have ever heard of that.

Don't be so silly love, we've got you & Ruddy to do it for us.

I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords.

I do not welcome them. Chinese are an extremely racist, insular and invasive race who think of nothing except money and how to relieve other people of theirs. We are not Asians and they are not Australians.

Learning Chinese is great for the author and for those interested
and with an aptitude. Some people can find a job as a translator.
But there is absolutaly no good reason why Chinese should be taught
more generally.

Given that my local doctor is from Bangaladesh and the one in the
next town is from Nigeria, perhaps our universities should focus
on the basics first, like medicine and engineering, before they
get carried away with all sorts of other subjects.

Chinese is not a difficult language it's an almost impossible language! The very same word can have up to a dozen meanings, depending on the tonal inflection and or regional interpretation.
As for the written language, we might as well ask our children to learn ancient Sumerian? Well it is an art form?
Put three foreign Doctors in the one room. One is from Nigeria, another from Norway and the third from Mandrin speaking Taiwan. They all have English as their second language and the only reason they are able to confer and discuss a patient.
English is the language of science and international commerce, because it is the most precise language on the planet; and don't the arrogant French hate that?
Sure why not, lets have other regional languages included in the curriculum; always providing there's enough interest, but only after our children have fully mastered their very own mother tongue and mathematics. Rhrosty