The culture of opportunism is not a good one.

A couple of recent articles on China/Xi that'll make some heads spin, particularly those who've spent the last two years misunderstanding the world around them.

http://www.atimes.com/chinas-new-woes-unravel-xis-personality-cult/

http://m.theepochtimes.com/chinese-people-hope-powerful-grandpa-trump-ends-the-chinese-communist-party_2613192.html

Alan B.,
I don't speak Mandarin and nor do I need to. Chinese territorial ambitions are limited to the parts of the world that China has a historical claim to – sometimes an extremely dubious historical claim that is not recognised by anyone else, but a historical claim nonetheless.

Having nuclear weapons does NOT reduce the chance of them being used against us; if anything, it increases the chance of them being used against us. It would slightly reduce the chance of conventional weapons being used against us, but there are much more effective ways of doing that.

You seem to have fallen for the US Military Industrial Complex's lie that more weapons spending is the best way to achieve peace. In reality more weapons spending leads to the need for more weapons spending, with money that could have been put to far more productive uses. Far, far better to rely on (and wherever possible, strengthen) the UN's capacity to resolve disputes.

If that ever fails, we can still rely on international treaties such a ANZUS. But a return to the 19th century concept of rule by intimidation is extremely undesirable.

Tell me, is your militarism the result of military service?

BTW this ha nothing to do with nuclear power, which I am broadly in favour of despite being deeply skeptical of the economic case for it in Australia.