Part-time staffer in the office of Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane (now being investigated by ASIO and the Federal Police), 'John' Zhang, in 2014 announced on a blog that China's political influence on Australia would be strengthened by having an Australian politician like Moselmane as a "friend".

All Australia's fault, of course. Nothing to do with the disloyalty of a multi-culti and the sainted Chinese Communist Party, as some posters would have us believe.

ttbn,

I think everyone on OLO knows where I stand when it comes to China.

How many years have I been trying to warn people about China's real intentions?

How many Chinese migrants have been planted in Australia by the CCP over the past 30 years with the objective of growing a pro-China segment of the population?

We have even put a Chinese migrant with affiliations to the CCP into federal parliament.

As I keep telling everybody what that Chinese businesswoman said: "Aren't the Australians dumb!"

And now we are all paying for that dumbness!

We need to become less reliant on China and far more self-reliant.

We need to start to make what we need here, as Australian made. And get rapid rail off of the drawing board and on the ground as an operating travel option! And put the second Sydney airport back on paper for the foreseeable future!

To that end, we need affordable reliable energy and to take a leaf out of those Australian operations that have incorporated automation and now outperform China as a manufacturer of goods. Yes, we do have one or two here in Oz, already.

We'd have many more if the energy bills were no longer higher than the wages bill (MSR THORIUM) and more than double what we can now do, if those new operations are employee-owned and operated co-ops.

This paradigm will ensure two very important things. that the total costs of the start-up will be the lowest possible as will be, the forward operating costs!

Moreover, there will be no union involvement or necessity! Plus the best possible wages and conditions. Many current operations will go to the wall or survive as a partnership between the employer and employees, with the latter as the controlling senior partner.

Funding and facilitation as simple as the stroke of a minister's pen.

The Great Depression resulted in, for that time, huge comparative debt. That debt simply disappeared without much ado with renewed economic activity and a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

And given they stood almost alone as the only, free-market, private enterprise, business model, that survived the Great Depression largely intact, co-ops contributed to that very result vastly more than anything or anyone else did or could have!

And requires of us that the usual debt possessed bean counters be sidelined once again, least their fear-based immobility (rabbit in spotlight) wreaks a good recovery!

Do all the above! And we may not have to import any manufactured goods from anywhere/anyone? And would mean we'd once again, export more than we import and become, once again, a creditor nation, not debtor one!
Alan B

Mr Opinionated
Not that I’m answerable to you in any way, but no, I’m not pro Chinese or pro any other country. What I am strongly against though is unsubstantiated xenophobic scare-mongering, of which you appear to be a master.
There is no evidence whatever to prove that the Chinese government is engaged in cyber hacking and Scott Morrison’s clumsy attempt to implicate the Chinese leadership was nothing more than baseless and diversionary mud-throwing.
The Belt and Road Initiative is not about taking control. It’s a co-operative transnational venture based on mutual trade, infrastructure building and cultural exchange. It will provide much-needed opportunities for large numbers of countries left behind in the winner-takes-all Western globalisation which has dominated world trade for the last four decades.
No one knows the exact origins of the latest Coronavirus pandemic. As far as we know at this stage, it first surfaced in a Wuhan market, but that doesn’t mean it originated there. We still don’t know what country it came from or whether it originated in animals or in a laboratory. You are out of order in implying China deliberately manipulated and unleashed this virus. You have no proof whatever and besides what country would be stupid enough to release biological warfare on its own people?
You’re the one who needs a reality check, not me. You need to let go of your reds-under-the-beds nonsense and start researching a little more widely.

Indian citizens are fighting back against China, in the streets, calling for boycotts against Chinese goods.

In Australia, we go out on the streets to demonstrate against ourselves! BLM rubbish and 'racism', neither of which has anything to do with most of us.

The Indian government has cancelled three deals, worth $600 million with China. China is on India's border. What will the Australian government do as China threatens our border from PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Pacific? They are not saying. Still mesmerised.

Mr. Opinion,

Bronwyn is nobody, and most unlikely to be of any use to China as a stooge given her obvious naivety and lack of education on China and the CCP. Waffling about xenophobia, when the Chinese, not just the Communist government, have had racism and the superiority of their own race banged into them for three millenia. Unless our government grows a backbone soon we, including all the simple little Bronwyns, will experience the Chinese way first hand.

Hi Bronwyn,

Welcome to the forum.

Glad to have another female joining the ranks of
contributors.

A 2017 report by the ANU's National Security College
edited by former diplomat and intelligence analyst Prof.
Rory Medcalf argued that the perceptions of Australia's
dependence on China and vulnerability to Chinese economic
pressure were exaggerated.

Prof. Medcalf said:

"The nature of our economic relationship means there are
limits to the pressure China can apply without imposing
sizeable costs on itself".

"Pressure that would have the biggest impact on our
economy such as threatening to restrict the iron-ore
trade would likely be a "one-shot" option for Beijing
doing serious harm to that link thereafter".

" After all Chinese attempts at economic coercion
against other countries have often back fired in the long run".

Then we have Prof. James Laurenceson, Director of the
Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of
Technology Sydney telling us that he believed the current
dispute would stay "confined to the diplomatic realm".

That it would not spill over to the economic side of the
China-Australia relationship which benefits both countires.
That makes sense.

When it comes to resources China has few other options
apart from Australia. When it comes to tourism and
education - it's not like the government has a direct
lever it can pull. It can seek to influence Chinese
public opinion but Chinese households get their
information from multiple sources. They aren't all just
reading the People's Daily.

Laurenceson argues that Australia's position as a
professional destination for Chinese students would likely
be more affected by racially motivated anti-Chinese acts -
such as the assault of 2 Chinese students in Melbourne
apparently linked to COVID -19, then by disagreements
between ambassadors and ministers.

Interesting times we live in.