Mr Opinionated
Once again, and it is becoming tiresome, I suggest you rebut my arguments, instead of lazily resorting to personal put-downs. Any fool can do that and besides yours aren't nearly as funny as you obviously think they are.
And BTW, North Korea is in a similar situation to China. It too is being heavied, militarily-surrounded and economically-sanctioned by the self-appointed policeman of the world. The US obliterated North Korea in the early fifties and has ever since obstinately refused to apologise or to sign a peace treaty as North Korea has humbly requested on numerous occasions. Why is it acceptable for one country to carpet-bomb another to smithereens and then refuse to allow its victim to build a nuclear defence? I'm totally against all nuclear, but I do understand why North Korea is finally resorting to what it perceives to be a necessary defence. It's tried olive branch diplomacy, but the US won't give an inch. Nuclear is North Korea's last ditch effort to get America off its back.
And BTW, ttbn, I'd be very surprised if North Korea is 'disillusioned' with China. Yes, they have some occasional border issues, but for as long as they're both being harassed by the same bully, I'm pretty certain they'll stand by each other, especially North Korea. Afterall, it was China who came to North Korea's rescue during the American attack. I could be wrong ... some sources from you would be useful.

Bronwyn aka the Shanghai Serpent,

I don't know what they have been telling you at the Beijing School of Espionage but I must tell you that South Korea and North Korea are still at war.

Although it is what I would call a symbolic war in which China and the US get to showcase their political ideologies.

//Neither the US or Australia is in a position to point the finger at China for human rights abuses. We have plenty of our own.//

Sorry, I'm having a bit of a trouble following your maths here. Just how many wrongs is it that add up to a right? Do we just count the ones of belonging to China and Australia, or should we account for the Muricans as well?

Because where I learnt ethics, zero and only zero wrongs can ever amount to something resembling right, and summing a whole buch of wrongs just ends up in gross immorality.

//And while both our governments ignore the ever-expanding wealth disparities tearing at the fabric of our democratic societies, China has very deliberately set about lifting many millions of its citizens out of poverty and is succeeding.//

But they also torture people and harvest oragns and ruthlessly crack down on political dissent etc. Let's face it, the Chinese regime are not a nice regime by any reasonable metric. They are words that I can't use on this forum because Western Conservatives are true champions of freedom of expression... apparently. The words that I would like to use but can't because of the freedoms we enjoy in a liberal democracy like Australia include [please remove the profanity], [please remove the profanity] & [please remove the profanity].

I'm not convinced that they're human rights abuses can be excused by the nice things they do. I think China are big enough to walk and chew gum at the same time: why can't they figure out a way to lift their people out of poverty, and to cut back on their torture and organ harvesting at the same time? It's not exactly quantum electrodymanics... lots of other countries have figured this one out, what's holding up your mob?

According to one China watcher, we are at war with China. While the war is now a political, diplomatic, financial and trade one, it looks like a prelude to a real military war. (Ken Phillips, The Spectator Australia).

The war is about the “maintenance of a China under Communist Party rule and a CCP that now seeks to expand its ‘right’ to rule outside its current borders”. Secret diaries of the man second in charge at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre, smuggled out to the West, reveal all. Zhao Ziyang knew what he was talking about. After his opposition to the Massacre, he was placed under house for the rest of his life.

Suppression of dissent was then, and is now, central to the existence of the CCP.

When China sought to modernise, the “free world grabbed what was seen as an economic opportunity”. Wall Street helped the Chinese out by showing them how to reform their state-owned businesses, and taught the Communists about the market. And of cause the CCP elites grew rich. But, the naive hope that China would become democatic because of a market system fell flat.

Now, the Xi dictatorship feels that the free world is chaotic, prone to “rolling disasters” and a threat to China. So, they have decided, China has a ‘right’ to defend itself from the chaos. That ‘right’ requires the extension of internal discipline to “areas that China decides are its ‘legitimate’ sphere of influence and dominance. And, that sphere includes Australia.

After their direct military action in he South China Sea, China could be ready to invade Taiwan in in a couple of years. Ken Phillips likes Taiwan to WW11 Poland. And current war between China and Australia is a “mild warm-up exercise by China.

ttbn,

Looks like someone has been stealing my ideas.

Oh well, not to worry. At least I still get to say "I TOLD YOU SO".

Reading these post is a rude shock of where our education system has brought us to !