So I conclude simply, the “Good” people of Boganville, can choose between China and Australia.
Judging by past articles from this author, that would appear to be the choice already showing signs of identification with the total of PNG.

As I’ve maintained all along on this boring debate, Australia is already connected by the puppet strings to the Chinese puppeteer.

Who’s head is in the sand here, Australia or PNG?

I get tired of wishing this author would get a grip on reality, the war with China here in Australia, is already lost on so many fronts.

Dan

Simple greed and control freak incompetence, created this quagmire! I say, let the protagonists find a compromise solution that works for them! And let all others just butt out! And if they can't? Who gives a flying french frankfurt what gun-toting infantile savages want?

We need to rip the nanny nipple from PNG And she should allow a referendum on Bougainville to decide its future!

Can't keep forever being the Pacific's policeman!
Alan B.

AlanB

You say:
We need to rip the nanny nipple from PNG And she should allow a referendum on Bougainville to decide its future

I say:
The future of Boganville should be tied inexorably with PNG.

If Australia was seriously concerned with the encroachment of China into PNG, now is the golden moment, from the point of military statergy, to take back by force the sovereignty of PNG.

The justification for this is twofold; the imperative of its strategic position and that critical value to Australia.
Afterall, that is the exact reason we fought off the Japanese from the island in 1943.
To this day it is just as strategically important today as it was seventy odd years ago.

And secondly, as added justification, Australia can now use the same moral argument for a take over of PNG, as does China with its claim on Taiwan.

Dan

Diver Dan: Taking New Guinea by force would be quite a grand move on the world stage. PNG is a recognised sovereign state and we would have none of standard internally accepted arguments to justify any military action against it. Such an international incident would certainly bring world-wide condemnation on Australia and would seriously detrimentally affect our international relations and dealings with many countries.

Secondly, if we did claim it as ours then you would now have a hard border with Indonesian West Papua. This is already a simmering hot-spot for trouble. Managing our relationship with Indonesia is hard enough as it is but invading PNG and then having them as direct neighbours in a troubled area would make it way more complicated.

So what would we actually gain from it?

Oops, in above, "standard internally accepted arguments" should have been "standard internationally accepted arguments"

Thinkabit

Recognised sovereign State:

With this country under threat from China, and its less than subtle encroachments on our own sovereignty, rules should change.

As a priority, Australia should wield a big heavy stick towards PNG to force a common alignment towards our enemy: Which doesn’t appear to be a too common one according to this learned author.

I would be hoping the US is already established with military bases in PNG right now, as they are in the NT. It’s much more advantageous to be first in, rather than fight for the spot later, don’t you think?

So this hints at a prior chain of events initiated by Australia seeking compliance to a developing security emergency.

There are historic precedences aplenty, which can be pointed to, and the most watertight one unfolding currently involves China. The Tibetan conflict with India.

Sovereignty is really only a prize to be taken in the end. Again history shows us aplenty.

Dan