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The Forum > Article Comments > Not the time to deal out Beijing > Comments

Not the time to deal out Beijing : Comments

By Alan Dupont, published 11/4/2007

Any new regional pact must include China.

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All this stuff bothers me. First up, both India and Japan have border disputes. I'm not sure that we want to be part of that.

Second - how does a pact with Japan actually work, in the context of their constitution. I thought that forbade military activity other than self defence (though I know it was under review).
Posted by WhiteWombat, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 10:44:08 PM
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What I find difficult in this situation is two things. Firstly, I do believe that eventually, there will be big tensions (if not war) between China and America, or China and Japan (and thus, America), and that to some extent, whether we like it or not, we won't be able to play both ends off against the middle. Sure, America is imperialistic, but anyone who thinks China isn't/won't be given half a chance is naive.

Secondly, whilst America, Japan, India (or even Australia) are not lily white, they're a damned lot better than China. It vexes me that we play along with, or turn a blind eye to (because our diplomatic whimperings aren't backed up with anything), many of the human rights abuses that seem commonplace in China (or, on another matter, Indonesia) just because of our economic national interests. Of course, one could say the same about our relationship with America, and ideally, I'd prefer we had some weird non-geographical alliance with Canada and Finland. However, I still say America, Japan and India are based upon traditions of liberalism, and whilst I don't believe in taking Western liberalism to the rest of the world on the end of a rifle, I don't think we should be pretending that China is just like anyone else. It's not and it won't change unless we all put some serious diplo-economic pressure on it.
Posted by shorbe, Thursday, 12 April 2007 12:36:25 AM
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“The real problem with Cheney's proposal is that it betrays the same kind of fundamentalist mindset...”
The assessment by Dupont is brilliant.

Dick Cheney, the architect of the war and carnage in Iraq is an evil man who went to war to line his, and his friends’ pockets with blood money (Halliburton, Dick Cheney, and Wartime Spoils http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0403-10.htm)

The more than 600,000 lives lost ( ‘British government officials have backed the methods used by scientists who concluded that more than 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the invasion, the BBC reported yesterday…. the chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Roy Anderson, described the methods used in the study as "robust" and "close to best practice.’
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2396031.ece) are crying out for revenge. Their blood lies squarely on the heads of Cheney, Bush, Blair and Howard. The illegal and unprovoked war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place,.

Saddam Hussein, a secular Muslim, was the best defence against a fanatical Islamic Iran. But thanks to Bush there is a Shia empire that stretches from Iran to Hizbullah in Lebanon. With Iran going nuclear it is difficult to guarantee the safety of New York, London and Sydney.

Australia was fooled by the U.S. under Bush once. It would be utterly imbecile to fall for her lies the second time round. Be wise, learn a lesson or two from Helen Clark
Posted by Philip Tang, Thursday, 12 April 2007 4:06:09 AM
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