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The Forum > Article Comments > Rudd's Australia and the Asian jigsaw > Comments

Rudd's Australia and the Asian jigsaw : Comments

By Parama Sinha Palit, published 12/9/2008

In crafting the new rules of engagement towards China Rudd has offended or ignored most Asian countries and overlooked India.

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>>Spikey You're too trusting of the NPT

Pete, he is trusting of assurances that are not even in the NPT. These were the informal security assurances that were not included in the treaty. They have no legal force.

And the NPT itself has been violated by China.

Spikey, how did a Chinese HEU implosion warhead design end up wrapped in the plastic bag from AQ Khan's Rawalpindi Dry Cleaners and in Libya? How did a more advanced Chinese Pu warhead design end up in Swiss hands?

Article I of the NPT absolutely prohibits this.

How did Plutonium end up in the air above the Chagai test site when Pakistan's Chinese built Plutonium reactor was not yet in operation? Where did Pakistan get the Pu from? Or their missiles (Chinese M-11s)?

You expect India to trust the word of China? The same China that violates the NPT and proliferates at will?

How and why are Chinese warhead blueprints available for electronic download?

Is there another example of more reckless behavior than the Chinese proliferation of warhead design and fissile material to Pakistan? What drives China to act so maliciously? And India must trust Chinese goodwill? When China continues to claim Indian territory as its own?

How easy it is to sit in Australia, under an American nuclear unbrella and demand that India sign the NPT. Imagine having China as your immediate neighbor. Imagine that Chinese leaders issue periodic warnings of "teaching Australia a lesson" (as they do to India). Imagine losing a war to China and having them occupy 5000 sq km of your territory. Imagine having them claim NSW. Imagine them giving missiles and nuclear weapons to Indonesia or East Timor. Imagine them arming rebels (as they did the Nagas in India).
Posted by john frum, Monday, 15 September 2008 4:47:57 AM
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Sounds like special pleading to me.
Posted by Spikey, Monday, 15 September 2008 10:34:20 AM
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Australia would make a greater contribution to containing global greenhouse gas emissions by being a reliable supplier of uranium to India than by any domestic measures. But nuclear purity trumps greenhouse godliness in the ALP.
Posted by Faustino, Monday, 15 September 2008 2:18:32 PM
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Spikey

John's case is well put. It comes from a sophisticated knowledge base.

Mr Rudd's Made in China uranium position is becoming increasingly obvious.

Many in Labor's Left still remember their student days when Mao's China (being sought of mystical) did no wrong. Many of the Green Newby's know nothing of (untaught) Chinese history and how it repeats itself.

Naturally Australia under the rule of the Candidate will increasingly look to China as the great and powerful uranium/steel/coal/gas consumer.

Money, as ever, talks. Uncool if its American but A-OK if its from our new monopoly consumer.

Who needs to diversify markets when China has promised Rudd a lot?

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Monday, 15 September 2008 9:33:33 PM
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The old cold war warriors are on the attack again.

plantagenet: <<Many in Labor's Left still remember their student days when Mao's China (being sought [sic] of mystical) did no wrong.>>

Hey, the world's changed a bit since those times.

<<Money, as ever, talks....Who needs to diversify markets when China has promised Rudd a lot?>>

So money talks: In fiscal 2004-05, trade between India and Australia reached "a record A$7.25 billion". Two years on, bilateral trade reached $A10.75 billion. Australian exports to India grew by 5.4% - Australia is now India's 6th biggest provider of exports. Import growth topped 14% for the year. http://www.dfat.gov.au/GEO/fs/inia.pdf
http://business.mapsofindia.com/trade-relations/india-australia/

When India signs up, I'm sure Australia will sell her uranium.
Posted by Spikey, Monday, 15 September 2008 11:39:26 PM
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>>Many in Labor's Left still remember their student days when Mao's China (being sought of mystical) did no wrong.

Interesting that you should mention Mao Zedong.

India's absolute refusal to sign the NPT is actually due to the Great Helmsman's 'lesson'.

Mao was quite offended that Nehru presumed to 'introduce' China at the 1955 Bandung conference. Mao saw India as a subordinate state and decided to "teach India a lesson" so that the other third world leaders would see the true pecking order. He bided his time until an opportune moment - the 1962 Cuba missile crisis - and struck hard.

Now Nehru detested the military. When the Army chief Lt. General Sir Robert Lockhart approached him with a defense policy plan, Nehru threw the papers aside. "Rubbish! Total rubbish!" He said. "We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is ahimsa (non-violence). We foresee no military threats. Scrap the army! The police are good enough to meet our security needs'" He proceeded to cut the armed forces (280,000) by 130,000 men. Then a further 50,000 were sent home.

Many Indian ordinance factories (set up by the British) which had produced enormous amounts of vital war supplies in WW2 no longer produced weapons. Instead they made coffee percolators and other goods. Real swords into plowshares stuff. Gandhi would have been proud.

The Chinese PLA showed him the error of his ways. In the aftermath of the 1962 Sino-Indian war Nehru addressed the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament):

"I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation."
Posted by john frum, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 5:07:23 AM
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