Keith agree with your comments.
The Rudd strategy of doing nothing and hoping for a good outcome could end in disaster in this case. Gary Brown is a Rudd apologist who is happy to portray Rudd's inaction as some kind of strategy for dealing with the Chinese.

The tactic of blaming Labour's failures on Malcolm Turnbull has been oddly successful with the media. Brown continues to use this ploy by attempting to set up Malcolm Turnbull as a scapegoat should the case fall over. If it all goes wrong it will be Malcolm's fault!

It has taken the Americans to intervene at a higher level about our own citizen.

I fear the worst for Mr Hu, who Rudd is likely to abandon in the interests of political expediency and future ambition. When it all goes wrong he will point his finger at Turnbull for sure and probably succeed such is the current blind admiration of the voting public.

No Kipp,

can you explain why athiests are so left wing and stupid?

Oliver,

“China needs to be only one-third as productive as the US, to equal the American GDP. Except for the 150 years, China was a major trader. Rome and Victorian England, both had huge trade deficits with China.”
I don’t know how you work that out, but the last time I looked the U.S. GDP was $14.3 trillion to China’s $3.25 trillion. China’s got a long way to catch up, particularly with the enormous debt I mentioned. Even the low 25% of GDP is pretty appalling.

As for your reference to China’s trading, I think we must be reading different history books. China has been isolationist for most of its history in the books I read.

Kipp,

I wasn’t aware that being a right winger had any bearing on my memory, and I do not seen any connection between the AWB scandal and what I said about this subject or China. My point was that China’s brand of free enterprise doesn’t accord with the market approach, as it should; hence, it is not working the way it should, and they will eventually be in big trouble because of low profits and huge debt.

Who said Howard was a right winger? And, who said anything about ‘religious fundamentalists’? I’m not any sort of fundamentalist, and as far as I know, neither is Keith

While Gary's estimate of Turnball, fallowing the collapse of the UteGate crash is probably accurate I differ on:

"But having detained him, the Chinese still need to prove - to a standard acceptable to their major trading partners and foreign investors..."

Gary's assumption is incorrect. China's economic power, particularly as Australia's largest current and future trade partner, give it the political and economic right (and might) to determine Mr Hu's fate. China knows it can do what it likes as its trade partners have nowhere to go.

I think Mr Rudd recognises that China has outgrown Australian or even US pressure. US negotiators promised to bring up the Hu case with China - however this is a miniscule influence on China. China as the largest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds means that China can put economic pressure on the US.

Basically the world, especially Australia, needs China more than ever because China buys things from us. China pays top dollar for our resources and has deep pockets. We are in no position to alter our lucrative trade relationship with China.

China knows this. So Mr Hu, born in China is stuck, until China can coerce Australia to drop the price of iron ore and coal further than Australian intended.

Pete

hell pete seems your archaic needle is stuck in the same old rut on the disc oops record