mhaze,

You’re back to the usual two-step: semantic nitpick then forced challenge.

//And then added the word ‘gravest’.//

Irrelevant.

Your own line was: “Treat them as the threat to world peace they are.” Whether you rank that threat #1 or #2 doesn’t fix the contradiction I pointed out.

//Selling anything they want is the definition of a blank cheque.” / “If they want our coal…iron ore…Uranium too…Beef…Lobsters…Grain…Cotton… All for sale in whatever quantity they want.//

That is the blank cheque. Not my “assertion” - your words.

You keep trying to trap me in an embargo vs. everything binary. I’ve said repeatedly the real work is calibration. Since you asked for “substance,” here’s a sketch of a grown-up middle course:

- Sell with guardrails: bulk commodities on volume caps tied to risk (market share/price shocks/coercion triggers).

- No “anything they want” in dual-use or strategic inputs: advanced machine tools, aerospace/propulsion, satellite/space systems, military-adjacent electronics, cyber/surveillance gear, sensitive AI/quantum stacks, and anything enabling repression or power projection.

- Nuclear/fuel-cycle materials: only under airtight safeguards and enforceable end-use verification - otherwise, no.

- Critical infrastructure & data: no sales that create leverage over ports, grids, telco cores, or citizen/industry datasets.

- Diversify & hedge: grow India/ASEAN/EU trade, yes - but don’t pretend that’s a magic swap; spread exposure so any single buyer can’t weaponise demand.

- Use leverage deliberately: export controls, screening, and snap-back measures that trigger if economic coercion is applied.

That’s strategy: manage risk, use leverage, keep options. Your line - “make the strategic decision to sell them anything they want” - is not strategy. It’s abdication with a shopping list.

And spare me the word games. Quibbling over “gravest” while you simultaneously write “All for sale in whatever quantity they want” doesn’t make your position coherent; it just proves the list I posted:

- Semantic nitpicking
- Straw-manning & re-framing
- Projection
- False-choice framing

When you’re ready to move past slogans and tell us which risks you’d actually manage and how, we’ll have a debate. Until then, calling surrender “strategic” is the only “misrepresentation” in this thread.

gravest...the most grave. Now suddenly it no long matters if I think its the gravest. So why add it? More fabrication.

"advanced machine tools, aerospace/propulsion, satellite/space systems, military-adjacent electronics, cyber/surveillance gear, sensitive AI/quantum stacks, and anything enabling repression or power projection."

Struth. What we actually sell them and what you fantasies we sell them is rather far apart. "sensitive AI/quantum stacks" You're quite the comedian.

You’re still proving my point, mhaze.

The “gravest” nitpick is tired. Whether you rank China as threat #1 or threat #2 doesn’t change the contradiction of calling them a danger while handing them “anything they want.” That’s the core issue, and you keep running from it.

And mocking the examples is just another dodge. Swap in whatever categories you like, the principle doesn’t change. Strategy means drawing lines. You refuse to draw any. That’s the difference between policy and surrender.

You can sneer at “AI/quantum” if it makes you feel clever, but the grown-up question remains: is there anything you wouldn’t sell to a regime you call a threat to world peace? So far, your answer is no. And that’s the incoherence you can’t laugh away.

Ridicule isn’t a substitute for strategy, mhaze, it’s just what’s left when the argument runs out.

Hi mhaze,
"My own views on China? We should sell them anything they want to buy. Treat them as the threat to world peace they are. And prepare for their inevitable economic collapse by getting ever closer, economically, to India."

They are both members of BRICS

Trumpster,

You're a smart guy, does ya think we should sell the Chinese everything we've got in them K-Mart stores? You said to sell em everything. How about we re-brand YOU as the ANKO Everything Tool, you could run on a couple of AA batteries, it cooks, it cleans, it will even walk the dog and feed the cat!

"it cooks, it cleans, it will even walk the dog and feed the cat!"
- Reminds me of the servant robot that delivers food to your table down at the local 'Lil Red Dumpling' restaurant in Victoria Point.
I think I'd prefer the robot than mhaze doing the waitressing.