Hi ttbn,

"when he could have gone in the back way"...Archy Pell, he was always going in the back way!

Hi AC,

Well said, the last thing Australia can afford is a war with China, or anyone else for that matter. The magic 3% is a nonsense, it could be 33% it wouldn't make a scrap of difference, except to the American bottom line. As you say China doesn't need to "invade" Australia, they already control the Australian economy. Why would they want to upset the apple cart, they're doing very nicely for themselves as it is.

BTW China and Russia see Trump as a joke. He went there begging the Chinese to help him out with Iran and Ukraine. I'm sure Xi and Putin had a good laugh about that last week.

"Please explain this growing threat in as much detail as possible."

In 350 words?

In summary, Australia's entire way of life and economic model is utterly dependent on the primacy of the liberal (small 'l') model that currently governs the world system. We are utterly dependent on free-trade and the general rule of democracy. Its why we fought in wars apparently far removed from our shores such as Boer, WWI, Korea and Vietnam.

China threatens all that as it tries to overthrow the liberal world order to be replaced by a system where all states are subservient to the Middle Kingdom, where governments are owned and controlled by Peking and where trade is no longer free but is regulated to the advantage of the CCP and its leadership. A small example of that is how the CCP treated its vassal states like Venezuela where the wealth of the nation was appropriated by the Chinese even as the leadership was required to bend the knee to Peking. And that was the best case scenario. Witness how they treat other vassal states like Xinjiang.

It is the duty of all freedom loving states to oppose this attempt at re-structuring the world order to their disadvantage and those states are now realising it and responding to the efforts from the Trump White House to galvanise the free world. Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, most of south and central America, and now Australia are responding.

And the results are already apparent as China is chased out of the Americas, humiliated in Iran, and challenged in the so-called South China Sea

You chaps go on as though a war means two blokes taking pot-shots at each other from bunkers. But the 21st century isn't the 19th century. The war against China will be fought in the Malacca Straits and the Taiwan Straits and the various supply routes into China. You talk about how Australia is dependent on Chinese trade and its true to an extent. But to a much greater extent, China is reliant on overseas trade for oil, coal, iron ore, food and advanced chips just to name a few. That's before we even talk about how much China relies on the west buying its manufactured stuff.

In a shooting war, the Malacca Straits would be first point of conflict and if it is closed, the Chinese economy would begin to unravel within two to three weeks. Hence the Australian build-up, the Indonesian treaties, the Indian support.

Trump has galvanised those states that are most threatened by the Chinese bid for world hegemony and its working. The Americas (except for Canada) is largely on board and China over the past 18 months has lost all influence in most of the New World.

"Some of them are sick of the U.S. as well, they doubt it's ability to protect them and wish they would leave but are too polite to say so."

There's not a shred of evidence for those ludicrous claims and you therefore offer none. Japan is responding to the US resurgence by re-militarising and joining things like the Quad. South Korea is partnering with the US to rebuild the western combined fleet. the Philippines is enthusiastically welcoming the US forces back into Luzon and Subic. etc etc. Its all passing you by because you don't want it to be true.

Just as the new Australian bid for regional naval hegemony is real.

Hardly any Japanese want a U.S. base in their neighborhood, online survey finds
http://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/hardly-any-japanese-want-a-u.s.-base-in-their-neighborhood-online-survey-finds

On Okinawa, many locals want U.S. troops to leave
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/okinawa-locals-want-u-s-troops-leave

They just dumped 50 billion in U.S treasuries a few days back.
http://youtu.be/zi9HW8H1N9U

"Trump has galvanised those states that are most threatened by the Chinese bid for world hegemony"
Threatened countries that they must sacrifice themselves for the dying U.S. more likely.

Nobody wants to hold U.S. debt anymore.
They see China as a more reliable place to put their wealth.

Have you seen Trumps polling numbers?
He's lower than Biden, lower than dog shite.
You're on the Titanic mhaze.
Total loser and traitor to his country as well.
Some already say 'the worst U.S. President ever'.

"They just dumped 50 billion in U.S treasuries a few days back."

They (Japan) reduced their holding from US$1.2 trillion to US$1.15 trillion. Hardly something to panic about. And it was done to protect the Yen not to affect the US$. But you, as usual, believe all this unresearched gumph from the people who feed you misinformation on a daily basis.

And it might be true that some Japanese people don't want bases nearby. Come back and tell me when the Japanese government says they don't want bases. Until then its just more rubbish that you've fallen for.

"Nobody wants to hold U.S. debt anymore."

Japan holds US$1.2 trillion.
China hold US$ 670 billion.
Other foreign holders .... US$ 7 trillion.

Nobody wants to hold US debt? Is that what your sources told you to believe. Perhaps you should stop believing them and start checking for yourself.

Meanwhile, I note that you aren't disputing that Trump chased China out of the Americas. Or that China was helpless to help Venezuela. Or that most of China's neighbours are signing treaties with the US to galvanise opposition to China's expansionism.

It's a pity that threads are so quickly hijacked by trolls and wackjobs who get all their information from other wackjobs on Google; with much of the information having FA to with the topic.

While the wackjobs amuse themselves, I hope that mhaze's hopeful (it's hard not to be cynical about Australia's ability in defence, given its history) new navy materialises before it's too late.

In the meantime, I wish people who really know better would stop encouraging wackjobs who's ravings indicate that they are unlikely to be capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.