Dear Mr. Opinion,

2050? I hope I'm not around by then anyway and never have to see that day.

Not that I care about the "Anglo" culture, which isn't my own anyway, but I abhor the idea of living under a totalitarian regime which is known for oppressing religion - especially after what they have done to Tibet and the Falun Gong.

My hope though is that Chinese ethnicity need not translate into allegiance to Beijing. Are there not Chinese people who are here specifically in order to enjoy relative freedom?

Dear Yuyutsu,

I believe that there will be an intense desire among the majority Chinese population of Australia in 2050 to be part of a greater Chinese pan-nationalism that is worldwide.

For example, look at how popular Chinese New Years are around the world. It's an occasion for the Chinese diaspora to reconnect and express their allegiance to lineages that have always been the paste of Chinese society.

Personally, I don't think people will have an opportunity to opt out of living under Chinese rule unless they emigrate from Australia. I think people will just adopt Chinese practices and just move on with their lives. They'll just have to like it or lump it.

Dear Mr. Opinion,

I already left a place which I found unacceptably oppressive and at the time chose Australia, so if what you are saying is true then I guess I will need to emigrate again, but this time due to age it's likely to be to another and better world altogether.

Though you did not comment about the Indian option to counter the Chinese.

That's because the Chinese will greatly outnumber the Indians in Australia.

Dear Mr. Opinion,

India is also a nuclear country. In the absence of America, we could at least help them by supplying them more uranium without restrictions, as well as allow and encourage them to have nuclear bases in Australia. We should also develop biological weapons together to deter the Chinese.

Otherwise, have you heard about Massada? If what you write is true then perhaps we should all make a suicide pact and die free?

Otherwise, why should all of us who are not willing to live under Chinese tyranny, including our Chinese brothers and sisters who fled that place and hate the regime, concentrate on any corner of Australia and from there give them a real fight?

Armchair,

Your $hit sandwich ANALogy :) is far from the mark. It insinuates that the US is just like all the other potential world leaders but merely slightly better at the edges. But that gets it very wrong.

I'd never argue that the US is anywhere close to perfect. But in terms of world super-powers, not just now, but throughout history, the US is the most benign of leaders. The least imperialistic, the most liberal, the most democratic. It seeks advantage for itself by raising everyone else up not be holding everyone else down.

A few examples.

The US isn't imperialistic. Indeed it is the opposite, often to its detriment. When Caesar went into Gaul no-one fretted about exit strategies. The various Khans weren't concerned to withdraw back to the Mongolian homeland. The Brits didn't start worryng about how to get out of India the moment Clive arrived. Yet the US, whether it goes in Afghanistan or Iraq or Grenada, is immediately looking to how it can leave and leave the inhabitants better than they were. They don't always succeed but its a very different mindset.

The US, on three occasions in the past century, has been called on to defend the freedom of the nations of the world. Any other power would have used their victories to either enhance their own power or occupied the defeated states to ensure hey don't rise again. Rome, having defeated Carthage, destroyed the peoples and permanently occupied the land. The US, having defeated the Soviets, helped them to establish a democracy (or sorts) and threw money at their ailing economy.

The US is the great defender of human rights world-wide. Indeed the very notion that there are universal rights which the international community should pursue, is something that is peculiar in human history to that period of dominance by the Anglosphere. When Xerxes invaded Hellas, he didn't come to discuss the plight of the Helots!

So yes the US is far from perfect. But if you think that the next world power will be as benign, you really just don't understand human history.