Dear EmperorJulian,

I get the impression that you are in the pro-China camp with Suseonline, Aidan, etc.

Hi Jules,

"Oppose aggression wherever it occurs."

Yes, there are many trees to bark up, and this thread is dealing with aggression in the south China Sea by the Chinese. Start your own thread and bark up any other tree you like, but this is the one we are barking up, on this thread.

Personally, I would like to bark up the Hittite tree - look what they did to the Hurrians and, anyway, what did they ever do for us ? Bastards !

Good luck,

Joe

So "oppose aggression wherever it occurs" wasn't dinkum then? More a cover-up for a particular crusade against a particular country?

What form is it proposed that this crusade should take? Something more than a tiny handful of narrowly focused zealots frothing at the keyboard surely? Maybe a message for the PM, or DFAT, or ADF, or perhaps a hurrah addressed to Donald Trump or Ted Cruz?

I'll suggest a very long overdue action - take the Prison Republic's proclamations that Taiwan is part of China at their word and formally recognise Taipei, not Peking, as the seat of the only government in "China" legitimised by elections. Australia could take this step without being any empire's Deppity Dawg.

Hi folks, have a look at this news item that talks about Indonesia starting to get upset with China.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-southchinasea-idUSKCN0WN0B6

Is Indonesia that slow in realising that China is muscling in and now lay claim to the South China Sea? I don't think the combined effort of Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines is going to be enough to stop China from taking full control of the South China Sea and establishing an enormous armada to repel any attempts to shift them out.

China will suck the undersea oil and gas fields dry and leave the sea barren of resources. I assume it will then make a move to using the same tactics in the North West Shelf region off the coast of Western Australian. In anthropology we call this predatory expansion. I assume China will eventually use an enormous armada built up inside the South China Sea to break through the Indonesian archipelago. If this happens I image that this will set in progress a mass refuge movement from Indonesia to Australia as millions of Indonesians attempt to escape the advancing Chinese combined air and naval armada.

This is what I love about having done a degree in history because it gives one the skills and knowledge to put the little pieces of evidence together to answer questions about why wars, invasions, etc happen. Studying the events in the South China Sea is just like solving a history problem.

NEWS ALERT! NEWS ALERT!

Look out folks, now Taiwan is buying into the argument! Just off the web:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/taiwan-takes-media-tour-south-china-sea-island-37859101

This is really going to make China angry now.

This will now make China even more determined to take control of the South China Sea and establish an enormous air and naval armada. An armada that is not only capable of defending their newly annexed watery province but also capable of launching an offensive attack against the nations around the rim of the South China Sea. Probably even giving the Chinese an excuse to invade and exercise its ancient right over Formosa.

God I love this history-in-the-making stuff. Really makes having done my degrees in history, anthropology and sociology worthwhile. This is absolutely fascinating! I'm getting to be an eye witness to what can only be described as one of the great moments in world history.

Hi folks,

Here's yet another news item that should make your hair curl:

http://thediplomat.com/2016/03/south-china-sea-china-slams-us-philippines-rotational-basing-agreement/

Isn't this fascinating stuff?