"sn't this fascinating stuff?"
No.

Dear Is Mise,

I find the situation in the South China Sea absolutely fascinating. This is history in the making. Of course one cannot predict the outcome because there are so many different paths that events can run along giving rise to numerous different outcomes. But I get to use my training and knowledge from my degrees in history, anthropology and sociology to try working out what might happen. Sort of like being an online analyst.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that the Chinese don't start thinking that Australia as an island in the South China Sea.

Also, I keep getting this image of Malcolm Turnbull coming back from a meeting in Beijing, holding a piece of paper over his head and proclaiming: 'I have a written assurance form the president of China that China has no more territorial ambitions outside the South China Sea'. If he does then I'm going to apply for refugee status in the US.

Do you think China will be successful in annexing the 80% of the South China Sea it is claiming to own?

Hi Mr Opinion,

"Do you think China will be successful in annexing the 80% of the South China Sea it is claiming to own?"

Are you asking all of us or just the Emperor Julian ?

The problem with any hierarchical organisation such as the Mafia or the Chinese Communist party is thst, if you show the slightest sign of weakness, you're finished, and usually pretty brutally too: in North Korea, by artillery, in the Mafia by cement boots. So Xi Jin Ping can't afford to be seen to weaken: he has to ratchet up the rhetoric and match it more and more with action.

So, yes, there will be armed conflict in the south China Sea, initiated by the Chinese, perhaps in Vietnamese uniforms, or disguised as Filipino fishermen. John Bilger will have his draft ready to somehow blame the Yanks within hours.

Joe

Dear Loudmouth,

My question is meant for Is Mise.

A lot of people on The Forum like Suseonline, Aidan, etc would side with John Bilger because they are pro-China and will argue that China is in fact not even in the South China Sea and that all these news reports about aggressive Chinese activities against SE Asian nations bordering the SCS have been fabricated by racists who are paranoid about the Chinese. I suppose they're entitled to their opinion like everyone else.

Mr IdioticOpinion,

When you lie about your background (as there is strong evidence that you have) it's your business. Though I am a bit annoyed by your constant hurling of baseless insults towards engineers, ultimately it's your reputation that suffers, not that of engineers.

However I deeply resent the lies you're spreading about my position. Just because I'm not a racist scumbag like you doesn't mean I support the Chinese government. Though they're competent economic managers (a rarity among governments) they're also thoroughly corrupt and don't respect their own laws. An increasing number of Chinese people recognise this and won't unconditionally support their government.

I'm of the opinion that Australia should abide by international law. We should respect the court's decision. If the decision goes against China and China still really wants those islands, we should encourage China to acquire them peacefully in the way that the USA acquired Louisiana and Alaska.

If China goes to war over those islands, we should implement trade sanctions against China as part of a coordinated international effort. But we should not take military action.

China is only interested in acquiring territory that it considers to be historically part of China. Contrary to your crazy assertions, that does not include Australia. Even they recognise that a few Chinese people going somewhere doesn't make that place part of China.

Dear Aidan,

The only one of us who is lying is you when you claim that engineers are knowledgeable in areas outside of their profession. I asked you to list the subjects engineers have extensive knowledge in and you refused to do it simply because you know that if you were to claim that they know about history, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, etc etc people would dismiss your claims as ludicrous. I've worked as an engineer for many years and my experience is that it is a second rate profession, being illiberal and anti-intellectual. That's why I went on to do degrees in history, anthropology and sociology. Because I didn't want to be nothing more than a dummy of an engineer for my entire life.

I'm just posting the latest news reports from the web and I leave it to you to decide about what is happening in the South China Sea. I get the impression from your tirade above that you are upset because your idol China is not behaving the way you expected it to behave. I don't care. As a student of history, anthropology and sociology I am fascinated by what is happening in the SCS from an academic perspective. It's a live case study where I can use all my training to analyse what is happening and try to predict what the end result might be.