Paul said; Where buyers are beating a path to our door

Of course not, but that is why you need salesmen.
It will change step by step as we demonstrate that we are a reliable
supplier.
Note that other customers of China are noting the way that China is
threatening their customers. Not a good sales technique !

how can any sane person support authoritarian China?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-11/indonesia-condemns-abuse-of-fishermen-aboard-chinese-boats-slave/12233312

AC’s comments seem to lead to the idea that Food Security is not just about Food- but can include steel and other commodities.

Strangely most people seem to agree on the trade issues with China- even lefty Paul- Kudos. I agree that Australia should try on focusing on higher value exports. The concern with our exports to China are that Australia is perhaps selling off it’s pension plan at bargain basement prices- something that is not immediately visible by monetary indicators.

I saw a video some time ago with a protest between two groups of Hong Kong protesters both from the Chinese diaspora one supporting China the other supporting Hong Kong. Fascinating- The China supporters were wearing Socialist T-Shirts and the Hong Kong supporters weren’t from Hong Kong. The male Jewish interviewer was accused of being a Nazi by the well spoken possibly ABC (Australian Born Chinese) female Socialist Chinese representative- and the Hong Kong supporter supported the interviewer- apparently his family had been sexually abused by a Rabbi. This indicates the complex and multi-layered nature of these political issues.

The west should engage in a policy to create more stability in inter-national geopolitics and encourage other nations and regions to team up to do the same. I don't think the UN can be trusted to do this. The information below is not intended as a list of enemies so much as a list of things we need to "watch and act" on.

The political far left's historical policy is to use subversion to provoke revolution in target nations- so they are potentially a source of global instability- and within the west.

China has a declining population which will inevitably factor into their power ambitions- however this doesn't mean that it is not a threat- plainly it is. China's Gross National Product is also significantly higher than India's at my last viewing. China's infrastructure has grown significantly in recent years.

India will have a larger population than China very very soon. Perhaps this year. I believe India is the dark horse in geopolitics in the near term.

Sadly India doesn't seem to be on the proscribed list of nations- maybe this is because of it’s Commonwealth status.

From what I have seen India is investing fairly heavily but carefully in it's military. eg. Buys Russian ship then duplicates the technology many times. India is also buying up Australian assets and negotiating interesting deals with the Australian Government. Also it's infrastructure is growing very fast. I don't expect it will be long before their Gross Product catches up to China's. The Indian diaspora also seems to be infiltrating our universities. It’s also a nuclear power and soon will be on the UN Permanent Security Council.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_members_of_the_United_Nations_Security_Council

In a way Australia is in a much more vulnerable position than the US and even the UK and so needs to take greater precautions.

Perhaps China and India see themselves as heir apparent to world power and are jockeying for placement in the world revolution. Vulture's circling an injured beast.

Who will win this- some indication may be indicated by things in the Himilaya's- I suspect it will be India. This may be surprising to some.

There are other regions and nations that threaten the stability of world geopolitics either intentional or explicitly- Africa, South America, Islamic regions. About 5 regions we need to be wary of- probably a similar number we need to protect for our self interest.

As some have said often the countries in these threatening regions have more conflict between each other than the west- but this conflict still apparently enabled the twin towers.

As the Chinese say "may you live in interesting times".

As to Indian IT Expertise being an asset- I think there is a complex interaction between lack of investment in training employees, proprietary products engaging in IT market manipulation, high IT Training Costs, universities stuck in bricks and mortor mindset rather than open education. India at least until recently has low barriers to entry for IT Training due to cheap access to software and training due partly to piracy.

I suspect there are other factors at play too- for example most IT incubators in the west appear to be in expensive locations- like San Franciscos Silicon Valley- these negatively impact students trying to break into the software development industry.
Once again leadership seems to be an issue in the west.

Once upon a time the west was entrepreneurial and this moxy translated to the rest of the community- now it's everyone for themselves- no community cohesion- perhaps a consequence of multicultural fragmentation.

To encourage innovation in the cities of Australia seems somewhat of a lost cause. According to Ted- In order for innovation to occur there are some factors- team, timing (need), money, idea, resources, ...

In order to form a team there needs to be trust.

In a tight community it's not a zero sum game- when business moves to India it is

International trade requires a “beachhead”- but if your own people control both sides and you control the government- why do you need the locals?

@Canum Malum

"I suspect there are other factors at play too- for example most IT incubators in the west appear to be in expensive locations- like San Franciscos Silicon Valley- these negatively impact students trying to break into the software development industry."

This is part of it I think. The other reason is that technology itself is different. In the 1980's, technology was open. The IBM PC for example was an open design, that one could understand and use. I have a book on my bookshelf, which has in incredible detail, the workings of an IBM XT system, including the source code for the BIOS. Later books still had plenty of detail on how hardware worked.

Now, technology is being closed off. We are given not tools, but "walled gardens" where we interface through abstract interfaces which separate us from the technology. In places like India, because they don't have as much money, they more readily break copyright, or use free and open source software which costs nothing and you can break apart and understand. In the West, we just are interested in YouTube now, and many developers just work with the Web, where they don't understand the underlying technology.

Lastly, a lot of the tech developed is crap. Apps that don't need to be, slow bloated systems. Much is buggy, much is simply reinventing the wheel.