Dear David,

It seems that you know more than me about China.

But would this change in any way the strategy of:
1) preparing for war, as much we can, despite being way behind.
2) preparing for a defeat by being ready to burn the ground and make the resources of this continent inaccessible to the invading Chinese.

In other words, do you think that Xi would react emotionally and irrationally divert troops to conquer us despite understanding that this would be a very stupid move from an economic point of view?

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Dear Chris,

«ttbn, I am confused. Do you have faith the west can win the battle, and that the West is getting tougher on the CCP, or do you share Mr O's defeatism?»

I do not have faith that we can win in our lifetime, it is truly unknown, especially since America has lost it already, yet I do not share Mr Opinion's defeatism - we shall fight and give it our best, then either we win or we die. We have nothing to lose because life under China is not worth living!

Dear Yuyutsu,

I should not have criticized your post. I apologize.

Things are certainly changing and becoming more complex
regarding China. But we have to remain strong
and not give in to coercion. We need to remain resilient.

China is our biggest trading partner but lets face it
she's also a belligerent
neighbour who's been hacking into our business and
political systems and bullying our neighbours.

All the signs are there that
what happens in China will consume our politics as much as
the corona virus is doing now. We have some complex decisions
to make.

There are call for diversification and decoupling and they
are getting louder. One thing is for sure we need -
We need to protect
Australian institutions from undue influence.
We need to develop resilience when dealing with China.
We have to make our own
complex decisions.
China's coercion is only going to get worse.

Three quarters of Australians according to the Lowy Institute
poll say we are too economically dependent on China. Trust in
China has reached all time lows. The same number of
Australians say Australia does not pressure China enough on
human rights. We should not compromise on our fundamental
beliefs.

Beijing may be immune to our condemnation of its coercive tactics
but the resilience of Australia's liberal democratic institutions
and expert industries are in our hands and we need to keep them
there.

I don't think that China will attempt a direct invasion of Australia, out of the blue: it will be a matter of nibble-nibble, then bite ! as they build up naval bases on any Pacific islands that they can cajole into letting them, as they cut across Australia's trade routes and cut Australia off economically from the rest of the world. If they can cajole PNG (and Vanuatu), then we may be in big trouble.

There won't be an overland invasion, even if the Chinese forces capture Darwin - even the Japanese weren't so stupid as to imagine that they could successfully cross four thousand kilometres of open, dry country to reach the east coast. They may have intended to capture Darwin, certainly, but obviously intended to invade from the north-east coast down, from Cairns and Townsville down to Brisbane and then Sydney and Melbourne. And so it may be, in Chinese planning.

But of course, we will fight, they won't have it too easy. If China itself faces some economic or political crisis, we may have more breathing space. If this all takes more time, and Australia can forge stronger economic, political and military links with Thailand, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pacific island nations, we may prevail against any Chinese threat.

If we ever develop drone mini-submarines and produce them in great numbers, we may be able to hold back the main threat, a Chinese naval invasion.

So it's not all loss and defeatism just yet, Misopinionated.

In the meantime and afterwards, we will greatly benefit from an influx of Hong Kong's best and brightest, people who bitterly know and deeply distrust China under the CCP.

Joe

LOUDmouth,

You are just so naive.

Xi didn't tell the Chinese nation-state to prepare for war TWICE in two years as part of some local PR stunt.

I think Morrison promising sanctuary to dissident Chinese this week is the excuse China has been looking for to justify an invasion. It will probably tell the nation that it needs to do so in order to protect the millions of Chinese in Australia, who like the Chinese of Hong Kong also happen to belong to the Chinese nation-state.

Intelligence comments coming out of the US in the last couple of days suggests that the CCP will eventually implode like the Soviet Union, because ‘that’s what communist governments do’.

When told that the CCP seems to be doing very well, one ‘expert’ said that that is not necessarily so, as we don’t get the truth from the Communists.

It is true that there is a lot of disenchantment with the CCP from 93.5% of non-Communists in China, and we don’t hear about the civil disobedience that takes place all time. Something else to think about, then. But I wonder what the Yanks would say about their neighbour Cuba fizzling out any time soon, 'because that's what Communist governments do.?