Chris,

I'm not in the pro-China camp.

I'm the one who is always trying to warn people about the threat that the Chinese pose to Australia.

The people who are not being critical of the Chinese are those who have vested interests in maintaining and alliance albeit trade with China e.g. a certain business magnate who shoved a certain minister off the podium to make room for his CCP mate.

I know you are not.

I just want the soft that support China to show us why we have nothing to fear rather than rely on wishful hopes.

I want the supporters of China to give examples of why the CCP's role in Australia is nothing to be concerned about.

I heard Christine Cunningham on the ABC religion and ethics show yesterday, who appears to have a reasonably balanced view, but I will research her ideas.

I have always had disdain from authoritarian regimes because I "know" what a lack of restraints on power elites will produce.

There are some decent authoritarian states, like Singapore which is also committed to low levels of corruption, but humanity definitely cannot afford the expanding influence of the CCP

Chris,

As I said to Foxy in my first responses, it is the people with vested business and financial interests who want to buddy up with the Chinese.

Unfortunately this has been going on for over 30 years and driven by politicians, bureaucrats and business people, or as you so rightly refer to as the power elite (echoes of C. Wright Mills).

And now they these greedy, dishonest, untrustworthy people have put us all in danger.

What concerned me when starting this discussion was that
it not becomes a tirade against individual Chinese
many of whom have lived here for generations and those
who are recent arrivals also do not necessarily support
the Communist party of China. It's one thing to criticize
the regime but we should be careful not to demonize
individual people.

Of course our government needs to stand up for our values
and way of life. That's a given and it is concerning how
much residential development is taking place in our cities
that is Chinese owned. Our cities are changing with more
and more apartments living.

Thanks, Yuyutsu & Chris.

China may soon reach a demographic peak but is rapidly mechanising and automating its armed forces, and doesn't have to depend on sheer numbers, although obviously they help.

Yes, obviously China is a military threat to Australia and to every country in the region from India around to Japan and across to the mid-Pacific. One major problem for Australia will be the financial inducements that China can offer to small and poor Pacific island nations - I expect China to have military bases somewhere in our region by 2030, Vanuatu or PNG.

It should be pointed out, perhaps as a bit of a non sequitur, that although Japanese-americans were interned during the Second World War and lost property and businesses, there wasn't a single case of espionage by Japanese-Americans, not like with German-Americans; and yes, an entire Japanese-American battalion fought at Monte Cassino. Probably alongside the Maori Battalion from NZ :)

I had hopes at the time of the massacres in Tian An Men that there might be uprisings in Shanghai and Canton - and that Sinkiang and Tibet, and perhaps parts of southern China (which had been part of the Chinese empire for only a few hundred years), could break away. But that's water under the bridge.

Some problems don't have solutions, Mao is supposed to have said. Unless there is some process of democratisation in China, we are stuck with an aggressive totalitarian power, which we will have to resist to the last person. And perhaps by 2030.

Joe

Do you believe in Disneyland, some do.

I will read it again to see what China can teach the West, and pass on to the persecuted people of China.

Great work Christine, and I hope you keep enjoying your visits to China.

Edith Cowan University
Research Online
ECU Publications Post 2013
1-1-2014
Educational Leadership: What Can China Teach The West About
Inclusive Decision Making Practices?
Christine Cunningham
Edith Cowan University, c.cunningham@ecu.edu.au

https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1621&context=ecuworkspost2013