Paul, why few nations are hardly perfect, there is the importance of scale.

If you believe that CCP hegemony would be better than the US, which I doubt you do, then someone needs to explain why.

Yes, I see the CCP issue very black and white, and don't really care about the grey areas.

I have been looking at this issue for over a decade, and so far my fears have been justified.

If the CCP was to get its way, then stay tuned to a new level of human rights abuses. It will get much worse.

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Dear david f.,

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While I share your objective of “peace”, your proposed “initiative” for achieving it (the organisation by Australia’s Prime Minister of a worldwide disarmament conference) seems to me to be something of a pipe dream.

There is far too much hate, violence and fanatism in the world for peace-loving peoples and nations to be able to disarm safely and hope to live in security.

I, personally, consider that we should do whatever is necessary in order to be able to defend our families, friends and freedoms from internal and external threats – just as nature has armed our bodies with protective mechanisms capable of defending us from internal and external threats from aggressive illnesses, tumours, microbes and viruses etc.

The world’s preeminent arms limitation and disarmament treaty is the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). 191 states are parties to that treaty in 2020. Under it, non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the nuclear-weapon states, in exchange, agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

But, as we all know, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to stop states using nuclear reactors to produce nuclear weapons.

Dismantling all forms of defence is not the right solution. We need to develop and maintain appropriate and effective alert and defence systems.

Also, in matters of defence, prevention is better than cure. We need to correctly identify and analyse the root causes of the hate, violence and fanatism that threaten our families, friends and freedoms. We need to gain a proper understanding of the root causes and treat them appropriately.

Our peace and safety depend on it.

Allow me also to add that, as a broker for peace between China and the USA, Australia alone is not all that well-positioned as a member of the ANZUS treaty.

Pakistan is generally recognised as China’s closest ally in Asia. Thailand also has a history of friendly relations with China. A partnership with one or both of these countries may be more viable.

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Peace treaties only work between countries that keep their promises. China is not one of those.

A lot of posts on here.
I did not see one that took account of the Amman Accord between China
and the Islamic states. They have adopted an agreement of co-operation
on all matters. It appears because of the Chinese military move into
some border Islamic countries to include military matters.
As both are driven to be world dominators, China wanting to restart
the Central Kingdom regime and the Islamists wanting to demand that
everyone worship Allah, an eventual clash between Marxism and Islam
seems inevitable.
I would expect that the Chinese would be not genuine and would in the
long run delete the Islamists after using them.
Any other thoughts on this ?

yes, interesting.

The CCP wants to be a global superpower, but I doubt that its ideology would be compatible or acceptable to some muslim nations in the longer term.

And the CCP's targeting of its own muslim minorities will mean that no sane muslim leader or society will ever trust the CCP.

Problem for the CCP is that it stands for nothing.

The CCP has no chance of making China a superpower in cultural or ideological terms.

It will merely be supported by other dictatorships.

Pretty soon the world will divide much more between those who support the West and those who support the CCP.

Interesting times.

While ever China and the M-E islamic states have a common enemy in the form of the USA in particular and western values in general, they will remain friends or at least compatriots.

Witness the current situation with the Uighurs. Probably several million held in concentration camps, forced indoctrination to eradicate their Islamic beliefs, rape, murder/execution, forced organ harvesting, forced sterilisation. Yet not a peep from any Muslim state.

If any power other than China were to do even a tenth of what the CCP are doing to the Uighurs, the muslim world would be in uproar, Fatwas being handed out like candy, terrorist attacks by the dozen.

So why nothing here? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Its really that simple.

Sure, there may come a time when states like Turkey, Kazakhstan and Pakistan can no longer abide Chinese dominance. But that will only happen if and when they perceive the Chinese as a greater threat than the west.

That time is a long way off.