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Dear SteeleRedux,

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Prior to Covid, I quite enjoyed visiting my Chinese friends in Beijing and spending a few days or weeks in Xi'an. I like the people and the culture, and I enjoy the food. But I find the current three-week quarantine period in some cheap, shabby hotel, on arrival at the airport, quite dissuasive.

And much as I enjoy strolling around in Beijing’s hutongs, eating simple street food, and visiting the silk and flea markets, historical buildings, cultural centres, and various tourist attractions, I can’t say I would ever like to live there on a permanent basis.

I find the political and social atmosphere far too constraining and oppressive. But what to do about it ?

I certainly wouldn’t want the job of running the country, that’s for sure.

China is the third largest country in the world, geographically about the same size as the USA, but with a population of 1.5 billion, more than 4 times that of the USA.

Right or wrong, my vision of the Chinese is that they are a pretty unruly lot. They are smart, sharp and quick to pounce on any opportunity that arises, whatever the subject, whenever and wherever it occurs and whatever the circumstances. They are intelligent, entrepreneurial, and very hard working. First in first served is their motto. Nothing is too difficult for them. If it can be done, they’ll find a way to do it or, at least, they’ll do everything they can.

It seems to me impossible for anyone to successfully manage 1.5 billion individual Chinese citizens today if the country were to somehow suddenly become a modern democracy.

Australia with its national federation of six states and two territories, each with its own government, is already difficult enough to manage, even though we only have the relatively meagre population of 26 million (1.7% of China’s population) and, should I add, given that we Aussies are of a somewhat more complacent nature than our Chinese counterparts.

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Away from the CCP's attitude to our defence minister but still on defence, it is rumoured that the UK will be moving some nuclear submarines into our region, basing them in Australia.

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Dear ttbn,

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The Eurasian Times echoed that UK Daily Mail “rumour” in an article entitled “UK To Hand Over Fleet Of Nuclear Submarines To Australia” – which I suspect is something of an overstatement, to say the least.

I can’t imagine the UK simply “handing over” a fleet of nuclear submarines to Australia – sale ? leasing contract ? service agreement ? – to Aussie naval personnel who not only do not know how to operate them, but also lack the necessary service and maintenance facilities as well as the corresponding expertise for their repair and upkeep.

Who exactly would be in charge ? Who would take the decisions ? Who would be responsible ? Who would be the commanding officers ?

http://eurasiantimes.com/uk-to-hand-over-fleet-of-nuclear-submarines-to-australia/
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Referring back to my previous post to SteeleRedux about the difficulty of governing a country (or should I say a nation) of 1.5 billion Chinese, here is a little more food for thought on that particular subject :

http://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3186203/how-narrative-all-powerful-government-hurts-chinas-image-home-and

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I am thrilled by the phrase 'Albanese socialists'. I wish Labor was half as cool as you imply.

BJ

I don't recall anything about submarines being "handed over" to us. UK fleet. UK operated. Hopefully Australian crews would get some training.

As for all the waffle about us getting nuclear submarines, sometime in the future, well, it still seems like waffle. Military-wise, Australia seems to be useless, as unprepared as we were before WW11.

More on submarines.

South Korea has indicated that it could supply conventional attack submarines to fill the Collins-nuclear gap within 7 years of sign up. SK is eager to be part of the region defence arrangements.

Let's hope that Richard Marles drops the idea of building anything in Adelaide. We are talking about national security here, not job creation.

And, Australians are attending nuclear-powered training in the UK.