Of more immediate concern about security and protection is the news that there are NO control orders on the terrorist molls Albanese brought into Australia; and our dithering federal cops are still dithering about it. What is Albanese doing to get them moving? Nothing. He just makes Australia less safe, then moves on to his next stupid act.

"Seriously. The fact is that we need to fear Chinese militarism, not because they might occupy the MCG but because a Chinese victory in the final contest with the West would fundamental change the rules by which the world operates and almost all those changes would be detrimental to Australia's economic well-being and liberties."

It's inevitable.
China will become the global leader in everything.
By 2030 they will have 15 times as many STEM graduates as the US.

The rules you are talking about are the 'Rules-based-order' not international law.
This whole western idea of screwing over your adversaries to stay on top ISN'T GOING TO LAST.
The multipolar world order is already here.

What do you think will happen when Saudi Arabia says ta-ta to the Petrodollar and hello to BRICS?

And wars are still fought like that.
Do you think Ukraine can afford a 1 million dollar missile from Ratheon to try and shoot down swarms of Geranium-2 drones that cost a hundredth of the cost of the missile used to defend against it?
Do you think the west even has enough air defense to defend against this?
They don't.

Take out the electrical grid as they have done in Ukraine and Europe is looking at a migrant crisis 5 times as bad as the one the US created in Syria.
- To add to the 4 to 10 times increase in energy prices they are now paying for US LNG instead of Russian pipeline gas.
Europe will be lucky to survive the coming few years.

And fyi, the reason why they're talking about conscription is because no-one wants to join the defense forces anymore.
- And why would they, political correctness, immigration and identity politics has destroyed any semblance of this country actually being 'Australian'.

Who wants to be lead into battle by a woke trans man that wears a dress anyway?
- I'd rather just move to Russia or China and be done with it.

China will become the global leader in everything.
Armchair Critic,
They are already & I for one am glad that it's not the other mob who, instead of being a leader desire to be the oppressor !
The Chinese have something much of the rest of the World hasn't & will understand even less. Culture & Pride !

AC,

"The rules you are talking about are the 'Rules-based-order' not international law."

No. The rules I'm talking about are those concerning international trade and the bias toward peace. Australia is not only a large trading nation but is utterly reliant on international trade. We need free and fair trade to import all sorts of things including oil and most manufactured goods. We need free and fair trade to export our minerals to pay for all the stuff we import.

The current world order favours trading nations. One nation has taken on the task of making the sea-lanes open and safe. The US, and only the US, is able to do that. No other nation including your new white knight, China, is able to protect the international sea-lanes, even if they wanted to, which they don't. A break-down in the safety and surety of international trade would be a disaster for nations such as Australia.

On top of that, the current system allows for easy, safe and secure international payments systems with a high degree of certainty. While part of that is the fact that the world has one reserve currency, that's only part of it. But a world with no or multiple reserve currencies would be a world where international trade would become far more problematic.

These are all practical issues. Additionally, a world where the global hegemon favoured autarchy over liberty would be one where our freedoms would be constantly under threat both internally and externally.

We need the current system which favours international trade and relative self-determination to continue and that's why we ought to be prepared to fight for it - not because of some hair-brained notion that the yellow hordes are at the door-step.

AC wrote "It's inevitable. China will become the global leader in everything."

Nothing in the future is inevitable. Since I became politically aware back in the 1970's I've been told by the same type of people as AC that its inevitable that the Soviets would take over form the US (1970s), that Japan would (late 1980s), that Europe would (1990s) and, now, that China will. All wrong.

China is already in decline. AC thinks that the number of STEM graduates is important (and of course he falls for the fake Chinese numbers on this). But that isn't important. What is important is the use of those brains and how much freedom that have to innovate.. China doesn't innovate.

They had to steal the vaccine data to make one that worked. After trying to become a chip powerhouse for 30 years they still can't make high end chips which is one reason why they want Taiwan and why the recent US ban on chip exports to China is so dangerous for them.

China's population is already in decline and the decline will accelerate. Their economic model is unravelling even as their leadership shows they are more concerned about maintaining power than addressing those problems.

The concern about China is that they may seek to tear down the system as they perceive that their moment has passed. Just as they did with the virus, allowing it to spread internationally to share the pain.

Just as AC was so wrong about the Ukrainian war (it wasn't that long ago he was predicting the imminent fall of Odessa) those who barrack against the west are constantly wrong. I think a large part of the reason for that is that they misunderstand the west's adversaries and fail to see their downside, constantly falling for the propaganda from 'the other'.

There are those here who opposed "Covid lockdowns" yet are happy to have the government take control of young peoples lives completely for say 2 years. If Labor had a brain explosion and did introduce national service, see the howls protest if they said; "National service will cover all welfare recipients, including those on aged welfare". Oh! the pain for some.

Surveys during the Vietnam War on conscription found elderly women were most in favour, followed by elderly men. The least in favour were young men aged 20 or younger. I wonder why.