Great power competition in the Asia-Pacific region has been building for years. But COVID-19 has turbo-charged the shifts taking place and China is finishing 2020 in a significantly stronger position compared with the US than when the year started.
China enters 2021 a stronger, more influential power — and Australia may feel the squeeze even more
The Age believes, however, that there is a more sensible path. The Victorian and federal governments should work more closely together to ensure that programs such as the Jiangsu grants operate in a way that ensures Australian intellectual property can be protected and there is no military application. Australia needs to get smarter in its dealings with China. We need to work out where we can co-operate for mutual benefit and resist the urge to simply shut down programs in the face of difficulties.
A smarter way for Australia to handle its dealings with China
When you look at its economic numbers, China’s having a good pandemic. The boom in demand for personal protective equipment and the impact of lockdowns on purchases of appliances and electronics has produced a surge in China’s exports and a record monthly trade surplus.
China-Australia dispute: Beijing’s record November to further unsettle western world
Imagine for a moment the view from Beijing. It looks something like this. The Chinese Communist Party has overseen an economic miracle. In three decades it has taken a country that once could not feed itself and turned it into an economic powerhouse. More than half a billion people have been lifted out of the poverty. The world has never seen anything like it.
Australia’s trade clash with China is a lesson in what Beijing’s power really means – ABC News
Chinese leaders – and many of its citizens – believe the United States is in terminal decline and that President Donald Trump has hastened the inevitable. The troubling story of decay in America paints a different picture in China from that in the rest of the world: the authoritarian model of politics and economics is just as good, if not better, than the liberal democratic model of the “west”.
A dysfunctional America helps China – but hurts Australia and our region | China | The Guardian
Scott Morrison’s Grudge Against China Is About Capitalist Competition
Tony Abbott turned his back and faced Europe changing the nature of the region. (ODT)
After riding the coattails of China’s boom for decades, Australian conservatives are now railing against China. They’re not just following a lead from Washington — the Liberal Party’s corporate backers are anxious to maintain Australian dominance in the South Pacific.
After letting its guard down in the Pacific, Australia has found that the superpower whose growth has helped to sustain the Australian economy is now staking its own claim to a region it perceives as its own. Australia’s resource giants have long enjoyed the best of both worlds: a vast Chinese export market and privileged access to resources in the South Pacific. But now both privileges are in jeopardy, and Australia is struggling to formulate a response.
After three decades of a China-fueled economic boom, the bust may have deep and dangerous consequences — especially for Pacific island peoples who find themselves, once again, caught in a game where no matter who wins, they lose.
China has complained about our media’s fanning of the negativity towards it countless times yet the government has supported the media. News Corp has been spreading anti- Chinese sentiment since Abbott. Yet nobody seems to listen. The Chinese kicked Murdoch out because they regarded his organization not just critical but toxic why is it the LNP and IPA don’t? (ODT)
“How do you think the United States would feel if somebody were to jump up and say we need an independent international inquiry into how badly President Trump has mishandled the coronavirus leading to nearly 200,000 American deaths? Everybody would think that was a very high-handed thing to do.” Despite the backlash, China ended up supporting the European Union-drafted, Australia-backed, heavily negotiated motion that sailed through the World Health Assembly the following month. But the diplomatic dispute shows no signs of abating.
Culture clash: has Australia miscalculated in its feud with China? | Australia news | The Guardian
Australia is waging an intensifying espionage offensive against China – sending agents to China to spy, gather intelligence and recruit assets, instigating defection among Chinese nationals, spying on Chinese students and organizations in Australia, feeding fake news to media to hype up the “China espionage theory” and even in early years attempting to install wiretaps in the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, the Global Times reported in June, citing a source with a Chinese law-enforcement agency. Multiple Australian espionage cases uncovered by Chinese law-enforcement agencies showed that Australia is a veteran in spying against other countries and precisely “the thief who is crying stop the thief” as it steps up infiltration, spying and technological theft operations against China, the source told the Global Times.
Australian agents raid Chinese journalists’ residences, seize computers ‘in violation of legitimate rights’: source – Global Times
In China, as around the world, the pandemic is calling for far-reaching social and economic change. The direction this will take is subject to fierce struggles; and the outcome will also depend on our reading of how societies have dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak and the lessons we draw from it. Instead of exceptionalizing and othering China, progressives around the world have to see beyond the logic of nationalism and recognize the interconnectedness of our fights. The enemy in this pandemic is not China but inequality and the logic of profit over people.
Australia’s Defence Connect (20 May 2020) called for even greater loyalty to the US Global Alliance from Australia in this time of crisis over the spread of COVID-19:
“It is Australia’s indispensable relationship, the core of our national security and the key enabler, that has allowed Australia to freely engage and prosper within the post-Second World War order. However, in an era of mounting great power competition and disruption, the US-Australia relationship will become ever more important, explains retired Army officer Jason Thomas.”
Australia is being hurt commercially by its growing antagonism towards China, our best and most profitable trading partner. What is going on behind the scenes in the corridors of power in Canberra in the halls of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Departments to justify this wanton folly to protect US interests across the Indo-Pacific Basin?
Surely, the Trump Administration with the support of the Department of State and the Pentagon can fight their own battles with China. So, what is the real payoff for Australia in these difficult times? And if the war games in the South China Sea go astray, are Australians instantly at war with China through the chain of command in these joint patrols?
China can finish what the LNP alpha apes started and they can do it without bullying.(ODT)
The (American) Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet: Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, said the virus might have been spreading quietly in humans for years, or even decades, without causing a detectable outbreak.
Why would a medically competent country be investigated by a medically incompetent one? Especially since we know America’s independent investigation SOP: “Current and former staff members of the OPCW have denounced the organization’s IIT report alleging Syrian government sarin use at Ltamenah, criticizing its reliance on rumor, hearsay, “scientifically flawed” claims and the influence of unqualified, secret “experts” aligned with the Western-backed opposition. If we go by demonstrated competence in this field, shouldn’t it be the other way round?”
via Objections to an Independent Investigation of China, by Godfree Roberts – The Unz Review
Is America, in lockdown, with 26 million unemployed and entering a new depression, up for a confrontation and Cold War with China?
For that appears to be where the GOP wishes to lead us.
The Rupert Murdoch owned The Wall Street Journal ran back-to-back editorials last week urging a more confrontational stance toward Beijing and endorsing GOP plans for new defense spending on U.S. air and naval forces in the Western Pacific.
Up for a New Cold War — With China?, by Pat Buchanan – The Unz Review
Fact or fiction it’s of no matter to Trump and GOP it will be the center of their 2020 campaign because Covid -19 is bringing the US down and it can’t on any front be seen as Trump’s fault Sinophobia is their weapon of choice. (ODT)
The New Anti-China Campaign Is Built On Lies – The Greanville Post
It was a Cold War against the USSR, Afghanistan,Liya,Iraq,Syria Cuba Venezuela and now the same propaganda is being applied to China all for political advantage and power.(ODT)
In February, the Trump regime “designated five Chinese media entities in the US as ‘foreign missions’ and imposed a cap on the number of their employees, in effect expelling Chinese journalists from the US.”
Beijing imposed “reciprocal measures” on US correspondents because of “unreasonable oppression the Chinese media organizations experience in the US” — what the Times and other establishment media failed to explain, including the following Chinese Foreign Ministry remark:
“What we reject is ideological bias against China, fake news made in the name of press freedom, and breaches of ethics in journalism.”
“Should the US choose to go further down the wrong path, it could expect more countermeasures from China.”
US fake news about China and other sovereign independent countries on its target list for regime change is longstanding.
A WaPo editorial last week falsely accused China of spreading COVID-19 globally, along with “cover(ing) up the truth as the virus spread (sic).”
A WSJ report was similar, quoting Senator Rick Scott, calling for a congressional investigation into the alleged WHO’s “role in helping Communist China cover up information regarding the threat of the coronavirus.”
Over the weekend, Trump warned of “consequences” if China was “knowingly responsible” for spreading COVID-19, adding:
“It could have been stopped in China before it started and it wasn’t, and the whole world is suffering because of it (sic).”
His weekend and earlier remarks were all about falsely shifting blame to China for his own failings and malfeasance.
via COVID-19: A Diabolical US Anti-China Plot? – Stephen Lendman
Trump needs China in so many ways that GOP doesn’t (ODT)
There is a strong anti-China current being promoted in right-wing circles and some neo-liberal ones in light of the coronavirus epidemic.
These forces are seeking to redirect real criticisms of globalization – deindustrialization, stolen intellectual property, and trade deficits – and utilize them for support for regime change operations and possibly even war against China for the financial self-interest of a few American oligarchs. It’s similar to how anti-immigration sentiment was swerved into concerns about Islam’s illiberalism in hopes of advancing Israeli interests in Europe and promoting neo-conservative wars in America.
All in all, it is important to make a distinction between an accurate diagnosis of the symptoms arising from our relationship with China, and the actual problem. Moving factories from China to Vietnam, India or Taiwan will leave the American people just as poor and jobless. Wasting energy following conservatives in their idiotic crusade to change how Chinese people live in China will provide no benefit to the white worker. American liberalism is collapsing because it is an unnatural and dysfunctional system.
The real conversation should be focused on the legitimacy of money power that rules us, and whether it benefits us. The answer is that it doesn’t, which is why they would like your eyes on China, rather than them.
via International Finance’s Anti-China Crusade, by Eric Striker – The Unz Review
So for the Brussels bureaucracy, the Health Silk Road is not about saving lives; it’s about “destabilizing” the EU and improving Xi Jinping’s domestic image after China lied, lied and lied again about the extent and severity of coronavirus. That happens to be the exact same narrative of the Trump administration, US corporate media and US intelligence.
Does it matter? Not for those 89 nations that are receiving much-needed help and equipment. The dogs of demonization bark while the Health Silk Road caravan passes.
via China rolls out the Health Silk Road, by Pepe Escobar – The Unz Review
The world’s greatest miracle was ready to happen 70 years ago when a nation of 700 million saved 1.3 billion people today. History isn’t one made by great men but by the needs of a nation of people. Today China has only 1 military deployment outside it’s borders and a nation of people fed, housed, educated with health, jobs all upwardly mobile and not simply because of Mao alone but necessity. (ODT)
While the opposition might have dealt a blow to the Carry Lam administration, the victory is largely symbolic. District councils lack any political leverage and deal mostly with communal issues, such as transport, utility services as well as oversee the distribution of funds to be spent on recreational and environment activities.
The word “aggression” seems so out of place here when you consider the ADF is present in Afghanistan, Iraq,and Syria and China has only 1 overseas deployment. Throughout our history we have been more suspicious of China than China has been of us. While we are ever increasing the “Blanket of National Security” over our own citizens China has been loosening it over theirs. If we wish to go on an overseas junket we used to prepare ourselves for running into brash Americans, or groups of Russians today it’s the Chinese so much so we prefer to go off season because there is a tsunami of Chinese tourists everywhere.
It strikes us that our AFP, ASIO, Security Services along with think tanks and other advisors are short of work or there just too many, They have gone off warning us to the threat of Muslims and Africans terrorising the country and with little or nothing to do have now focused on the Chinese. But currently with an ever increasing public intensity since the LNP took over the government and Peter Dutton became head of the mega-bumbling Homeland Department particularly now with the coming of Morrison. Abbott was named the Pivot of the Pacific in the eyes of the Americans but oops, he wanted to be a part of NATO. He gave away Radio Australia the heart beat of the region for 75 years in places like Vanuatu. He more than anyone opened the doors to China without the current atmosphere of suspicion and that wasn’t so long ago. He cut Foreign Aid allowing the Chinese to help develop the region. The Pivot was seen as the Pillock who created the vacuum. While Tasmania begs the Federal Government for money to run 62% of it’s economy whose there to help the Chinese boogie man in whose eyes the LNPs
The Americans seemed to have whispered in somebody’s ear and the whole nature of friendship changed and we are back to the old paranoia that two wongs don’t make a white. That’s LNP diplomacy ASIO and the AFP are in the forefront again and the National surveillance a necessity and secrecy a must… Blame the Chinese. (ODT)
How China and the CCP aggressively push beyond their borders
Abbott’s warnings come from an Australian Government with a history of incompetent bribery by our government agencies. Blatant lying in order to justify the invasion and destruction of Iraq along with the bugging of the Timor Leste government’s offices for commercial gain. Surely Keating has a point as does China that in dealing with this Australian government China is dealing with the mindless thugs that invaded Vietnam. (ODT)
In dealing with China, he said that Australia should get over its alarm at the speed of its rise and recognise its achievement in lifting 700 million people out of poverty.
Mr Abbott urged the Australian government to work harder on ties with allies including Japan and the “democratic superpower” of India as the best way to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific while China remains a one-party communist state.
contrasts with a warning from former prime minister Paul Keating on Monday against “pious belchings” from those attacking China when Australia’s long-term interest lay in working more closely with a vital partner.
and
Soft Diplomacy seems to be overcoming and Blue Dot the Federal Government has to offer(ODT)
1.3billion people fed in just 70 years and we the West are now complaining they are a Developed Nation holding us back. No in 70 years the West has been going backwards and China fowards. (ODT)
“The country is getting more prosperous and growing stronger. China’s national status is improved.”
He spontaneously quotes Xi: “Stay true to the original intention and march forward.”
via A spectacular view of modern China from the nation’s beating red heart
Country GNI per capita 2017 ($US) Malaysia $9,650 Russia $9,230 Grenada $9,180 St Lucia $8,830 China $8,690 China is still fundamentally a rural nation but the “American owned West” keep moving the goal posts
Source: World Bank and OECD National Accounts data filesThe World Bank, however, defines a high-income country — or “developed” country — by setting the threshold for gross national income (GNI) per capita at $US12,055 ($16,900).
Since China’s GNI per capita — at $US8,690 in 2017 — falls below the threshold, it could possibly argue that it is eligible for the status under this framework.
Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies director Chen Xiaochen said Shanghai, where life expectancy reaches 82, is “probably the only developed city” in China, while rural areas remain far behind.
via China claims Australia the ‘pioneer’ of a global anti-China campaign
This study leaves me with questions about it’s accuracy.
We are told by the government that the population of Chinese students here in Australia is 400,000 plus this study quotes half that number yet makes no mention of why the huge difference?
No mention that this generation of mainland Chinese has never experienced anything other than an economic boom of no less than 6% growth, a shrinking in poverty and the once opportunity gap between rural and urban China. There has been a massive increase in freedoms never experienced previously before. So a strong sympathy shouldn’t be unexpected for it’s government. Nor should the anger felt when western media portrays them in ways they don’t experience as students or tourists let loose on the world. Meanwhile Australia is currently experiencing the reverse.
Australians are grinners when winners and readily proud. Are the Chinese not meant to feel the same? To suggest the Chinese are mentally bound simply by a moral and restrictive mindset foisted on them seems to reflect more on the narrowness of the researchers to want to establish some significant correlation between Chinese Civics, History taught in schools which makes the ultimate difference between HK students and Chinese mainland students.
The riots in HK began over an extradition law which was revoked. The current and continued riots have however have been transformed into something much different with foriegn influence involved. It’s not difficult to guess whose footprint is the biggest and who wants to make China look bad in the eyes of the western press and the world.
I doubt if and when peer- reviewed this study’s methodology and it’s narrow context will recieve anything but criticism of it’s bias to prove what’s a univeral norm and generational bias “sympathy for one’s country’s culture whether HK,China,Aus, USA and particularly in times of an economic boom. (ODT)
The protests in Hong Kong have led to some open clashes here in Australia between students from mainland China and others from Hong Kong.
There were angry scenes between pro-China and pro-Hong Kong groups in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as at universities in Brisbane and Adelaide.
These clashes are troubling for the Australian university sector, which enrols 182,555 mainland Chinese and 11,822 Hongkongers as international students at various educational institutions.
Our research suggests differences in the curriculum studied by mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students may help to explain the beliefs underpinning the protest movements.
China Isn’t Russia it is an example of what Social Engineering cand acomplish in in just 70 years for 1.3 billion people. It’s passing the USA on it’s way up while Trump is pushing the buttons and heading down. (ODT)
Neoliberalism Has Met Its Match in China | The Smirking Chimp
![File: Chinese President Xi Jinping walks next to Venezuela''s President Nicolas Maduro during his welcoming ceremony in Beijing, China September 14, 2018 [File: Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/7/9/20eaa99b63a246788cbd3a07d1e2ac9b_18.jpg "China will determine the future of Venezuela")
China not Trump will determine Venezuela’s future that must gall him. (OTD)
via China will determine the future of Venezuela | China | Al Jazeera
One could argue that the promise of wealth and freedom has been lost and is accelerating in the West. China has fed 1.3 billion people via strict social engineering. The West particularly the USA and Australia’s want to be like America is losing that battle and citizens are in fact spiralling into both physical and psychological poverty with governments racing towards increasing surveillance and militarisation. Mao’s legacy lives on but so does the colonial yolk we adopted and it’s becoming increasingly visible. (ODT)
Trump hasn’t clue on how to make a deal he’s an expert in breaking relationships fake news no!!
“The trade war launched by the US is becoming more and more like real war. At its core is the US resorts to unscrupulous means to suppress China while China is committed to crushing US arrogance.”
“The US has been telling its people that China would soon make compromises, and we must break such lies by making clear China will not sign any unequal deal.”
via China Warns the Trump Regime Against Going too Far – Stephen Lendman
The two Canadians were arrested shortly after Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou was detained
During interrogation the pair will be put under immense pressure, a former ambassador to China says
China experts are concerned the pair are being used as political hostages
A new Great Game was afoot and the West had been slow to act. But it is acting now.
Operation hang up on Huawei: how it happened
February 24 – Malcolm Turnbull lobbied by US spy agencies to ban Huawei and ZTE from Australian 5G network
August 19 – Turnbull rings US President Donald Trump and tells him of the Huawei, ZTE ban
August 23 – Australia announces Huawei, ZTE ban
August 24 – Turnbull dumped as Prime Minister
October 29 – Mike Burgess explains decision to ban “high risk vendors” from 5G, cites risks to critical infrastructure
November 21 – White House slams China for increasingly frequent cyber attacks
November 27 – New Zealand bans Huawei citing “significant network security risk”
December 1 – Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou arrested in Vancouver
December 7 – British Telecom says it will strip Huawei equipment out of its 3G and 4G networks and will not use in 5G
via How the ‘Five Eyes’ cooked up the campaign to kill Huawei
The USA supports journalists murder in Turkey but not an arms length trade with Iran (ODT
Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s global chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada on December 1 and faces extradition to the United States, which alleges that she covered up her company’s links to a firm that tried to sell equipment to Iran despite sanctions.
Sinophobia promoters like News Corp have an impact that far outweighs the political right-wing bias they are hoping to promote.(ODT
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has ambitions to reshape the global economy by connecting more than 60 countries across Asia, Europe and Africa through trade and infrastructure projects. All told, it’s envisioned that nearly two-thirds of the world’s population will in some way be connected through BRI projects in the future. Some economists estimate BRI could increase global trade by 12%. Despite these benefits, many questions have been raised about China’s motivations for the initiative, and whether Beijing can afford the US$1 trillion it has committed to infrastructure projects and its partners can afford the debt they are taking on. Some fear BRI could be a Trojan horse for global domination through debt traps.
Source: Will an ambitious Chinese-built rail line through the Himalayas lead to a debt trap for Nepal?
“The benefit is simple in that it is very large-scale base load [continuous] energy production, with zero greenhouse gas emissions and no long-life radioactive waste.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-15/china-attempts-to-create-an-artificial-sun/10495536
But given that Trump has also been targeting other countries over trade, defense and energy security, China has company in a lot of disgruntled nations that are perplexed and disappointed by the US leader’s diplomatic unpredictability, unilateralism and meanness.
Trump’s populist willingness to upset and antagonize the whole world in the name of protecting and promoting US jobs and American manufacturers offers Beijing a unique opportunity to reset ties with several affected nations and strengthen its claim to global leadership based on peaceful intentions.
Read more
Russian S-400 air defense system © Sputnik / Russia’s Defense Ministry ‘Sooner than you think’: Trump vows swift reaction to India’s S-400 purchase from RussiaIndia is topmost in this list. As the Sino-US trade war has escalated, Beijing has dispatched delegations to New Delhi to lobby for increased coordination on trade policy and a reduction in tensions between the two giant Asian neighbors.
via Trump’s willingness to antagonize the world triggers China-India rapprochement — RT Op-ed
All thanks to Tony Abbott’s disinterest
The Vanuatu Foreign Minister, Ralph Regenvanu, has welcomed the intensified Chinese investment and aid efforts in his country while conceding it does come with some extra diplomatic pressure. In an extended interview with Independent Australia’s Lee Duffield at his Foreign Ministry office, Mr Regenvanu took stock of incidents upsetting the Australian Government and many Australians, like the story of China wanting a naval base in Vanuatu, which his government has denied.
MAKING AUSTRALIA MORE INTERESTED
via Vanuatu digs in on Chinese presence – Foreign Minister says it’s “great”
