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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2018 at 2:27pm
I dont think you have mentioned that 17 times before?

What relevence does it have?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2018 at 2:29pm

Silent – or stealth – invasion

Tina FaulkThe first jolt for readers of Clive Hamilton’s polemic new book ‘Silent Invasion – China’s Influence in Australia’ is the cover. A photograph of Parliament House in Canberra but the flagstaff flies, not Australia’s blue ensign but the red flag of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

Hamilton, professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra has been tracking the not-so-silent ‘invasion’ of Chinese money and thought in Australia and his conclusions make disturbing reading.

In his book, Hamilton makes an important point: Australians should not confuse ‘Beijing’ the Party and its political infrastructure and aims with ‘China’ particularly Chinese-Australians, many of whom feel torn between loyalty towards the homeland of their ancestors and pride in claiming their association to the new superpower:

Among those most alarmed by the growing sway of the Chinese party-state in [Australia] are those Chinese-Australians who see themselves as Australians… those who feel loyal to the country they have made their home. They watched with dismay. as new waves of Chinese have arrived – billionaires with shady histories and tight links to the party, media owners creating Beijing mouthpieces, ‘patriotic’ students brainwashed from birth (but still seeking residency) and professionals marshalled into pro-Beijing associations set up by the Chinese embassy.

Hamilton goes on to quote the late president of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew who declared:It is China’s intention to be the greatest power in the world.

Hamilton’s chapter ‘Dark Money’ is enlightening, recalling the political fortunes of the ALP’s Sam Dastyari were linked with mega-billionaire Huang Xiangmo who also massively boosted ALP coffers. Hamilton noted that in 2012 Huang donated $150,000 to the NSW branch of the ALP. Over the next four years, he would donate $1.78 million to the NSW ALP, with employees of Mr Huang’s Yuhu group also making substantial donations. Meijuan (Anna) Wu, listed as Yuhu’s company secretary, a former barista at Max Brenner, donated 50,000 and in March 2014, the ALP in NSW received $60,000 from Su Zhaokai, whose contact was a Gmail address and a flat in the Sydney suburb of Rhodes. Mr Su, Hamilton learned, was a Yuhu employee and ‘the declaration form indicated the money was earmarked for ‘Sam Dastyari’.’ However, Huang Xiangmo’s generosity was not limited to Labor.

Since arriving in Australia in 2012 or 2013 he, or his companies, have donated almost 2.9 million, 1.8 million to Labor, and $1.1 million to the Liberals. And it was not just money.

Former NSW Labor state secretary and Legislative Council member Eric Roozendaal, after quitting parliament in May 2013, took on a lobbying role with Yuhu as Australian Vice-Chairman and in 2016, CEO.

Former Liberal federal director and trade minister Andrew Robb’s electorate fundraising body, the Bayside Forum received $100,000 ‘ including $50,000 on the day the China-Australian Free Trade Agreement was settled.’ Bill Shorten and Andrew Robb were both honoured guests at of Huang’s daughter Carina’s wedding in January 2016.

‘Silent Invasion’ is a scary read.

Chapters such as ‘How dependent are we ?’; Media deals’ ‘Credulous journos’, ‘China’s Fifth column in Australia’ ‘Spying on ASIO’ ‘Honey traps’ ‘A thousand spies and informants’ ‘Cyber warriors’, ‘Academic malware’ Confucius Institutes’ and ‘Denounce and inform’ make for unsettling thoughts.

And unsettle they should. ‘Silent Invasion’ was turned down by Hamilton’s usual publisher Allen & Unwin and courageously taken up by indie publisher Hardie Grant, despite fears of retaliation and litigation.Perhaps future events will chase the ominous shadows on our horizon, but history reminds us, as Virgil did, that it is as well to fear those who come bearing gifts. It seldom augurs well for the nation.

Clive Hamilton’s Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, is published by Hardie Grant.28 February 2018

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2018 at 3:05pm
Ok, I will tell you. Smile

Last week in the UNSC a proposal was put to discuss the escalating situation in Syria regarding civilians Russia opposed it and they were supported by China, Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, and Kazakhstan. And overnight following the chemical attacks a motion was passed to hold an emergency meeting The same group abstained. Unusual group dont you think isaac?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2018 at 5:02pm
you obviously have your own thinking. let us in on it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2018 at 5:19pm
Kazakstaan is an entrenched ally through the Central Asian cooperation program, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia through the China Africa program and Bolivia has been pushing hard to get China involved in the same infrastructure investment programs in Central and South America, suggesting the Belt and Road should extend to that continent.

China, while a permanent member of the UNSC and a country with veto power, it has never really engaged in politics outside of it's sphere of influence and the Communist Party has never really been overtly political. Are we seeing the change in the Party wanting to extend political as well as economic influence, with this strange alliance becoming the beginning of an influential UN voting block.? Over 70 countries are engaging the Belt and Road. Could be something to keep an eye on.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Apr 2018 at 5:37pm

Get ready to feel squeeze as China turns off cash tap

All the latest statements and political moves indicate Chinese authorities are again preparing to seriously tackle its mounting debt problem.

While global attention has been focused on the first skirmishes in a US-Sino trade war, Chinese authorities have been preparing to confront economic change with a far greater threat to world growth.

Last week the South China Morning Post reported that China’s Ministry of Finance, under newly appointed minister Liu Kun, had told state-owned financial institutions in explicit language not to provide any funding to local governments, with the exception of buying government bonds.

These are the entities that have primarily been responsible for building thousands of kilometres of freeways, bridges, complex spaghetti junctions and other heavy infrastructure that all use millions of tonnes of rebar — steel reinforcement bar — in construction.

Perhaps it’s because they backtracked so fast from pledges to end the economy’s debt reliance when global markets nosedived in early in 2016 that global investors yawned at the news.

Peking University professor of finance Michael Pettis voiced some of the market doubts and explained the risks.

“While I am pretty sure that the leadership recognises that this will put downward pressure on GDP growth, I don’t think they fully recognise just how much downward pressure,” he said.

“Any policy that keeps the growth in debt-servicing costs roughly in line with the growth in debt-servicing capacity must drive growth rates down sharply, probably to below, even well below, 3 to 4 per cent, and I wonder if Beijing has the appetite for this kind of slowdown.”

Nevertheless, all the latest statements and political moves indicate Chinese authorities are again preparing to seriously tackle its mounting debt problem.

Unless another sizeable global economic bloc was somehow able to take over the debt-money baton while China deleveraged, the global system will face serious growth and financial system risks as borrowers struggle to find sufficient cashflow to repay debts.

Among the first steps was the consolidation of power by President Xi Jinping in October, giving him at least another five years to carry out what has become an exceptionally difficult task since they baulked from taking the restructuring medicine in 2016.

Since then China’s total debt has risen by another $US3 trillion.

That means the need for action has become urgent or a full-blown financial crisis could unfold.

Standard Bank China economist Jeremy Stevens noted that China’s new Vice Premier Liu He, a close ally of Mr Xi , told the World Economic Forum in January that the Chinese government would bring debt under control “within three years”.

Furthermore, Mr Liu stated that some reforms would “exceed the expectations of the international community”.

That makes this week’s announcement on the local government debt shut-out all the more ominous.

The reason it’s a serious problem for the world, and Australia in particular, is that the global financial system requires a steady increase in money flow so that borrowers can somehow meet their interest burdens, especially with US dollar borrowing costs rising.

But China has been the primary source of global money flow with $US30 trillion of debt-money creation since 2009.

As credit-money expert Professor Steve Keen has noted, even a slowdown in the positive rate-of-change of credit, let alone an actual decline, can result in a serious build-up in financial risks.

So unless another sizeable global economic bloc was able to take over the debt-money baton while China deleveraged, the global system will face serious growth and financial system risks as borrowers struggle to find sufficient cashflow to repay debts.

If not, they will default, destroying money in the process and compounding the slowdown from China.

While the doubts about the commitment to deleverage linger, since at least 2015 Chinese financial authorities have made it quite clear they understood the risks from the economy’s debt-dependency, and they now finally appear to be conveying the urgency to act.

Mr Stevens said after bringing China’s banks, some of the biggest in the world, and powerful insurers “to heel”, China seemed to have “graduated to the second stage of the deleveraging process”.

“The party could not be clearer about its policy focus for this year,” he said.

These policies were, “one necessity”, the shift to higher quality economic growth, “one main task” , the supply side structural reform, and and “three battles”, which were dealing with risks in the financial system, alleviating poverty and countering environmental pollution.

“The Chinese government has now taken the emphasis off debt-fuelled growth,” he said.

“The regulators have made good on that project, as total bank assets growth continues to hit all-time lows, slipping from 8.7 per cent year-on-year in January to 8 per cent in February.

That deceleration has already been reflected in the 18 per cent fall in the iron ore price since February, and the 10 per cent fall in industrial bellwether metal copper this year.

Further afield, the cost premium to borrow US dollars in the global interbank market has soared to 58 points over the cost for US interbank borrowers at 1.75 per cent, indicating that the global supply of money was becoming increasingly constrained as China tightened.

China has defied debt-growth sceptics for some years now, “stomping’” on the growth accelerator each time the economy slowed, but now their financial credibility is at stake.

“They made such a big deal about getting debt under control last year, and have so heavily signalled their intentions, that to a certain extent their credibility is tied up in sharply reducing credit growth to a sustainable level,” Mr Pettis said.

Underscoring risks that this time they really do mean it, Xinjiang province — an area bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined — issued a blanket suspension of government-sponsored investment projects in the first response to official orders.

TOPICS

Gareth Costa  |  The West Australian
 Gareth Costa

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tlazolteotl Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2018 at 1:23pm
China has decided on the base for its invasion of Australia- the Three Day War of 2028. It will be in Vanuatu.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dr E Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Apr 2018 at 8:43pm
Well we were silly enough to colonise the biggest island in the South China Sea!!!Ermm

On the bright side, maybe THEN, Australia's First People will finally get their treaty!Big smile
In reference to every post in the Trump thread ... "There may have been a tiny bit of license taken there" ... Ok, Thanks for the "heads up" PT!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Apr 2018 at 8:28pm

How China's Xi Jinping is filling the 'global leadership vacuum' left by Trump

  • Trump administration is embroiled in foreign policy conflicts from Syria to North Korea and is threatening trade wars around the globe.
  • China's Xi Xinping is filling the vacuum in global leadership that has been created by the chaos of the Trump administration.

China and the U.S. present a study in contrasts. The U.S. approach to foreign policy at present could best be characterized as shambolic, to put it mildly. In addition to record personnel turnover, the Trump administration appears internally conflicted over whether and how to: leave Syria, tear up the Iran deal, exit NAFTA, confront Russia, disarm North Korea, contain China, and support democracy abroad. At the same time U.S. may or may not be starting several trade wars.

In a rare case of progress, the U.S. recently was able to successfully negotiate a (mostly symbolic) trade deal with South Korea. But then only days later, the President Trump threatened publically to walk away from the agreement. If grand strategy focuses on uniting allies and dividing enemies, disarray in Washington is unfortunately achieving the opposite objectives.

China's influence expands

Meanwhile China cautiously, but continually, expands its influence. President Xi Jinping took center stage Monday at the annual Boao forum, China's answer to Davos. He and other Chinese leaders spoke optimistically about opening China and playing a responsible role on the world stage. While Trump's trade rhetoric caused market jitters, Xi soothing and supportive words had a calming effect (even if many are skeptical about Chinese assurances over trade.)

In the face of constant turmoil in Washington, China presents itself as a bastion of stability. China's policy is to ignore much of what comes out of Washington, respond in measured steps only where provoked and expand Chinese influence unobtrusively while the world focuses on American antics. China is the super ego to America's id. You could say Washington is the high energy comedian while Beijing is content to play the straight man.

But this is no joke: China is filling the vacuum in global leadership that has been created by the chaos of the Trump administration.

Long-term strategic thinking

It is helpful to consider China's long-term strategic thinking to understand how the authoritarian regime is pulling off this feat. After a century and a half of humiliations, China is re-emerging on the world stage. President Xi's simplest and broadest international goal is to create prestige, respect and influence for China worthy of its historical legacy. China also seeks to insure the party's continual dominance by signaling the legitimacy, equality and (at times) superiority of its political system vis-à-vis the United States and the West abroad and at home.

China works to project constancy and cooperativeness to accomplish these goals. When the U.S. exited from the Paris Climate accords, it afforded an easy and cheap opportunity for President Xi to present himself as an international statesman. China talks of global partnership and stewardship where the Trump administration publicly extols mercantilist self-interest as the guiding light of U.S. foreign policy. While the U.S. brags of building walls, China reforms its immigration system with little news coverage and no fanfare.

Under this oasis of calm, China quietly, but systematically, expands its influence. For example, China's One Belt, One Road initiative and creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are both investment strategies to open up foreign markets that simultaneously serve as key instruments to increase Chinese diplomatic power (just as the Marshall Plan, the World Bank and the IMF served multiple purposes for the U.S. decades ago).

The irony of current trade frictions is that U.S. complaints about unfair Chines trade, especially regarding intellectual property protections, have obvious merit (something many Chinese observers would also grant). But rather than reach out to other trading partners to form an international coalition to place common pressure on China to alter its policies, the U.S. has been lashing out in all directions with a series of poorly aimed trade threats against China, against Canada and Mexico, against Europe and against allies like Japan and Korea.

Abandoning TPP

Similarly, the Trans Pacific Partnership was at its heart a U.S. political alliance masquerading as a trade deal. TPP was meant to help cement ties between many of China's nervous neighbors, while also concentrating bargaining power to offer economic leverage for the U.S. to open the Chinese market.

Abandoning TPP, along with the reluctance of President Trump to reaffirm traditional alliances (and even our commitment under Article 5 to defend our NATO allies) and the more general constant chaos in Washington, have all combined to force allies to reassess whether the U.S. is trustworthy.

China's response has moved forward as the U.S. has retreated. In Asia, China is quietly, but systematically, expanding its Island building program in the South China Sea (which the previous administration was also unable to check). In the same vein, China has sought to strike side deals to peel off American allies like the Philippines.

Across Latin America, where President Trump has cancelled his appearance at this weekend's Summit of the America's to handle Syria, China is building political relationships and making investments.

In Africa, China is moving from natural resource extraction to developing future markets by building ports, roads and utilities.

There is one final broader irony in comparing both countries. Despite its long history, China's president speaks of the future while America's leader fixates on the past.

Commentary by Joseph Foudy, a clinical associate professor of economics at the NYU Stern School of Business. He teaches courses on Asian economies, international management and Chinese business and foreign relations.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote stayer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Apr 2018 at 8:56pm
Pt, there are real things going on, and then there is the sgit you talk about, which is fed to you by the "finger on the pulse" guys. It's all "fake news." Is that so hard to get??
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Apr 2018 at 9:44pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote stayer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Apr 2018 at 9:49pm
Geez best day's racing in years and the latest post is PT on the china thread.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Apr 2018 at 9:54pm
I am waiting for Wednesday. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Apr 2018 at 11:34am
is pt's job, to keep up and respondThumbs Up
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Apr 2018 at 11:44am
If you are actually interested in global affairs, or even awake Isaac, it is hard to miss China. I dont share your morbid fear of them, but you cant miss their very rapid development, and like to closely observe their progress and maybe just add a bit of balance for you occasionally i have an open mind on them 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Apr 2018 at 9:39pm
PRIL 14 2018 - 9:00PM

Vanuatu's potential PM sounds the alarm on Chinese intentionsVanuatu’s Opposition Leader has questioned the country’s closeness to China and demanded more scrutiny of what Beijing is “getting out of” the infrastructure loans and donations it is making to the Pacific nation.

Ishmael Kalsakau told Fairfax Media that while he didn’t know what was in Beijing’s mind, it would make strategic sense for the superpower to establish a permanent military presence in Vanuatu - as Fairfax Media reported this week China wants to do.Mr Kalsakau, who heads the Union of Moderate Parties, said no Vanuatu government “in their right mind” would support a Chinese base.

But he said he feared China was pursuing its strategic interests by showering Vanuatu with largesse and deepening its influence in the country.

“The way this government’s been dealing with offers of Chinese generosity raises quite a few eyebrows because of the reluctance of the government, as I see it, to look at the big picture,” he said.“No one’s questioning what the Chinese are getting out of this. But you see the Prime Minister being entertained quite regularly by Chinese interests.”Prime Minister Charlot Salwai has been in power just over two years - longer than any leader since 2008. Mr Salwai on Saturday reportedly hinted he might dissolve Parliament and call a snap election rather than face a no-confidence motion over a recent two-year suspended jail sentence for Deputy Prime Minister Joe Natuman for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.r Kalsakau said some projects funded by China were of dubious merit and questioned whether these were simply ways for the government to create the appearance of growth without addressing Vanuatu’s underlying economic challenges.Branding the $19 million, Chinese-built national convention centre a “white elephant”, Mr Kalsakau said: “At the moment we can’t afford the cleaning bill. There’s no program whereby people can come and use it.”

As the country’s “keeper of the gate”, the government had failed to adequately maintain a check on the excessive influx of Chinese workers, businesses and political influence, he said.

In one much-publicised recent incident, a Chinese company offered each of the 52 members of Parliament a free laptop.

“They sent us an email saying, ‘Come get your laptop.’ I didn’t turn up at all,” he said.

Some government ministers initially took the laptops and returned them only after a public outcry, he said.

Mr Kalsakau also blasted the lack of transparency around big loans from China such as the $114 million loan for the Luganville wharf, which defence experts fear could in future be turned into a naval facility.

He described it as “extraordinary” that Parliament had not been able to see the loan agreement to assess whether there were clauses such as a debt-equity swap that would let Beijing take over the facility if Vanuatu defaulted.

He said he did not know whether it could be turned into a naval base but “one must question the interest that China has in Vanuatu given the generosity that is applied to Vanuatu”.

The sheer scale of foreign involvement in the country would been “unheard of” in the past but “China’s done that to Vanuatu so there’s got to be a lot of questions lingering in the minds of Ni-Vanuatu about what the future entails for them when this becomes a problem”, he said.

Unlike Mr Salwai, the Opposition Leader said he did not back Beijing’s controversial activities in the South China Sea, in part because it undermined Vanuatu’s own maritime boundary disagreements with neighbours.

On the question of Vanuatu’s ballooning debt to China, Mr Kalsakau said: “Our unborn kids have already got a lot to pay back even before they can start thinking about economic self-reliance. That’s the scary part of all of this.”

Originally published on smh.com.au as 'Vanuatu's potential PM sounds the alarm on Chinese intentions'.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Apr 2018 at 10:01pm
Isaac, China have been developing economic parterships from East Timor to PNG Samoa Tonga etc for up to 15 years, they outstripped Australian aid in the region years ago, I remember reading 15 or so years ago after the East Timor independence that China were first in building govt and military buildings and supplying them with naval vessels(patrol boats or something). They are all part of the Belt and Road project, as was Australia meant to be with the 100 year leasing of Darwin port Our LNP govt have gone a bit cold on them since approving it though. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Apr 2018 at 10:39pm
There was a good article in yesterday's Australian from Peter Jennings, no great friend of China, on Australia dropping the ball with out Pacific neighbours, inviting the Chinese in to fill that vacuum. Funny though thinking our govt should be supporting our neighbours build essential infrastructure when they wont spend on it here,


Vanuatu: China gains from our neglect of the Pacific

The new ‘Prime Ministers Office’ complex in Port Vila, Vanuatu, which was Chinese funded. Anthony KlanThe new ‘Prime Minister's Office’ complex in Port Vila, Vanuatu, which was Chinese funded. Anthony Klan

Australia’s biggest policy failing in the Pacific at present is a crushing lack of imagination and a deep-seated fear of taking any action that a Sir Humphrey could describe to his minister as “courageous”.

Take that Chinese-built 360m wharf at Luganville in Vanuatu, forever to lie mostly idle. Built at a cost of $114 million in the form of soft loans from Beijing, the wharf should be hosting a visit from one of our Canberra-class helicopter carriers this minute. We should be striking a deal with the Vanuatu government to locate permanently one of our larger patrol boats at Port Vila, to team with the smaller vessel we will give Vanuatu in the next few years.

We, not the Chinese, should be using our aid money to build Government House in Vanuatu — one where the lights really will come on. Every Vanuatuan prime minister and every serious aspirant for the job should be red-carpeted through Canberra’s halls of power, making sure that when Port Vila thinks about security, they pick up the phone to Australia rather than Beijing or ne’er-do-wells in Moscow.

None of that is happening. Instead, on April 7 we staged a lightning visit by that noted Australian strategist, Prince Charles, along with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Perhaps she gave a box of foreign policy white papers to Vanuatu’s President Tallis Obed Moses, the better to explain Australia’s deep affection for the rule of law and the shared democratic values that bind our two peoples.

Malcolm Turnbull said this week, “We put a great effort into the Pacific Islands region”, and that the islands “are looking to us” for investment in economic infrastructure. But the strength of our leadership in the Pacific is vastly overstated. In fact, Vanuatu’s total investment in Australia at $126m is larger than our total investment in Vanuatu — $116m in 2016. Sure, we are Vanuatu’s biggest trading partner: our largest export to it is alcoholic beverages ($4.3m last year); our fourth largest is tobacco ($2.9m).

The reality is that Australia’s strategic leadership in the Pacific is on autopilot. We and the New Zealanders will always be the partner of choice when it comes to disaster relief — we spent $35m on helping Vanuatu to recover from Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015. But none of this can compete with a cashed-up China, which spends money to promote its long-term strategic goals and buys political backing with breathtakingly cynical corruption.

Notwithstanding the denials from Port Vila and Beijing, it is certain that the People’s Liberation Army Navy was exploring the possibility of establishing a military base in Vanuatu. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: the Chinese are working to a long-term but visible strategy of extending the reach of their military forces. This is the armed counterpart to the Belt and Road strategy, as a part of which Beijing encourages approved Chinese companies to buy and build port, road and rail infrastructure through Central Asia and the Pacific and Indian oceans, financed by soft loans that can be hard to repay.

The PLAN base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, is a model of what might have emerged in Vanuatu and it will be copied elsewhere. The base was opened in 2016 and is designed to support Chinese naval activity in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The PLAN cut its teeth in long-distance force projection by engaging in multinational counter-piracy operations around the Horn of Africa in the early 2000s, but there is little doubt the strategic purpose of the base is to protect Chinese trade routes and support Beijing’s requirements to evacuate so-called “overseas Chinese” from trouble spots, as happened in Libya in 2014.

A Chinese naval base in Vanuatu would be able, in the short term, to perform similar functions. Beijing evacuated overseas Chinese from Solomon Islands in 2006, when rioting in Honiara destroyed much of the city’s Chinatown.

Prince Charles Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visit a market house in Port Vila on April 7. We, not the Chinese, should be using our aid money to build Government House in Vanuatu.Prince Charles Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visit a market house in Port Vila on April 7. We, not the Chinese, should be using our aid money to build Government House in Vanuatu.

But there’s much more to the PLAN’s strategic thinking than pre-positioning some ships and equipment to deal with local trouble spots. The core long-term objectives are to weaken America’s capacity to move naval forces closer to the Chinese mainland and obtain access to the deepwater Pacific with its nuclear-armed ballistic missile-carrying submarines, and to weaken the US alliance structure. Giving US partners problems to focus on close to home distracts and weakens the overall alliance structure.

None of this is particularly secret. In fact, there is a huge volume of writing in Chinese military journals setting out in precise terms how the PLAN wants to operate in the Pacific in coming decades. An essential first step, now mostly completed, was to gain control of the air and sea space in the South China Sea, turning that region into a no-go area for US aircraft carrier battle groups. Hainan island at the north of the South China Sea houses China’s major ballistic missile submarine base, so an essential PLAN role in any conflict against the US would be to keep the US Navy as far from that location as possible.

According to a recent article in The China Quarterly, researchers from the PLAN’s Qingdao submarine academy say the Chinese submarine force intends to increasingly operate in the “far seas” and that submarines “will form the assassin’s mace force of our navy’s expansion into the deep oceans for defence combat”; they point to the South Pacific as the optimal patrol area for Chinese nuclear submarines.

This is not to suggest Chinese submarines will be visiting Port Vila any time soon. That’s the 20-year objective. In the interim, the PLAN aim is to get the region used to the presence of visiting Chinese warships and to expand logistical support capabilities as widely as possible.

I can guarantee those initial visits to Vanuatu will be benign — imagine white-hulled hospital ships visiting to fit Ni-Vanuatu children with orthodontic braces.

Australia’s challenge is to think in decade-long timescales, as Chinese strategic planners routinely do. What could the PLAN do to complicate Australian and US military activities in the Coral Sea? One idea might be to pre-position sea mines at the naval base, which can be placed in harm’s way by specially adapted fishing boats.

Or imagine the panic in Canberra if China decided to locate an over-the-horizon backscatter radar in Vanuatu looking west. That system can identify targets between 1000km and 4000km away, effectively covering all of Australia’s east coast military bases.

A preposterous suggestion? Hardly; China has deployed three such radars in its own territory since 2005, including one looking over the South China Sea.

Just as in World War II, Vanuatu and indeed all the Melanesian islands are vital strategic geography for Australia. A Chinese base there would seriously complicate Australian and US military activities on our east coast. That’s why China wants to put one there.

More strategic leadership is needed from Australia in the Pacific. Even at the painful price of spending money, deploying expensive military ships and aircraft, and sending military officers to island postings, we need to offer the Pacific Island states genuine leadership through the closest possible 
co-operation on national security — theirs as well as ours. “Courageous indeed, minister!”

Peter Jennings is executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and a former deputy secretary for strategy in the Department of Defence.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Apr 2018 at 11:16pm
pt i can remember thinking how wonderfull the chinese were when they seemingly were baling the farmers out years ago buying their farms here in aus when no one else would.

what a trojan horse that has turned out to be.

and why do you think the government, and the population, have one cold on the idea pt?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dr E Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 12:21am
It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the coming wave of purchase defaults by Chinese "investors" who bought off the plan properties over the last 2-3 years will have ... changes to lending policies, forced by the imbecile financial regulators who thought they could influence a normal property cycle, will see plenty of developers holding 10% deposits on apartments, mostly in Brisbane and Sydney, and mostly Chinese buyers rescinding contracts, unable to complete ... will cause a short term drop in prices in Brisbane and to a lesser degree in Sydney, and some excellent opportunities for anyone with some courage and a little cash. It will no doubt be cannon fodder for the media to call a "BURST PROPERTY BUBBLE" ... of course, the upshot of those same regulatory and policy changes is that the developers have racked their cues for the time being anyway, and we are only a year or two away from under supply again, since there will be no significant change to immigration numbers in the foreseeable future, regardless of who is in power ...
In reference to every post in the Trump thread ... "There may have been a tiny bit of license taken there" ... Ok, Thanks for the "heads up" PT!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 12:27am
We have choices Isaac, and the first one should ne to get rid of all the compromised politicians who have taken money and jobs from large donors, then elect politicians who act in our interest, not theirs.

 We have plenty of choices who we trade with. At the moment we choose to  trade with China to sell them a lot of coal and metals but struggle to maintain a trade balance through buying their cheap goods, so we  take in a lot of students and investors who bring  in large quantities of money to buy property with that surplus they have. 

At the moment they cant get enough of our resources($30-40b a year), but that is expected to dry up in not too many years, so we can reduce our exposure to them, should we choose to. We however have an extremely unreliable partner in Washington who is making what should be easier options, very uncertain. That wont always be so. We will be back on track with more options as soon as they get rid of that uncertainty, and a more 'normal' world order is reestablished. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 1:17pm
just what is your utopia pt?

australias education system seeems to be failing, producing dummies who will struggle to get meaningful jobs in a world of increasing auto mation.

china is developing third world countries, for its own purposes, in time will bypass australia. i wonder how the chinese control the inhabitants of these countries; at least aus is "safe", although we are at least now asking "awkward" questions of the chinese, who dont like it.

how do you propose china will control the world? and keep every one "happy" and compliant? compliant, now theres a word, the chinese know what to do with non compliant!

your utopia pt leaves many out of the loop. trump is disrupting your nirvana, and why not.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 1:51pm
If Australia's education system is failing why does it attract so many foreign students, particularly Chinese, which are the biggest proportion. 

China is Australia’s largest source of international students with the services export market worth $4.7 billion in 2014-15. In 2015, there were
170,212 Chinese students enrolled in Australian education institutions (including schools), representing 26 per cent of all international enrolments. Just over 97,000 of these were in higher education institutions, including universities, while 13,472 were in vocational education. As levels of disposable income continue to increase in China, Chinese parents are increasingly choosing to send their children abroad for secondary education in preparation for foreign university. In 2015, there were 10,308 Chinese students enrolled in Australian schools. In contrast, the latest figures highlight only 4,721 Australian students went to China to study in 2014.
http://asialinkbusiness.com.au/china/getting-started-in-china/chinas-imports-and-exports

What is ''my utopia'' Isaac? 

Not sharing your dystopian view is not the same as holding a Utopian view of China.

I prefer a pragmatic view of dealing with China. The TPP was meant to be the main balancing strategy economically against them, but your man Trump is doing his best to undermine that by pulling out of the TPP. I see now he wants back in. I think the world will wait till he is gone, but in the meantime China has a one time opportunity to fill the Trump created power vacuum.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 3:29pm
If they keep pinching all of those donkeys in SA they will have depleted 90% of the transport problems there, Northern Territory next if you've read the news.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 4:22pm
I have 3 donkeys in SA that are on their last chance, they can have.Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dr E Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 4:33pm
Originally posted by Passing Through Passing Through wrote:

If Australia's education system is failing why does it attract so many foreign students, particularly Chinese, which are the biggest proportion. 

China is Australia’s largest source of international students with the services export market worth $4.7 billion in 2014-15. In 2015, there were
170,212 Chinese students enrolled in Australian education institutions (including schools), representing 26 per cent of all international enrolments. Just over 97,000 of these were in higher education institutions, including universities, while 13,472 were in vocational education. As levels of disposable income continue to increase in China, Chinese parents are increasingly choosing to send their children abroad for secondary education in preparation for foreign university. In 2015, there were 10,308 Chinese students enrolled in Australian schools. In contrast, the latest figures highlight only 4,721 Australian students went to China to study in 2014.
http://asialinkbusiness.com.au/china/getting-started-in-china/chinas-imports-and-exports

What is ''my utopia'' Isaac? 

Not sharing your dystopian view is not the same as holding a Utopian view of China.

I prefer a pragmatic view of dealing with China. The TPP was meant to be the main balancing strategy economically against them, but your man Trump is doing his best to undermine that by pulling out of the TPP. I see now he wants back in. I think the world will wait till he is gone, but in the meantime China has a one time opportunity to fill the Trump created power vacuum.

FACT CHECK: Every single Asian School Student engages multiple after school tutors and attends extra curricular classes on weekends ... otherwise they would be as dumb as your average public school taught Aussie Kid!Dead
In reference to every post in the Trump thread ... "There may have been a tiny bit of license taken there" ... Ok, Thanks for the "heads up" PT!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 5:06pm
what attracted you to china, in the first place pt?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 5:08pm
i could say the chinese students come here to spy, than to learn.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 5:09pm
Keep punching away Isaac LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Isaac soloman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Apr 2018 at 5:14pm

Bludgeoned To Death With A Sledgehammer, Donkeys Are Butchered And Sold By The Curbside In A ‘Fresh Donkey Meat’ Drive-Thru.WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. These shocking pictures have captured Chinese vendors who guarantee that their customers get the freshest donkey meat possible. They deliver on their promise by bludgeoning the animals to death with a sledgehammer, right in front of them.

Lines of donkeys are pictured lined up by the curbside, patiently awaiting their turn under the hammer, so that their meat could be butchered right away and on the spot and sold directly to drivers traveling home for the Chinese New Year.

The photographs, taken in China’s northern Hebei province, have captured the donkeys tied up along strips of meat and parts of carcasses placed on bloodstained tables or hanging from hooks. A cut weighing about 3 lbs sells for the equivalent of $15.

1. These shocking images show Chinese vendors who guarantee their customers fresh donkey meat by butchering the animals to order.

Bludgeoned To Death With A Sledgehammer, Donkeys Are Butchered And Sold By The Curbside In A Fresh Donkey Meat Drive-Thru.

< width="336" height="280" border="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" ="0" ="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="true" id="aswift_3" name="aswift_3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: line; max-width: 100%; left: 0px; : ; top: 0px; width: 336px; height: 280px;">

Before being killed, the donkey is forced to the ground and as one man pulls the animal’s head forwards, a second one bashes it with his sledgehammer.

Once the animal is rendered unconscious by the blow, its throat is cut, as its blood is collected in a plastic barrel.

A week ago, images emerged revealing a flourishing trade in curbside dog meat sales, with the canines kept alive and butchered on order from customers who want to ensure that they get a fresh cut.

Sales of “fresh meat” have been booming ever since Chinese workers began heading back to their home towns for the Chinese New Year. Many of them are taking home a chunk of fresh meat for friends and family.

< width="750" height="90" border="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" ="0" ="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="true" id="aswift_4" name="aswift_4" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: line; max-width: 100%; left: 0px; : ; top: 0px; width: 750px; height: 90px;">

2. Lines of donkeys were seen tethered to the roadside awaiting execution in China’s Hebei province in order to be sold to customers traveling home for the Chinese New Year.

Bludgeoned To Death With A Sledgehammer, Donkeys Are Butchered And Sold By The Curbside In A Fresh Donkey Meat Drive-Thru.

Chinese animal rights activist Guo Li, said:

The law stipulates that animals need to be killed in a hygienic and contamination free location to make sure the meat is safe for eating.

Even on those grounds alone these roadside offenders should be arrested and locked up.

But as you can see they are carrying out this sickening trade in broad daylight with nobody doing anything.

They argue that in many cases people are sold meat which is not fresh and slaughtering animals live guarantees that it is.

In addition, they argue that people know they’re getting donkey meat because they can see it being cut off the bone in front of them.

3. The donkeys were forced to the ground and as one person pulls the donkey’s head forwards, the second beats it with the sledgehammer.

Bludgeoned To Death With A Sledgehammer, Donkeys Are Butchered And Sold By The Curbside In A Fresh Donkey Meat Drive-Thru.

The images have reportedly been taken in the city of Baoding and Mr. Guo says that similar scenes with dogs, donkeys and other animals can be observed all over the country, especially at this time of year. He said:

There is no evidence that these animals don’t have disease and in the case of the dogs they are often simply snatched off the streets and butchered to order.

Donkey meat is considered a delicacy in China and is priced much higher than types cuts of meat.

< width="728" height="200" border="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" ="0" ="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="true" id="aswift_5" name="aswift_5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: line; max-width: 100%; left: 0px; : ; top: 0px; width: 728px; height: 200px;">

By guaranteeing fresh donkey meat by killing the animals in front of customers, vendors make sure that they get the highest price possible.

4. Vendors are aiming to ensure they get the best price possible by selling the meat fresh after killing the animals in front of customers.

Bludgeoned To Death With A Sledgehammer, Donkeys Are Butchered And Sold By The Curbside In A Fresh Donkey Meat Drive-Thru.

Source: The Daily Mail.

Share this story with your friends and your thoughts in the comments below. Please retweet it to your Twitter followers — they would want to see that, too.

< width="750" height="450" border="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" ="0" ="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="true" id="aswift_6" name="aswift_6" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: line; max-width: 100%; left: 0px; : ; top: 0px; width: 750px; height: 450px;">





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