This sucks. The US tap cables all over the place but heaven forbid a new cable goes down with even a hint of Chinese involvement!
just makes us (nz+aus) look like a client states. fuck the usa and their corporate self interest... run the cable to mexico.
suspect this has far more to do with economic espionage then reds under the bed.
Or look at how the vast majority of Australians want Australia to withdraw from Afghanistan. And yet both major parties support continued involvement. There was a Prime Minister who announced that he would withdraw the troops. And within weeks he was knifed in the back by his own party, and a new PM, one totally committed to US interests was installed.
Or the permanent stationing of US troops in Darwin (closer to China). Or now in the last few days the revelation of plans being drawn up in secret to build a US nuclear weapons base in Perth, Western Australia. Or Abbots recent trip to kiss yankee ass. Or Gillard's address to congress earlier in the year.
If you want to understand the real game of Australian politics, then you need to read Mark Latham's "The Latham Diaries". Australian politicians and media hated him for what he revealed in his diaries. He spilt the beans. All of them! Basically, any parliamentary front-bencher that voices opposition to US foreign policy will quickly be removed by their own party.
At the end of the US-Sino currency wars, there will either be trading blocs, or a hot war. And in either case we will not be falling on the China side. The US is stepping up and saying to China 'hands off'. This is not about about espionage. This is about control. And resources. And regional strength. Things are going to get a lot hotter. Start digging that bunker!
Why on earth would you want to? You know they're a dictatorship with no respect for human rights?
China overtook the United States at the end of 2008
to become New Zealand's second largest trading partner,
with bilateral trade amounting to $9.4 billion in the
year ended December 2009.
China makes up 9.1% of New Zealand exports.
But even more so because Australia is a two product, two customer economy. One of those customers is China. The other is not the US. I'll let you look it up.
The US isn't perfect, but actually has elections, an independent judiciary, doesn't lock up dissidents, doesn't make women forcibly abort their babies, etc etc.
I'll give you the infanticide point.
I mean does it really come down to which country is less rotten? We can be friends with both. I just don't think we'll be given the chance to.
http://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/trade/trade-at-a-glance-...
China makes up only 22.6% of our trade exports. And at the end of the day the US is still a stable democracy with a free press, free speech and core values very closely aligned to Australia.
I cite the following "complete nonsense":
http://www.lighthouseinvestmentmanagement.com/2012/01/05/the...
You might also find this eight part series "complete nonsense":
http://theconversation.edu.au/why-australias-trade-relations...
I don't know which country you come from, but I know that down here in Australia, we are geographically connected to Asia. A very large proportion of our population is of Asian heritage. Chinese is now the second most spoken language in Australia (but still a minor percentage). Our last Prime Minister spoke it fluently. And the sentiment of the average Australian is quite different to your perspective.
We haven't been fed endless reams of US propaganda but we've seen clearly what is happening in the US. The crackdown of occupy movements. The NDAA. HR 347. Obama's kill list. Al Alwaki. His 16 year old son. The comments about Julian Assange. The treatment of Bradley Manning. I can go on and on and on. But its off topic.
OK. So China is a big, bad, mean, corrupt, communist regime. But they are actually paying our bills. They are putting up real money and providing real investment. We didn't sail through the GFC v1 in 2008 because the US graciously helped us. It was China.
It doesn't really matter if I'm wrong or right. I'm just pointing out that the perspective from here is very different to the perspective you may have.
I don't think you can compare the crackdown on the Occupy movements to what happens to people like Ai Weiwei. We had our own Occupy movement which was moved on, but that had as much to do with drunkeness, drug taking and defecating in St Pauls Cathedral as it did with political oppression.
I agree China is a major financial power now, but just because they have money it doesn't stop them being just as unethical and repressive as before.
Yes we are geographically connected to Asia but we are not Asian and despite how many immigrants we take on we will always be a Western country aligned to UK first and US second. That isn't going to change.
And nobody in Australia really cares about these fringe issues. In Melbourne our most liberal city we've had protests about Assange, Manning as well as some related to Occupy Movement. Guess what. Nobody turned up.
Because at the end of the day Australia is a pragmatic country and realise that China very much sees us as a useful resource partner whilst the US sees us as a useful ally.
I'm glad we agree. That was my point when I earlier wrote: "And in either case we will not be falling on the China side." My subtler point is although this will happen, it will not be in our greater interest. As evidenced by this pacific cable project cancellation.
> And nobody in Australia really cares about these fringe issues. In Melbourne our most liberal city we've had protests about Assange, Manning as well as some related to Occupy Movement. Guess what. Nobody turned up.
That's not a good thing. Nor does it have anything to do with economic partnerships or infrastructure investments. I did say it was off topic.
Oh wait...
Wait which country is that?