3 ms·

Likewise, China can't be too tough on Australia, or the Australian community in China will vote... oh. Never mind.

holografix 4y ago
China has roughly 64x bigger population than Australia. Shouldn’t the mouse be careful with the elephant? The elephant might crush the mouse simply because it wanted to sit down without ever worrying about the mouse.
- ggm 4y ago
  The elephant is playing in the mouses backyard (solomon islands) stepping over intervening issues (spratleys) into fresh waters. It's like Japan funding an airstrip in Guam, or .. Hawaii and then quietly asking the Aleutian Islands to let them do naval warfare and sea landing rehersals. That's the projected fear in future, right now they are just signing cooperation agreements to fund other things. Well like that if Guam, Hawaii and Aleutian Islands were not US territory but more like (once, now less) friendly nation states.
  - simonblack 4y ago
    Prior to the elephant playing in the mouse's back yard, the mouse thought he could play in the elephant's back yard and be annoying with no consequences. Plenty of FONOPS by Australian planes and ships in the South China Sea over the last seven or eight years. Australia's Defence Policy Explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCqXlDjx18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCqXlDjx18
    - ggm 4y ago
      yes. the whole "freedom of the seas" thing has rather invited some response like the recent sail-by in the AU EEZ. And in like sense, every time Australia implies "we should take this to an international court" I wince because of what we did with East Timor and the international court of arbitration. Its like the anti-set of whataboutery: when you actually do something which invites the "what about... you" case. so if this was ONLY about freedom of the seas, I have no particular concern with China sending its INT ship past the WA coastline in our EEZ. or anywhere else. But when China signs bilats with island nations which go to internal policing and defence, I'd have to say thats a step unlike any taken by Australia inside China. On the other hand, we did use five-eyes to lock Huawei out of trade, and that did rather invite China locking Australia out of some strategic issues. None of this really relates to the attempt to weaponise the chinese language, mainland-china related voting community in a general election: it backfired. They will be more cautious next time.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

China has roughly 64x bigger population than Australia. Shouldn’t the mouse be careful with the elephant? The elephant might crush the mouse simply because it wanted to sit down without ever worrying about the mouse.

ggm 4y ago
The elephant is playing in the mouses backyard (solomon islands) stepping over intervening issues (spratleys) into fresh waters. It's like Japan funding an airstrip in Guam, or .. Hawaii and then quietly asking the Aleutian Islands to let them do naval warfare and sea landing rehersals. That's the projected fear in future, right now they are just signing cooperation agreements to fund other things. Well like that if Guam, Hawaii and Aleutian Islands were not US territory but more like (once, now less) friendly nation states.
- simonblack 4y ago
  Prior to the elephant playing in the mouse's back yard, the mouse thought he could play in the elephant's back yard and be annoying with no consequences. Plenty of FONOPS by Australian planes and ships in the South China Sea over the last seven or eight years. Australia's Defence Policy Explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCqXlDjx18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCqXlDjx18
  - ggm 4y ago
    yes. the whole "freedom of the seas" thing has rather invited some response like the recent sail-by in the AU EEZ. And in like sense, every time Australia implies "we should take this to an international court" I wince because of what we did with East Timor and the international court of arbitration. Its like the anti-set of whataboutery: when you actually do something which invites the "what about... you" case. so if this was ONLY about freedom of the seas, I have no particular concern with China sending its INT ship past the WA coastline in our EEZ. or anywhere else. But when China signs bilats with island nations which go to internal policing and defence, I'd have to say thats a step unlike any taken by Australia inside China. On the other hand, we did use five-eyes to lock Huawei out of trade, and that did rather invite China locking Australia out of some strategic issues. None of this really relates to the attempt to weaponise the chinese language, mainland-china related voting community in a general election: it backfired. They will be more cautious next time.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]