China is the de-facto demander of all commodities produced in Australia, has been this way since i started investing 15 years ago and i am sure it will be the case in 15 years time. If this phased me i would not be investing in materials stock as its the status quo, without China demand for metals would be a shadow of what they are currently. In this new century it was a pre-requisite to trade on good terms with China; Australia and it's investors are in no position to be xenophobic and must accept this new relationship and be happy to supply such a trade giant and jump at the opportunity.
A hypothetical war for Taiwan would either be ignored by Australia (the west) or it would be WW3, so we would either be business as usual or all our lives would be turned upside down in a heartbeat.. it would not be a tradable event shorting of owning precious (+base) metals as a barterable trade unit.
Investing in Metals in Australia is all about understanding China we be the likely end user with the scraps going to Korea, Japan and to a lesser extent America and Germany. If you dont like that or fear for the politics maybe a different sector would be more suitable.
