abbott refuses calls her "she", page-29

kippa I haven't been "caught out" at all. You're way off the mark.

The thread started containing some posts about how great China is, apparently spedning up big on renewable energy, that their economy is thriving etc etc etc.

I'm not advocating that we not sell them our resources those are your words not mine.

You and most of your ilk here on Hotcopper need to understand a few things;

Commodities are traded on a worldwide basis and China and other countries will get them from wherever they can, reliability comes first then price for the goods. We have an advantage due to our proximity to Asia which reduces shipping costs.

This export of commodities, whilst it may not be sexy or as alluring as all the high tech, pie in the sky stuff we see rolled out that usually never amounts to anything, is the main way we earn export income, which then gives us foreign currency to buy all the imports we seem to have an insatiable desire for. Agriculture, tourism, education and yes some manufacturing takes care of the rest.

That was the purpose of my post not what you were inferring.
I don't have a problem with us trading with China but I do have a problem when someone tries to claim they are superior to us when on any objective measure I can think of they aren't doing better than us at all. They will become a truly great nation and people when they embrace democracy

All of the items I listed and more demonstrates just how unfair, corrupt and callous the current Chinese regime is, and that a democratic China would be much better for the world than their current setup.