@OmniVerse, thanks for the frank and thoughtful response, I hear what you're saying and agree with many of the comments you made about dissent within China.
Forty years ago Japan was the World's second largest economy and Australia's large trading partner.
China's emergence from totalitarian isolation to a more modern market economy has not been without a lot of pain and huge social upheaval. Today American sweatshops employ many Chinese and pay them peanuts for producing good such as Apple iPhones even as China's 'middle class' now approaches the population of the entire USA.
As China moves towards rivalling the US as the World's largest economy Australia cannot afford to stick its head in the sand and pretend that China doesn't matter to our future. Unfortunately that's already in trouble as China has slashed investment in Australia from $16 Billion in 2106 to an estimated $1 Billion in 2020 - and likely to fall even further.
Because of the behaviour of Australia's government we now have no influence whatsoever over China and stand to be further punished via even more cuts to our exports to China.
