China has warned Australia via the editor of its mouthpiece, The Global Times.
If our military become involved with the US defence of Taiwan it would attack them and their Australian bases. Its an explicit warning they would attack the Australian mainland.
While it may be alarmist it is probably a statement of the obvious. We can't really blame the Chinese who would be reacting to our involvement in what they regard as internal affairs.
It brings into focus a few things; 1) The truth of Keating's comment that using our forces against China would be akin to "throwing toothpicks at a mountain". 2) War is serious. Our military has degraded by only being equipped to fight a minor skirmish with equipment suited to last century. 3) Fighting last centuries war of attrition against a foe such as China is nuts. We could only survive a war with China using asymmetric tactics such as nuclear weapons, which China, North Korea, India and Pakistan have but we don't. 4) We can't defend ourselves but rely on the US. Are we sure they would come?
