Hi wooduck,
We have to decide on whether we are Arthur or Martha.
As Hillary Clinton has pointed out a month ago; we can't continue to feed the Dragon and then when it turns around to bite us that we run for help to Uncle Sam. Over the past 2 weeks we have moved some of our reliance on Uncle Sam to Japan via the Japan-Australia Trade agreement.
Our best defence against China is to diversify trade and our best strategy is to simply
process our minerals using cheap Aussie coal and gas so that we can sell these products to a wide array
of countries rather than being China dependant.
This would make better long term sense rather than spend trillions over the next 20 years on warships, submarines,
war aircraft and munitions which, in a real war, would likely last a week at most without Uncle Sam/Japanese
support. If China wants the lion's share of what is left, then make them pay for it through the nose. We have to decide now whether China is a friend or a foe but its recent hostile moves against Japan , Vietnam & the Phillipines indicates
that they are potentially more a foe than a friend. If we want to check out this theory, all we have to do is withold
Iron Ore for a few weeks (how do you create a flood?)
Just look at what is happening today re the downing of Malaysian Airlines by Russian Backed Rebels.
It just beggars belief that the USA sits there playing cat and mouse with Putin when they should be
putting their satellite and eavesdropping data on the table. I suspect that similar shenanigans would also
happen if Australia and Australians were directly attacked.
Our soundest strategy is by diversifying our trade through secondary processing of our minerals via our
cheap energy sources so that we have 103 trading partners rather than overly relying on China, Japan & Korea.
Instead of investing hundreds of $billions on foreign made military gear , we would be much better served by deploying this capital to mineral processing so that we can diversify trade and as such derisk against an immanent USA-China trade war where Australia would be collateral damage..
For example , our Free Trade agreement with the USA gives access to AFTA and US, Mexican** & Canadian
vehicle manufacturing of which the expensive parts are engine (aluminium blocks) & transmission (aluminium casings) . We can readily cast and machine these engine blocks and transmission casings here rather than
selling the aluminium ingots to China at a loss*
It seems absurd that we'll have to wait until China drags us down to their standard of living before we fight back.
Like everything else, I suppose we'll wait until Uncle Sam leads the way and then we'll be the economic collateral
damage.
cheers
moorookamick
*Aussie Aluminium refineries have been closed down in the past few years because they were not economically
viable due to Chinese downward pressure on aluminium prices). Are we asleep or something?
** Mercedes Benz and BMW are building megafactories in Mexico to supply the US market under AFTA.
