@ddzx...You and Hot Copper truly deserve each other.
At a personal level, I have found most Asian races to be charming and hospitable, and very polite. However at Government level they hate us. WHY? Because we are Caucasian, mainly white, relatively prosperous, and free. Believe it or no most Asians envy white skin. My little mestizo lady, used to buy whitening products all the time, as did her girlfriends. At least until I convinced her that I loved her better the way she was. Anyway, must Asian Governments would love to make us, the poor white coolies of the South Pacific.
Both China and Indonesia believe, they can walk in and take over this country whenever they please....Indonesia especially. The old Indonesian maps has West Irian, East Irian, and South Irian on them. As West Irian is West Papua, I will leave it to you to discern where the other two might be.
I was appalled when China became our largest trading partner. That is now coming back to bite us. If it were not for your hated Yanks, we would have been speaking Japanese in Aust. and NZ. I admit, the Yanks are some times unlovable arrogant buggers. But so is Russia, as was Britain, France, Spain, Rome, and so on. Australia was referred to as "The Yanks of the South Pacific" for most of the last 20 years, while the USA was preoccupied with the Middle east. NO mate. We need to diversify; be reliant on no, one, trading partner.
Don't be an idealogue, no political system is ideal, but overall we are not doing too badly. If we did have a confrontation with China or Indonesia, once again, we would be reliant on the USA to save us.
Regards....Marum. (Die pragmatische Katze)
