China

[ElwoodBlues1]

You still haven’t explained how you think Australia can tame China. Everybody would wish the CCP away if we could and I would wish that just as much as you. Neo-con war hawks don’t have any monopoly on that score. But how do we turn wishes into reality? Will thoughts and prayers work?

NATO tamed Russia by playing the same cold war games and having military strength, Putin has chanced his luck with a non NATO country that he thought was an easy target. I am not suggesting we go and try and square up with China man for man, tank for tank, rocket for rocket because for obvious reasons thats a race we cant win. I am saying just have enough of an arsenal to make life tough for any aspiring country wanting to bully us and make it not worth the effort of taunting or displaying threatening behavior with acts like we have seen.
Our main way of hurting China is economically by finding new trading partners and getting off the Chinese teat  with regards a high dependence on them buying iron ore, coal etc etc and other commodities we do well and have the best quality.
The Chinese people are good people who work hard and as we have seen integrate into other countries well but the leadership of China has one thing in mind and thats domination of their region and that wont diminish so imho we will have to live in a cold war balancing act state but not be one of the weak countries that leaves itself vulnerable.
You look at Israel and while I dont agree with everything Israel does you have to acknowledge how they exist and deal with a lot of hostile neighbors and middle east issues. No one messes with Israel because those other countries know whats coming back and how ready they are to stand up for themselves. Sure they are backed by the USA with weapons etc but they are a force in their own right and while I dont want Aus becoming a nation with national service and everyone trained in how to use a gun etc I think we can learn a bit from the likes of Israel and Ukraine how to go about shoring up our country as a deterrent...not as an aggressor but with the idea you mess with us and its going to cost you economically and in battle if you push us to the extreme.
Its going to cost money, make any Government who leans that way unpopular but if we want to protect our way of life we need to have another plan not just the diplomatic route.