John Menadue’s article in Pearls and Irritation about Australia being goaded into war with China is a must read for those Australians who desire to live in harmony and leave a legacy for our descendants to live in this lucky country of ours, in peace and prosperity with our neighbours in the Asia Pacific region.
John’s informative article fills in the missing pieces about American hegemony and how we are now becoming a ‘vassal’ state (President Macron’s term) or the 51st State of the USA. The extent of our military involvement and its military agenda are not normally reported in our mainstream media and John’s article has educated us about our military alliance with the US. This knowledge is essential for ordinary Australians to be involved in public discussion on the military alliance and argue against participating in foreign wars we have done before.
In order to fully understand US foreign policy since WW2 and the wars they were involved with, readers can refer to a recent article by Ambassador Prof Chas Freeman, “The Sino-American Quasi-War and its Collateral Damage”.
Following the events of the Ukraine War and reading American ex-military personnels and UK social media commentators, one cannot help but come to a finding that the modus operandi in goading Russia to invade Ukraine, will similarly be applied to goading China to war with the US over the Taiwan issue.
The Ukraine War aligns with US interests and is supported by the UK & EU allies, and particularly by those nations with an axe to grind with the old USSR. This turned out to be a mistake. The US created a bogeyman and goaded Russia to invade Ukraine, which was then followed by US sanctions on Russia; and the rest is history. Ukraine is losing the war and the West is losing the economic war front. Even worse, the eminent collapse of the EU economy and the de-dollarisation are rattling the foundations of western unity and signalling the demise of NATO.
In terms of GDP and the affordability of war, the situation regarding the US vs Russia ($21T vs $1.7T) is asymmetrical, but the US vs China ($17T vs $21T) is not.
US attempts to maintain its hegemony in Europe are going to be replayed in the Asia Pacific using Taiwan as the proxy and is good for US interests but not for Australia, New Zealand or the ASEAN countries.
If Australia wants to avoid the adverse effects of decoupling with China (which could lead to a world-wide depression) and starting a war with China over Taiwan (which can cause WW3 with nuclear holocaust), then we must review our foreign and defence policy that would prevent us from being a nuclear target by promoting diplomatic solutions to resolve our differences.
A war with China can only benefit the US military industrial complex and the US oil companies which recorded supernormal profits as a result of the Ukraine War.
The acquiring of the iron ore mine in Guinea by China is an interesting development. Is China sensing that we are the enemy and therefore sourcing the iron ore elsewhere and thus being less dependent on Australia?
Meanwhile in the US, a new symphony of war drums are beating louder following the statements of high ranking military personnel, 4-star General Mark Milley (20 Mar 2023) and Airforce 4-star General Mike Minihan (2 Feb 2023), with predictions of war with China over an invasion of Taiwan by China. This is followed by a loud chorus consisting of Rep. Michael McCaul, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Senator Marco Rubio and Sen. Lindsey Graham. This war symphony orchestrated by the powerful neo-cons and deep state, are driving the world to war; and most American commentators do not offer any way out towards peace.
There is no winner in a war between US and China and everybody will lose. The British warning about not isolating China makes sense, but the ensuing discussion in the SMH ‘Red Alert’ articles gives the impression that we have not learned anything from the Ukraine War and are riding on the narrative of the US neo-cons and deep south which have their own agenda. We appeared to be locked in the narrative that China is a threat.
Perhaps there is a better way to manage the rise of China other than blindly following what current US policy is doing???
We are saddened to learn the passing on Tony Pun. Readers may be interested in this tribute:
Dr Anthony Pun OAM, is the National President of the Chinese Community Council of Australia (CCCA);
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