Thanks for the chuckle.
Posted on 05/23/2012 1:58:05 PM PDT by bananaman22
It is rare in diplomatic circles for governments to speak bluntly, particularly in the Orient, where manners are highly prized.
The exceptions to this rule are retired military officers, who are often able to voice sentiments too impolitic for other channels.
One of the more startling pronouncements in this vein occurred last week when Song Xiaojun, a former senior officer of the People's Liberation Army, warned that Australia cannot juggle its relationships with the United States and China indefinitely and "Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later. Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the 'son' of the US or 'son' of China. (It) depends on who is more powerful, and based on the strategic environment." Noting the rising importance of China as an export market Song added that Australia depended on exporting iron ore to China "to feed itself," but "Frankly, it has not done well politically."
What is also notable about Song’s remarks is that they coincided with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr's first official visit to China, where Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi urged Australia to dismiss its alliance with the United States, a decades-old bipartisan and central pillar of the nation’s foreign policy, as ''the time for Cold War alliances has passed.'' Full article at: China Warns Australia to Choose Godfather - China or US
Those comments should go over well in Oz!
Thanks for the chuckle.
Hopefully our very good friends and allies down will diplomatically tell the commie bastards to eff off in a manner so polite they will never realize they were told where to stick it.
Hopefully our very good friends and allies down ???
Damn I know fully well I typed “down under”
fat fingers I guess.
Hey, dirtbag, the US and Aussies were allies in WWI and WWII, long before your commie butt was born.
China is just trying to re-create Japan’s “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
Time for Australia to develop nuclear weapons and a delivery system. I recommend a submarine force ala Israel.
Methinks this cocky little yellow/Red bastard should be told to pound sand, in the most blunt Aussie vernacular possible.
Aussies do NOT like to be talked down to.....and they sure as HELL do NOT like to be threatened.
The British Commonwealth can’t defend Australia from China without American help.
The Chinese population is more than 1.3 billion, while there are a total of just under 23 million Australians, a population less than 2% of the size of China’s.
Sitting on land with vast natural resources that is about 94% the size of the continental U.S.
That’s just too tempting for China to resist and they are patiently waiting for America to financially falter a little bit more and be unable to afford to deploy the massive forces it would take to defeat China in a shooting war. Given that Australia is so small in terms of GDP, population and trade with the U.S., and mostly that there no longer is much of a cultural bond between the countries of the Commonwealth and America, within a few years an American military defense of Australia would simply never find the domestic political support to be mounted.
The Queen’s speech to open parliament has become a sheer disgrace as an homage to leftist causes, with a monarch effectively sputtering the thing as if held hostage; I can find no other explanation as the Queen obviously is learned in tradition and history, is quite intelligent and of wonderful character. IMHO, she long ago simply saw the handwriting on the wall as British monarchs increasingly have since Queen Victoria. I do not fault the Queen but the subjects for their rejection of Christ and God’s Law; the groundwork for today’s dismal situation was laid by some leaders of European and American society going back to the 1800’s.
There are, of course, some stark similarities in the Pacific nowadays to pre-WWII Japan’s hunt for natural resources and desire and feelings of entitlement to a Pacific empire, of course, with some substitutions like communism for shintoism, etc.
Not a very veiled threat was it?
From what I see the Chicoms need Aussie ore more than the Aussies need them. Every farming publication I get has an article about some huge farm in South Australia or Queensland with very big and very efficient equipment. Looks like Oz is feeding themselves just fine.
Australia is huge, remote from the ROW, sparsely populated and hard to defend.
” Noting the rising importance of China as an export market Song added that Australia depended on exporting iron ore to China “to feed itself,” but “Frankly, it has not done well politically.”
“Australia has to ... Australia must ... “
I’m sure this will go over well with the jackaroos on walkabout `round their billabongs lookin’ for crocs to knife.
Yeah you tell `em China/
As if China has ever come to the aid of Australia in her need.
Salve
Hmm, interesting, remember Imperial Japan?
Australia has nuclear deterrence, if people know what treaties are; China is playing poker game now, to see.
Dangerous game as well very well calculated.
Mao will never be in power if not idiotic polices and as well stupidity of Chen, fighting against communist were well before Japan attack China in 1930’s as well situation similar to Greece and other parts of Europe that time.
Situation got out of control after WWII when Roosevelt, bull dog Churchill and Truman later decided to back off, and let Stalin do his bidding. Fact is this - Korean war was provoked by Stalin, not North, Stalin used Mao to see how strong US forces were, McCarthy got removed, for he was to dangerous in political arena.
Wars are based not on ideology, but on first conception of I want this, remember 1938-1939?
Merci
I believe Australia is one of the closest countries to our federated form of government, fundamental values and beliefs in individual liberty. I have always considered them a sibling in our evolution from English rule. I do hope they choose the United States and that we strongly follow through on our commitments to them.
I’m not as certain as some of you. The Left has made a lot of inroads into Oz, and China IS in their neighborhood.
If fact, some acknowledgement from Aussie officials warming to them would not surprise me in the least.
Although it hardly makes me an expert on international relations I've done a fair amount of traveling in the English speaking parts of the world including Australia.I've found that although there are noticeable differences in attitude,customs,etc we English speaking folks get along quite well indeed.The profile of one of FR's semi-regulars,"naturalman1975",contains the text of a speech that Australia's Prime Minister gave to a joint session of Congress not long after 9/11.Reading that text,IMO,makes me confident that the friendship between the US,the UK,Australia and Canada will endure for many years to come.
That kind of statement in China (when referring to a non-son) is an extreme, combined insult and threat.
Australia wants friendly relations with China - as we’d prefer to have them with all nations.
But if it comes down to a choice between having China as a friend, or the US as a friend, there is no doubt that the choice will be America.
It’s true enough that if China decided to take things to extremes - war, invasion, etc - Australia would not be capable in the end of resisting. We’d lose. But we will not give in voluntarily. No way. Never.
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