Also on China, the ABC reports a speech by Paul Keating:
Mr Keating said it made no sense for Australia to think of its national security in defensive terms.
What terms, other than “defensive”, should national security focus on? Offensive?
No, what Keating means is that we should become an ally of China, because then we will have nothing to fear from them. That’s the gist, anyway.
“This great state, with its profound sense of self and the wherewithal to make a better life for its citizens – 1.3 billion of them – has eased itself into a major role in world affairs,” he said.
“A role which I believe will be an altogether positive one for the world.”
Keating is wrong. Australia’s recent defense white paper was ambivalent about our future relationship with China, making no assumptions about whether the two countries will be partners or adversaries in years to come. That open-mindedness about the future geopolitical landscape is exactly the right stance.
You can’t just wish problems away, and hugs don’t placate the implacable.
The world is not Woodstock, and it never was.
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If Indonesia ever developed military ambitions, does Paul seriously think China would come to our aid?
his solution to that is the same strategy: to also suck up to Indonesia. Call it the “befriending the schoolyard bully” theory of foreign relations.
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