[+] HONOURING OUR PATRON, SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, VICTOR OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
[+] HONOURING OUR QUEEN, ELIZABETH THE SECOND, ON THE 80TH YEAR OF HER BIRTH (1926 - 2006)
[+] HONOURING OUR KING, SAINT EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, ON THE 1000TH YEAR OF HIS BIRTH (1005 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR HERO, LORD NELSON, ON THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR (1805 - 2005)
[+] HONOURING OUR SONS, THE QUEEN'S COMMONWEALTH SOLDIERS KILLED IN THE 'WAR ON TERROR'
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, Royal Canadian Regiment, Nov 27, 2006 (Afstan)
Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, Intelligence Corps, Nov 12, 2006 (Iraq)
Private Jacob B. Kovco, 25, Royal Australian Regiment, April 21, 2006
[+] HONOURING OUR VETS ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORIA CROSS (1856 - 2006)
I'm honoured to have been invited to offer my first contribution to this site and, writing from China, I feel I should provide a perspective that may not be recognised outside.
China is already showing that it’s not going to just quietly sit in the back of the Security Council and not raise its head. Last year Beijing authorised the use of non-peaceful means against Taiwan if it ever moves toward independence. The US and Japan tried without success to get AUSTRALIA to support them in condemning this. Already the Anglosphere has shown not to be strong enough at this early stage to overcome economic self-interest. If the US ever intervened it could very well face a Chinese arsenal made in Europe. China has the gall to claim the whole of the South China Sea which is going to be a serious flashpoint as this is where Japan gets almost all its energy and resources.
Beyond its region China is locking up essential energy sources by propping up African dictatorships. Blair this weekend has been urged to do something about the genocide continuing in Darfur but as long as China continues to block sanctions nothing will be done. The Commonwealth’s ability to put pressure on dictators like Mugabe is limited by the Chinese providing them with weapons and military hardware, maintaining the ability of such dictators to keep their people cowed. China has already sold Zimbabwe $200m of fighter aircraft, technology to censor all communication, and electronic surveillance equipment as it declares Mugabe to be "a man of great achievements, devoted to world peace and a good friend of the Chinese people". This model of development is the antithesis of the West's promotion of democracy and freedom. Think of values China stands for. Better yet, read its own constitution and you’ll understand the nature of the country which will increasingly intrude into our sphere:
Article 34. All citizens of the People's Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election.
Article 35. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.
Article 36. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. Article 37. The freedom of person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable.
The problem is that we are so dependent on China we may hesitate to confront it when the time comes. The US suffers from such staggering trade and budget deficits that Chinese purchases of its bonds are absolutely vital to its economic stability. Our education system is a mess, and I don’t just mean the lowering standard of A levels. It’s commonly heard that Western teenagers dream of growing up to be pop stars, while Chinese and Indian kids dream of being engineers and idolising Bill Gates. Look what we’re doing- we contract out design and innovation in the hopes of cutting research and development costs by drawing low-paid technical workers in China, India, and elsewhere. With the whole basis of our advantage in military technology being sold off we soon will reach the point even if we wanted to address China’s rise, we won’t be in much position to. We’re selling off our future just as we’re keeping our prosperity dependent on petrol.
I’m not advocating aggression, and I certainly hope we never get to blows (although there have been those from MacArthur who argue that is our only hope of stopping China). China’s past has always shown the country to be insular and rather benign. But this is a country that has no problem stealing Western technology, banning seemingly innocuous websites like the BBC and Wikipedia, taking land from peasants and selling it to companies to destroy it as they create the greatest environmental catastrophe of all time affecting every one of us, summarily executing more people than the rest of the world combined without any due process, etc etc etc. We appease them by awarding them the Olympics, they respond by threatening to lock up the mentally ill and forcibly deporting the migrants building the stadia. “Islamofascists’ or whatever you want to call them might be unpleasant, but they’re not the threat to us that the IRA was and I’ve never had any trouble going to a pub in Ulster and hearing songs glorifying terrorists. If we left the region and stopped giving unqualified support to Israel our security would be as threatened as Norway’s. But China will affect our world and our way of life the more we appease and ignore it. It’s time to seriously address this.
POSTED BY: Anonymous AT 11:59 p.m. | LINKS |
.gif){kind=small}
.gif){kind=small}
