region should concern us.
The Chinese government got upset yesterday when one of the government's back bench criticised the way China is moving into the Pacific. China is offering "loans" to countries which desperately need money to pay for infrastructure - but who won't be able to repay those loans on China's terms. They are sending in "business" people who are taking over from the local people with promises of employment - on Chinese terms. Of course they are not loans in the usual sense. They come at an immense cost.
China has done the same thing in Africa and elsewhere. It is colonisation by stealth. It's subtle and clever. To claim that is not what is happening is nonsense - but the Chinese government will do it anyway.
It has happened here in Downunder too. A cash strapped northern state negotiated the sale of a strategic port to the Chinese. It should not have happened. Getting it back is going to be difficult and expensive. It happened under the watch of a Prime Minister who believed he could speak Chinese well enough to handle the Chinese. That was always going to be a mistake.
And so our man on the back bench said something. He is a former military man. He knows what he is talking about. He has seen the Chinese in action in other parts of the world. He knows what they are doing and how they are doing it. As a back bench man he can still say those things.
The Prime Minister was being careful yesterday. It is very likely he holds the same views although he is not able to express them. He knows that China believes it is above any sort of criticism - even in external affairs.
Friends in Hong Kong are deeply concerned about events there. If, as could well happen, the Chinese government simply moves in and takes over, there will be little anyone can do there. It may well embolden them to make a move on Taiwan as well. "If the rest of the world allows the mainland to move further into the Pacific as well then we will be in such a powerful position...." one of my Chinese friends wrote to me.
Is that what we want? Is that why the military man on the bank bench has not been censured by those around him?
Should we be worried?
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I'm glad you raised this as many people either don't seem to be aware of the Chinese activities around the globe or they don't seem to care. Can they not see the infiltration of Chinese politics in our education systems, property markets and, ridiculously, our vital infrastructure? Our population is very small in comparison to the Chinese whose government must view Australians as sitting ducks on the same par as Pacific nations. While many Australians are hurting financially, it makes us very vulnerable to any promises of financial assistance or investment. The Chinese government tactics are shrewd and clever when it comes to furthering their own interests.
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