Rising threat of China dominate talks between Defence Minister and US counterpart

The rising threat of China has dominated talks between Defence Minister Richard Marles and his US counterpart.

Mr Marles was invited for high-level meetings at the Pentagon in Washington DC, as US and Australian officials continue work on the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement.

The Defence Minister is asking US officials for greater information sharing between the United States and Australia as the two countries work to counter the rise of China in the Indo-Pacific.

[stenkarasin]

I find it ionteresting that Xi has not been seen since he went to Hong Kong.

[rcnwxyp]

The problem with Labor in Australian politics, is they for so long painted themselves as anti the establishment. Now they are in government, they are finding out, the things that everyone talks about are true.

If Labor listens to the greens, they will be in a world of hurt with voters in very quick time.

[Stikibits]

It's Sky; It's Some Warmonger's Lies.

[davu]

From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on Laos during 580, 000 bombing missions—equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years – making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. The bombings were part of the U.S. Secret War in Laos to support the Royal Lao Government against the Pathet Lao and to interdict traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The bombings destroyed many villages and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lao civilians during the nine-year period.


Five years ago, the US forces, using the fake intelligence of a staged video by “White Helmets” as evidence, conducted the so-called “most precise air strikes in history” in Syria, killing more than 1, 600 innocent civilians. In recent years, the international community has been calling for investigations into the killing of civilians in the US’ overseas military operations. On Syria alone, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic pointed out several times in its reports in September 2019 and February 2021 that the US failed to distinguish military targets from civilians in its air strikes in Syria, which gravely violates international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes.
However, the US government has been turning a deaf ear to all this. 

According to reports, over the past nearly two decades, the US conducted over 90, 000 air strikes in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, which may have killed up to 48, 000 civilians. But the US military time and again covered up the facts and refused to apologize, admit its crimes or hold the perpetrators accountable. It did everything possible to evade its responsibilities. On the drone strike of civilians in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesperson said openly in December 2021 that no US soldiers will face disciplinary action over it.

The US media also disclosed at the end of last year that from 2014 to 2019, the US military turned its guns on farmers in the middle of harvest, children playing in the streets, families fleeing the fighting and villagers taking shelter in buildings. These disastrous crimes were deliberately concealed and whitewashed. US media revealed last year that according to the US military’s own confidential assessments of more than 1, 300 reports of civilian casualties, civilian casualties in US air strikes have been “significantly undercounted”.
Larry Lewis, a Director at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) of the US said that on average at least one incident of civilian harm has happened every week since 9/11. There has been an overall pattern of negligence with regard to the US government on the issue of civilian harm.

The US has also obstructed the International Criminal Court’s investigations into its war crimes in Afghanistan.  Every human life, regardless of nationality, race, religion or values, is equal and precious. The US should earnestly respond to the strong call of the international community, conduct a credible, independent and impartial investigation into civilian casualties caused by US air strikes, and hold the people concerned accountable.


The truth of the matter is that politicians in the West and the US including Australia (Australia which is psychologically totally confused and suffering from an identity crisis as it thinks it is "west" when the reality is that it is geographically part of Asia!!!), are still stuck in their mental capacity and attitude in the glory days of "empire" 5-6 centuries ago. They may have learned to wear Gucci suits nowadays but nothing else seem to have evolved in their psyche and consciousness from their barbarian days.
Instead of recognising their sordid past and history, they celebrate their delusions like "Thanksgiving Day" which the Native American Indians rightly and clearly remember and commemorate as their "Day of Mourning" being the beginning of the murdering, genociding, plundering, stealing, raping and ultimately, OCCUPATION, of their land uninvited, without any due compensation even till today. But these thieves and robbers take a lot of pride in the stories they tell themselves and sell to the world how great their "founding" was!!! Same stories with the "Empire" where the sun never sets. Australia with the Aborigines. New Zealand with their Maoris. The African continent with all those goes on and on. This is the 21st Century, for chrissakes! Grow up and come out of that sick and primitive mentality of never ending desire to dominate, control and subjugate.

The zillions of dollars spent on wars and "defence" and the other zillions being hoarded by the 1% is more than sufficient to provide every human being on the planet a very decent and never anything wanting life on this planet with the healthiest and cleanest environment. And we pride ourselves as being the only creature on earth with the intelligence, consciousness and capacity of free will and choice. And these sick politicians choose never ending squabbles, tensions and wars!!! Go figure.

[globalchinesearmy]

People who are not stupid know that China always the best country, Rising above own score. No other nation can be matched. You must respect and obey the most glorious nation China or else there will be severe consequences. I am so proud to be a Chinese. We Chinese are the smartest, strongest and greatest race

[davu]

South China Sea Dispute
There has been a lot of articles South China Sea (SCS) dispute and China’s 9 Dash Line articles in recent time, with a majority of them twisting facts and trying to claim that China is bullying smaller countries with their growing military might when China is simply trying to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.
In 1946 at the end of WW2 it was a US Navy battleship that took Chinese soldiers to reclaim all the islands that are currently under dispute in the SCS as China simply lacked capable ship at the time. Thus, the original R.O.C 11 Dash Line was drawn in 1947 after China recovered all the islands, the 11 Dash Line linked all the islands together to clearly mark China territorial waters which was at the time recognized by the American and international community. The 11 Dash Line was only reduced to the 9 Dash Line when China secretly transferred Bach Long Vi in the Gulf of Tonkin from China to Vietnam in 1957 so that the island could host a new radar base to provide an early warning of American planes and to serve as a transitional post for Vietnam incoming war aid material as the Vietnam War escalated. It was a goodwill and war aid material from China to support Vietnam against the US invasion. From this, we can tell how ungrateful and traitorous the Vietnamese are with their current aggressive stances toward China.
Furthermore, all historical document sign by or involved any of the countries associated with the current disputes didn't lay any claim to any of the island involved in the current SCS dispute. For example:
— In the 1898 Paris Treaty signed between America and Spain, both countries acknowledged that none of the disputed islands belong to the Philippines as the Philippines territory extends to the east of east meridian 118 while the dispute islands laid west of east Meridian 118.
— In the 1945 Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender contained the following statement: ‘’the Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and such minor islands as we determine, ” as had been announced in the Cairo Declaration in 1943; which clearly stated it didn't include Diaoyu Islands. In addition, the Cairo Declaration in 1943 also clearly stated all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese shall be restored to the Republic of China (that represented China at the time) and these documents were signed with Chinese participation.
The American recognition of the 11 Dash Line lasted until San Francisco Conference in 1951 when the American specifically excluding China from the conference as the Communist Party in China-controlled most of mainland China at the time and proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. At the San Francisco Conference, the American made unilateral arrangement in an attempt to deny Chinese ownership of their islands that was previously international recognised belonging to China and put all these islands into a dispute. However, at the time no one including the current neighbouring claimants bothered to dispute China's claim to these islands and reefs, but China also did not have the ability to consistently enforce its sovereignty to these islands due to lack of military power and internal weakness caused by WW2 and the Civil War. Neighbouring states only started to violate China's claim, occupying certain islands and reefs when it was speculated that the South China Sea might contain oil and gas. For example:
— During the San Francisco Treaty of 1951 in the absence of China and with the support of the American, the Philippine claim ownership of the disputed island, nevertheless the Philippine did not declare ownership of the disputed islands until late 1970 by self-proclamation.
— The America took over the administrative duty of Diaoyu Islands at San Francisco Conference from China and promised to relay it to UN which they never did. The American kept the administrative rights until 1971 then transfer the administrative control of the islands to Japan at the opposition of China.
— The rest of the disputed is laid according to the 1994 United Nation Convention of Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 200 nautical mile EEZs which didn't come into existence until 47 years after the establishment of dash-lines and International laws generally don't have judicial to things which preceded it. Therefore it shouldn't be applied here in the first place.
Once again all the dispute was supported by the American and the American even announced that “The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia's maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea”. The United States has also called for unfettered access to the area that China claims as its own, and accused Beijing of adopting an increasingly aggressive stance on the high seas. The American has also frequently sent warships into the disputed area on so call Freedom of Navigation Operations.
Now if we look at historical evidence we can further assure China claims to these islands and the 9 or 11 Dash Line.
Diaoyu Islands — China claimed the discovery and ownership of the islands from the 14th century and the first Chinese records of these islands date back to as early as the 15th century when they were referred as Diaoyu Dao. While the Japanese maintained ownership of the islands from 1895 until its surrender at the end of World War II which ownership should have been returned to China according to the Cairo Declaration. In the 1945 Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender also contains this statement.
Spratly and Paracel Islands — The earliest written record of the Spratly Islands can be found in documents dating from the Eastern Han Dynasty 25 AD and The earliest written record of the Paracel islands can be found in historical documents dating from the Song Dynasty 960 AD. The 1887 Chinese-Vietnamese Boundary convention signed between France and China after the Sino-French War states that China was the owner of the Spratly and Paracel islands. The Qing dynasty also sent naval forces on inspection tours in 1902 and 1907 and placed flags and markers on the islands. The Qing dynasty's successor state, the Republic of China, claimed the Spratly and Paracel islands under the jurisdiction of Hainan. The Japanese occupied the Paracels and the Spratlys from February 1939 to August 1945, which was handed back to the Republic of China at the end of WW2 according to the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations.
In summary, all evidences support China 9 Dash Line historical and sovereignty claim in the South China Sea. However, it has been continuously undermined with the support of the US in their greed and ambition of controlling the world energy resources, world hegemony and containment of China’s rise. International laws and organizations such as the UN are just becoming tools for the US and are no longer performing the traditional roles that they were created for in the first place. If we use the same standard of argument used against China in the SCS then the international community need to do a lot more American occupation and military bases in Guam, Diego Garcia and other Pacific islands.
Additionally information: A special thank to Gerald Tan
US State Dept Chief of Spatial Geography and Boundary Analysis, Daniel Dzurek, who works as a professional geographer with distinction on this exact subject; from his book "The Spratly Islands dispute: Who's on First":
"Because the Allies, in particular the United Kingdom and the United States, could not agree on which government represented China, no Chinese delegation participated in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Conference. Therefore the Republic of China (Taiwan) negotiated a separate peace treaty with Japan, signed on 28 April 1952. Article 2 of the text included a reference to the San Francisco treaty: “It is recognized that under Article 2 of the Treaty of Peace with Japan signed in the city of San Francisco in the United States of American on September 8 1951, Japan has renounced all right, title and claim to Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu (the Pescadores) as well as the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands”. Republic of China has argued that the explicit reference to the Spratly and Paracel islands in the text of this bilateral treaty implies Japanese recognition of Chinese sovereignty. Samuels and Lu have observed that, unlike the 1951 treaty, the Sino-Japanese text mentions the Spratly and Paracel islands in thesame sentence as Taiwan and the Pescadores islands. The latter are generally recognized as Chinese territories. Moreover, according to the negotiating record Japan insisted that the renunciation article deal only with Chinese territory. This shows that the ROC and Japan viewed the islands of Taiwan, the Pescadores, the Spratlys, and the Paracels as having a similar status – that is, belonging to China"
US State Dept South China Sea expert Ambassador Chas Freeman who served for decades in the region, regarding China's claim to the SCS:
"In 1945, in accordance with the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations and with American help, the armed forces of the Republic of China government at Nanjing accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in Taiwan, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Nanjing then declared both archipelagoes to be part of Guangdong Province. In 1946 it established garrisons on both Woody (now Yongxing) Island in the Paracels and Taiping Island in the Spratlys."
Viet Nam Bach Long Vi Island history

[Soyabuti]

China has now 80 submarines . When Australia get the first in 20 years. China will have 150 aprox.

[Mortimus]

Cut to the chase and bring a nuclear sub asap. For training and knowledge.

[hassanahmed]

Hate to see how dumb our politicians have become. You already fail if the investment you make is politically motivated. The CCP BRIs were to invest in the local infrastructure, providing easy access to local business to export their products to China, Chinese market is able to consume all the pacific exports, specially raw materials and Agri products. China could have done this on its own, now with the additional funding from Australia and the US, China can execute their plans faster, they dont see any urgency to establish military base on these pacific countries, because Australia and the US can help them to maintain the LAW and ORDER. Even the CCP can pause all the investment activities for one or two years just to see how well the Australian govt can help the locals to build infrastructures. If roads are built, they can just send business in to trade with the locals, if the Aust govt fail their promise, then he CCP will come in again. On the other hand, what would Australia benefit from investing in the Pacific? Can we buy all the pacific timbers, fish, fruit products? Either way, it is a Win-win outcome to China.

[xrc]

What the F does rising threat mean? A super large erection? Who's been coerced?

[davu]

The truth of the matter is that politicians in the West and the US including Australia (Australia which is psychologically totally confused and suffering from an identity crisis as it thinks it is "west" when the reality is that it is geographically part of Asia!!!), are still stuck in their mental capacity and attitude in the glory days of "empire" 5-6 centuries ago.

They may have learned to wear Gucci suits nowadays but nothing else seem to have evolved in their psyche and consciousness from their barbarian days. Instead of recognising their sordid past and history, they celebrate their delusions like "Thanksgiving Day" which the Native American Indians rightly and clearly remember and commemorate as their "Day of Mourning" being the beginning of the murdering, genociding, plundering, stealing, raping and ultimately, OCCUPATION, of their land uninvited, without any due compensation even till today.
But these thieves and robbers take a lot of pride in the stories they tell themselves and sell to the world how great their "founding" was!!! Same stories with the "Empire" where the sun never sets. Australia with the Aborigines. New Zealand with their Maoris. The African continent with all those goes on and on. This is the 21st Century, for chrissakes! Grow up and come out of that sick and primitive mentality of never ending desire to dominate, control and subjugate.
The zillions of dollars spent on wars and "defence" and the other zillions being hoarded by the 1% is more than sufficient to provide every human being on the planet a very decent and never anything wanting life on this planet with the healthiest and cleanest environment. And we pride ourselves as being the only creature on earth with the intelligence, consciousness and capacity of free will and choice. And these sick politicians choose never ending squabbles, tensions and wars!!! Go figure.


Julian Assange on Afghan war in a 2011 video


How Britain Stole Hong Kong and Forced China to Buy Heroin




A reality check:

From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on Laos during 580, 000 bombing missions—equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years – making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. The bombings were part of the U.S. Secret War in Laos to support the Royal Lao Government against the Pathet Lao and to interdict traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The bombings destroyed many villages and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lao civilians during the nine-year period.
Five years ago, the US forces, using the fake intelligence of a staged video by “White Helmets” as evidence, conducted the so-called “most precise air strikes in history” in Syria, killing more than 1, 600 innocent civilians. In recent years, the international community has been calling for investigations into the killing of civilians in the US’ overseas military operations. On Syria alone, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic pointed out several times in its reports in September 2019 and February 2021 that the US failed to distinguish military targets from civilians in its air strikes in Syria, which gravely violates international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes. However, the US government has been turning a deaf ear to all this. 
According to reports, over the past nearly two decades, the US conducted over 90, 000 air strikes in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, which may have killed up to 48, 000 civilians. But the US military time and again covered up the facts and refused to apologize, admit its crimes or hold the perpetrators accountable. It did everything possible to evade its responsibilities.
On the drone strike of civilians in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesperson said openly in December 2021 that no US soldiers will face disciplinary action over it. The US media also disclosed at the end of last year that from 2014 to 2019, the US military turned its guns on farmers in the middle of harvest, children playing in the streets, families fleeing the fighting and villagers taking shelter in buildings. These disastrous crimes were deliberately concealed and whitewashed. US media revealed last year that according to the US military’s own confidential assessments of more than 1, 300 reports of civilian casualties, civilian casualties in US air strikes have been “significantly undercounted”. Larry Lewis, a Director at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) of the US said that on average at least one incident of civilian harm has happened every week since 9/11.
There has been an overall pattern of negligence with regard to the US government on the issue of civilian harm. The US has also obstructed the International Criminal Court’s investigations into its war crimes in Afghanistan.  Every human life, regardless of nationality, race, religion or values, is equal and precious. The US should earnestly respond to the strong call of the international community, conduct a credible, independent and impartial investigation into civilian casualties caused by US air strikes, and hold the people concerned accountable.

World Debt clocks

[crenattahm]

In USA country there are so much problems inside their country..start from their economy collapse rapidly, high unemployment, druggies and mental illness people spike up, violence daily involve with guns, security in red flags in their South US-Mexico borders and why on Earth..Australia thinks USA will commit far far away to other part foreign country problems? 😅✌️💙

[jeremiahjohnson]

Thucydides trap....look it up.
War is a foregone conclusion and if you have not prepared, there is precious little time to do so.

[leocatalan]

This is paranoia, the last Australian defence minister was extremist, naive and arrogant. He start this situation.

[harry]

Why are people non native to the indochina region trying to create confrontation in the Asia region?

[liar-liar]

Chinatown already dominated the world 😂😂😂

[robertdavie]

The West, until recently, had hoped China would move towards becoming a democracy as its economy developed and so become a friend. But China has chosen a different direction that we in the West don’t really understand. China has illegally taken possession of the South China Sea because it is rich in resources such as gas, oil and fisheries and because it provides strategic advantages in that it allows it to deny the US military access to this region. It has used its relatively recently acquired wealth and technology to create artificial islands in this sea and has militarised those islands and seeks confrontation with its neighbours by prohibiting their access to the resources contained in these waters.

The mistake of the West was to assume that ideas of human rights and individual freedom are universal and that all cultures would eventually come to practise them given the right opportunity to do so through the benefits of economic development. We have made this same mistake with the Japanese who, in the space of a couple of generations, took Western science and technology and used it to militarise their society and to attack their neighbours. The cost in loss of life and material destruction they inflicted on the region as millions lost their lives from Nanjing in China to Burma and the Solomon’s Islands was a bitter lesson for all to learn. It was the West who gave Japan the means to inflict this crime upon humanity. Have we made the same mistake with China?

The history of China is very different to that of the West and so is their thinking today on how society should function. “China’s own governance model is based on a different set of values, which prioritise allegiance to the state and party and involve restrictions antithetical to open societies. These include limits on freedom of speech, association, religion and anything else that could enable collective action in opposition to the state.”


In the words of Mohamad Mahathir and Lee Kuan Yew, “They argued that individual freedom was a Western ideal, not compatible with Asian societies.”


Western ideas on the value of human life and the many forms of respect that must be shown to it, including even towards the property owned by each person, derive entirely from Christian beliefs concerning the origin and meaning of human life.

The rule of law is one of the foundational principles upon which our democracy is built but its origin lies at the very heart of Christian teachings. At the very core of the Christian faith is the belief that human beings are made in the image of God, Genesis 1:26-27. This assertion of the belief that human life is created in the image of the divine, had a profound effect upon our Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ancestors whose behaviour, over time, was gradually and profoundly altered by it as they were each, in their own time, converted to the faith.

China has much to offer humanity but will it choose to do so? History has shown us the nature of the threat that an organised nation of people who collectively think and act like robots poses to the existence and freedom of others. The current direction China is taking does not look good for the cause of peace as its President encourages his people to put aside their fear of death. We must develop the means to deal with that threat effectively so that conflict can be prevented and to not be taken by surprise like we were with the Japanese several decades ago.

No one would risk attacking us if we were nuclear-armed. Better to prevent war than to try to prosecute one inflicted upon us. The way to maintain peace between nations is by the possession of nuclear weapons because these weapons rule out the possibility of war altogether.

[johnhinton]

Look how tiny his little fingers and😂!

[JCRF]

If you look at the restrictions and mandates Australia had during covid, and the draconian enforcement and limits on peoples rights.. It makes me wonder; what would be the difference if the CCP had actually taken them over? What would have changed? A different flag?

[trankt]

The West has gotten so good at everyone is so impressed...