Cold War: Could AUSTRALIA be the new TAIWAN?

Taiwan, #China, semiconductors... How imminent is China's invasion of Taiwan? This is by far one of the most repeated questions in recent months. US President Joe Biden himself has had to intervene on several occasions to make it clear that the US military would support #Taiwan.

However, while all eyes are on Formosa Island, another question has arisen: could the conflict in the region be ignited by an entirely different clash involving a country like #Australia. Australia has been one of the most economically successful economies in recent years and has now gained particular prominence thanks to its significant reserves of lithium, cobalt, natural gas and copper. However, the Aussie nation has one weakness that Beijing could exploit: Could China blockade Australia? We tell you about it in this latest VisualPolitik video.

[maxwellsmith]

As an American I can help but admire Australia for its courage through the years. they really are a first rate people and it’s a country worth defending as our own. 🇦🇺 🇺🇸

[lostbutfreesoul]

Australia knows how much wealth it has, it is literally in the Anthem. If only we stopped sending those resources over that sea which girths us, and use them to build ourselves up. Australia is poised for another industrial age if it would just be handled correctly, no wonder China feels threatened. Think what happens if Australia used Automatic Factories instead of Population, and no longer needed Chinese *exports* to make the economy look good?

[ananamu]

I support Australia in becoming more self reliant . The biggest danger is subtle infiltration and Australian niavity

[daveharrison]

Australia is giving away its natural resources to private companies when they should be using the wealth from those resources for their country like Norway does.

[erichahn]

Naval blockades are an act of war.
Treaties with the US and UK would kick in and they would become involved in short order.

[skilgour]

I am fortunate to live in Australia. I have travelled throughout a lot of the world and I wouldn't swap what I have for anything I've seen elsewhere.

[paulstewart]

As an Australian, I consider that we do not like to get engaged in unnecessary angst. We coped quite well with the Chinese cold shoulder, but were happy to thaw things after a while. Australia's largest trading partner may be China but there we are so many others - including the US, Japan and increasingly India, that we can and do, adjust to fluctuations. The superannuation trove of over AUD $3 trillion is enough to generate some self-sufficiency in capital markets and our higher education exports, augment extractive industries. I plan to stay here for the rest of my life and hope many people from around the globe join our communities in the future.

[mCblue]

It's not all as rosy here as the numbers might suggest. But I'd still rather be an Aussie than be from anywhere else in the world 👍😁🇦🇺

[thebiglebowski]

I live in Oz mate .. moved from the UK. Yes the standard of living is much better here. It is not Nirvana and there are socio economic problems but overall I'm glad we did it and the kids have much more opportunities here.

[MrLurchsThings]

Ignoring the click-baity title for a sec, could China blockade Australia? Probably not. We’ve got a pretty decent internal transport system to get things around, even over the huge distances, which came into play quite well during the pandemic. Being such a big island, even with a military the size of Chinas, that’s a big ask to blockade *all* of Australia’s major ports. Yes, they may be able to make things difficult/uncomfortable - but that’s about it. And the pandemic has already shown that the Australia public can deal with such things. And that’s just talking about China trying to take on Australia on its own and before any of Australia’s allies got involved.

[deu]

Australia is my favourite country on earth and is perhaps one of about 5 countries that I'd be happy to relocate to long term. The other four being the UK, USA, Canada and New Zealand..

Going by this video, I believe Australia has alignment with some of the most powerful countries on Earth to guarantee a prosperous future that will be free from invasion

[davocc]

This is a video written by someone who read a Wikipedia page about Australia but has relatively practical or pragmatic exposure to the place, perhaps to the world itself by the looks of it. I'm from Australia - I have lived there most of my life and I know this awfully well. It has so much of this glorious "wealth" tied up in savagely overpriced property that the government itself can't let property values fall like they do in cycles in the US, UK, etc. as it would shock the banking system alone far too much (their 'big four' concept is also a big part of unbalanced influence).
There's been a two-speed economy for at least 30 years - mining often boosts numbers artificially but this in practice only benefits a VERY small clique demographically and geographically, it also sharply jacks up prices of assets such as infrastructure, etc. without the rest of the nation being able to cope accordingly as well.
There is a tragic lack of economic complexity and diversity - and it's even on a DOWNWARD trajectory from its already low position. One of the big problems has been governmental fiddling with industries and trying to kill new business innovation quite deliberately - ask anyone about provisional tax from not ALL that long ago for instance. Major manufacturing has fled the country for a range of reasons, both supportive and restrictive but all coming back to politicised interference.
The country could have been one of the absolute powerhouses of the Internet itself - stable geography, stable government, native English speaking, high levels of baseline and professional education, surprisingly clever technical innovation and even access to resources that could provide cheap power (which should be some of the cheapest in the world but is instead one of the most expensive, 3x Canada's rate I believe). All of these factors were trampled intentionally by short sighted government; they killed it overnight by allowing and enshrining data-charging making Australia the most expensive place to download something in the world at the time (we're talking domestic users with six figure bills in a single month, we calculated it was cheaper to charter a private plane to the US and fly back four DVDs that it was to download them at one point). I spoke to US tech pioneers who were frightened away as local companies that were taxed and charged to utter oblivion. It was so bad that you sometimes couldn't even obtain the infrastructure you really needed because noone ever expected it be a viable concept there. Government at the time did this intentionally to "soften" the industry and local market purely to elevate the projected float share price of a remaining chunk of the national telco which was being privatised at the time; that mattered more to them than tens of billions in revenues and taxable income and the intense importance the industry would have held in the world there.
Even today there exist barriers to innovation, business and cost effectiveness that would lead to an armed insurrection in the US. Of course refinery capacity was falling; in the 70s and 80s they were taxing exploration efforts so heavily that it destroyed the exploration of an entire basin which some scientists believed could have provisioned oil domestically. I heard a story about an exploration team that put something into their 4wd and drove it around to prove its purity, they were fined into the stone age for "excise evasion" at the time.
Tack on overheads such as what was long regarded as one of the most complex tax systems in the world (I heard one accountant claim it just behind Argentina at one point)... Not to mention the insane costs of living (my old city had the most expensive public transport fare in the world at one point) and you have a recipe for a distinct line between haves and have-nots that just doesn't show in Wikipedia stats. Sure wages may be higher than Eastern Europe but rents are so so so so so much more. As are property prices; a Sydney suburban house has an average cost of $1.25 million for an ordinary suburban house with a back yard (often barely even there). Demographic spread is a mess too with an insane concentration of capital and power held by boomers and later generations simply eschewing the idea of ever being able to own a home, some even giving up on renting in many urban areas.
For God's sake VP-En - you just can't learn about a country from the PR brochure.

[wilhelmbittrich]

As a New Zealander, it’s quite impressive seeing “big brother” Australia stand up to the Chinese giant and strengthen ties with our allies in the west. The same can’t really be said for our government. Partly because we lack the strength to stand up to China, but also because we depend on China for most of our trade too. We’ve “put all our eggs in one basket”, and our politicians have been asleep at the wheel.
Luckily, I think there is some traction and momentum towards taking a difference stance towards China, so if we can work with our stronger allies, hopefully we can start making a shift.

[bradcue]

I like VisualPolitik generally, but there is no conceivable way that China could impose a naval blockade of Australia. Among many reasons the PLAN does not have the logistical infrastructure, including a base close to Australia, to able to sustain fleet operations so far from home. Sure, subs could cause alot of problems and pick off shipping, but challenging the Australian and US Navies that far from China would be suicidal for the PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy)

[ianyoung]

Undersea cables are a concern. A nordstream type job on them could cripple us real quick. We made a big mistake closing the refineries. A lot of people here are sitting on property but are cash poor. Those who don't have property find it very hard these days. There's a mountain of debt... but yep the quality of life would be hard to beat.

[danielkomarov]

Philip Lowe is copping it at the moment in Australia because in 2020, he said there would be no interest rate increases likely before 2024, but there have been 8 increases in a row since before the federal election in May this year. The economy is on the verge of stalling next year. Nowhere near as bad as the UK or US, but certainly not the greatest at the moment. Also, friendly tip - it’s pronounced CAN-bruh, not can-BERRA as it looks. Keep up the great work! Love your videos!

[shottskies]

It's interesting that you describe us as an emerging powerhouse. That's a massive compliment. When discussing our own politics BTL we only ever seem to put ourselves down. So, thanks... not to get ahead of ourselves though

[ronmaximilian]

The only country that the people's Republic of China is thinking about blockading is Taiwan. Red China is far more worried about being blockaded at these strategic points by Australia and India. Australia is right now procuring Tomahawk cruise missiles and the stealthy long range anti-shipping missile from the United States. Australia also has a number of conventional submarines and is looking to acquire eight nuclear ones. A Chinese attempt to blockade Australia would go badly even without American intervention. Did I mention the United States and the United Kingdom would intervene And that this conflict would occur around other potential anti-Chinese countries including Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines?

[simon]

Aussie here, can confirm everything in this video is pretty spot on. Family were originally migrants 15 years ago with not a cent in the pocket. My parents would steal from grocery stores everyday when we first arrived to Australia but that's because they never knew about all the help and resources from the local community. The federal and state governments are very different than when compared to other countries, I'd definately say they are way nicer and down to earth.

My parents moved from 3 other countries to escape war. Jump 15 years, we now have our own home and business (medical clinic) thanks to Australia and hope to repay back the kindness shown to a couple of migrants who stole food from woolies (grocery store) everyday just to survive. The Australian people is what really makes this place so great and not the natural resources. However, I will say Aussies do complain a lot even though they have so much when compared to the rest of the world, literally every teenager has an iPhone 13+ that includes the ones on welfare.

[HarrisSultanAtheist]

That will be a suicide for China to look towards Australia!