Tag: Australia

The resilience that Australia has shown against China’s economic retaliation has likely been a major surprise for the CCP. Instead of weakening Australia it has actually strengthened and embolden the country to stand up even more against CCP human rights violations, economic coercion, and territorial expansion:

If the scale of China’s trade coercion against Australia is unprecedented, it also offers an intriguing experiment: What does a sudden economic decoupling from China look like? With China accounting for nearly 40 percent of Australian exports, one might assume the costs of Canberra’s defiance would be grave.

But in fact, the effects have been surprisingly mild. The reason is trade diversion: When a trade barrier is erected, businesses seek alternate outlets for their products. In open international markets, the outcome is rarely the destruction of export industries. Most of the time, trade flows adjust around the barrier.

Coal provides an illustrative example. Once China banned imports of Australian coal in mid-2020, Chinese utilities had to turn to Russian and Indonesian suppliers instead. This, in turn, took Russian and Indonesian coal off the market, creating demand gaps in India, Japan, and South Korea—which Australia’s stranded coal was able to fill. What’s more, the global energy crunch has pushed up the price of coal, leading Australian coal producers’ export earnings to rise this year—not exactly the effect China had in mind. 

Foreign Policy

You can read more at the link, but for a commodity based economy like Australia has, it is easier to decouple from China. However, for countries that have tech and manufacturing relationships with China it will be harder to decouple because new factories have to be built and new skilled workers have to be trained elsewhere. This would likely be a multi-year process. However, if countries don’t start this process now they could find their economies compromised if China threatens to close them as part of economic pressure to coerce governments to side with them during any future conflict over the South China Sea for example.

South Korea has found another purchaser for their K-9 artillery system:

Australia and South Korea signed a $720 million defense deal Monday as South Korean President Moon Jae-in became the first foreign leader to visit Australia since the pandemic began. 

Worth about 1 billion Australian dollars, the deal will see South Korean defense company Hanwha provide the Australian army with artillery weapons, supply vehicles and radars.

It’s the largest defense contract struck between Australia and an Asian nation, and comes at a time of heightened tensions between Australia and China. Australia recently announced a deal to build nuclear-powered submarines in a partnership with the U.S. and Britain — a move that China has strongly condemned. 

Moon met with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during his visit, and the two leaders agreed to upgrade the formal ties between their nations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Australia has now begun the slow reopening of its borders:

Australia will allow foreign visa holders to enter the country from the start of December, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday, the latest step to restart international travel and support its economy.

Australia shut its international border in May 2020 and allowed only restricted numbers of citizens and permanent residents to enter in a bid to curtail the spread of COVID-19.

The rules were relaxed in recent weeks to allow foreign family members of citizens to enter, and Morrison said this will be scaled up from Dec. 1 to allow vaccinated students, business visa holders and refugees to arrive.

“The return of skilled workers and students to Australia is a major milestone in our pathway back,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra. Australia will also allow in vaccinated tourists from South Korea and Japan from Dec 1, he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

China’s maximum pressure campaign on Australia is continuing:

Australia on Monday summoned the Chinese ambassador and demanded an apology after a Chinese Foreign Ministry official tweeted a graphic, computer-generated illustration of a grinning Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child to criticize Australia’s involvement in the war-torn country.

Zhao Lijian, the most prominent of Beijing’s outspoken “wolf warrior” diplomats, was referring in the tweet to an Australian inquiry into alleged war crimes by its soldiers in Afghanistan. As China-Australia relations have plummeted this year, Zhao has sharply criticized Australia in both its economic dealings and its conduct in Afghanistan. Russia, too, has cited Afghanistan as an example of the West’s failings and hypocrisy on the global stage.

An Australian government report, published Nov. 19 after a four-year probe, found “credible information” that 25 special forces soldiers unlawfully killed 39 prisoners, farmers and civilians over several years. More than a dozen soldiers have been dismissed, and the preliminary findings will now be followed up by a special investigator and could result in criminal charges.

Washington Post

You can read more at the link, but obviously this diplomat has little self awareness considering his country is mass incarcerating and disappearing an entire ethnic group. The Australians on the other hand have identified criminal activity, are investigating, and hold those responsible accountable. This is something we will likely never see happen in China.

By the way Zhao is the same person that tried to blame U.S. Soldiers for spreading the coronavirus in Wuhan. With all the misinformation this guy is spreading why doesn’t Twitter ban or censor him like they have done to conservative Twitter users?

Australia has been flirting with deciding to buy the K9 self propelled howitzer system for over a decade and now it looks like they have finally made a decision:

Korea’s prized K-9 self-propelled howitzer was selected as the sole preferred bid for a massive artillery modernization project by the Australian Army, said the weapon’s manufacturer on Thursday.  
   
Hanwha Defense, one of Korea’s leading arms makers, said it expects to export 30 K-9 howitzers and 15 K-10 armored ammunition resupply vehicles (ARVs) under a contract valued at around one trillion won ($960 million).  
   
A final deal is set to be signed after prices are negotiated with the Australian government following its review of Hanhwa Defense’s bid, the company said.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but

The big question is where in the Indo-Pacific would these troops go if they are in fact moved out of Germany?:

Thousands of troops may be redeployed to the Indo-Pacific under a plan to reduce U.S. forces in Germany, according to the White House’s national security adviser.

President Donald Trump announced last week his intentions of cutting troop levels in Germany from 34,500 to 25,000. He said the country, where the U.S. has stationed troops since 1945, has shortchanged the United States on trade and defense, and that he will reduce troop numbers “until they pay” more.

The move has been criticized by lawmakers in Germany and in the United States, including members of the Republican Party.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the article claims that Australia may be a place for the troops to be stationed.

This is good news because clearly the Chinese are trying to create strategic bases in the South Pacific where they could target Australia and New Zealand from. If a contingency was to happen in the South China Sea the fact that these two U.S. allies could be quickly targeted could influence future defense decisions:

Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday lauded a legal decision in the Solomon Islands that prevents a Chinese company from leasing an entire island in the South Pacific nation.

“I want to applaud the decision of the Solomon Islands attorney general to invalidate the Chinese effort to lease the island of Tulagi for 75 years,” Esper said in a statement. “This is an important decision to reinforce sovereignty, transparency, and the rule of law.”

Details of the long-term lease between the Solomon Islands’ Central Province and the China Sam Enterprise Group were only recently made public. News of the deal followed soon after Solomon Island officials announced in September that the nation was switching its diplomatic ties from Taiwan to China.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but but do not think that the Chinese are not going to stop trying to create strategic bases in the South Pacific to pressure New Zealand and Australia with.