is it really about mateship and security or is it about greed and looking out for ourselves?

As with all human endeavors, it's a mixture of all these things and more.

China is powerful, and its power is growing. It's going to be a major factor in regional and global policy for centuries to come. Decisions made today will be remembered by future generations. The Australian government has a lot of competing values to consider and balance as best they can.

It's possible that this decision is every bit as wrong as you claim, but I suspect there's more to it than that. Everybody puts up with China because nobody is in a position to act decisively against China. And China exploits this situatin ruthlessly every day.

It's possible that the Australian government is doing everything it can for Taiwan, short of sabotaging its own long-term survival, but that its hands are tied on this one. It's also possible that Taiwan has received private assurances of Australian support. It's possible that Tawain itself suggested this move, as a way to appease China and buy the two nations more time to perfect their joint policy in secret, before openly antagonizing China.

At a time when China is promising war against Taiwan if it attempts to finalize its independence, Australia must tread very carefully along a knife edge. A lot of important things hang in the balance, and you might do well to consider all the angles before criticizing very difficult and complex decisions.

Speaking of selling uranium to untrustworthy states, what's your take on the Iranian nuclear program? Peaceful power generation, or atomic bombs with "Death to the Jews" stenciled on the outer casing?

G'day mate.
we're just getting our kanga army ready. Then we're gonna get those chinkos out to a nice barbie and cook em.

America America America. America this, America that, America the other thing. Why does it always have to be about America with some people?

Why can't Australia be the other Italy? Or the other Argentina? Or the other China?

China is powerful, and its power is growing. It's going to be a major factor in regional and global policy for centuries to come. Decisions made today will be remembered by future generations.

I agree with you here. My main concern is that countries of the western alliance are showing conflicting values when it comes to issues such as human rights of which China has an appauling record, and the very democracy that we are supposed to be fighting for in countries such as Iraq.

I have made this statement in many previous articles and have been reminded of the power and might that China has both in military might and economic standing in world affairs. Yet I fail to see the difference between pressuring countries such as Iraq when they invaded Kuwait and China on its mission of unification of the "motherland".

War threat statements recently issued by China are to be seriously considered by countries such as Australia as a matter of regional security. Publically refusing to show support for Taiwan and being in negotiations with China for the sale of Uranium to me does not look healthy to our regional neighbours such as Indonesia, Malaysia or for that matter North Korea. You may well say well look at the leader of North Korea and his mental state, but what I believe is that China is just as dangerous. Sure diplomatic strides have been made with China, mainly for economic purposes, but everything that China stands for and believes as a Nation goes against everything that we in the west hold to be sacred and a birthrite to its people.

G'day mate.we're just getting our kanga army ready. Then we're gonna get those chinkos out to a nice barbie and cook em.

Fried rice you reckon?

America America America. America this, America that, America the other thing. Why does it always have to be about America with some people?Why can't Australia be the other Italy? Or the other Argentina? Or the other China?

Incase you havent noticed... America is the Superpower of the west. Australia has modelled itself heavily on the ways of America, and sees itself as the Sherif of the South Pacific.

There was talk about whether our helping protect Taiwan from China with the USA was part of the ANZUS - if we were obliagated.

But haven't "we" been in talks with China about a Free Trade Agreement recently?

yeah we have been Trina... that's the weird part.
here is a link to another article about that...
Link

this is ALL nonsense.

Taiwan is a renegade province of China ... end of story.

If I recall correctly ... when the SOUTH tried to secede from the UNION ... Abraham Lincoln did anything he could to
prevent it.

IT SHOULD BE NO LESS.
If the Taiwanese really want to secede ... the must also be prepared to shed an enormous amount of lives for it ... Its there
call.

Much like it was for the SOUTH

>but everything that China stands for and believes as a Nation goes against everything that we in the west hold to
>be sacred and a birthrite to its people.

Phoenixboi WHY is it your concern what China choses to do against a renegade province?

What relation does Taiwan have to you ... is Taiwan the 51st state of the U.S.A ? an extention of Australia and Great Britain?
Here is ONCE AGAIN yet another example of westerners sticking their nose where it doesnt belong. Here I fully side with
Russia's President that this is an internal matter.

If China has any sense it would initiate unification NOW ... and stop dilly dallying.

Sanctions against China are pretty much useless (they already exist and have very little bite as companies look for ways
around this) ... and China can affect the worlds economy in many ways should it choose to.

Rombios.. I can answer your questions easily.

I see the whole planet as one, the whole humanity as one, I dont see seperation. Therefore I dont believe that what one country does doesnt affect the other. Therefore what China does affects the whole world.

You bring up the North and the South. Well Im afraid we now live in the year 2005, therefore we have made our world interdependant, we are all connected whether you like it or not, so what affects one part will affect the other. That is why it affects me.

Hey! Don't pick on us Aussies, just because we try to do things quietly - with diplomacy and finese. Don't you understand that, as the people in China become wealthier and have greater access to the world, they will start to move toward individual freedoms and democracy.

Thank your God that Oz is not like America. A loud mouthed bully is not what we want to be.

Hey! Don't pick on us Aussies

hey Im an Aussie.

with diplomacy and finese

Nothing Johnny and his ilk do is with dipolmacy and finese.

Don't you understand that, as the people in China become wealthier and have greater access to the world

The point is the people in China wont be wealthier, their government will be wealthier and their freedoms will be increasingly diminsished, as the people of China start to realise that they are being suppressed, their government will make more of a crackdown to control them. They are Communists.

Thank your God that Oz is not like America.

What part of Oz do you live in? DO you have your head burried in the Simpson desert?

A loud mouthed bully is not what we want to be.

Just remember the words of Johnny... the sheriff of the south Pacific.