Orcadian, responding to an Email circulated by Thuppahi conveying the views of JOHN LANDER, circulated by Senaka Weeraratne
John Lander, a former Australian ambassador, gives a most thoughtful analysis on the fictions of the China threat. Western diplomats need to return to the basics of what makes for good diplomacy. We are increasingly seeing Western diplomats becoming irrational, bordering on insane.
Lander’s analysis reminds me of an incident that occurred in 2009 during a Stage 1 International Relations class in Melbourne in which students were asked: “Who is a threat to Australia?” The response was overwhelming ––”CHINA is the major threat to Australia”. This is not surprising given the way our academic institutions, both Liberal and Labour governments and media are structured, which reveals something about the way young people are being trained to see China as an enemy.
When asked why Australians consider China a threat, some say it is because of their economic systems as well as their extraordinary economic rise towards being the top global economy. Some say it is because of their political system and their dislike of the Communist Party of China. Others say they don’t like their ideology and its culture. And all say the US is a democracy and have been our ally for a long time, whereas China has not.
I am not so sure the US is a democracy, but if it is, then it is an extremely weak democracy and certainly not one to hold up on a pedestal as the greatest democracy in human achievement. Words like “freedom” and “democracy have been so abused by Western governments and their institutions that such words have very little currency today. In fact, the US is imploding and is run by powers beyond democratic institutions.
This Australian hate of China is grounded in deep-rooted fears that have been intentionally propagated by governments, think tanks, academia and the media. This whole process is not just totally wrong, but it is taking the West down the wrong track.
If we look at the Second World War and ask: “Did Nazi ideology matter in WW2, or cause it?” In other words, can we say that if Hitler and the Nazis had not existed in the 1930s then WW2 would not have happened? The answer is “no”. Nazism was not the deciding factor to cause WW2. There was a multiplicity of factors, including the Great Depression in which the US suffered 25% unemployment and Germany 15%. These factors come into play, but also wars exist because of states. States fight wars to compete. Each state is out to win and achieve hegemony. Yes, in the 1930s and 40s, the Nazis and Imperial Japan were out for global power and hegemony but today, we find Western states led by the US that engage in wars to win, to assert their hegemony and their influence over the world, not China.
Ambassador Lander only spoke about China. He did not speak on Russia and so the perspective that follows in entirely my own, but is nevertheless relevant to China in the global context of Lander’s remarks.
There is now a war in Europe. The West blames Russia for it. The West blames Russia for the food crisis, for the energy crisis, and for the economic crisis. A good example of blaming Russia for every problem in the world today was expressed by European Council President Charles Michel designed to mislead the world, and to wash the original sins of the Western world. In fact, there is never a single cause to any of these – but rather a multiplicity of reasons, including the 8,000 Western sanctions imposed on Russia, denying Russia the capacity to pay for its debts in US dollars, the continual expansion of the war in Ukraine into a much bigger conflict. More recently, the US government has told Africa not to buy grain from Russia, falsely accusing Russia of stealing food from Ukraine. The West doesn’t seem to care if it causes starvation across the Horn of Africa. The West doesn’t even hide the fact that they would prefer Africans to die of starvation than allow them to buy grain from Russia. It is not just their lies but their intention to cause famine just to score a geopolitical win over Russia that is incredibly evil.
These are just a few of some of the other factors involved, but there are many more, and it is an oversimplification to blame Russia for all the world’s problems. In truth, the US, EU and UK are largely responsible for the calamities we face today.
We are now entering a global energy crisis coupled with a global food crisis and world economic crisis. The US blames Russia, but also blames China, and this kind of US imperialistic ambition is extremely dangerous and will very likely lead to global wars. There is no evidence that either China or Russia are pushing for a global war. It is the US, UK and EU countries that are provoking, intimidating, and aggressively pushing for a global war and are willing to bring on a global famine, massive economic pain for all of us just to achieve a geopolitical win over Russia, which is evil. The West is gradually abandoning diplomacy in favour of war to achieve its goals of hegemony and global supremacy. The West cannot accept the idea that all peoples and states should share in this planet. The West cannot accept different political systems. The West continues to assert their own version of international rules, while the rest of the world doesn’t care for their rules and ignores them.
Therefore, we have to keep looking for the multiplicity of factors behind the anti-China campaign in Australia, and not simply blame it all on China because there is never a single cause. That China has a different political system is not a cause for war, but among the multiplicity of causes, is the West’s inability to accept China, and its willingness to stir up trouble at any cost to gain a geopolitical win.
China doesn’t threaten Australia because it isn’t a democracy. That is not just nonsense, but deliberate disinformation propagated by Western governments designed to implant fear into the heart of all Australians. The real reason for the anti-China hysteria is because the West is in freefall decline and is losing influence and doesn’t know what to do except engage in dangerous diplomacy, using sanctions, a continual barrage of threats, coercive diplomacy – all of which is leading us to a global disaster on several fronts from a global famine to an energy crisis, and economic crisis. And worse still, the US, EU and UK are causing such massive problems just as the world is coming out of a global pandemic as if to take advantage of it.
Australia is going down the wrong path entirely which can only cause this country great pain and ultimately destroy the kind of lifestyle and values we have enjoyed in the past. I concur with the views of this former Aussie diplomat.
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PS: ADDENDUM
