War with China
Over the past 30 years, China has become a global economic and military superpower.
It is the world’s second largest economy and the world’s leading manufacturing center. Has a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and an ambitious space exploration program.
In recent years, unlike the United States, which has been burdened with the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, China has slowly but surely built up its military capabilities. The Chinese navy is now bigger than the US. They have extended their powers into disputed territorial waters off the coasts of most Southeast Asian countries, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, building huge artificial islands or occupying uninhabited ones.
China has been watching the West and its military capabilities, quietly developing an advanced arsenal, including long-range weapons systems.
At the end of 2021, the US, UK and Australia announced a new military alliance to counter Chinese aggression in the Pacific. The news surprised many and led to speculation that preparations were being made for a possible war with China. A panel of five experts is discussing how Australia would be affected and survive a worst-case scenario of all-out war between the US and China.
The powder keg of this crisis is Taiwan, a small island nation off the southeast coast of China. It broke away from the mainland in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War, but never formally declared independence because once it did, China would attack.
Taiwan is a very wealthy democracy with the sixth largest foreign exchange reserves in the world. It supplies nearly 70 percent of the world’s semiconductor computer chips, which are an essential part of all digital and home appliances, as well as the most advanced weapons.
It also has a strong relationship with the US, which is the accepted reason that China never invaded it, although it broke away from it.
However, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that Taiwan “must and will be reunified” with the mainland at some point. All of China’s military growth is preparation for a Taiwan war. What would happen if it happened? Will the United States support Taiwan? If so, will Australia also help as it has done in many other armed conflicts in the past? Because it is a well-known US ally, senior military strategists agree that Australia is at high risk of nuclear strike.
China recently imposed economic sanctions on several Australian industries for criticizing Beijing over Huawei technology and the Covid19 pandemic.
Australia is one of China’s largest trading partners in the world, which makes the situation even more worrisome.
Australians must decide whether to sit back and let China take over Taiwan, or prepare to fully engage in a major global war. However, the decision may have been taken out of their hands due to the complexities of foreign policy and diplomacy.
