AN AUSTRALIAN expert has warned China is angling to split New Zealand from its more traditional Five Eyes alliance of Australia, America, Canada and the UK. Associate Prof Salvatore Babones from the University of Sydney told The Epoch Times this week that China would like to see a more isolated New Zealand.
A NUMBER of Kiwi politicians have expressed concern that a diplomatic faux pas by the New Zealand trade minister suits the political ends of the Chinese Communist Party which seeks to pressure Australia by upgrading its trade deal with NZ. NZ National Party MP Simon O’Connor, who is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said on Friday that Trade Minister Damien O’Connor had shown a “blindness” to the situation when he said that Australia should follow NZ’s example and “show respect” to China.
THE five eyes countries of Australia, Canada, UK and the US have voiced criticism of Hong Kong’s National Security Law after the arrest of more pro-democracy figures. Foreign Ministers from four of the Five Eyes countries have urged Hong Kong authorities to respect “legally guaranteed rights” after 55 politicians and activists were arrested on charges of “subversion” under the new pro-Beijing bill.
WHY do politicians so often make decisions based not on judgement but on computer modelling? This is notwithstanding the telling observation attributed to the great Anglo-American statistician, Professor George EP Box, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” It’s like all those pundits and commentators who were sure that based on faulty polls, Bill Shorten would win the last Federal election.
THE free world is looking to the United States with apprehension. Since Churchill handed the mantle to Roosevelt, the US president has been the leader of the free world, its defender against the forces of evil, whether they be Nazi, Communist or terrorist.
AMID ongoing trade disputes Beijing has instigated against Australia, the Republic of Congo —which is heavily indebted to China—has stripped three Australian mining firms of major iron ore projects under alleged “unlawful and arbitrary” circumstances.
AUSTRALIA has been warned it can no longer hide behind its powerful allies and must become independently capable if it’s to deal with Chinese aggression.Federal Senator and former Australian Army Major General Jim Molan said Australia needed to change its mindset and contribute “healthily” to its own defence.
VICTORIA Labor Premier Daniel Andrews, who this year inflicted more damage on Australia than arguably any politician in history, has capped off 2020 by cancelling Australia Day. Mr Andrews announced on Saturday that 2021 Australia Day celebrations in Melbourne were to be cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.
CHINA views Australia as a threat to its planned domination of the South Pacific and will continue its aggression for years to come, an expert has warned. Former deputy secretary of strategy for the Defence Department Peter Jennings said the Chinese government feared that Australia held too much influence over the world’s major democracies.
CHINA has called Australia’s new regional security alliance an “exclusive clique” as foreign ministers from the four member States met this week for a second time. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne met with her US, Japanese and Indian counterparts in Tokyo on Tuesday again raising the ire of Chinese officials.
