China is Australia's friend; not its potential enemy

I am a former army officer and have been to China five times as a language and business lecturer in universities over here. It befuddles me to see Australian hyper-ventilation on this matter of China's defence.Taiwan is regarded by the US Administration as an integral part of China, yet its Congress continually authorises sale of large amounts of defence materiel to Taipei. This dichotomy instils within China a sense of wonderment; it is akin [almost but not entirely] to Indonesia's selling weapons to the people of Arnhemland or to Tasmania. It bespeaks of sheer hypocrisy.Australia's cultural cringe to America has not diminished since the days of the Great White Fleet when the neo-colonists of our land wept in fear of the so-called Yellow Peril and treated the US as the Great White Hope. We view China through Washington spectacles and correspondingly whimper when China figuratively steps on our toes, even though our feet may be plodding along in tune with the American beat.China is not our enemy and never has been, and never will be unless we make the same mistake as we did when we followed the US into Vietnam and Korea.We need to rationalise our geography and cease to imagine that anything Asian is foreign; if we are, in fact, Asian-Pacific as we tell everyone, then China is our neighbour. If we look at China from an Australian perspective, we should be embracing Beijing as a friend.

The Australian
12 April 09