Meanwhile, down under: PM Turnbull orders inquiry into Chinese influence in Australian politics - Polidicks

[quote=ABC News]Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ordered a major inquiry into the nation's espionage and foreign interference laws, amid concerns about Chinese influence in Australian politics. A Four Corners-Fairfax investigation has discovered Australia's spy agency ASIO warned the Coalition and Labor about taking donations from two billionaires with links to the Chinese Communist Party. But the parties did not stop, with the Coalition then accepting $800,000 and Labor $200,000. Attorney-General George Brandis said he was examining whether the espionage offences in the criminal code are adequate. "The threat of political interference by foreign intelligence services is a problem of the highest order and it is getting worse," Senator Brandis said in a statement.[/quote] Read the rest of the article at [url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-06/turnbull-orders-inquiry-following-revelation-asio-warned-parties/8592308[/url]

The water is so muddy in this regard. It is happening at all levels of government. I'd love a snapshot of how much infrastructure that had been privatized is owned/overseen by Chinese investors. It's well established that large swaths of farm land have changed hands. These sorts of investments don't come without political influence or a seat at the table.

Exact same thing is happening in NZ, its starting to become a concern.

What are China's goals in Australia? borderlines-related?

[QUOTE=proboardslol;52319660]What are China's goals in Australia? borderlines-related?[/QUOTE]Afaik they're just interested in Australia for resource reasons, same as with their presence in Africa. China does have a lot of stuff for their manufacturing, particularly rare earth metals, but not everything. [editline]6th June 2017[/editline] There's also farming concerns iirc.

China's gonna take over the fucking world in the next few decades, zero question. They're developing at an [I]absolutely absurd[/I] rate, with an incredible amount of manpower, with an incredibly large economy, and with a huge interest in foreign investment. China's miniature race for Africa is development-focused and way less imperialist and colonialist than former great nations. They're building bridges with locals instead of literally enslaving them. China, India, parts of southeast Asia, and Africa will experience absolutely insane growth and form a new global coalition similar to the West/East, Axis/Allies, Capitalist/Communist divisions in the past. Start learning Mandarin, people. China's so wealthy it's bought up half of Seattle and Vancouver as a real estate investment. And they aren't slowing down - states will be bending over backwards for Chinese investment in the future, like they did to US investment in the past. China and the EU will be the two global powers soon enough.

[QUOTE=.Isak.;52320706]China's gonna take over the fucking world in the next few decades, zero question. They're developing at an [I]absolutely absurd[/I] rate, with an incredible amount of manpower, with an incredibly large economy, and with a huge interest in foreign investment. China's miniature race for Africa is development-focused and way less imperialist and colonialist than former great nations. They're building bridges with locals instead of literally enslaving them. China, India, parts of southeast Asia, and Africa will experience absolutely insane growth and form a new global coalition similar to the West/East, Axis/Allies, Capitalist/Communist divisions in the past. Start learning Mandarin, people. China's so wealthy it's bought up half of Seattle and Vancouver as a real estate investment. And they aren't slowing down - states will be bending over backwards for Chinese investment in the future, like they did to US investment in the past. China and the EU will be the two global powers soon enough.[/QUOTE] I don't care who's running the world. Just as long as there is a world to live in, and I can keep on doing what I do every day. You make it sound like China wants to put everybody in North Korea-like living conditions, which if that were true they wouldn't be so soft on Africa like you said.

[QUOTE=Stolons;52321033]I don't care who's running the world. Just as long as there is a world to live in, and I can keep on doing what I do every day. You make it sound like China wants to put everybody in North Korea-like living conditions, which if that were true they wouldn't be so soft on Africa like you said.[/QUOTE] How does "bending over backwards for Chinese investment" make you think China's gonna gulag the entire world? They're going to reach and exceed the U.S. at the height of its power. I'm studying China for my major, I'm planning on studying and working there eventually. China's influence is drastically less interventionist and militarist than the U.S., largely because the Communist Party's anti-imperialist influence still holds true (minus Tibet and Xinjiang).

I almost wouldnt mind if it wasnt for chinas policies on free speech and censorship

[QUOTE=da space core;52322080]I almost wouldnt mind if it wasnt for chinas policies on free speech and censorship[/QUOTE] The reasons for these are quite sketchy (warning: read this next bit in its entirety) but somewhat "understandable" from the state's perspective. If you control over a billion people living in a region known to shatter into many countries because of strong linguistic and cultural divides, as well as fierce regionalism (north vs south chinese, etc) you end up with an extremely volatile political landscape that could devolve into ethnic nationalism and small regions trying to control the entirety of "china", an arguably synthetic country that can not exist for too long before being wrought with coruption or falling apart. The current chinese government is intent on keeping its power and maximizing its own international strength as a powerful, singular unified state--the likes of which have not been seen for hundreds if not thousands of years, as even the biggest modern versions of China (like the Qing dynasty) were really ill-equipped, doormatish and poor compared to europe. Now that parity is reached, the draconian private-club government needs stability, which is why news and information is heavily censored. And the worst part is that the CCP can always have a scapegoat for when people yearn democracy: India. They can use it as an example as to why China "should not" and "cannot" have democracy, while conviently ignoring the many important Indian pre-conditions that lead to its poverty (a n g e r y religious divides, history of ethnic violence, etc). Also, once again due to '89 and to poorly-publicized recent terror attacks in Xinjiang (Chinese Central Asia), the people don't do much. They see the government as both the destroyer of the people and the saviour of the people. As such, there aren't many revolts or protests in non-han parts of China that more-or-less identify with the weird international pseudo "China" identity that emerged in the 90s. I can't wait to see when/if democracy is implemented in the future though, once the central power loosens its grip on the people by fostering greater communication and bonds between linguistic groups, etnicities and provinces--assuming they aren't the clandestine perpetuators of such barriers in the first place in order to divide and conquer the over-a-billion Chinese.