That sound you can hear is David Lange rolling in his grave at the loss of our independent foreign policy – Helen Clark has righteously called on us to flex our diplomatic muscle rather than military virtue signals.
Winston Peters has invited a defamation case against NZ as he defended selling our independent foreign policy to the American Military Industrial Complex for 3 magic beans.
Why Winston is making insinuations about Bob Carr and China when his very own Prime Minister is best mates with John Key who seems to be Beijing’s Ceremonial Ambassador to NZ, is all a bit beyond me.
Why the Christ we are signing up to America’s latest military profit margin campaign is an unanswerable as to why we enslaved ourselves to our new Chinese Economic overlords in the first place.
AUKUS represents a dozen nuclear subs that if armed with hypersonic missiles, can sit off the coast of China and hit them before China knew they were hit. AUKUS is a first strike platform, why wouldn’t the Chinese view this as a major destabilizer and convince hawks inside Xi’s regime that the window for military action is now before these subs are put into commission.
Winston is getting us sucked into this vortex.
Every military analyst argues that bombing the Houthies will only empower the Houthies. We are helping target drone strikes against the Houthie and did so again last week – why are NZ taxpayers paying to bomb the poorest country in the Middle East in a tactic experts argue won’t work?
While this is happening, as of this week right now China has specially embedded police units inside the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga and Kiribati to the many complaints of Americans and Australians.
In Kiribati, the nation’s parliament suspended foreign-born judges that serve the nation’s highest courts in a move that many suspect is Chinese driven.
The Solomon Islands election is still in dispute with the pro Chinese Government yet to be confirmed and Papua New Guinea has seen enormous drug busts that are suspected to be Chinese Government backed Grey Zone actions.
Throughout the Pacific an insidious Chinese influence is replacing the insidious American influence – we are naive to think China is not acting aggressively in the Grey Zone.
Why tie ourselves to America if Trump wins in November?
That would be madness!
We must seriously reconsider what our obligations and responsibilities are and they should be the protection of the Realm of NZ.
We should also reject American encroachment into the Cook Islands and Niue as a matter of principle FFS.
We should look to increase our Military spending especially with looming catastrophic climate change requiring civil defence responses.
Pillar 2 shouldn’t be an integration into the American Military Industrial Complex, it should be for the development and manufacture of local made drones specifically used for surveillance and protecting our economic zone and dependencies.
We can not pretend that the planet is stabilising when it is unravelling, the need to project force to defend our neighbourhood and enable civil defence responses is only going to increase, not decrease in the immediate and near future.
Entering a military pact that specifically targets China, our largest economic trading partner, seems pretty fucking stupid and why would we want to enable the next American Military Industrial Complex Profit Campaign?
Part of the latest American War Budget recently passed has earmarked billions for new naval bases throughout the Pacific.
Let’s be very clear.
We will NOT let the Americans have a military naval base here.
Right?
We need to refocus and modernise the intent and purpose of our military while building our own capacity to build and manufacture our own drones for the NZ Military.
Friend to all, enemy to none must still be our diplomatic stance and values, but we need to be able to protect our own home and our own interests and modernising and repurposing our Military for the immediate challenges ahead demands our attention.
Climbing into bed with America to start friction with China shouldn’t be our purpose, neither should we become so economically dependent upon China that we are subservient to them and their Authoritarian regime.
I want a New Zealand that is run by Wellington, not Washington and not Beijing.
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Which country has bombed & murdered more countries and their people than any other in world history?
China or USA??
Which would you choose to live in? Raise your family in?
Martyn – Agreed…but if we had to choose between the USA or China, then the USA for me..
why nate, just racism? the ‘yellow peril’ bullshit?
Neither Washington, Moscow or Beijing is how an internationalist might put it.
There is however a global realignment happening with the Northern and Southern Hemisphere nations and populations and an independent Aotearoa NZ is the best way to cope with that–mutually beneficial bilateral trade and cultural relations with whoever is into it. The Non Aligned movement needs to be reactivated in a real sense.
Face it all you lunkheads who support 5 Eyes and Nato–the USA is a whisker away from becoming an actual authoritarian entity–a Trump stacked SCOTUS and militarised Police etc. Handmaids Tale territory. The EU is gutless and useless, and Nato an extension of US Imperialism. Russia is Authoritarian, and so is China to a large extent. The South has weirdo religions that oppress women and gays, the North has 1%er capitalism and finance capital that fucks the working class over despite liberal trappings…
The thing with China is they build stuff wherever they go…highways, wharves, infrastructure. So it is a complex pile of problems–but mark my words–sucking up to 5 Eyes and AUKUS is the last thing this country should do.
1. QUAD is QUAD and AUKUS is AUKUS.
2. A tech development co-operation agreement is neither QUAD or AUKUS.
It should be seen as a democratic nation group partnership – collective action vs hegemonist authoritarians.
Of course whether it can include the USA will be determined by their election this year.
Hahahah, imagine thinking that the USA is a force for good in any way. Whether it’s democratic or not, the vast majority of people born in Ammurica are scum. At best, they’re willing slaves of the foreign powers which control the Ammurrican regime. I wish the best to those people born there who hate Ammurrica and want to destroy it.
Years ago, Stuff and NZ Herald reported on activities on Chinese owned farms in the South Island. Those activities were weather ballon releases. The quoted reason by China for this activity was so it could improve its South Pacific ballistic missile technology……… The line was drawn a long time ago by China.
And you believed it?
Years ago, Stuff and NZ Herald reported on activities on Chinese owned farms in the South Island. Those activities were weather ballon releases. The quoted reason by China for this activity was so it could improve its South Pacific ballistic missile technology……… The line was drawn a long time ago by China.
and my mum told me the tooth fairy left a tanner under my pillow chris
China deals with Pacific Island countries in a way that respects their sovereignty and vice-versa.
Whereas Western powers have a history of forcing their way in, kidnapping Pacific people for forced labour (blackbirding), and driving off indigenous people from their home islands in order to test their atomic weapons (Marshall Islands, French nuclear testing, and terrorism (Rainbow warrior), not to speak of force colonisation.
John Pilger’s the Coming War with China is an excellent place to start understanding the history of China (and the West’s) interactions with Pacific peoples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V42KtSeo3uI
Not too sure why we would want to go to war with the country that sells us most of our electronic goods.