Chinese Live Firing in Tasman Sea is not the same as West sailing through disputed South China Sea
China are doing live firing drills in the fucking Tasman Sea FFS!
Airlines warned of Chinese navy live-fire exercise in Tasman Sea
Some flights over the Tasman Sea have reportedly been forced to change routes after fears Chinese naval vessels were carrying out live-fire drills in the region.
Australia has warned airlines flying to and from New Zealand to beware of warships conducting live-fire exercises, the country’s foreign minister Penny Wong said.
Wong confirmed media reports that regulator Airservices Australia had warned commercial pilots of a potential hazard in the airspace between New Zealand and Australia as three Chinese warships conduct exercises off the Australian east coast.
1News has approached Defence Minister Judith Collins’ office for comment.
Several international flights have changed their routes as a result of official advice from air traffic controllers, the ABC reports.
This is an extraordinary provocation from China.
Some of our woke are so conflicted with criticising anyone who isn’t white that they are claiming NZs anger at the Cook Islands is colonialism and our reaction to China live-firing in the Tasman Sea is somehow hypocritical because we support ships through the South China Sea.
To live test in the Tasman Sea is not the same in any way shape or form of the West sailing through the disputed South China Sea!
The South China Sea is an incredibly important Trade Route which International Law protects! We in NZ support that because it’s linked to the importance of those trade routes – THERE IS NO TRADE ROUTE FOR CHINA IN THE TASMAN SEA!
To sail all the way down here to live test weapon fire is a provocation directly to our interests.
The question remains, will this stunt be the end and China pull their ships back or will they continue on and sail under Australia or sail under NZ and dock in the Cook Islands?
Look, you can debate the awfulness of white colonialism until the cows come home, but don’t pretend that China is somehow benign FFS! It’s an authoritarian Communist regime with an appalling human rights record whose size and power will crush the Pacific with their never ending demand for natural resources.
Yes white colonialism is terrible, but jumping from that into the arms of the Chinese is no win for anyone other than the Chinese.
China is in the Tasman Sea doing live firing drills, wake up sleepy hobbits.
We are New Zealanders, we should not be hostage to Washington OR Beijing.
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Dont worry we are fast tracking for a USA naval base in Whangarei harbour where trump will park a fleet of nuclear armed ships and subs .Luxon will cut all school lunches and working for families and other support for the poor to pay for it .Then he will allow Trump to strip the rest of the country of every ounce of minerals and every drop of oil and gas as trump wants to do in Ukraine .
Then every girl over the age of 12 will be fair game for the sailors as was the case when US sailors were on furlow here in ww2 .
Given we are unable / unwilling to fund our own navy a US naval base in Whangarei woild be just what we need.
Imperialists, Ya gotta luv ’em. Not.
Why World War III is inevitable
Modern industrial production produces more products than people can consume.
Internally;
Every year billions are poured into advertising to try and make people consume more, (usually more than they can afford). Banks extend credit so people can buy more stuff. Until it leads to a credit crunch. To ‘cool the economy’ central banks raise interests rates to unaffordable levels, investment in the economy slows and overproduction is cut.- the result is mass unemployment and economic recession.
Adrian Orr: Beating inflation will mean higher unemployment
https://www.nzherald.co.nz › … › Official Cash Rate
Externally;
To avoid the above internal economic collapse detailed above, every modern developed economy must be an export economy. (Everybody wants to export more than they import, nobody wants an import/export trade deficit)_
If you are a big enough economy you can bully your neighbours and smaller countries to take your over production.
If you are a very powerful country you can ruin other countries economies to benefit yours.
This is the economic basis of imperialism.
https://time.com/7209520/donald-trump-davos-tariffs/
The Observer view: “Donald Trump’s imperial bullying must be nipped in the bud.”
Observer editorial:
…..These days it It is somehow considered impolite, especially if you are British, to remind Americans that their republic was also once an unapologetically imperial power. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, US administrations aggressively pursued their own version of the colonial empires of contemporary Britain, Germany and France. In 1893, the sovereign state of Hawaii (whose royal family enjoyed close ties to Queen Victoria) fell victim to an American-assisted coup. In 1898, the US annexed Hawaii. Guam, Samoa and Puerto Rico followed. America’s loosely interpreted “manifest destiny” demanded ever more. The Philippines, Cuba and even China were all on the receiving end of US political-military, commercial and territorial ambitions.
Far from being abandoned, neocolonialist American thinking persisted well into the latter half of the 20th century, operating under various guises. Newly-independent countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, liberated from collapsing European empires, were invited to join the “free world”, as defined and dominated by Washington. America promised protection and prosperity within the US-policed, post-1945 cold war order in return for fealty (plus military bases, trade concessions and access to resources). States that declined the invitation, such as Iran, Vietnam and Nicaragua, paid a high price…..
Newly developed China is not immune to this economic imperative and has embarked on its own imperialist project, and is set on carving out its own sphere of influence, even if it is at the expense of Western imperialists.
As the world heads towards a global recession, the US and China are are trying to ruin each other economically with trade war. Armed clashes between them are already occurring.
America’s new hyper imperialist president is not the cause of this conflict but a symptom of it.
World War is inevitable.
What should a small country at the bottom of the world do?
Our best interests in this coming war, would be for New Zealand to withdraw from all military and intelligence ties with any super power and declare New Zealand to be a neutral state, similar to Switzerland during WWII.
And we need to do it now before the war starts.
Cancel our Five Eyes membership, close the spy base at waihopai. Cancel all rocket Lab’s military contracts. No military US transports to Antarctica through NZ. No military vessels of any nation including Australia to be allowed to dock in New Zealand ports.
In exchange we ask China to agree not to hold any more naval exercises in our region. We also ask the UN to recognise New Zealand’s neutral status as a non-combatant.
In exchange for declaring our neutrality, we ask China to agree not to hold any more naval exercises in our region. We also ask the UN to recognise New Zealand’s neutral status as a non-combatant.
That prescription basically sounds like surrender. Also it says to Australia (and the 1 million NZers living there) that we don’t give a dam about them.
WW3 is not around the corner. Great nations that are nuclear armed don’t go to war against each other. What is much more likely is a new Cold War. Tension, yes; incidents, yes; all out war, no.
I am old enough to have lived through the last Cold War. At times things got quite scary, but I always had the sense the major powers knew they could not go to war against each other. I don’t think it was just luck that war didn’t break out, it was understood by the leaders, no matter how trenchant they were, that war between the great powers was just not on.
So what does New Zealand now do?
We play our part, particularly as it concerns Australia. We beef up our navy, at least 3 modern frigates, maybe 4. The two nations together will have 24 combat ships (Aus with 20, NZ with 4). Aus has 100 advanced combat aircraft. That is more than enough to secure our part of the world.
What do you want frigates for admiral? Serious question.
We, are going to pay levy. The Chinese fishing fleet is coming. Deal with it. Quietly.
Two things, Pat.
1. Nothing that is a result of human agency is inevitable – fortunately in this case.
2. Your eminently reasonable proposals for New Zealand neutrality are unlikely to make headway with the New Zealand government. New Zealand’s political establishment will not choose neutrality until it receives an almighty kick to the backside.
Any other suggestions which don’t depend on the New Zealand government seeing sense?
I wonder what Chinese taxpayers think about their tax – yuan being used to send ships, costing thousands of yuan a day to operate, cruising around an empty ocean where there is no obvious strategic advantage and firing millions of yuan of ammunition into the ocean.
The obvious riposte is that our navy does the same and more – (ramming expensive ships onto coral reefs).
However; I can, and do, complain to our government about that waste of my tax dollars and here I am – not in jail(yet).
Perhaps our good friend Mark can tell us about how aware the Chinese public are that the navy, which they pay for, is cruising around the Tasman making expensive bangs and whether they can complain about this use of the tax revenue.
After all, think how many more prisons the Chinese Communist Party can build with the money they might save.
I seem to be the only person in this world who actually doesnt care. Freedom of navigation and all that.