Next Pacific flashpoint & the case for 3% GDP NZ military spending
Monday’s bombshell revelation from the Pacific Forum that Kiribati has pulled out of the alliance to waltz into the arms of Beijing is still ringing around the region.
This represents the most significant encroachment of influence into the Pacific since Japan’s Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
This is the most provocative move by China to date into the direct sphere of influence of America.
Tarawa Government cabinet papers show they want to let China’s fishing fleet into the Phoenix Islands Protected Area as well as have some kind of operation on Kanton Island, using old American facilities there.
According to 1979 Kiribas/US Treaty of Friendship. America considers those facilities as theirs and will not tolerate China taking them over – how does America react if they are handed over to China?
This agreement allows China the ability strike at Pearl Harbour, Guam and American Samoa so my guess is American overkill…
United States Vice-President Kamala Harris is set to address leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum tomorrow, announcing a range of new strategic initiatives in what a political expert says is “unprecedented access” for a non-Forum member.
…the 1979 Kiribati/US Treaty of Friendship requires a 6 month pull out clause, so we will know China’s true intentions here if Kiribati triggers that clause before the end of the year.
This Kiribati encroachment is a remarkable intrusion by China directly into American sphere of influence in the Pacific, now we could bitch about America having that influence in the first place and the arrogance of them thinking they still have a sphere and how outrageous is that when Russia is simply doing the same in the Ukraine, but the fact still remains China has pushed directly into America’s sphere and they are directly challenging American hegemony in the Pacific.
We don’t want to get caught between what’s coming.
Wellington should refuse point blank to cave into Beijing or Washington and must put NZ and the interests off our Pacific Whānau first above and beyond the interests of China and America.
But this move into Kiribati is the canary in the coal mine. It would give China a strategic advantage against 3 crucial American Imperial outposts, if you can’t comprehend how America is going to respond to that level of threat, you don’t appreciate what just happened.
Dr Bryce Edwards has caught up to a debate TDB has been having for some time to increase Military GDP spending to 3%. Interestingly Labour have quietly ratcheted GDP military spending from just over 1% to just under 2%.
I believe that the climate crisis means we need a vastly larger military to cope with civil disasters and if we are attempting to distance ourselves from China and America, we need to make a decision to dramatically lift what we spend on the military for purely defensive capacity.
How would we go about defending the realm of NZ and all our economic exclusive zone?
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Interesting reading.
That 3% of GDP, where could we get that from?
Don’t the nasty Aussie banks export $6 billion or so yearly (that’s a guess, happy to be corrected), there’s your 3% right there.
Hawaii doesn’t belong to America. The indigenous people must be liberated from the satanic American navy which continues to deliberately poison their natural environment and even their drinking water. Some DF-21’s dropped on the Naval Station sounds like just the ticket.
Let me guess – Hawaii doesn’t belong to America but Tibet and Taiwan belong to China yes?
The US Navy worships the devil as well yeah?
It’s interesting that you think it’s funny for American invaders to suppress the will of the Hawaiian people and poison their water, yank. If you don’t worship the devil, how would we humans be able to tell the difference?
Once again I am not American I am a New Zealander and your comments are increasingly so ridiculous I am left wondering a) Are you even human? b) If so are you operating out of some bunker somewhere in China?
You might also want to research what happened to the last crowd that attacked Pearl Harbour before you start shooting your mouth off.
Cry more yank. Your empire is senescent just like your President. Justice is coming.
John White if you are not Maori then you do not originate from NZ so you are no different to those yanks you refer too.
John White please tell me what rate you’re being paid by the CCP. Is it per word or per paragraph?
Do you have some leeway in what you write or are you told to stick strictly to the supplied script?
I’ve long been a supporter of three percent Gross Domestic Product military spending, and I’ve always thought that the introduction of estate taxes could allow for this. It would be appropriate for the wealthy to help pay for it, and if estate taxes are introduced at a nominal flat rate, then the wealthy wouldn’t really have anything to complain about and the only people that will be hurt by it are the over leveraged property speculators so, effectively, the introduction of this measure would discourage property speculation in this country, which is what we need at the moment.