Australian Foreign Minister's anti-Russian remarks drive bilateral relations into deadlock - Russian Foreign Ministry

The US Navy is the sole unparalleled benefit from our relationship with Washington. Granted, it is a highly beneficial trump card, but we can easily maintain the alliance while having an independent foreign policy. And anyway, the only military threat we potentially face regionally is China, and they have to go through ASEAN before landing on our shores. And if they have successfully done that, we're screwed anyway.

I'm sorry but this is rubbish, this is not what this is about. This isn't about war or military conquest. This is about spheres of influence, regional dominance and the current global mechanisms of governance. Even if it was, ASEAN is essentially military dead weight in the scheme of things. The Philippines is the only one with any real military power, and even then that is minuscule.

Australia has a lot to lose if China manages to gain a global or even regional hegemony. The current global mechanisms of governance reflect our values, democratic systems, freedom of expression and transparent systems of limited government. A system under a Chinese hegemony with the CCP at the helm would not be a system which reflected these values. This has direct ramifications for the Australian system, as Australia does not exist in a bubble and is directly influenced by the development of our neighbors and the world as a whole. When countries become more open, more democratic and less corrupt, with strong rules of law, it only benefits us by strengthening our society's foundations. It also helps us economically. Australian companies are at an economic disadvantage through our anti-corruption laws, and would stand to gain more contracts if corruption was limited and open trade was promoted with our neighbors. This also increases our security, as open, developed democratic societies do not tend to go to war with one another.

More practically, as we are a close ally of the US and share deep cultural ties and historical similarities, we would share to lose our position comparatively in a relationship with China; the ties are not deep, the culture is not similar, etc. China will certainly attempt to entice us into its embrace with a lot of money at the moment, as we are extremely strategically important; however, we must be careful to not let short term gain blind us to long term losses through Chinese influence. China is a magnificent country, but its government is not. Censorship is commonplace, there is no democracy, rule of law or transparency and not even a pretense of supporting and encouraging human rights. As such, it would likely move to limit the role of the human rights and the promotion of democracy in the UN as well as moving to legitimise internet censorship; all things which are deeply embarrassing and threatening to CCP rule. The current system, although flawed, has been an important mechanism to encourage the development of open liberal democracies.

/r/australia Thread Parent Link - rbth.com