On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:06:47 +1000, ralph wrote:
>>> WTF? Because I oppose closer ties with Chinese fascists, I must
>>> instead sup****t Australia unilaterally cutting off all trade with
>>> them.
>>
>>So what you oppose is "closer" trade ties? You're quite happy with
>>Australian trade with China being worth $56.2b/year, but no more because
>>that would immoral somehow?
>>
>>
>>> I can think of at least a third ... strange you can't.
>>
>>And what's that?
>
> Instead of working toward closer ties with Chinese as you advocate ...
Tell me why not. We already do quite a lot of trade with China. I'm
interested to know why you say: we should cap it at precisely $56.2
billion per year. It's just that it seems like an arbitrary number.
> we should be using our ties with governments who share our commitment to
> democracy and human rights, and work with them on any number of fronts
> to keep abuses of human rights in the spotlight, especially on the scale
> they occur in China.
That's why K-Rudd waited he was standing next to Shrub before he
criticized China on HR. It was powerful symbolism. He was saying to the
world, China included: "We stand shoulder to shoulder with our
traditional allies, United States, on the issue of human rights in Tibet.
Like it or lump it."
> Meanwhile, no reason to be increasing contact at
> government levels ... a good albeit minor start (since our new
> government loves symbolism) would be not to send any government
> representative to the opening ceremonies.
>
> As for trade, of course unilateral trade sanctions on our part would be
> fruitless ... to be effective, sanctions require coordinated effort with
> other democratic governments.
What you are proposing is that we should work with other governments
towards imposing multilateral sanctions on China. If Beijing even
suspected something like that, they would do more than just break off all
trade ties. Why shouldn't they try to destroy us in that situation? We
would effectively be trying to destroy them.
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