Seriously, our two big-boy best friends have always been China and the US. Now tensions are really coming to a head we’re going to side with the failed state of the US? I don’t understand anything about foreign policy.
Australia as a 5 eye’s member is an imperial vassal state, it doesn’t have an independent foreign policy, it is completely subservient to the American empire and the will of Washington.
This btw is also the case for all NATO members.
Australia will always be stuck being very dependent on whatever regional naval power there is due to island logistics. Right now, it’s the United States. However, China makes up 69.7% of Australia’s entire export market. There has been speculation that China would be Australia’s number 1 ally as soon as China forms enough of a navy to be regionally dominant in Oceania.
and that’s happening, I’ve heard China has started using the sea to hide their submarines
yeah it’s foolish to assume China will try to be the new world police after thwarting American hegemony, but it’s still up in the air if they’ll decide to play god in Oceania
Australia bailed on the Brits once the empire crumbled, we will do the same to the Yanks
Not just a right-wing government, but a government that is trapped between it’s white nationalist voter base and it’s dying coal export industry.
The Australians are dealing with many of the same ecological and economic pressures present in the US right now. And their reaction is much the same. Blood and Soil Nationalism is becoming a proxy for The American/Australian Dream of middle class first world decadency.
So we’re doing the sunk cost fallacy but for a whole nation? All this sunlight must be wrecking our racist brains.
We denounced the British because they wouldn’t let us be racist enough. (not even joking). Although Australia was one of the first western countries to establish a relationship with China, from Wikipedia:
As opposition leader, Gough Whitlam visited China in 1971 (before Henry Kissinger’s historic visit on behalf of the United States), and in December 1972, after Whitlam’s victory in that year’s federal election, Australia established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, and Australia ceased to recognise the Republic of China government of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan. Although Whitlam’s decision was informed by warming relations between China and the West generally, especially the United States,
Australian diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic predated that of the United States by seven years.
We denounced the British because they wouldn’t let us be racist enough.
Source? Sounds interesting.
It was called The White Australia Policy, pretty bad blight on Australian history. It was like the first thing we went against the British on… don’t have a specific source on it atm but here’s wiki:
The British government in London was not pleased with legislation that discriminated against certain subjects of its Empire, but decided not to disallow the laws that were passed.
Unfortunately the early labour movement was quite involved in this :( because of cheap foreign labour, although without capitalism there wouldn’t beside strong material causes of racism to begin with.
There’s more nuanced answers in this thread but…
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Australia is super fucking racist, especially against the Chinese immigrant population there, rich or poor.
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Australia is America’s puppet state, not just because of Five Eyes etc but also because when an Australian government tried to pull back from being basically a US military base and close the infamous Pine Gap in 1975 the CIA helped the opposition literally do a political coup to get rid of them.
Damn straight on point two. Some real fine reading about it here for anyone who might not know.
Australia is the most heavily affected by Murdoch press what with it being his home country. They have incredibly tight control of the country and have distorted the population’s views incredibly well.
A friend of mine recently visited and called it “The UK but 50x more racist I won’t be going there ever again”.
It’s fucked.
The anglosphere is going to suicidally attempt to fight with China while everyone else in the world plays the adult in the room, Australia is the angry drunk racist of the anglosphere.
