Every two months my column in Evangelicals Now will be news from Australia – this is the first one. The problem of course is that in writing a news column for a monthly magazine, a month in advance, it runs the danger of being dated…I wrote this several weeks ago…
Australia is fighting battles on several fronts just now.
The war with Covid has gone remarkably well for the various States – at the time of writing there are only 39 known cases in the whole country and almost all of them are from overseas. Furthermore, the economy which briefly dipped into recession is soaring back – largely thanks to the price of iron ore and the wealth of Australians now being spent in Australia, rather than on overseas trips.
The battle with China is hotting up. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are furious with Australia, first of all for calling for an inquiry into the start of Covid, then for challenging the way that the CCP infiltrates Western societies – through buying up companies, media and academic influence. The reliance of Australia’s universities on Chinese students (pre-Covid Sydney had 30,000) has only proved the point that ‘you should not put all your eggs in one basket’. There is a very real Chinese military threat in the Pacific as well – Hong Kong has now been subjugated, and there is little doubt that Taiwan is next.
But the battle dominating the headlines just now is the Australian Government daring to take on Big Tech – especially Google and Facebook. The Australian Government, concerned that these Big Tech companies were making money out of news gathered by other more traditional media, have asked that they pay for it. Given that this undermines their whole model, Google and Facebook have strongly resisted it.
After initially threatening Australia with a shutdown, Google backed off (perhaps because there are alternative search engines and e-mail providers). Google is now negotiating deals with the major news providers here.
But Mark Zuckerberg is not for backing down. In mid-February, Facebook unfriended Australia. They didn’t do this because Australia matters a great deal to them in world terms, but rather because, like the CCP, they are scared that others may see what Australia is doing and follow their example. But it has backfired on Facebook. When a giant corporation shuts down charity accounts, state health departments and smaller companies, they cannot claim to be caring for people. As Josh Frydenberg, the Australian Treasurer, observed: ‘Facebook responded to a code designed to curb its market power with an abuse of its market power’.
Pray for Australia – which now finds itself on the centre of the world stage. Watch this space!
A fight on Australia’s Nature front :
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/you-cant-escape-smell-mouse-plague-biblical-Proportions-overruns-eastern-australia
The Govt targeted feral cats and by so doing gave the mice free rein.
On China and Taiwan, here is a report from DW today:
https://m.dw.com/en/can-china-impose-military-force-against-taiwan/a-56988658
As I’ve mentioned om here before, I sometimes read this Communist website for an alternative take on the world. Here are two articles on China versus Australia. These guys are Trotskyists, so they are not necessarily on China’s side either so they ae worth looking at but always read their propaganda with discernment and remember they are dialectical materialists and therefore militantly atheist and thus no friends of us Christians:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/16/quad-m16.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/23/auch-m23.html
It seems to me there is another battle too: a spiritual battle against the enemy within. That long discussion thread on the other page about the Brisbane Anglicans has been a real eyeopener for me, especially after reading those sermons that show what is actually being preached in the cathedral. The liberal dioceses of the Anglican and Uniting Churches are clearly undermining orthodox Christianity in this country and leading people astray with their wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing preachers. How they have the gall to preach such rubbish I don’t know but that discussion has certainly shocked me. 🙁
When will Biden announce that not one American should die defending Taiwan ?
I wouldn’t hold my breath…
Meanwhile: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-27/china-ramps-up-critcism-of-worlds-human-rights-abuses/100031004
For whatever its eorth, here are some more articles from the Reds on the risk of a major war:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/20/usch-m20.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/10/chin-m10.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/17/pers-m17.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/25/nuke-m25.html
“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” Matthew 24:6
One more article the Commie site has published this arvo:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/27/usch-m27.html
One last one on Australia’s announced missile production:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/04/01/miss-a01.html
🙁
One more worth reading on Australia’s mikitary activities re: Taiwan:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/04/26/dutt-a26.html
I’ll refrain from posting any more commie propaganda from now on!
More on the China-Taiwan theme:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/23/taiwan-china-threat-admiral-john-aquilino
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100029486
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-21/niall-ferguson-a-taiwan-crisis-may-end-the-american-empire
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/chinese-warplane-enters-taiwan-s-air-defence-zone-report-101616333488388-amp.html
You are spot-on about the spiritual war on the homefront too, sadly. 🙁
I see you have immersed yourself in Australia’s anti China thinking. The anti China rhetoric was bad enough when I lived there let alone now.
Australia doing exactly what they are good at unfortunately in obeying their orders from Washington.
China buying up …..
https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/resources/investment-statistics/statistics-on-who-invests-in-australia
…. as for the military maybe you should look at how many US bases and personnel are based in East Asia. Also look at military spending and countries both have invaded over the last however many years. But yes, China are the bad guys. Talk about a plank in your eye….
No – anonymous – that is not what I am doing. I read a great deal about this. I also know what the Uighurs, Christians and Hong Kong people have to endure in China…don’t you?
You mentioned in your article about “China buying up” … as in the information above, China is 9th behind wee Luxembourg and a country mile behind the US. Is therefore Luxembourg dangerous?
You also mentioned a “real military threat” by the Chinese in the South China sea. I’m sure you know your geography? If China had the amount of military bases around the US then I might agree with you.
The trouble is you have now changed the subject of your argument rather than addressing my points.
You KNOW what the Uighurs endure?? Wow, well done. 64 countries in the UN disagree with you. You believe what is told to you by countries that have interests in bringing China down. I certainly do not agree with all China does but any common sense and decent investigation sees through the rhetoric. Look at the sources of the claims, how many and who they are. This is seen as many in the East as a part of a racist, white imperialist movement such as was during the opium trade. I cannot disagree.
So despite all the evidence you deny that the Uighurs or Christians in China are being persecuted? You don’t think China is threatening to invade Taiwan? You are no ‘dissident’….just unbalanced. A typical Western liberal who is prepared to excuse any regime as long as it attacks the West….sorry but until you actually provide some evidence that’s you done here. In political terms you are the equivalent of a flat earth conspiracy theorist – arguing that China is weaker and less dangerous than Luxembourg! Nuts….
Whatever respect I had for you over the years has now long gone I’m afraid. That last reply is blind and reactionary. You are right I am done here. The one bit of evidence I have given you shows Chinese investment in Australia is smaller than that of Luxembourg and you discount it as being nuts. Western liberals are typically the ones attacking China by the way.
There are none so blind as those that will not see. You turn a blind eye to the persecution and genocide against Uighurs and Christians in China, the treatment of Hong Kong, the threat to Taiwan – and the CCP’s attempt to bribe and manipulate Western countries and companies (see Hamilton’s Hidden Hand)…What you are doing is wicked, cruel and immoral. Its also irrational – you seriously think that Luxumbourg is a bigger threat than China? (the figures you give by the way are for international fund management groups who are EU based – Luxembourg as a country is not the second largest investor in the world!). But what bothers me is the evil of you seeking to justify evil. Just so you can attack Western liberal democracies – the ones you benefit from.