Comments by "K `" (@user-jt3dw6vv4x) on "Cold War: Could AUSTRALIA be the new TAIWAN?" video.

Singapore is most definitely not anti-Chinese. It's a bona fide neutral nation because of how small it is.
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@andrewdunbar828 Malaysia is on track to becoming a high income developed nation later this decade but the World Bank has said the country suffers from a few issues that is preventing the country from reaching this status. Corruption is one and the other is the country's brain drain which is powered by the country's decision to legally discriminate against non-indigenous and non-Muslim minorities (Bumiputera law). Large numbers of the educated Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians continue to leave Malaysia for Singapore and Australia in droves. As a result, the country is continuing to lose large numbers of its educated population. There is a reason why most Australians with Malaysian heritage are ethnically Chinese and to some extent ethnically Indian.
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@Mr.Septon Sorry but the thing is nobody wants an Asian NATO here. That's what I'm saying. The establishment of something like that is going to lead to an arms race, militarisation and the forcing of nations to pick sides (something many nations in the region have spoken about not wanting to do). Finland joining NATO isn't comparable to the situation in Asia because there is no NATO-like organisation like that in Asia. You believe a military alliance is the answer and as I said before, the creation of such a military alliance will lead to an arms race and the militarisation of Asia. The situation in Europe is not like the situation in Asia. Asian and Pacific nations want to maintain healthy ties with China. This is why Australia's new government has done a 180 and begun mending ties with China. People in the region also don't want outsiders to get involved, past "foreign" wars like Vietnam War and the more recent Afghanistan War have left a very bad taste in people's mouths. I'm from Australia, you may be surprised to hear that many people prefer to maintain good ties with China even though we don't agree on a lot of things.
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It's culturally a Western country. The dominant cultural system in the country is Western and that's not going to change ever. When people say "Western" they mean "culture" these days. Australia is not culturally "Eastern" like China, India or Japan. There is a large Asian-descended population in the country, with some having roots dating back to colonial days but that is not the dominant cultural system. Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia once said that Australia will become "more Asian" in the future and maybe the country will become "Eurasian" culturally speaking but that will still mean a significant Western cultural element continues to exist. Mainland Australia, in the future, may feel like Christmas Island (overseas Australian island territory) which is a blend of Asian and Western cultures, the result of Chinese, Malay and Indian settlers from Singapore/Malaya and the British and Irish settlers who came afterwards. It will still be culturally Western though.
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@Mr.Septon Absolutely not. Sorry but the truth of the matter is that all of the Asia-Pacific nations you listed there (Japan, South Korea, Australia and India) will much prefer co-existence with China rather than making it a full fledged enemy. Nobody wants the EU, UK or Canada to get involved. These are nations so far away from the Indo-Pacific and are not going to be hurt if a war were to break out in the region, it's the nations in this region that will suffer the most because of how incredibly interconnected these nations are. The US is also criticised too because they are not part of the region but their heavy presence in the region is something that cannot be rid of so quickly. The reality is that many across the region (including Australia) recognise the fact that they don't see eye to eye with China but that shouldn't stop co-existence. Nobody wants war, nobody wants an arms race, nobody wants the militarisation of the whole region and nobody wants to pick and choose sides. Many outside of the region think the rest of the region is staunchly anti-China and will immediately fight against it but that is not the truth. The Trump presidency created a significant shift in the mentality of the region echoed at the various annual Asia-Pacific summits. Co-existence is what most desire today.
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@tellyboy17 Most of the Indo-Pacific's biggest trade partner is China and has been for a long time. We don't see eye to eye all the time but all of the nations in this region (including Japan, South Korea and India) don't want war and are more interested in co-existence. Australia's mentality is no different to the rest of the region. The US wants all of us to pick a side though but we're the ones that will be hurt if the US and China go to war in our region.
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I think some people will be surprised to hear that many Australians actually want good relations with China and don't want to rely so heavily on the US. People have actually commended out new foreign minister for trying to improve ties with China. The thing is, Australia and China are in the same region. So the reality is that one has to find ways to get along even if they don't agree on everything. China and Australia don't have eye to eye but before the pandemic and Australia's decision to push even closer to the US, China and Australia were still able to get along.
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Its population being 70% ethnically Chinese doesn't mean it's pro-China. There is widespread anti mainland-China sentiment in Singapore directed towards Mainland Chinese immigrants of which Singaporeans, of all ethnic origins, claim they don't assimilate into Singapore's multicultural society and form cliques.
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They mean the same thing 💀
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No, it's about diversifying. Relying on India only is not the solution.
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@tellyboy17 Well we're enslaved to the US too, so I don't see the difference. A lot of people describe Australia as a US puppet. Always bending over for the US and doing their work for them. For example, allowing secret surveillance stations in the country (e.g. Pine Gap), taking part in US wars (e.g. wrongful Invasion of Iraq which ultimately backfired and also affected the general Australian population because the country and its citizens became a target for terrorist attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2014 Sydney Hostage Crisis among a multitude of other terrorist incidents that occurred mostly during the 2010s. We had a good relationship with China and while we did not agree on everything, our ties with the US damaged them and now a new Australian government is doing damage control. People say we rely heavily on the US and that we need our own independent foreign policy. We are in the Asia-Pacific but we are still looking at the US and UK. We do everything for the US and then when we need assistance, the US says "no". Australia didn't have enough COVID-19 vaccines and the US had plenty of excess ones, that were not being used and would expire soon, but they weren't willing to give it to us... even with payment.
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson It's true, regardless of how much it upsets you. Why doesn't kick out the US? It's because Australia is playing a balancing act one that favours the US and one that favours China. It's the same act that most of the region is playing and the US administration wants the whole region to pick one side and that's not what anybody here wants to do. The whole region (except for probably Japan and for obvious reasons because they have yearned for Euro-American validation since the Meiji era) is tired of this cold war between China and the US because eventually this conflict could turn into a physical war and our region will become the battlefield.
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson There are plenty of things I don't like about China. A lot of things, especially regarding COVID-19 and their secrecy. However, I'm not going to suggest everything China does is bad and that only one country is good. That is not true. The US and China have good and bad sides to both of them. We just need a balance. I'm merely acknowledging the fact that China is a regional neighbour so you have to learn to co-exist and that's what I want.
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson I know everything. 💀 An American trying to tell me what's going on in the Asia-Pacific region??? Calm down. Indonesia is neutral. Just because it has had recent issues with China in the SCS doesn't mean it's anti-China for crying out loud. Indonesia is not even a claimant in the South China Sea Dispute! Google is your friend, use it.
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson So me asking for Asia-Pacific nations to remain neutral means I'm paid by China????? You want to control the whole world, don't you?
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson Person from the Indo-Pacific: Oh we prefer to remain neutral and not get caught up in China and US rivalry. That means we prefer to maintain ties with both countries and not pick sides. Person from the US: You were paid by China!! You aren't allowed to remain neutral and build ties with China, you need to pick the US and if not, we will punish you!!
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17.4% of Australians are of Asian origin, I'm one of them.
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson OP is clearly from India and so I highly doubt he was paid by the CCP.
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson Australia has racism, as do all nations, but at least in Australia, race isn't something that is thought about on a regular basis. The government doesn't even gather statistics on "race" for the census. Only reason we know 17.4% of Australians have ancestry from somewhere in Asia, for example, is because people have the ability to list down their ethnic origin when completing the census form. There are no "racial" categories to choose from.
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@chiangchengkooi9791 That would spark an immense diplomatic protest from Singapore and Malaysia.
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@nanaholic01 Yeah but if China were to block the Strait of Malacca they're going to have to get past Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and India (countries that have EEZ overlapping or in close proximity to the Strait of Malacca and/or rely on it).
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@nanaholic01 Yeah you're right. I think most countries in the region, including Australia, want to get along with China without fully siding with the US. Australia is still very much on the US side but it recognises it needs to co-exist with China. Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Singapore don't recognise the Nine Dash Line and Malaysia claims islands and surrounding sea in the SCS and Indonesia claims the surrounding waters of Natuna Islands in SCS. So they won't do anything for China in recognition of the Nine Dash Line. However, I wouldn't be surprised if one day all of those countries I mentioned (except for Singapore) were to fall to the Chinese side. Right now, the only major thing stopping Malaysia, Indonesia and India from becoming blatantly pro-Chinese are territorial disputes. Though, all of those countries, including Singapore, could remain neutral if something like this were to occur, which is more believable to me. The belief of neutrality is so entrenched in much of Asia since the end of WW2 that I wouldn't be surprised if they all turned a blind eye and remained neutral for their own protection.
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"sure jan"
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@Homer-OJ-Simpson If Australia's foreign policy was more similar to Asian nations, then it would be rather different and more similar to say Australia's northern neighbour, Indonesia. It would be able to stand on its own. The country would sit in the middle, maintaining cordial relations between both the US and China without feeling the need to pick a side. Cultural and historical ties have traditionally meant Australia has ignored Asia and looked to the US and UK. This is why Pine Gap (US military base) exists in Australia, it's not a response to China. China's rise and expansionism is only something recent. Australia always pursued closer ties with the US. So it was inevitable that with the rise of the US military, particularly after WW2, that the country would ally itself with the US. It was the expected thing to do for a Western country at the time. Going neutral like Asia and Africa did would have been unimaginable and still is. It's only since the late 2000s/2010s that Australia really began engaging more with Asia and recognising its geography. It sees itself as both a Western nation and an Asia-Pacific nation (we are taught this in school) and has integrated itself into the region in areas ranging from politics to culture such as the Asian Football Confederation and the RCEP. Controversial remarks made by Asian leaders of yesteryear like Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew were always haunting reminders for the dominant White Australian government of what could become of the country if it continued to ignore its geography and present itself as "white only" (the White Australia Policy was only abolished in 1973 and its native population are Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders). On top of that, ever since colonisation, the perceived "Asian threat" has always existed (a fear that Asian migration or invasion would result in the country becoming "Asian"). The fear first began with the migration of Chinese, Sri Lankan, Malay, Japanese Malay pearl divers during the colonial era, it became particularly prevalent during WW2 amid fear that Australia would be colonised by Japan and its most recent incarnation is in the form of China's rise and expansionism. It's also a theme that appears in Australian pop culture. The truth is if Australia's foreign policy was more independent and not dependent on other nations (in this case the US), Australia wouldn't have been so caught up in all of this. This is why Australia is diversifying and building better ties with Southeast Asian countries and India, engaging further in the Pacific, fixing its ties with China and continuing to build its ties (particularly in the area of defence) with the US. It has recognised its nature as both a Western and Asia-Pacific nation.
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