CHINA'S 'SOFT POWER' THREAT

Before Australian businessmen and politicians get too smug about how 'safe' the economy is because of our great trade relations with China, perhaps they need to consider who they are really in bed with.

When 'China announced in March that it will increase its military budget by 12.7 percent this year', its defence minister was quick to reassure Asia Pacific neighbours that 'his country's growing economic and military power' wasn't a threat. This may still be of little comfort to the West because, although the journalist seemed to think that the minister in question was telling the truth, he was also quick to highlight another more insidious threat. 'From the World Trade Organization to the United Nations, Beijing is happy to use its soft power to get what it wants - and it is wrong-footing the West at every turn'.

And this is how they are doing it:

'The Chinese are in the process of conquering the world....very successfully by pursuing an aggressive trade policy toward the West, granting low-interest loans to African and Latin American countries, applying diplomatic pressure to their partners, pursuing a campaign bordering on cultural imperialism to oppose the human rights we perceive to be universal, and providing the largest contingent of soldiers for United Nations peacekeeping missions of all Security Council members'.

Apparently, 'Soft Is the New Hard'.

China's track record isn't great, they have always lived by their own rules. They aren't playing fair but then they never have. This is how they play the game:

The Communist Party manipulates its currency to keep export prices 'artificially low'....they use 'every trick in the book when buying commodities or signing pipeline deals'....'aggressive and pushy tactics'. Meanwhile, they 'unscrupulously restrict access to their own natural resources' while at the same time denouncing 'protectionism'. Beijing has recently 'imposed strict export quotas on rare earths, resources that are....essential to the operation of hybrid vehicles, high-performance magnets and computer hard drives'. Apparently 95 percent of these metals are mined in China, which gives Beijing a virtual monopoly. They play dirty, to 'secure a government contract in China, an international company has to reveal sensitive data as part of impenetrable licensing procedures and even agree to transfer its technology to the Chinese - often relinquishing its patent rights in the process'.

China has invested in countries with large oil and natural gas reserves - Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Nigeria, but they also buddy up to countries that the West tends to dismiss, even though they too have voting rights in international bodies. 'Beijing has forgiven billions in loans to African nations and pampered them with infrastructure projects....For the West, failed states are a problem. For China, they're an opportunity'.

With all of this in mind, how much of Australia do we really want China to own? The Australian said recently that Chinese mining giant Shenhua Watermark Coal 'spent $213 million buying 43 farms for coal exploration in the NSW Northern Tablelands in 2009 and 2010. 'The purchases triggered an overnight property boom for the community, with some properties changing hands for 10 times....their previous sale price'. Nobody could seriously blame cash-strapped farmers - this demonstrates that we really do need to support them.

This is directly in conflict with the push for coal alternatives because Shenhua Watermark Coal, as a 'subsidiary of the world's biggest coal company' and is now 'seeking NSW government approval for a coal mine on the Liverpool Plains, surrounding Gunnedah'.

'Gunnedah sits in the heart of key independent Tony Windsor's New England electorate, who helped Ms Gillard form government after last year's knife-edge election' which seems to raise a conflict for Tony. Thankfully Julia Gillard has commissioned her treasurer Bill Shorten to 'review the “total picture” of land ownership across the nation'.

Or doesn't any of this matter, because, given their military and economic might, they could probably just take it from us anyway?

China's Soft Power Is a Threat to the West, abc news international, July 29, 2010 http://abcnews.go.com/International/chinas-soft-power-threat-united-states/story?id=11277294

China says military boost no threat to Asia Pacific neighbours, 6 Jun 2011 http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201106/3235968.htm?desktop

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/probe-into-possible-foreign-investment-loopholes-after-china-land-buyout/story-fn59niix-1226082704254