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| Down Under |
| China Furious At Australia Building Up To Counter Chinese Build Up |
| 2010-12-10 |
| THE Rudd government publicly played down reports of a hostile Chinese reaction to the defence white paper released last year, while secretly briefing the US that Beijing had threatened Australia would ''suffer the consequences'' if references to China were not watered down. The revelations of China's true reaction to the paper released in May, which called for a substantial boost in Australia's air and naval power in response to China's increasing military presence in the region, are revealed in secret US government cables written in the same month. The paper declared China would be Asia's strongest military power ''by a considerable margin'' and warned that the pace and scope of its growth could give its neighbours cause for concern if not properly explained. Former deputy secretary of the Defence Department and co-ordinator of the white paper, Mike Pezzullo told US diplomats of being ''dressed down'' by the deputy director of foreign affairs in China's defence ministry, Major-General Jia Xiaoning. According to the cable, Major-General Jia ''demanded Australia make changes to the paper or suffer the consequences''. Mr Pezzullo's initial meetings with other Chinese officials were also ''frosty''. Another cable, written on May 19, reported Mr Pezzullo describing Major-General Jia as a ''bruiser'' who had a ''look of cold fury'' on his face at China's repeated mentions in the white paper. He and other officials were particularly annoyed by reference in the paper to China's military build-up being beyond the scope required for any conflict over Taiwan. ''During each of the briefings, the Chinese asked Pezzullo to revise the description of the regional security environment,'' the cable said. ''Pezzullo said he responded firmly that the white paper would not be changed, and that he had not come to negotiate it.'' The lobbying over language continued even as Mr Pezzullo was about to board his outbound flight, with a Chinese colonel appealing to his ''intellect and sophistication''. Following the briefing by Mr Pezzullo, China denied an Australian request to host People's Liberation Army officers on Australian vessels near Hong Kong. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #7 Australians have made a deliberate effort to develop interests in Asia. China would consider this a threat. I believe Australian has done very well when most European Countries have suffered. |
| Posted by: Dale 2010-12-10 19:48 |
| #6 swksvolFF wins the thread! ROFL |
| Posted by: jay-dubya 2010-12-10 17:01 |
| #5 swksvolFF -- your room. Now. That was truly, truly appalling. Wow, was that appalling. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-12-10 13:33 |
| #4 Ah, the Cycle of Violins continues. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2010-12-10 12:20 |
| #3 Bow before China. Bow like Obama. They may accept you as second- or third-class citizens in their brave new world, if you show appropriate humility. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-12-10 11:13 |
| #2 The nano urhu- even smaller than the nano violin, and it's only got two strings. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2010-12-10 11:08 |
| #1 We need some chinese versions of a crying towel, or a small violin-like instrument, playing a sad little tune for them. |
| Posted by: flash91 2010-12-10 10:14 |