China gets ticked …

 

Another article: “Oz move likely to anger China…”. Likely?  D’ya think?

The "alliance" is AUKUS, which sounds like a kind of bird. Or whale, maybe, in the genus Orca?

Online, the article is headlined “China hits out at ‘highly irresponsible’ AUKUS defence pact…”.

Comments at both articles are not all against Oz, though many veer between ignorance and contumely.  For South China Morning Post a huge number of comments.

Re Australia’s plan to buy nuclear-powered submarines, I must admit that was a surprise to me. I watched ABC Q&A last night in which this was a subject. I’d been expecting big push backs, but not so much. There seemed to be an appreciation that what’s being bought is a power system, well tested, not nuclear weapons. Earlier on ABC radio I’d heard a nuclear expert, an academic, talk of accidents with nuclear powered subs, but she then admitted — when pressed — that every accident had been on Russian subs, and not always problems with the power system. The US has been operating nuclear subs for 70 years, and AFAIK, no problems. The main advantage is how long they can deploy vs diesel or diesel-electric. Like non-stop for years. As long as the food lasts.…

Anyway, for sure this decision and the new AUKUS alliance is sure getting a lot of attention.

China slams “provocation” in South China Sea. But…but…. Just after Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 China started pushing in the S. China Sea. It’s almost as if he was the one responsible. China has occupied islets, dredged reefs, built airfields in coral lagoons and made an ambit claim for pretty much the whole of the South China Sea right down to Indonesia. Not to mention highly threatening moves against Taiwan. 

It has a military bigger by an order of magnitude than the rest of Asia combined. And continues massive annual military expenditures. And now has the gall — call it chutzpah, if we’re charitable — to call out others for “provocation” and “arms build up”. 

MEANWHILE and utterly UNRELATED: It’s  now official. It’s the science: you’re more likely to die from lightening strike in Hong Kong than from Covid… “Hong Kong canoeist dies from lightening strike…’. Swimming in the midst of a hail storm. And another hiker died in a fall down a 50m cliff. There are calls — again! — to ban hiking. Why not? The same logic as keeps us locked down, “just in case”. While HK Covid deaths 7-day average for September: zero