Last month, China stunningly disqualified four pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmakers from its legislature for not being patriotic enough. Apparently, Beijing passed a resolution allowing the city’s government to bypass the courts and dismiss any politicians deemed a threat to national security. In response, all of the Hong Kong’s opposition lawmakers announced their resignation.
Effectively, for the first time since Hong Kong was handed back to China from the United Kingdom in 1997, the island’s Parliament has virtually no opposition. Beijing, of course, has rubbished accusations that the dismissal of the lawmakers was another attempt to restrict Hong Kong’s freedom. Unimpressed, the Five Eyes have demanded the reinstatement of the MPs.
Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States, said in a joint statement that the unilateral Chinese decision was a “clear breach” of a Sino-British pact that guaranteed Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, rights and freedoms for at least 50 years after the UK returned the city to Chinese rule in 1997.
However, the co-ordinated Five Eyes statement accusing China of carrying out a “concerted campaign to silence all critical voices” was seen as a challenge to Beijing’s authority and a deliberate diplomatic attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of China. The Chinese government retaliated – threatening to “poke the eyes” of the Five Eyes alliance.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China would not be intimidated – “The Chinese never stir trouble, but they aren’t afraid of trouble either. No matter how many eyes they have, five or 10 or whatever, should anyone dare to undermine China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, be careful not to get poked in the eye.”
Now, the same Five Eyes reportedly planning to join forces in an effort to teach China a lesson – imposing economic sanctions against the dragon. The plan was hatched after Beijing added Australian coal to a growing list of sanctions imposed on Aussie products. The Chinese latest act of punishing the Aussie was seen as a sign that the trade dispute would not end any time soon.
Canberra has demanded Beijing to clarify a recent report that China’s top economic planner had granted approval to power plants to import coal without clearance restrictions from any countries, except for Australia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was terribly upset as it would affect the country’s coal industry, where China was its biggest customer.
Australia is the world’s top exporter of coal. Together with New Zealand, the Oceania exports US$44.4 billion worth of coal – a staggering 37.5% of global sales. Last year (2019), Australia exported coal worth almost A$14 billion to China – the third biggest export from the land Down Under. But in November this year, at least 60 bulk carriers holding Australian coal stranded off the coast in China.
Wang Yongzhong, director of the Institute of Energy Economy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said – “China’s major coal import source countries used to be Australia, Indonesia, Russia and Mongolia. Since Mongolia has a geographic advantage that allows lower transportation costs than any other exporters, it could take a large share from Australian coal.”
At the same time, China is Australia’s biggest trading partner – about one-third of “the land Down Under” total exports go to the Chinese, contributing A$135 billion annually and providing thousands of jobs. With very few options, Canberra has complained to its allies in Five Eyes – Beijing’s trade boycott was an act of bullying at worst, and breaching WTO rules at best.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Institute director Fergus Hanson recently authored a report calling for a retaliatory response from the Five Eyes. He argued that China’s trade sanctions are similar to NATO’s Article 5, which says that an attack on one member of NATO is an attack on all of its members. Hence, the Five Eyes should hit back against China.
In essence, the grand plan is to get all the five nations of the Five Eyes impose sanctions on Chinese goods, products and services. Alternatively, Australia would respond with retaliatory tariffs on Chinese products, and the four allies would show their support by refusing to make up the shortfall in Chinese exports. But the plot to avenge for Australia seems easier said than done.
As a start, despite 3 years of trade war started by the mighty United States against China, President Donald Trump has failed to bring President Xi Jinping to his knees. The stubborn dragon is still standing, alive and kicking. What are the chances that the Five Eyes would succeed when the U.S. could not even deliver any serious damage to the Chinese economy after all these years?
The combined Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Canada represent about 6% of China’s US$2.499 trillion worth of export goods globally in 2019. Heck, besides the U.S. (top export partner – US$418.6 billion or 16.8%) and U.K. (9th spot – US$62.3 billion or 2.5%), neither New Zealand nor Australia or Canada are in the top-10 of China’s top trading partners in terms of export sales.
Australia should think twice whether its allies in the Five Eyes are genuine friends who would really help when it comes to matter concerning economy. For example, when its so-called ally Canada learned that dozens of shipments of Australian coal were stranded at Chinese ports, the first thing Canada’s Teck Resources did was to boost shipments of coal to China.
According to Reuters, Teck Resources Chief Executive Donald Lindsay announced that the Canadian company would take advantage of sanctions on Australian imports by boosting shipments of steelmaking coal to China next year after it has increased its coal sales to the Chinese for Q4-2020. With friends like Canada, does Australia need enemies like China?
Likewise, as part of its punishment against the Aussie farmers, the Chinese has started buying American wheat instead of Australian wheat, scheduled for delivery in the first quarter next year. This is the same game back in January, when China purchased Australian, Canadian and French wheat as part of its retaliation against the American farmers during the China-U.S. trade war.
Do you think President-elect Joe Biden would be crazy to go for a bigger trade war than outgoing President Donald Trump, and in the process continues to hurt American farmers, just to show its support for Australia, the United States’ “deputy sheriff” in the Asia-Pacific region? As the world’s biggest wheat producer itself, China can still import from Russia or even India.
When the US-China trade war first started, many economists had believed that China would eventually lose. The conventional wisdom, as trumpeted by Trump, was that because China exports more to the U.S., a trade war can be easily won by slapping the Chinese with taxes or tariffs. The U.S. imported US$539.5 billion from China in 2018, but shipped only US$120.3 billion in goods to the country. Hence, the US$419.2 trade deficit.
However, a research report published by consultancy McKinsey and Company in 2019 showed that the Chinese economy isn’t as fragile as Trump, or other so-called economists or analysts, thought. The relationship between China and the world is changing – incredibly fast. The world has become more economically exposed to China, while China’s to the world has fallen.
In other words, the world economy needs China more than China needs the global economy. The 168-pages report produced by the McKinsey Global Institute’s (MGI) titled “China and the world: Inside the dynamics of a changing relationship” reveal that in 2018, China accounted for 16% of world GDP (gross domestic product).
More importantly, domestic consumption contributed more than 60% of China’s growth during 11 out of 16 quarters – from January 2015 to December 2018. In fact, McKinsey said in 2017 and 2018, about 76% of China GDP growth actually came from domestic consumption (Chinese consumers), while net trade made a negative contribution to GDP growth.
China’s net trade surplus in 2008 amounted to 8% of the nation’s GDP. But 10 years later in 2018, that figure plunged to just 1.3% – indicating the Chinese have been quietly building a more robust and diversified domestic economy. The study also found that China exported just 9% of its output in 2017 – down from 17% in 2007, proof that the nation has become more self-reliant and less exposed to the rest of the world.
In contrast, the rest of the world has become more dependent on China, so much so that China accounts for 35% of global manufacturing output. That explained why more than 600 American companies signed a letter, urging – even warned – President Trump to resolve the trade dispute with China, leading to a truce at G20 Summit in 28-29 June 2019 in Osaka, Japan.
Perhaps the Great Britain thought they could easily defeat China, the same way Opium Wars were fought from 1839 to 1860. Perhaps the Five Eyes thought they could easily invade China economically, the same way the Eight-Nation Alliance (Germany, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary and the United States) invaded North China in 1900.
However, even the Five Eyes may not be sufficient to fight China. Michael Green, a former special assistant to former U.S. president George W Bush, said the international response needed to be broader than the Five Eyes and should include NATO and the European Union. He told ABC radio – “China’s market is so huge it’s unlikely the rest of us will have, in a democratic society, the ability to completely boycott it”.
But history clearly shows despite various invasions by foreign forces, including the losses of 14 million people during the full-scale war between the Chinese and the Empire of Japan in World War II (1942-45), China still exists today – only richer and more powerful. The Five Eyes should remember today’s China is no longer the nation once mocked and laughed as the “Sick Man of Asia”.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- China Will Import Coal From Any Country, Except Australia – PM Morrison Upset Over Impact On The A$14 Billion Industry
- Australia Hopes RCEP Will Fix Problems With China – But It Gets Worse As Beijing Reveals Three Issues With Canberra
- Australia’s Economy Being Hit Again – China Bans Wheat, Lobster, Barley, Sugar, Wine, Timber, Coal, Copper
- China Punish Australia Again – Recession-Hit Aussie Saw Its A$2 Billion Cotton Industry Targeted
- Australia Upset! – China Now Uses “Asian Discrimination” To Target Aussie’s A$38 Billion Education Industry
- Coronavirus Inquiry Backfired On Aussie – China Slaps Tariffs, Warns It Has The Power To Hurt Australia Economy
- Economists Thought China’s Economy Depends On The World – But McKinsey Research Shows Otherwise
- What Trump Doesn’t Want His Supporters To Know – China Lowered Tariffs To Everyone Except The U.S.
- From Trade War To Tech War – After 5G Technology, The US Aims To Cripple China’s Artificial Intelligence
- Watch Out Trump!! – China May Weaponize “Rare Earth” To Retaliate Against U.S.’ Ban On Huawei
- China’s New Message To The U.S. – “Negotiate – Sure!”, “Fight – Anytime!”, “Bully Us – Dream On!”
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December 22nd, 2020 by financetwitter
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Comments
yes.. China can even bully other nations.. the gift that keeps on giving, they now bully ASEAN countries over Spratly Islands
This article is a huge laugh and a half at the expense of the “alliance”, China is well equipped to poke all the “five eyes”, given that there was actually no agreement that China should oblige the angmohs over what ways accepted by, and how China should treat Hong Kong. China loosely crafted the “agreement” which in no way gave Britain and the other angmoh uncles any room to kacau kacau. Britain knows it but it needs to be duplicitous, play two-headed snake it has sold the Hongkongers down the river.
Britain is entirely free to save the Hongkies, welcome them to Britain. But Britain wants the “super” rich of Hong Kong and not at all the useful idiot HK niggahs, recent events have shown the US embassy turn away some previously-endorsed rabble-rouses who wanted to seek shelter before going to the States. The yellow-faced anglophone plonkers with accents as Malaysian “English” wannabes were told unceremoniously to fcuk off.
The other thing is in recent times, China has no longer shown it gives half a sh*t what the white man Western uncles demanded of the celestial empire. The Chinese of China are no two-bit servile anglophile nodding peasants, coolies and mine diggers always doing their best to do their yuz massah to the white masters like our banana Chinese. China these happy days tell them angmohs to fcuk off whenever they feel like it! And in re
Can’t say I disagree with China’s Chinese, my lot thinks Southeast Asia belonged to us, have been telling the angmohs to fcuk off long ago. When they refused, have finance patriots to pop it in the arses of them angmohs with actual arms, bless us with real self-pride!
So I say good luck and best wishes to the Chinese nation, I can’t wait for a war to start whether in the South China Sea or wherever else, Chinese Malaysians may have to be enlisted by our apartheid masters to be freaking cannon fodder to take on China’s Chinese, nothing like the white man’s uncle Toms fighting the “Good Fight, Onward Christian Soldiers!”
Malaysian bananas have always been funny about their unwanted embarrassing Chinese cousins and ancestors, let’s see they be funny back to the bananas!
“. China can even bully other nations.. the gift that keeps on giving,”
Mr “Chyna”, what and where else has China done any “giving”, please ?
Or, for that matter, done any bullying of any ASEAN country.
As far as I understand, several countries are not exactly complaining, and, Malaysia, as usual can’t find its one testicle to confront China like an apartheid racial supremacist power.
If Malaysia can one day locate its one shrivelled raisin of a midget’s testicle, it will discover its military has no real budget to buy real macho military ware, the money stolen from its people robbed to give some of the monkeys in power great wealth; the antique weapons have not been maintained; the macho supremacist personnel barely educated or even awake; they can’t track a plane; more of our aircraft engines may be in South America…
China does not need to bully such dumb monkeys as those running our gomen and military. These clowns will do China the favour and die without any Chinese assistance.
But on the almost-positive side, some of our macho monkeys are quite good at posturing like heroic legends and bullying the wrong races in Malaysia.
With the monkeys running the zoo and bullying its own people, there’s no need to bang the one testicle over China pissing on the country.
Just how can our finest posture, moan, or even look scary to the Chinese? Mahathir told us he was going to China to give a sarabat stall lecture about “debt traps”, China told the Indian pretend-Malay to fcuk off, and refused to buy our world-finest and plentiful palm oil. As a result Malaysians suffer from diarrhoea having to drink palm oil five times a day.
Stop doing the usual senseless moaning and complaining about China if when Malaysia suck the arses of the US, Japan, etc none of them come to our rescue or even half-listen to us when we hope to show bravery hiding behind the behind of others.
The only way for supremacist Malaysia to half get the attention of China is work extremely hard, upgrade everything in Malaysia to be 10% of what Singapore is.
But that means our favourite pastime of being useless and lazy has to stop overnight, everyone has to suddenly become half-intelligent and stop thinking and behaving like fcuking cave monkeys…
Hmmm…. I think it’s better you go back to sleep, wake up at feeding time, and hang around for handouts…. Alhamdulilah..!
China will always ignore us – but don’t make Singapore laugh!
Not sure if you are aware, the 4 Hong Kong pan- democratic lawmakers were disqualified not because they were not patriotic enough, but because they went to US and UK to formally request those governments to sanction Hong Kong and mainland China. They met lawmaker and ministers and make press conference with these people. Very high profile.