本帖最後由 felicity2010 於 2011-11-21 07:41 AM 編輯 ) [% j4 L8 c$ e0 v
( T+ h) C3 @0 [- QWorking with Washington is threat to cosy ties with China 0 C' x/ ]* W- S5.39.217.77:8898By Geoff Dyer in Washington: _! K5 b# s% X( M
TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。3 I2 w" j! B5 V( Q: c# f! k
TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。1 p) e# A& F* e
In 1942, the Japanese air force dropped more bombs over Darwin than they had used at Pearl Harbor and in the process turned Australia into a rock-solid ally of the US. On Thursday, Barack Obama visited the same northern Australian town and re-cast the alliance for a new era. ( x3 ~5 O" ^; t* Y/ gThe numbers of American marines to be based in Darwin may be modest but the strategic significance is not. The beefed-up security pact with Australia is a hugely important episode in the growing geopolitical contest between China and the US over the future of Asia. ) A% ~8 x' I% d) q3 f) a' b' D4 Btvb now,tvbnow,bttvbFor the past three decades, Australia has served as a sort of early-warning system for the rise of China. To understand the effect China is having on the world, Australia has been a good place to start.公仔箱論壇9 C1 x f0 k! i0 J$ y
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Prodded by some far-sighted diplomats, Australia was one of the first countries to wake up to the economic potential of China. In 1985, then Prime Minister Bob Hawke took Chinese leader Hu Yaobang on a personal tour of the Pilbara, a remote stretch of Western Australia with vast deposits of iron ore. In a way, it was the start of the current commodities boom. Since then,ever-larger slabs of the iron-rich red earth have been transported to China to make the steel for China’s mammoth urbanisation.TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。4 P- g6 H' Z: r" S% `- j; {' J7 C" ~
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Australia’s think-tanks and universities have many of the best China-watchers in the English-speaking world and in Kevin Rudd, it had the first Chinese-speaking prime minister of a western country (Mr Rudd is now foreign minister).8 o: _' M" o: l! ]
+ Z2 b6 q$ Y2 u7 ATVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。Australians were also well ahead of the pack in being rattled by China’s state-owned industry. In2009, Stern Hu, an Australian citizen of Chinese origin who worked for Australian miner Rio Tinto, was arrested by the Chinese authorities on charges of stealing state secrets. The charges were reduced to industrial espionage and Mr Hu admitted to taking bribes, receiving a 10-year prison sentence, but the suspicion lingered that his prosecution was partly the result of a dispute between the miners and Beijing over iron ore prices.公仔箱論壇7 g3 B! U) h9 x! t* u2 N
6 t: S- @# f8 f2 K% w( k9 d/ D5 ~2 z) C公仔箱論壇Given the importance of China to its economy, Australia might have been expected to drift away from its close links with the US, which were forged in the heat of the Second World War. “You could not get much closer to China than we are,” the former Australian ambassador to Beijing Geoff Raby used to joke. “But we will.”公仔箱論壇) Z% z- [: W. @! R
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Yet the fact that Canberra is doubling-up on its defense alliance with Washington is one of the most powerful indicators of the way that Beijing has unnerved the rest of the Asia-Pacific region in the past few years with its more abrasive diplomacy.While Mr Obama was in Australia, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, was in the Philippines, another regional neighbour that has watched Chinese behaviour with growing apprehension and which is celebrating a 60-year security pact with the US. She agreed to provide Manila with a new warship. 7 F& E$ z* M# x* R. W/ IThe calculation in Canberra and other capitals around the region is that they can continue to have it both ways – trading freely with a booming China while continuing to benefit from the security umbrella provided by the US. With a greater show of unity and renewed American engagement in the region, these countries hope, China’s more disruptive instincts can be curtailed and the Asian boom will continue apace. 2 _( @1 |7 f# K9 F公仔箱論壇5.39.217.77:8898 d) ?5 F( X# }! |0 M Z
But all that assumes the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China does not escalate. There is another potential future that could await Australia, which would involve some much more painful choices. Suppose one of the skirmishes between Chinese and US ships in the South China Sea were to escalate. With American marines and kit on its territory, Australia could find itself pulled into a conflict between its security guarantor and its main market. # M# K C4 S% n4 {6 x, J* H5.39.217.77:8898Australia would then find itself blazing another geopolitical trail, as one of the first countries to be squeezed between the two great powers of the age.作者: norman.ho 時間: 2011-11-21 05:38 PM
本帖最後由 norman.ho 於 2011-11-21 05:42 PM 編輯 5.39.217.77:8898$ T% v8 ?& D% J
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Australia, a resource rich, military strong and sovereign country, by inviting the US navy to station at Darwin, is acting like a spoilt brat craving for drug; prostituting herself, not for money, but to get high.作者: aa00 時間: 2011-11-22 12:48 PM
本帖最後由 norman.ho 於 2011-11-22 08:14 PM 編輯 & k8 j) \( R8 ?" j6 L5 z
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I don't think the stationing of US navy at Darwin really post any threat to China as such; the US strategy is to create tension at the Asian Pacific region in order to slow down the economic and military collaboration among the Asian countries. 7 c5 g6 _* c. h6 ]8 IAs all Asian countries are in the process of developing their industrial and commercial sectors, no country would want to go to war, even when being push. Take the example of India and Pakistan; there has been various terrorist attacks at the heart of India, yet they are still busy talking about trade and military cooperation. We all know any war between any Asian country is guaranteed to be a loose loose situation. 4 l d7 ]- W G$ J9 Ytvb now,tvbnow,bttvbIt's only the US and a couple of the European countries that wants war or civil war in Asia; so the rise of economic status of Asia could be stifled. I am sure no country would fall for it.作者: aa00 時間: 2011-11-23 08:43 AM
