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Australia asks China to explain 'extraordinary' military build-up (www.bbc.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Australia's defence minister Richard Marles has called on China to explain why it needs to have "such an extraordinary military build-up".

On Sunday morning, Marles asserted that "what we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in military capability and build up in conventional sense, by any country since the end of the Second World War".

It is not just the size of the military build-up that concerns other countries, he told reporters.

"It's the fact that it is happening without strategic reassurance. It's happening without a clear strategic intent on the part of China… what we want to see is strategic transparency and strategic reassurance be provided by China, and an understanding of why it is needed to have such an extraordinary military build-up."

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[-] [email protected] 45 points 3 weeks ago

Maybe step one of the protest is to stop buying from China

[-] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

Don't be silly. Big corporations would lose profits. We can't have that! /s

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

That’s right!

But if I stopped buying from AliExpress, I would have to purchase the exact same thing from Amazon or eBay at 10 times the price, and if I boycott the US companies as well, I would need to buy the exact same thing at 100 times the price from Bunnings!

(Meanwhile AliExpress sellers are reselling the exact same thing that can be purchased in bulk from AliBaba at 1/10th the price)

[-] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago

They're...asking a country about this? What, do they expect China to say "we're preparing to invade Taiwan in 2026"? This is just fishing for bullshit answers so politicians can pretend like they buy it and ignore actually dealing with the military buildup by taking action.

[-] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago

Isn’t it obvious? President Xi publicly ordered the Chinese military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2026.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Even without Taiwan. broadly gestures at everything

Russia has proved to be unreliable. USA are proving to be unreliable. Europe is building up its own armies. India is fighting Pakistan. Who knows how big Israel wants to be, they are already attacking neighbours.

No idea what's happening in Africa. I think most of them are still stuck fighting amongst themselves.

Maybe Australia is just asking the question so that they have an excuse to build up as well.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

I'll tell you why, they see how close Russia is to being defeated and they're going to move in to take the territories in the East pretty much like Japan did with French Indochina once France was defeated in WW2

[-] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

It's quite simple the US is seen as politically willed at the moment so it's time to take a bite and see how much they can swallow.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Every government is uncomfortable. News stories about "defence" spending are commonplace.

WWIII has already begun. The only questions now are how many will die and who will be the victors.

I would like to be wrong. If the world can be pulled back from the brink of the existing skirmishes, then what's happening right now won't get the WWIII label, but we sure have a lot of hard-headed megalomaniacs running world-affecting countries these days, don't we? That's never a good sign.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago

What makes you so sure it's WWIII scale already?

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

If the world can be pulled back from the brink of the existing skirmishes, then what's happening right now won't get the WWIII label

[-] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

https://www.history.com/articles/world-war-i-causes

[-] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

"Only thing we've ever learned from history is that we can't learn from history"

[-] [email protected] -3 points 3 weeks ago

Either delusional thinking or a serious misunderstanding of historical events

[+] [email protected] -27 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Why is there any mystery here. They said they intend on ending their civil war and have shown no indication whatsoever that such a statement is only rhetorical or posturing. Taiwan has never tried to be independent of China. It still claims sovereignty over all of China.

If the US Confederates had retreated to Cuba and others had intervened on their behalf, while the Confederates still claimed dominion over a part of the USA, you can bet your ass the US would invade Cuba as soon as they had the opportunity. We can all decry the whole thing, but it is their conflict. If anything, we should be evacuating anyone and anything that needs to leave and capitulating without further involvement. Like if your neighbor and their spouse are arguing, stay out of it for the benefit of everyone. This is not some mate getting abused that needs help. This involves two bloody parties where all sides have done monstrous things and that needs to get resolved one way or another. Both can't claim dominion over all. The past cannot be bowdlerized for convenience or exploitation for profit of western criminal capitalist abuse. No one needs to fight or die, but a resolution must be found.

Edit: Wow Lemmy is remarkably stupid to the point of incompetent ineptitude at basic fundamental history. Like wtf am I doing here in a room with this insane nonsense.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago

Taiwan has never tried to be independent of China. It still claims sovereignty over all of China.

Do you have a source for that?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

It's complicated.

Unfortunately, the Wikipedia articles I found lack citations, so they probably aren't a good source. They claim that the ROC (Taiwan) claims all of the mainland.

This reddit thread refers to the ROC constitution and interprets it as:

In the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan area and the Mainland area, the following is stated:

"Taiwan Area" refers to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and any other area under the effective control of the Government.

"Mainland Area" refers to the territory of the Republic of China outside the Taiwan Area.

"People of the Taiwan Area" refers to the people who have household registrations in the Taiwan Area.

"People of the Mainland Area" refers to the people who have household registrations in the Mainland Area.

The implication is that wherever this law applies, is what the ROC government considers to be "territory of the ROC outside of the Taiwan Area". Currently the application of this law overlaps the entirety of the PRC, minus HK and Macau.

This the fun part. If you look at the ROC constitution, it makes [...] mention to Mongolia and Tibet.

I don't know how much of this applies beyond the KMT.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

they don't, in any practical sense, and haven't since Chiang died in the 80s, probably even before that.

however, they are threatened with invasion if they ever update their constitution to reflect reality, because that would be taken as "declaring independence".(even though they are completely independent anyway)

[-] [email protected] -4 points 3 weeks ago

This is common knowledge available anywhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taiwan_(1945%E2%80%93present)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War

Those all have sources. There are also lots of reputable YouTubers with relevant academic credentials that have coved this, Asianometry and William C Fox are two that I recall covering the subject. I think Caspian Report did as well at one point in the last few years. This is like ultra basic surface level stuff everyone should know or severely question their sources and echo chambers if they are not made aware of this fundamental information.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Expecting people to wade through 8000 word articles in the hope of finding mention of your claim is why you're being downvoted.

Imagine someone making the claim, 'Jesus hated gay people, it's obvious' and then when probed for a source, responding, 'this is common knowledge available anywhere:
https://thekingsbible.com/'

[-] [email protected] -5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Because that's a history question. "Taiwan" is not a country, it's a province of the Republic of China (ROC), which was the government of China before the communist revolution. They fled to Taiwan but their constitution etc still define them as the Republic Of China, with territorial claims over all of China

Here is an article specifically on that exact topic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Area

Edit: The main "Taiwan" wikipedia article also has a map that can be selected under the label "Show map of Taiwan (dark green) with ROC Mainland Area and historical claims (light green)"

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Many, many countries have 'historical claims' that mean nothing in current day geopolitics.

Claiming that 'Taiwan is not a country' is enough for me to know that this will not be a fruitful discussion.

Literally the first line of the 'Taiwan' Wikipedia article:

"Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia."

[-] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago

Taiwan is a region of the ROC. The ROC is a country.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Taiwan is independent of China, you've obviously never been there. They still have the old wartime territory definitions in their constitution because updating their constitution would provoke a violent response from China. Nobody, absolutely nobody, takes those claims seriously.

[-] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago

Except to actually make that a proper analogy, the confederacy would gave had to take over nearly all of the US, and the union would be in Cuba. In which case, yeah fuck those confederate bitches.

Also at this point it doesn't matter. Taiwan is more or less internationally recognized as an independent country so they can both sit the fuck down.

this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025

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