If China’s global investments and economic exploits are not acceptable to the US, then what do you suggest?

WHEN TRUMP AND TURNBULL MET FOR THE FIRST TIME, WHAT WAS FOREMOST IN THEIR MIND? WAR! No? Watch the video …
https://youtu.be/r2Ei1yhkF80 (US-Australia Ties: Malcolm Turnbull meets Donald Trump in New York)
US President Donald Trump met Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in New York City on Thursday. Both leaders attended a

dinner marking the 75th anniversary of a key World War Two naval battle involving American and Australian troops. Trump and Turnbull held their first face to face talks since a tense phone call in February. TRT World's Lorna Shaddick reports.

If China’s global investments and economic exploits are not acceptable to the US, then what do you suggest?

KUALA LUMPUR (February 2018): War or economics? You choose!

What the heck! The pro-US international media seems to be bent on bashing and demonising China daily for its strategic global economic prowess.

And China and the Chinese across the globe are not ashamed to declare that they are very focused and successful in economics and trade.

I Love Malaysia-China Silk Road asks: “So, is economic prowess now a crime or deemed an act of war?”

Isn’t it ridiculous that when one invests (not free) and provides goods and services efficiently, then it is using business and economics to conquer a nation?

Business is all about making the right investments for bountiful returns.

But, when one party fails to keep to the terms of agreement for whatever reason and is unable to repay the debts, who do you blame? The investor?

When two parties enter into an agreement voluntarily, the terms and conditions are spelled out clearly and agreed upon by both parties. And both parties will be held responsible for their own performance, right?

So, what’s all these demonising China’s global economic forays about? And, China’s multi-trillion dollar Belt Road Initiative (BRI) has, thus far, seen only infrastructure construction and development aimed at promoting trans border trade and business activities.

What has constructing roads, ports, airports and rail links got to do with war?

If the pro-US media are so fearful of China’s strategic global investments, why don’t the war-waging US do the same, instead of inciting hatred and agitating for war.

We have this to say to the US and its allies, especially the Aussies: Change your evil ways and go for global peace via sound trade and investments. War and economics are not the same or equal! And they will never be!

This is a classic anti-China opinion piece posted by The Sydney Morning Herald: and a latest report on the situation in Maldives filed by Reuters:

"ANALYSIS
FEBRUARY 22 2018 - 11:17AM

China challenge 'more subtle and sophisticated' than the threat of war

David Wroe

China has a saying, inspired by the famed strategist Sun Tzu, that the best outcome of any standoff is “winning without fighting”.

Experts say while Malcolm Turnbull is right that China does not pose a direct military threat to Australia, it does excel at the practice of making steady gains that remain calculatedly short of military confrontation or conflict.

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Photo: AP

The latest instance, some say, is China’s handling of the paradisiacal Indian Ocean nation the Maldives, into which Beijing has poured money as part of its “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative. A Chinese naval task group has been in the Indian Ocean while Beijing’s ally, the Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen, wrestles with a political crisis, prompting speculation the Chinese are propping up Mr Yameen by warding off India from intervening.

Such drama unfolding in the Indian Ocean on Australia's maritime doorstep provides a glimpse into how China might marry its ostensible economic and infrastructure programs with its strategic aims, experts say.

“If it is basically what it seems to be, which is the use of a naval task force to intervene in the Maldives … it’s using military force to influence the outcome of political decisions in another country while warning another major power to stay away,” said Peter Dean, a professor at the University of Western Australia and senior fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre.

Professor Dean said countries such as the Maldives were being laden with debt through China’s Belt and Road initiative, which funds infrastructure development largely through concessional loans they are unlikely to pay back, leaving them vulnerable to coercion by Beijing.

This stood in contrast to a rules-based, liberal international order that creates a level playing field.

“It’s an illiberal system based on power and national interest which is very much not a level playing field,” he said.

Professor Dean said what made the Maldives situation particularly troubling was that it was “easily replicated in the South Pacific”, where some island nations are also falling into infrastructure-borne debt to China. He pointed to remarks by Fiji’s former top diplomat Robin Nair to the ABC on Wednesday that “there is general concern that the Pacific is opening itself to the same dangers”.

Andrew Shearer, a former national security adviser to Tony Abbott and John Howard and now a senior expert at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said China’s whole strategy relied on “building up its power and influence in the region and getting its own way without having a military conflict”.

“The PM’s right in the sense that I read him which is that, certainly for now, China doesn’t pose a direct military threat to Australia. But, in some ways, what it presents is a much more subtle and sophisticated and difficult challenge to us, to the United States and to like-minded countries in the region,” he said.

The methods included economic coercion, cyber attacks, the use of its coastguard to support a “fishing militia”, some - though not all - of the Belt and Road initiative, and interference in the politics of other countries, including Australia.

“At the heart of the discussions between the leaders [Mr Turnbull and Mr Trump] will be a discussion about how do we maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific … and that’s a much broader discussion that just the military alliance,” Mr Shearer said.

Originally published on smh.com.au as 'China challenge 'more subtle and sophisticated' than the threat of war'. - The Sydney Morning Herald

Chinese warships enter East Indian Ocean amid Maldives tensions

WORLD
Tuesday, 20 Feb 2018
5:12 PM MYT

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Eleven Chinese warships sailed into the East Indian Ocean this month, a Chinese news portal said, amid a constitutional crisis in the tiny tropical island chain of the Maldives now under a state of emergency.

A fleet of destroyers and at least one frigate, a 30,000-tone amphibious transport dock and three support tankers entered the Indian Ocean, news portal Sina.com.cn said, without linking the deployment to the crisis in the Maldives or giving a reason.

"If you look at warships and other equipment, the gap between the Indian and Chinese navy is not large," Sina.com.cn said on Sunday.

It did not say when the fleet was deployed or for how long.

India, which has had longstanding political and security ties to the islands about 400 km (250 miles) away, has sought to push back against China's expanding presence in the overwhelmingly Muslim country of 400,000 people. Maldivian opposition leaders have urged New Delhi to intervene in the crisis.

China's Ministry of Defence did not respond to requests for comment.

On Friday, the People's Liberation Army posted photos and a story on rescue training exercises taking place in the East Indian Ocean on its official Twitter-like Weibo account.

China earlier this month advised Chinese citizens to avoid visiting the Maldives, famous its luxury hotels, scuba-diving resorts and limpid tropical seas, until political tensions subside.

China has been striking deals with countries in Asia and Africa in line with its Belt and Road initiative to improve imports of key commodities, upgrade infrastructure and trade routes in the region and boost its diplomatic clout.

Yameen imposed the emergency on Feb. 5 for 15 days to annul a Supreme Court ruling that quashed convictions against nine opposition leaders and ordered his government to free those held in prison. He sought parliamentary approval to extend the emergency for 30 days on Monday.

China has drawn criticism in the West for its perceived military buildup of the neighbouring South China Sea, where it has built and expanded islands and reefs.

China claims most of the sea where neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

(Reporting by Engen Tham in Shanghai, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Wang Jing in Shanghai; Editing by Nick Macfie) - The Star Online"

PHOTO: Tony Abbott told Barack Obama: "Australia will be an utterly dependable ally of the United States." (Twitter: TonyAbbottMHR)
The elephant in the room on US-Australia relations
The Drum
By Tom Switzer
Updated 13 Jun 2014, 1:35pm
Defence Minister David Johnston's frank comments to Tony Jones on Lateline, made in the context of a rising China, may be more revealing about US-Australia relations than the White House meeting a few hours later, writes Tom Switzer. What's the big issue facing US-Australian relations in coming years? Judging by the media analysis in the lead-up to Tony Abbott's US trip this week, you might think climate change. Some will say free trade, especially President Barack Obama's proposal to create a 12-nation trans-Pacific partnership. Still others could point to the Arab world, where a "liberated" Iraq has slid into chaos and internecine conflict and led to the birth of a terrorist haven for a new generation of jihadists. All are important issues that the Australian Prime Minister and the US president raised during their Oval Office meeting this morning (AEST). But it is the People's Republic of China that is the number one priority for leaders and policymakers in Canberra and Washington. And on that subject, the key question remains: will Beijing's leaders continue to tolerate the powerful US strategic presence in the region, or will China try to drive a wedge between Washington and its regional allies and eventually force the US out of East Asia? … for more, go to http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-13/switzer-the-elephant-in-the-room-on-us-australia-relations/5522366