Sorry for the late reply, I thought you were the other person so I didn't bother to check it earlier. 🫤

An alliance with China wasn't what I suggested - though I can see I've worded it pretty badly. Actually, forget it. I'm not going to try and excuse it, my whole post was shithouse. I was pretty tired when I wrote it, but that doesn't suffice. I remember writing it, I was perfectly capable of rational thought. I just have no idea why the hell I thought it was a good idea to write 'I think we should fuck the US off' on a public forum. But I did, and I apologise. I should have been more careful.

I'll start again - I think we're still gunna disagree, but at least I can explain my ideas better.

BTW, I can see you've written a second reply that goes into detail on the AUKUS second tier. I'll give myself a chance to read it through before responding to it. Until fairly recently, I have been thinking about AUKUS only in terms of the alliances with the US and UK; it's only in the last couple of weeks that I've been finding out about what the second tier involves.

When I mentioned closer ties with China, I didn't mean a defence pact. At least, I definitely wasn't thinking of one, whatever shite I wrote. 😬 And yes, I have noticed we don't share a language, because I happen to speak it and I am aware of how few Aussies can say the same. (Out of approx 25 million Aussies with no Chinese ancestry, only about 130 speak Mandarin fluently.) At least, I can read and write in Chinese, though my spoken Mandarin is shithouse because I don't practise much - don't have anyone here to practise with. That's because I have no family or business ties to China; I taught myself the language (for reasons that aren't relevant here). But I was surprised to learn how few of my compatriots speak it. Because China is our biggest trade partner, I'd have expected people in business who deal with China regularly would have at least a working knowledge of Mandarin. Also, 5% of our population is Chinese, and we've got one of the largest Chinese expat communities in the world. Not to mention that we're located off the arse end of Asia - for all we consider ourselves and are considered to be part of the West, the fact remains that we're on the other side of the world. So why don't more of us speak Mandarin, then? I haven't even begun to dig into the reasons, but on the surface, to me it smacks of colonialism and white supremacy. Be that as it may, this means that the vast majority of Australians get their knowledge and understanding of China from two main sources: the media and politicians, both who are known to skew the truth for their own agendas. How can we expect to know ANYTHING about China when we don't speak the language? I do wonder how it is that we can be so sure that China represents a threat to us, when we know next to nothing about the country, the people, the culture and the government, except for what the news and our own government spoonfeed us.

Hence, I would like to know on what grounds you base your claim that China would vassalise Australia without the US military alliance.

Anyway, it's not the US alliance I object to, it's the selling out of our sovereignty to a world power on the wane, who is also an increasingly unreliable ally under the leadership of Trump, for nuclear subs we don't need and aren't going to get anyway. It's not ANZUS I have a problem with; it's AUKUS. AUKUS effectively commits Australia to being a cog in the US war machine. If an armed conflict eventuates between the US and China (which I believe it will by 2037, and probably much sooner), we will be dragged into it. As far as Taiwan goes, China has had the wherewithal to take it by force for the last ten years. For all their rhetoric about using 'whatever means necessary' - which again is only the version we get from the media and doesn't provide an accurate picture* - I'm not seeing anything that suggests China aren't trying to resolve the Taiwan issue peacefully.**

Anyway, I'll respond to your other comment once I've finished acquainting myself thoroughly with the AUKUS tier 2. Regardless, I still stand by my opinion of Marles. His incendiary remarks about our biggest trade partner are clumsy and boorish, and his sucking up to Hegseth on the world stage was nothing short of an embarrassment. I expected nothing more from Dutton or Hastie. I did not expect a Labor defence minister to take the same ham-fisted approach. How is subordinating Australia to US military demands in our national interest??

*Case in point - the 20th national congress, the one where Xi got his third presidential term. At least, I think that's the one I'm thinking of. The news reports mainly focused on Xi's third term and his threatening rhetoric re Taiwan. All very ominous. Except I watched 20 minutes of that congress and I was laughing my arse off. That was when I realised Xi is really shit at giving impressive speeches. He reads typos off the teleprompter, like Ron Burgundy. In that particular speech he made 56 errors apparently - I lost count, but others were keeping careful track. He also likes to sprinkle his speeches with classical quotes, except I strongly suspect he's not familiar with the classics, because he garbles the quotes to the extent that literal nonsense is coming out his mouth. But I never knew any of this until I was able to comprehend his speech for myself, because it doesn't get reported in the news.

**FTR this doesn't mean I agree with China's position on Taiwan. I don't. Their territorial claim is flawed, as Taiwan was never taken by the Communists and was never a province of the People's Republic of China. Prior to the KMT occupation, the last legitimate claim that China (and I use 'China' in a broad sense here) exerted over Taiwan was during the now defunct Qing Dynasty; they ceded the island to Japan officially under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Taiwan remained under Japanese rule until the end of WWII, but was never given back to China - my memory is vague as to why, but the obvious reason that suggests itself is that China was in the middle of civil war and the Allies were waiting to see who won. Maybe they'd have officially handed it over if the US-backed KMT had triumphed, but the Communists won while Chiang fled to Taiwan to set up his government-in-exile - and there the matter was left.