Former prime minister Scott Morrison has warned that his successor should not be "too keen" to accept an invitation to China, as Anthony Albanese prepares to visit Beijing within months.
Non-democratic / non-pluralistic countries like China are absolutely a threat to stability, and often commit some pretty atrocious human rights violation (as in the case with Xinjiang province in China). Creating strategic reserves and taking measures to support the development of enough industry in democratic countries to reduce dependence on such countries is a good idea.
But a strategy of trying to isolate such countries and not even opening dialogue with them is not going to make them pluralistic. It is also not going to stop technological development in China - if anything, isolating them will see them less susceptible to international pressure. Instead, diplomacy and trade with small strings attached to nudge non-democratic countries to move in the right direction is far more likely to eventually move such countries to being part of the global network of pluralistic democratic countries.
I wonder how this affects countries like China and Russia. I would think this would be a good plan maybe a decade ago when whilst still a dictatorship it was governed by more than one person.
Now with those countries it’s basically governed by one person who obviously has many internal enemies. If they change course then Xi is a dead man, same as Putin and Fatman Kim.
In China’s instance Xi has ruined many of his fellow citizens lives (by clamping down on a few industries causing significant job losses because they were a threat to his power). Basically as time goes on their policy would be influenced by the survival of one man.
Non-democratic / non-pluralistic countries like China are absolutely a threat to stability, and often commit some pretty atrocious human rights violation (as in the case with Xinjiang province in China). Creating strategic reserves and taking measures to support the development of enough industry in democratic countries to reduce dependence on such countries is a good idea.
But a strategy of trying to isolate such countries and not even opening dialogue with them is not going to make them pluralistic. It is also not going to stop technological development in China - if anything, isolating them will see them less susceptible to international pressure. Instead, diplomacy and trade with small strings attached to nudge non-democratic countries to move in the right direction is far more likely to eventually move such countries to being part of the global network of pluralistic democratic countries.
I wonder how this affects countries like China and Russia. I would think this would be a good plan maybe a decade ago when whilst still a dictatorship it was governed by more than one person.
Now with those countries it’s basically governed by one person who obviously has many internal enemies. If they change course then Xi is a dead man, same as Putin and Fatman Kim.
In China’s instance Xi has ruined many of his fellow citizens lives (by clamping down on a few industries causing significant job losses because they were a threat to his power). Basically as time goes on their policy would be influenced by the survival of one man.