I applaud the Australian Government

[TexasDave]

While not a big fan of some of the policies of the government down under (guns and bikie laws) they are smarter than the U.S. in one respect. Not selling their prime farm land to foreign governments. Contrary to belief Japan's food staple is not rice but soybeans. In the late seventies the price of corn was far better than the price of soybeans so American farmers did not plant soy beans and Japan could not buy enough. Their solution was simple. Buy up huge amounts of American farm land for soy beans along with a railroad to carry it directly to the west coast for shipment to Japan. Finally the Iowa government woke up and limited their ownership to 10,000 acres and made them give back the rest. That didn't stop the Japanese as they bought controlling interest in a few American banks and invested in corporate farms to get access to more soybeans. Here is a short story on the smart Aussies not selling to the Chinese.    http://fortune.com/2016/04/29/australia-china-land-buy/     Dave

[ribbert]

Dave, it's always interesting to see how the rest of the world interprets our domestic politics from afar.

The facts in the article you posted are all true.

What it failed to recognise though was the motivation for blocking the sale, this is not a government showing good sense but a government in election mode.
They are bowing to the will of the people to garner favour at the polls come election time.

As you know, Australia is sparsely populated but with a bit of technology (something the Chinese are very good at) the arid regions could see the country accommodate a population many times it's current level.

Australia is known as the "Lucky Country" for many reasons. One is, we have an abundance of known natural resources.

"Australia is the world's leading producer of rutile, zircon, bauxite, iron ore and ilmenite, the second largest producer of alumina, gold, lithium, manganese ore, lead and zinc, the third largest producer of uranium, and the fourth largest of silver, nickel and black coal."


As well as enormous natural gas reserves and our own oil.

We export all of these in vast quantities.

With an eye on the future, the Chinese are very keen to get a stake in all of this. They also recently tried to buy our biggest dairy producing facility (largely for baby formula!).
This is invasion by stealth.

The term used here for selling off land holdings is figuratively, and literally, called "selling the farm"

Something I'm sure our Governments share is they are only interested in two things, revenue and re-election.

China is bursting at the seams on many fronts and Australia has everything they are running short of, as well as being strategically placed. It already has sufficient influence in Australia that the big end of town is worried about the fall out of this latest rebuff.

OK, this subject gets me going, I need to take the dogs for a walk (before we have 1 dog policy forced on us )

Noel

Noel

[PaulG]

If the poiticicans did their homework...    This BS has been going on for decades but now China is the biggest player in the game at the moment.  They tried to invade our oil patch in Alberta a few short yrs ago, buy being allowed to buy oil companies then operate outside of our H&S laws.  A lot of people went WTF?  The federal government being keen to open trade while publicly lambasting their human rights record - as if China gives a flying f!@#k about what anyone thinks.

They were allowed to bring in their own workers, and when they started dying they were slapped on the wrist.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/sinopec-unit-fined-15-million-over-deaths-at-alberta-oil-sands-project/article7823202/

They are now second guessing this decision and leaving for Venezuala due to the low oil prices and lack of distribution to the west coast (intended pipelines that have been delayed due to the usual reasons).

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-china-slipped-on-canadas-oil-sands-1437616832

They are also building a Panama Canal bypass through Nicaragua with $50 billion with the usual front of it being funded by a Chinese billionaire.  Since there is still no such thing as private industry in China, these "billionaires" are the pointy tip of Chinese foreign policy.  It's a big enough controversy in Nicaragua that it's causing riots.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/money-wealth/article/1863514/chinese-billionaire-funding-nicaraguas-us50b-rival-panama

To give them credit, the Chinese governement has always taken the long view ahead - not just 10 or 20 yrs, but 100 yrs ahead.  Our politicians can't get beyond the next election cycle. They know they will need future resources and they are slowy - and sometimes quietly - making sure they secure them.  A report came out here recently on the estimated number of Chinese government agents here.  We aren't talking a dozen, but hundreds or more.  They aren't here just for political/military/commercial/industrial espionage.  Some of it is actual social research on how our society runs, how people react, how we view the world and China.

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Most of you have heard of this written c.500BC.  This is just one quote from this, and it doesn't have to be used just for combat but also how to guide a society.  Most of the doctrine can be adapted on how to deal not with just an "enemy", but how to outwit or gain an advantage on your neighbours or other foreign powers.  The global power game is very real.

At the end of the 19th century in Japan when the Samurai class was dissolved after nearly 1500 yrs of dominance there were millions of men with no occupation but with a strict code of discipline and honour.  What did they do?  They looked to the "west" to see who holds the power.  Ironically it was the merchants, the businessmen, the tycoons who ran things.  So that's what they became.  I say ironic because the Samurai were not allowed to have any means of income outside of their service.  Thus they viewed the merchant class as the lowest of the low, having no honour while lusting after silver and gold.  They took their Bushido code and transformed a tiny nation of farmers into one of the world's largest economies in less than 100 years, despite the disaster of WWII, while American assistance after thatcertainly helped speed things up.  That's only about five genereations.

Just think of what China can do in the next 100 years with a population exceeding 1.3 billion?  Should we just accept it as an ineviability that it's now their time?  A country like ours is nearly powerless to hold back the tide.

Anyhow I just went through a root canal so I'm kinda' cranky. Sorry. 

[gumby302ho]

  Canadian's business's sell there soul for the mighty green back, not much is truly owned and ran by Canadian's anymore, they sell off to American's and the like, the list is endless. I now collect anything that has Made In Canada stamped on it as it is so rare to find. We are slowly being sucked up and owned and taken over.
Not going to take the gloves off as its only a greed system and we seem to sell out to the highest dollar reguardless of where the money comes. Trump yaps about making America great again, Canada used to be great until we sold our soul.

[Bones]

That link in Dave's post mentions Australia is trying to stop the Chinese from buying 1% of Australia's landmass. I just googled Chinese ownership of Australian land and came up with this map.



Looks to me if this map is accurate, that they own about 30% or more already. I won't get into politics but I can see that this will only get worse in years to come.

[TexasDave]

That is a scary map. I'm sure the US looks similar. Noel is correct in stating all the politicians care about is reelection and revenue. Selling the land to foreign governments certainly supplies plenty of revenue. Lenin said "Capitalists will sell the rope to hang themselves." He should have said "Capitalists will sell all their farm land so we can starve them out."  Dave

[ribbert]

That link in Dave's post mentions Australia is trying to stop the Chinese from buying 1% of Australia's landmass. I just googled Chinese ownership of Australian land and came up with this map.



Looks to me if this map is accurate, that they own about 30% or more already. I won't get into politics but I can see that this will only get worse in years to come.

whooaa, hold on there. China's real estate footprint in Australia is less than 1%.
What they are targeting mostly is big business where they can, premium real estate such as CBD commercial property, housing in our most exclusive suburbs (in some cases, whole suburbs) and key assets, anything that can be levered in the future for control.
They are not buying up vast tracts of land for the sake of it. Most of the land on that map has no commercial value (and interestingly includes Brisbane! )

In WW2 some smart guy figured out that rather than bombing hundreds of manufacturing plants all over Germany, all you had to do was take out the ball bearing plant. From planes to ships to tanks etc. there was not a single war machine that didn't need them.
Stop the production of ball bearings and you stop the production of war machines.

China doesn't need to buy millions of acres of nothingness, it needs key assets. Selling off our communications, utilities and primary producing to them is the real threat down the track.

The escalation of their buying frenzy in recent months and the publishing of the FJ line up on Mt Hotham at the Aussie Rally are IMO no coincidence.
The hundreds of billions of dollars they are spending here is just a smoke screen to eventually get their hands the best collection of FJ's in the world.

Noel

[ribbert]

Most of you have heard of this written c.500BC......... 

..........At the end of the 19th century in Japan when the Samurai class was dissolved after nearly 1500 yrs of dominance there were......

Paul, I'm a bit cautious about humour at the moment but I find it funny that you are so knowledgeable about Japanese Samurai history but know nothing about "Chicken Strips"

Noel

[Firehawk068]

Most of you have heard of this written c.500BC......... 

..........At the end of the 19th century in Japan when the Samurai class was dissolved after nearly 1500 yrs of dominance there were......

Paul, I'm a bit cautious about humour at the moment but I find it funny that you are so knowledgeable about Japanese Samurai history but know nothing about "Chicken Strips"

Noel

They're Free!

[Alte Fahrt]

The escalation of their buying frenzy in recent months and the publishing of the FJ line up on Mt Hotham at the Aussie Rally are IMO no coincidence.
The hundreds of billions of dollars they are spending here is just a smoke screen to eventually get their hands the best collection of FJ's in the world.

Noel

They won't get mine.

[PaulG]

Paul, I'm a bit cautious about humour at the moment but I find it funny that you are so knowledgeable about Japanese Samurai history but know nothing about "Chicken Strips"

Noel

I swore off chicken strips cuz I'm trying to lose weight.  Also cuz they aren't really chicken.  But now that I'm up to speed on the difference I shall never make that mistake again...   I couldn't tell the differnce with the taste test... 

The hundreds of billions of dollars they are spending here is just a smoke screen to eventually get their hands the best collection of FJ's in the world.

Noel

First it's your FJ, then it's your women, then it's your beer...