Archive for the ‘Oceania’ Category
Posted by seumasach on July 30, 2017
“Mr Johnson said he expected a “great” free trade deal with Australia which would cover the issue of visas.” Wow! “Great deals” all round! It’s looking very much like TTIP-Trans-Oceanic Trade and Investment Deal, a new British Empire based on the old values of “free trade”. But there may be a fly in the ointment:
Ms Bishop said: “We discussed Brexit and the potential for Australia to enter into a free trade agreement with the European Union, and subsequently a free trade agreement between Australia and the UK.”
Britain’s TTIP -type deals are not compatible with free trade deals with the EU since the EU will not allow the UK to become a conduit for GM crops and other dangerous or substandard products. Johnson looks full of confidence but as Britain crashes out of the EU we will see if they have any realistic basis.
Express and Star
27th July, 2017
Australia’s foreign minister has said the country is hoping to strike a “high-quality, comprehensive free trade agreement” with the UK following Brexit.
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Posted in brexit crisis, Oceania | Tagged: End of empire, New British Empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 30, 2017
Standing up “for the rights of the people of Hong Kong” and sending warships into the South China Sea: dramatic confirmation of my characterization of Brexit as a repost to China-led globalization, as the “upholding of the international liberal order” as Johnson puts it with, of course, the City of London at its head. Add to that the push for the neutralization of the Trump presidency, the enforcement of the new Munro Doctrine in South America and the co-option of Australia and other former colonies and we are well on the way to a London-led Oceania.
MSN
Australia’s oldest ally has vowed to challenge Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea by sailing two new aircraft carriers through the disputed waterways on a freedom-of-navigation operation.
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Posted in Oceania | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on November 21, 2016
So much for Oceania! The dominoes are falling in Asia, firstly, with the Philippines and several other countries moving into China’s orbit but now with Australia seemingly poised to exit the Anglosphere. This comes as a blow to the idea of an orderly retreat from empire. The facts on the ground point in a different direction. Hopefully the new US presidency will take an equally pragmatic approach and embrace the rising powers rather than continuing to go against the flow of history.
Straits Times
18th November, 2016
SYDNEY • For Australia, the election of President-elect Donald Trump has raised fears about the previously unthinkable: the fracturing of the more than 65-year-old alliance between Canberra and Washington.
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Posted in Multipolar world, Oceania | Tagged: China-led globalization, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on October 3, 2016
This article provides some background to the Pentagon’s recent coup against the White House. Their goal is not so much to have a war with Russia but to scupper peace so that they can prepare the military for an eventual confrontation. They know that the current balance of forces is unfavorable. In the meantime , as Theresa May along with the other Brexit ministers made clear to the Tory Party Conference, it is about using “soft power’ and the “world’s best intelligence services” to advance imperial aspirations. Foreign Secretary, Johnson’s anti- Russia speech made clear that the Brexit government is now aligned with the Pentagon. The war party seeks to consolidate it’s hold on Oceania, an alliance of Anglo-Saxon peoples plus South America whilst preparing for a final showdown with Russia and China.
Federicao Pieraccini
Strategic Culture
An analysis of US generals’ growing dissatisfaction with the political leadership in Washington sheds new light on the direction in which the American military machine is heading. In particular, it is interesting to observe the military planning for the future of the sea, air, space, cyberspace, and land forces.
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Posted in Drive to Global War, Oceania | Tagged: dismantle military-industrial complex | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 14, 2016
“While China is Australia’s biggest trading partner and a major investor, Canberra cooperates closely on intelligence matters with Canada and the United States.”
As with Brexit the message is clear: never mind trade and investment, lets cement security ties with the Americans. Australia can now take it’s place in Oceania, an extreme right-wing neo-feudal remake of Orwell’s dystopia alongside kindred spirits such as Brazil’s Michel Temer and our own Theresa May. The end of globalisation is the talk of the town now that it is being led by China.
Asia Times
14th September, 2016
SYDNEY (Reuters) – North American bidders will not need an Australian partner to bid for Australian electricity distributor Ausgrid, an advisor on the potentially A$10 billion ($7.46 billion) deal said, after the government rejected sole offers from Chinese interests.
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Posted in Containing China, Oceania | Tagged: Australia-China relations | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 13, 2016
Guardian
13th September, 2016
Brazil’s political bloodletting claimed another high-profile victim on Monday when the lower house voted to expel its former speaker Eduardo Cunha for perjury, corruption and obstruction of justice.
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Posted in Oceania | Tagged: eduardo cunha, impeachment crisis in Brazil, Stop the coup in Brazil! | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 1, 2016
Asia Times
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A senior U.S. soldier said on Thursday Australia must choose between a stronger U.S. alliance or closer ties with China, and urged Canberra to take a tougher stance against Chinese claims in the South China Sea.
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Posted in Containing China, Oceania | Tagged: Australia-China relations, China Australian coopeeration | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 25, 2016
Since the anglo-saxon economic model is simply incapable of generating investment in the real economy Australia, like the UK and the USA, has become dependent on inward investment from China. It is now rebelling against this dependence, biting the hand that feeds it, along with it’s kith and kin in the USA and Britain in an alliance of losers. In this Oceanic dystopia “security concerns” trump economic interests. At the same time the notorious role of big money in running the political system suddenly becomes a problem when it’s a question of China rather than the homegrown oligarchy, or the Americans, buying politicians.
Asia Times
24th August, 2016
MELBOURNE–An influx of political donations from Chinese concerns has focused anxieties about the rising superpower’s growing influence here, while sparking calls for reform of the country’s lax political finance laws.
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Posted in Containing China, Oceania | Tagged: Chinese soft power, US-China: clash of world systems | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 19, 2016
I think this is a credible outline of the Trump agenda: it ties in with the Brexit agenda and the emergence of an anti-China front which curiously replicates the Oceania of Orwell’s 1984. Essentially, it envisages a reconstruction policy without engagement with China. It is extremely questionable that such an Listian economic nationalist program can work in today’s conditions. It presupposes that capital goods and commodities can be imported for an ever devalued dollar. It presupposes that the USA still possesses the skills base and the national ethos for such a program, that it can accept sacrifice and a massive shift from consumer to capital spending. It presupposes that the US financial system can be adapted to productive capital investment and that the managerial, bureaucratic basis for a centrally directed economy can be put in place. And, above all, it presupposes that oligarchical interests can reconcile themselves to the dirigiste model which has hitherto been a taboo, that the political conditions for a latter-day New Deal exist. Is this, in the end, the last illusion of a USA which is rejecting a globalisation which it no longer controls?
Pepe Escobar
Sputnik
17th August, 2016
Hillary Clinton, Queen of Chaos, Queen of War, Golden Goldman Girl, for all practical purposes is by now the official bipartisan candidate of US neocons and neoliberalcons alike.
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Posted in Containing China, Oceania | Tagged: trump agenda, US-China: clash of world systems | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 17, 2016
Asia Times
SYDNEY/BEIJING (Reuters) – Australia’s decision to block the A$10 billion ($7.7 billion) sale of the country’s biggest energy grid to Chinese bidders was a protectionist move that would negatively affect investment in the country, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.
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Posted in Containing China, Oceania | Tagged: Australia-China relations, Chinese soft power | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on August 2, 2016
It was once faith versus reason but now it’s identity versus reason and identity is winning hands down. Never mind that their relationship with China is a core economic interest for Australians, thev are prepared to jeopardise it on the basis of a pro-western, anglo-saxon identity.
Sydney Morning Herald
21st June, 2016
Three-quarters of Australians believe the country’s Navy should follow the United States in challenging Beijing’s expanding military activity in the disputed waters of the South China Sea by carrying out so called “freedom-of-navigation” operations, a poll has found.
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Posted in Containing China, Oceania | Tagged: Australia-China relations | Leave a Comment »
