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China did nothing we and the USA and the EU and others haven't done and they did nothing illegal. They held live fire naval exercises in international waters. They have advance warning for the live fire as they are requested (although not obligated) to.
This is all scare tactics to convince you to accept deeper cuts in public services so that NZ could buy expensive weapons from the USA and Europe.
yep I'm no fan of china but this is a massive beat up. they sailed down thumped their chests. so do we. it is meaningless
Propaganda by oligarchs to convince you to hand over your tax dollars to their pockets.
After seeing Ukrainian men beaten and thrown into vans to be taken to their deaths, I'm not enthusiastic about NZ becoming the Ukraine of the Pacific.
I'm curious what, exactly, you mean by that. What would "the Ukraine of the Pacific" look like, and what do you think we can do to avoid that fate?
We could end up fighting a war, even if it's decades from now. The government argues that we should fund the military a lot more, and presumably put our military on some Pacific Islands to deter China. It could work for a while, but if China ever gets into a dispute with us and we don't back down, NZ or another country could be invaded. In this scenario, the government would control all media and start drafting men for a war that can't be won. Just because we can vote in elections it doesn't mean that the government can't manipulate the public with propaganda and make poor decisions.
And what is your better idea? Abandon our allies and wait for them to come for us next?
Besides, Ukraine has been holding off Russia for three years, while Russia's oil infrastructure mysteriously explodes, and sanctions slowly cripple their economy.
And what is your better idea? Abandon our allies and wait for them to come for us next?
I know you are not a very smart person so it doesn't surprise me that you think these are the only two possibilities. You have somehow convinced yourself that China is going to attack New Zealand, most likely this is because you consume an inordinate amount of right wing social media from facebook or xitter or truth social or whatever.
But let's say your insane paranoid delusions are actually going to materialise somehow. You have convinced yourself that the US is an ally that would have our back no matter what and furthermore you have convinced yourself that somehow we can wield a military that would beat back the yellow menace you are convince if going to invade our shores and violate our women and whatever else you imagine they are going to do you.
Besides, Ukraine has been holding off Russia for three years, while Russia’s oil infrastructure mysteriously explodes, and sanctions slowly cripple their economy.
US disagrees with you. US (the people you say are our allies who will die for us) says Ukraine can't win and Russia is doing great and Ukraine has to compensate them.
China has no reason to invade us. We have a free trade deal signed with them. We buy stuff from them, they buy stuff from us. It's a beneficial relationship for both sides. There is no need for a tiny country like NZ to make enemies of anybody. Your constant war mongering and yellow menace racist screeds is dangerous to this country. Even if we spent 100% of our GDP on weapons we can't defeat China, hell we can't defeat Indonesia or Singapore or any one of a hundred smaller countries either. All your war mongering is going to do is to bankrupt our health and education systems and destroy the social fabric of this country.
All for what? Some delusional loyalty to the USA? Because you bought into the yellow menace and red menace propaganda?
Hey mate you make some good points, but you're coming across pretty strong here - do you reckon you could tone it down a little: https://lemmy.nz/post/63098
Sorry but I am upset. I am upset that we are going to be forced to cut more public services in order to buy expensive weapons from the US to counter an imaginary threat.
We should all be upset at this.
Yeah agreed, its definitely not fantastic :/
Your kids get marmite on toast, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumann, Lockheed Martin get fifty billion dollars.
Did you know that it takes more than 6 million dollars to train an f-16 pilot?
Did you know that an f-16 uses more than 70,000 litres of fuel per hour?
I am using the f-16 because that's one of the cheaper ones because it's an older single engine plane.
Other planes cost much more.
And what's that f-16 going to do for us? Jack shit. Recently Egypt bought a bunch of Chinese jets because the F-16s US was selling them couldn't hold the longer range missiles while the Israeli F-16s could. In a conflict with Israel all their planes would have been wiped before they could even detect the Israeli planes.
Your kids get marmite on toast, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumann, Lockheed Martin get fifty billion dollars.
This! But I go much further.
The New Zealand government isn't acting in good faith, they spread false information about the war in Ukraine, they will spread false information about China too if we let them. They will create a narrative that China is bad and China is bombing the children's hospitals in Taiwan, or that China is using chemical weapons 1,000,000 times against Taiwanese soldiers. The government and media will tell lies to get New Zealanders emotionally worked up, in favour of a war against China.
I won't rule out everything that ilovethebomb says. The Chinese government could get angry with another country and invade them - just think about what could happen in 30 years or 50 years from now. There will be more wars and somehow people in the future will be surprised. Some people are apparently surprised that Russia and Ukraine are at war. I was watching RT today and they said that the Americans have built up their air base at Tinian. The same island where the bomber "Enola Gay" flew after nuking Japan.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Enola-Gay
https://www.rt.com/news/589851-china-us-base-expansion/
The Chinese Defense Ministry has called on Asia-Pacific nations to be on the lookout for US military deployments in the region, citing the Pentagon’s plan to rebuild a World War II-era airfield on a small island north of Guam.
The USA spends more on the military than the rest of the world combined. Twice as much!
They have bases everywhere including nine in Japan and over 14 in Korea.
US is well prepared for war with China. Look at all these military bases surrounding China https://solidarity.net.au/highlights/us-bases-positioned-war-china/