Australia to increase defense spending by 40% over 10 years

Looks like the Aussies aren't going to let China bully, threaten or buy them into subservience.

Good on Australia for standing up to bullies.

Banning Huawei from their 5G network was a smart move (despite them being valuable sponsors for the Canberra Raiders)

We have a Chinese poster here that claims Australia isn't an an actual country? Well come and get it! **** you. You whip me I will whip you back.

Just because you trade with them doesn’t mean you have to kowtow to them.

The problem lies with China, its expansionist, colonial and aggressive military actions are forcing their neighbours to greater military spending and its failure to consider anyone else’s interests are alienating even those who were friendly or had common interests.

@cracaphat

If China ever decided to lay claim to Hamilton Island or Tasmania being their territory, we should bow deeply & give it to them.

"China is the unspoken elephant in the room," 

High time we started speaking about them!!

A brutal, dictatorial and regressive regime like China should not be allowed to go unpunished.

China can't be trusted. 40% probably isn't enough, but it is a start.

china

Australia has been under defended for a very long time.  Their land mass is vast but their army is tiny and their navy not very big either.   Decent air force though.  While living there I often heard Aussies claim their deserts would stop any invader before they could take the whole country but I have to shake my head at that one.  Flat open terrain is perfect for high speed mechanized warfare and Australia has only 50 something tanks in their whole army.  The article does have one thing wrong.  The Aussies are trying to tie their military more closely to that of the US so their forces and equipment  are interchangeable with similar US units and equipment to allow their forces to use US supply support.  And don't keep up this nonsense about the Aussie defense policies being driven by Donald Trump.  They are not.  A lot of these decisions considerably predate the current occupant of the White House and are based on hard calculations of their national survival in the face of an increasingly hostile and hegemonic China.  Xi Jinping is the problem, not the US.  Xi is supremely insecure and seeks even greater control over anything and everything he can grasp.  He doesn't have the quiet confidence of his immediate predecessors and if you study his life and the surprising way he came to power, and if you understand the many competing factions and patronage networks within the CCP, some of it is understandable.  Not acceptable, but understandable.