It is generally accepted that Kevin Rudd is a detail man about running the country. Hence we can assume that four significant developments in Australia have his approval. These four developments are:
(1) Investment in the resource industries (covered below). The Chinese Government investment is so widespread and pervasive that they would have a better dossier on the resource industries in some details than the Australian Government.
(2) ‘Soft power’ - e.g... the establishment of Confucius ‘Institutes’ in the universities (also covered below).
(3) Large-scale immigration of Chinese via the educational institutions so that the Chinese are beginning to dominate the professional and managerial classes. This is the theme of The Howard Legacy so that there is no need to go into it here, save to note that one of the first actions of the Rudd government was to increase immigration rates to record levels. At the same time their was little financial help for Australian universities, so that they continue to be dependent on international students. This will lead to increased dominance and will be the topic of a future article.
(4) Becoming a large holder of Australian Government bonds issued to sustain the spiralling deficit. There is no information about who is buying Australian bonds, although it is understood that such information will be released soon. It seems highly probable that the Chinese are large buyers, as they have of US bonds. Once a capital importer like Australia becomes a perennial client of a sovereign state it must influence policy.
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