Beijing’s Parade

Sir: The twin images of military might reviewed by a dictator in Beijing and the beating and shooting of demonstrators in Hong Kong will send a chill down the spine of anyone who remembers the newsreels of the 1930s, when eerily similar images came from Germany, Italy and Japan. They foreshadowed the worst  war in world history.

Like Germany in the 1930s, China is a capitalist dictatorship posing as a socialist democracy. Just as  Germany “peacefully” took over the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia on the pretext of the unity of the Fatherland, China announces it will “peacefully” complete the integration of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan into the Motherland. China has already taken over Tibet and the South China Sea, and is only blocked from Taiwan, for the moment, by the US Navy. China is infiltrating Asia and the Pacific through the Belt and Road initiative.

Just as Germany persecuted the Jews, China persecutes the Tibetan and Uighur minorities. Just as Germany was a one-party state, China has one party, the  Chinese Communist Party. Just as Germany had its Fuhrer, China has its President for Life. Just like Germany, China openly seeks to dominate the world to redeem past “bullying” by Europe and Japan. “No one can stop us,” says the President for Life.

We have been warned.

Fred Bennett
via email

Defending Common Sense

Sir: Paul Monk’s dissection (September 2019) of Hugh White’s recent book is a refreshing change. Monk challenges the many assumptions discussed by Australia’s defence expert, which are based mainly on fear. White seems to be taking the debate backwards, reviving the fictitious Domino Theory and the Cold War.

White’s suggestion of protecting Australia by the purchase of dozens of submarines is as ludicrous as the Irwin Allen television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Perhaps that is the fitting resting place for his latest book? 

Carmelo Bazzano
Epping, Vic

The Real Threat

Sir: It’s hard to believe the ignorance about the virtues of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, far from being a threat, is highly beneficial to the planet.

Historically, current levels of carbon dioxide (around 400 parts per million) are very low. When dinosaurs were on the planet, carbon dioxide levels were over 2000 ppm, and life flourished.

Carbon dioxide is a vital trace gas necessary for the wellbeing of every living thing on the planet. Higher levels should be welcomed and not be of concern, especially to impressionable children.

What poses a genuine threat to our future is the looming power emergency created by replacing a reliable and efficient power system with a grossly inferior renewable-energy regime. Hysteria over carbon emissions has resulted in spending tens of billions of taxpayers’ money on building massive unreliable renewable-energy facilities which only supply intermittent power.

The obsession with carbon dioxide is undermining our nation’s future by driving up the cost of living and sending local jobs offshore—all for no gain whatsoever.

Alan Barron
Grovedale, Vic