Nothing inevitable about the Asian Century

"The China boom has made Australians richer, but it's also made us aware that we've done well not because of who we are but because of what we have…Someone else is the author of our fortune – and therefore someone else will be the author of our misfortune as well."

It is this sapping of the national will - the feeling we have to cosy up to China in order to keep the good times rolling; that the Chinese-dominated Asian Century is inevitable and must be accommodated – that could lead to Beijing achieving its aims in this region and beyond without a shot being fired.

Australia, along with other Western nations, must stand up for the freedoms we value in the face of a power that values them little or not at all. We cannot force China to change, but by our resolution and example we may yet establish the circumstances where it changes itself.

So let's return to the classroom and the words of another Chinese student – this time studying in Australia – who wrote about his country's government:

"Chinese government did little for their citizen. They consider their won [sic – own] benefits first. They banned foreign webs and also forbid citizens to communicate what's wrong with government. All in all Chinese government is not good enough to lead their citizens, they should be blame for the problems [his city] faces."

The English could be better, but the sentiments are admirable. It reminds me of a comment made by the English journalist Keith Waterhouse at the time Soviet Russia crushed the 1968 Prague Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia:

"The time will come when there are more free thoughts than tanks and the Red Army itself will refuse to fire."

Bring it on. Bring it on.