China & India Prompt Australia to Increase Military

Australia’s Open Spaces, Mineral Resources, and Proximity to China and India make it a Tempting Target

The increase of economic and military power by China and India are concerning the Australians:

Australia to Buy 100 Joint Strike Fighters, Double Submarines

Bloomberg – May 2, 2009

Australia will double its submarine fleet to 12, its biggest defense expenditure, and purchase 100 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to keep pace with a regional military buildup led by China and India.

Australia, which has troops in Afghanistan and the Middle East as well as closer to home in the Solomon islands and East Timor, will boost air and maritime forces, Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said in the government’s first defense review in a decade. It will also try to counter cyber and electronic warfare.

“The biggest changes over the period have been the rise of China, the emergence of India,” Fitzgibbon said in an e-mailed copy of the White Paper defense review. “The White Paper was developed amidst a global recession and it produces substantial additional investment.”

The review comes as China, the biggest buyer of weapons between 2004 and 2008, and India build forces as their economies expand. Australia’s defense spending, which was A$17.9 billion ($13 billion) in the year ending June 30, will increase an average 3 percent a year until 2018. Annual outlays will increase 2.2 percent between 2019 and 2030.

China’s Presence

“China will make its presence felt through soft as well as economic power,” including “aid, multilateral diplomacy and extensive cultural and educational links,” the report said.

China is developing plans for an aircraft carrier, adding to the country’s ability to project its power far from its shores. The navy is planning to build bigger combat ships, more combat ships, supersonic aircraft, high-speed torpedoes, long- range missiles and submarines that are harder to detect, Xinhua News Agency said on April 15.

Defense spending in the world’s most populous country has increased by more than 16 percent a year for the past decade, according to Chinese government figures. The move reflects increasing international political and economic clout.

A Pentagon report in March put China’s defense spending at the second-highest in the world after the U.S., with total spending at between $105 billion and $150 billion in 2008. The U.S. military’s budget in 2008, not including supplemental spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was $488 billion. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aZToRT4.2.Vo&refer=australia

While there is a certain carnal logic in what the Australians are doing, the reality is that they will not be able to defend themselves sufficiently if China and India truly wish to take it over.

Without national repentance, Australia is doomed for takeover just like the United States, Canada, and the U.K. are. Also, New Zealand (who has even less of a military) will fair no better.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin? When does the Bible show that economic collapse will affect the United States?
India, Its Biblical Past and Future: Any Witness? The Bible discusses the origins of those of Indian heritage and discusses some of the witness to them (including those in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 1: Genesis and Chinese Characters This article provides information showing that the Chinese peoples must have known about various accounts in the Book of Genesis up until their dispersion after the Tower of Babel.
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 2: The Sabbath and Some of God’s Witness in China When did Christianity first come to China? And is there early evidence that they observed the seventh day sabbath?
Asia in Prophecy What is Ahead for China? Is it a “King of the East”? What will happen to nearly all the Chinese, Russians, Indians, and others of Asia? Who has the 200,000,000 man army related to Armageddon?