[amou234]

well, Australians should care. Australia is part of aukus which is security pact along with US and UK meant to push back against China. Less they've forgotten, Australia was engaged with trade war with China earlier when China slapped unreasonable tariffs on Australia due to Australia wanting to investigate the origin of covid that killed thousands of Australians.

[seanmcdirmid]

They just want affordable cars, price is going to win over anything else. A bunch of anti trade US folks aren't going to move the empathy needle with them. The developing world that BYD is mainly selling to is going to care even less.

[rstuart4133]

As an Australian, I can tell you our view is more nuanced than "we are a vassal state of the USA".

> Less they've forgotten, Australia was engaged with trade war with China earlier

Oh, we haven't forgotten. The war was triggered by madness from both sides. Madness from someone taking violent exception to a nickname like Pooh is to be expected. Whatever your private opinions on that, it's understood here one must be pragmatic in your public positions when dealing with such people when they are your biggest trading partner. Even innocent mistakes could cost you billions. Our prime minister fanning conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID wasn't an innocent mistake, it was fiscal insanity. He was ousted in a landslide at the next election. And despite China being being our biggest trading partner, we won that war. It hurt China far more than it hurt us. It turned out Australia is far better and faster at rejigging its international trade than China.

> Australia wanting to investigate the origin of covid that killed thousands of Australians.

Australian's see it differently. What hurt us was the refusal of OECD countries to honour agreements to ship vaccines we had bought and paid for. With no vaccines (the one we did produce ourselves, AstraZeneca, got unapproved after we had produced huge quantities of it) we had to shut down internal borders, trade and large parts of our economies to prevent the spread, until we could get the vaccines. It was a difficult time. Yet despite those challenges, Australian emerged from COVID sooner, and with less economic damage that most other countries.

But you are right in thinking Australian's in general are anxious about what is happening in China. It's constantly in the news. I'd be stunned if Australian citizens weren't better informed on China is doing in the South China Sea, of it's real estate crash, and premier Xi's actions than USA citizens. But you know what? We watch what Trump is doing in the USA equally closely, and it causes us just as much anxiety. Trump closing the USA off from the rest of the world would likely have far worse consequences for us than a trade war with China that we won. When it comes to damage inflicted on it's citizens, nothing beats a countries own incompetent management. Trust me, we know. Or if you don't trust me ask someone from Türkiye, or Venezuela. On the up side, I do have a lot of faith in the USA's political institutions. They've survived a lot worse than Trump.