By all appearances, John Howard and his wife were enjoying a stroll along the beach in beautiful Broome, Western Australia. But could the Prime Minister actually be surveying the land in preparation for a major sale of territory and the foundation of New South Shanghai?
The Chinese are expressly interested Australian assets. And China may even have a hand-or several million of them-prepared to help out, thus solving one of its own pressing surpluses.
We read earlier this week that "About one in every ten men aged between 20 and 45-equivalent to almost the entire population of Canada-will be unable to find a wife… China's population is forecast to peak at 1.5 billion in 2033. That growth, coupled with demographic imbalances, will threaten social stability, the economy, the environment, and jobs."
China has a problem: too many young men without jobs and without a wife. That's a lot of testosterone looking for a way to express itself. Talk about unstable.
Australia has a problem: too many energy assets, not enough young men to mine and transport them to China. We have a solution, if Mohammed cannot move mountains, bring more Mohammed's to the mountain. Er, let us explain.
What Australia really needs is a New South Shanghai. Why not create a brand new mining city in Broome, populated with millions of Chinese bachelors, or even millions of unwanted women from India? Instead of shipping all that iron ore to build cities in China for the largest internal migration in the world's history, why not a new city on a virtually empty coast, one that will become great it in its own right and increase production volumes of Australian resources dramatically?
We know. There are social problems. Would citizens of the new city have proper Australian values? Would they eat lamb? Would there be any good spin bowlers among them? And wouldn't they quickly out number the entire population of Australia itself? After all, there are 20 million people already in Old North Shanghai. Hmm.
Maybe it won't be the most popular planned development of the next twenty years. But that doesn't mean something like it won't happen anyway, planned or unplanned.
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Comment by Mal, Broome resident on 26 March 2009:
W.A is already refered to as Wa province by our Chinese friends
Comment by Quinn from Perth on 5 April 2009:
Sounds good in theory and would help everyone. Except that I have one question...How long before WA will be called 'New China'