Pundits that offer weak solutions to Pacific Rim communist aggression are a dead weight on Australia's defence posture road map.
The communist threat has to know that Australia, the U.S., Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and yes, even Indonesia see anyone offering verbal and written threats in regard to territory not theirs as unacceptable.
This article from today is a collection of nonsense that quotes some who, at he end of the day, are just communist appeasers.
Or, weak, wishful-thinkers.
Solid trade with China and a solid military deterrence against their aggressive behaviour can co-exist. Like the Soviets before them, Chinese communists only respect strength and despise weakness.
As for Australian military capability, well, authors of the above mentioned article don't seem to have a clue. When they can have a better grasp of these issues, then, they might be able to offer something resembling useful reporting.