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| Here is a map of East Asia. Notice Australia's geographical proximity to many of these countries. Australia is the only predominantly white, "Western" country in the region. |
Many people, including recently President Obama, have dubbed the 21st century the "Asian Century." Just as the 20th century was called the "American Century" and the 19th century was called the "British Century." If the predictions of increasing Asian economic and political influence hold true -- and it looks like at least for the foreseeable future they will -- Australia will be in an excellent position to reap the benefits.
Here are Australia's top two-way trading partners for 2010:
1. China
2. Japan
3. USA
4. Singapore
5. UK
6. South Korea
7. New Zealand
8. Thailand
9. Germany
10. Malaysia
You'll notice that over half of them are Asian countries, and 7/10 of them are in the Asia-Pacific region, so you can see why a boom in this region would benefit Australia. Australia's main exports are resources such as coal, iron, zinc, and tin. In fact, in 2006 Australia was the world's largest exporter of the following: coal, wool, zinc and tin ores and concentrates, iron ore, beef, barley, and raw sugar (I cheated and got that fact from an Aussie gov't database).
As Asian countries (i.e. China) continue to grow they are going to need to import more of Australia's resources, which are apparently very plentiful. One older Aussie put it to me this way "we have so many resources its almost not even fair, we still have a long, long ways to go before they are depleted." Additionally, Australia gets a steady labor supply of Chinese/Asian immigrants to mine its resources. I've mentioned before that young Aussies don't want to work blue-collar jobs and for the most part rely on immigrants to do such work. However, these immigrants still get paid extremely well, usually what would be an unfathomable amount in their home countries. I read an article two days ago about a miner in the Outback who made $200,000 dollars last year.
Most notably, Australia has been one of the few countries in the world that has maintained strong diplomatic relationships with both the United States and China. If they are able to keep strong ties to both countries, they will have a huge advantage being on good terms with the two most powerful countries in the world going forward. However, in my personal opinion, I think the day will come when they will have to choose one or the other to side with, and I think they will ultimately choose the USA. As tensions grow between the USA (and pretty much the entire Western world) and China, it's going to be increasingly difficult for Australia to stay in the middle.
Australia also has good relations with many other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. If you walk around downtown Sydney or Melbourne about 70 percent of the people will be white and 30 percent will be Asian (in New Zealand it seemed to be about 50-50 in the big cities). I think these numbers will grow closer as time goes on. I predict that in the future Australia (and, of course, Hong Kong) will be the place in the world where the East meets the West. Australia will be a place where both sides feel comfortable. Its predominantly English, Western influence and stable political system will attract investors/businesses from the West and the increasing Asian population and its location as the closest place to learn English and Western customs will continue to draw people/investors from Asia.
Australia has a relaxed immigration policy because they have to in order to have enough workers to run their economy. They also don't have a big problem with illegal immigrants like we do in the US mainly from Mexico, because Australia doesn't have any bordering countries. All of the Asians I have talked to on my trip absolutely love it down here. It seems like many of them come down here for a few months to learn English and end up never leaving. Its a perfect place for them to go: its not so far away from home, there are plenty of people from their home countries here, and they get to practice their English and immerse themselves in Western culture. They have all said how important they think it is for their future to speak English and learn "how people from the West act." There are now also lots of 2nd and 3rd generation Asians that live here. It is somewhat strange hearing an Asian talk in a Crocodile Dundee accent.
I've never been to Asia, but all of the people that are either from there or have visited talk about how incredibly different the Eastern and Western cultures are from each other. People in the West are much more open. Asians seem to get embarrassed very easily, and if they have a problem with you or work you have done they will not come right out and say it. One of my Taiwanese roommates studied in Brisbane, Australia for a few months and he said the classroom culture was so different than what he was used to. In group projects his fellow group members from either the USA, Europe or Australia would just come out and say "you did this wrong." He said in Asia they would typically say something along the lines of "your work was really good, I think you should go back and look at it again" if they spotted an error. Also, public displays of affection are extremely rude in Asian countries. My roommate from South Korea this week said he went to a beach in Melbourne and was amazed at all of the white couples kissing each other, he had never seen that before. On my NZ tour there was a 68 year old Japanese couple on our trip with us. They refused to sleep in the same bed together even when there was a double bed because they thought it would be terribly rude to the rest of us.
Here is a very funny observation of Chinese culture from one of my friends living there right now:
"As for Chinese manners, well, they're absolutely terrible. Take any
common courtesy and etiquette from the western world, and the Chinese
lack it. Every Chinese person seems on the verge of constantly
coughing or hacking their lungs out, and though they mostly refrain
from doing so inside, constantly spit everywhere outdoors. Children
don't wear diapers, they actually wear as*-less chaps and their
parents hold them over bushes, trash cans, or flower arrangements to
urinate and defecate in front of everyone. For men its fashionable to
grow out their pinky nails, and its considered
good luck to grow hair out of moles, especially if they're on their
face. That nice well-groomed business man next to you? Look for his
three inch pinky and four inch long chin-mole hair. Anyways, someone
summed it up to me the other day by saying China is basically an
overgrown agricultural peasant community all of the sudden thrust into
the spotlight of the urban industrialized world, and some of their
manners are a bit backwards."
The key for Australia's success going forward will be its ability to maintain a population size big enough to support its growing economy. With much of the nation virtually uninhabitable and major droughts along some major coastal cities such as Melbourne, it is going to be difficult increasing their population without some serious trade-offs.
I believe with its location as the only major Western power in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia is in an excellent position to boost its economy and geopolitical influence in the future. I think as the United States develops a greater presence in the Asia-Pacific region, we will develop even stronger ties with Australia and they will become one of our most important allies. You can see evidence of this from this week's visit from President Obama where he and Australian PM Julia Gillard announced that 2,500 US Marines will be stationed in Northern Australia, which many people see as a direct counter to China's growing influence in the region. If the future really is in the East, more and more of our economic and military resources will be shifted to the Pacific and the perfect place to set up shop will be the land Down Under.
P.S. Australia's great weather, beaches, and nice people don't hurt either.
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