I couldn’t resist linking to this item at Foreign Policy‘s Passport, which notes that Australia’s navy is struggling for recruits.

Why?

It can’t compete with Western Australian mining companies that are expanding operations to take advantage of growing Chinese demand (and accordingly, rising prices) for commodities.

This may be the single best illustration of why the simplistic, “arc of democracies” model of dealing with China favored by former prime minister Abe Shinzo and some conservatives in Washington is wholly inappropriate for Asia in the twenty-first century.