Good explanation. It has since come out that the 'international peering network' was Singtel from Singapore, though Optus has been reluctant to divulge any information. Singapore is a strange place politically - a one-party state with strong ties to China.

Apart from the Optus outage, there were two other 'coincidences' that accompanied PM Albanese's begging bowl trip to China - first, DP World Australia, the company responsible for 40% of Australia freight, was hacked (no culprit was named, which likely means it was China) - secondly, Aus navy divers were sonar-zapped by a Chinese warship in international waters near Japan.

It's pure speculation, but prima facie it looks like CCP giving Albanese a taste of what their newly negotiated relationship is really like - a reminder to stay in line or we'll give you something to really go on with.

As normal, Albo has responded with total obsequiousness. He's refusing to even say if he raised the issues of cyber-hacking or the sonar-zapping in his meeting with Xi, which means he almost certainly didn't.

Back to Taiwan, i was thinking how Covid worked brilliantly to crush the HK uprising, & wondering if CCP was contemplating something similar for Taiwan - not necessarily another virus - but some kind of crisis that could justify rolling into Taiwan to 'keep everyone safe'. It would probably have to align with a KMT presidential victory or come immediately after an invasion.

The other interesting question is to what extent are the wars in Ukraine & Palestine proxy wars designed to disperse US military resources, & are there other 'hotspots' that could be ignited to develop this strategy. The support of Russia is well-documented, but it appears Hamas also had a helping hand in launching their attack. I remember being shocked a few years ago to find that Hamas had signed a statement saying CCP's treatment of Uyghurs was perfectly fine - you'd imagine that must have been a quid pro quo deal - was covertly supporting the Hamas attack the 'quo'?

That's not to pass comment on the rights or wrongs of either war - they both seem quite murky - but only wondering are they connected to a larger grand plan. If they are, it would have ramifications for timing of an invasion - meaning you'd have to go while these proxy wars were playing out.

A final consideration is whether Philippines is also in the cross-hairs. CCP has been ramping up military intimidation there - could they be looking at a two-for-one deal? That is, if/when they invade Taiwan, would they also invade PPE? Strategically, it would make some sense - might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb - & the alternative would be leaving a US launch pad right on their door-step.