Europe is closer to China than us. Why aren’t the Brits, French and Germans doing this?

Australia is slightly closer to any part of China than Germany is, but Australia is much closer to the Paracel Islands (Germany is about 9000km, Australia about 4000km).

The rest of your comment is spot-on, though. There’s no way we’re getting those nuclear subs.

Yet another case of China aggressively placing its territory near American military assets. They must be stopped 😡😡😡

Without knowing about how things are set up in your local co-op, maybe you could investigate setting up a two-stream system of ‘budget’ and ‘organic’. Or you could just set up an entirely separate co-op.