First of all, if I was either a Kiwi or an Ozian, I would take great exception to "There is nothing of strategic value in either place."

Yes, mea culpa. I should have said “little of strategic value”, not “nothing.” Australia has coal, which it ships to China. It also has stores of rare earth ores, which is also ships to China for processing. Other than that, there’s really not a lot there (of foundational or existential strategic worth.)

Now it may be that China sees those commodities as somehow requisite for survival - although they manage to buy them now at favorable prices - and would risk a world war to take over the countries, but frankly that seems unlikely to me. Any territorial ambitions China has had over centuries have been limited to continguous areas where they once held sway (Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, etc) not countries thousands of miles away and separated by a vast ocean. Even Japan, at the height of its hubris a century ago, concentrated on adjacent countries to build a sphere of influence in the Pacific.

So apologies to Aussie and Kiwis. I didn’t mean to imply ”worthless”, I just meant “worth less” than instituting a world war to get what it can already get by simpler means.