![]() ![]() Meanwhile, we expanded our security dialog with Beijing, our trade volumes doubled, and we approved the vast bulk of Chinese foreign investment in non-sensitive areas of the economy. At various times my government incurred Beijing’s wrath on human rights-on Tibet, Xinjiang, and Australian-Chinese citizens, for instance on trade-such as when we refused to allow Huawei access to the Australian telecom and broadband network or in rejecting certain strategic foreign investment proposals-as when the state-owned Chinalco sought to take over the Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. In the midst of all this, Australia sought to prosecute a balanced relationship with Beijing: deeply mindful of our differences in security interests and underlying values, while pursuing an economic relationship to our mutual advantage. allies, most of them invisible to the Washington policy establishment. This was several years before there was any evidence of Chinese land reclamation in the South China Sea.ĭealing with the complexities of the changing East Asian security environment over the years has had its own challenges for U.S. If it does not, there is likely to be a question in the minds of regional states about the long-term strategic purpose of its force development plans, particularly as its military modernization appears potentially to be beyond the scope of what would be required for a conflict over Taiwan. But the pace, scope and structure of China’s military modernization have the potential to give its neighbors cause for concern if not carefully explained, and if China does not reach out to others to build confidence regarding its military plans. Its military modernization will be increasingly characterized by the development of power projection capabilities. The management of the relationship between Washington and Beijing will be of paramount importance for strategic stability in the Asia-Pacific region.Ĭhina will also be the strongest Asian military power, by a considerable margin. The crucial relationship in the region, but also globally, will be that between the United States and China. The white paper concluded:īarring major setbacks, China by 2030 will become a major driver of economic activity both in the region and globally, and will have strategic influence beyond East Asia. That naval expansion had a strategic purpose in mind-namely, the change in the economic and military balance of power between China and the United States. 144/12/1,390).Īs Prime Minister of Australia, through the Australian Defence White Paper of 2009, I was proud to commission the largest peacetime expansion of the Australian Navy in its history-growing our surface fleet by a third and doubling the submarine fleet. The following is the full text of an op-ed by Kevin Rudd first published in Proceedings Magazine in its December 2018 edition (Vol. ![]()
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