Hillary Clinton's visit has us wondering about our relationship with China. China is one of the reasons Australia has been riding along on a crest of a wave while the rest of the world struggles to climb out of recession. We are guessing that they won't be happy to hear that the US plan to expand their military presence here. Ms Clinton will unveil the new deal today.
So what does expanding US military presence in Australia really mean? It means more naval ships will be arriving, joint training exercises will be organized and US military equipment will be brought into Darwin and Townsville. Will the Chinese think that this is a strategic move to keep them in check?
China has provoked regional alarm in recent months after a maritime dispute with Japan and a stand-off over territorial claims in the South China Sea. But the official version from Hillary for this new strategy is to prepare both US and Australian forces for a quick response to humanitarian emergencies.
Julia Gillard didn't deny that China would be on the discussion agenda today. "I think we will be talking about the geopolitics of our region and that means of course we'll be talking about the rise of China and as China rises, what sort of force it is going to be in the world" she sad. "I believe we have a shared perspective with the US that we want China to be a force for good, strongly engaged in global and regional architecture, strongly engaged in a rules-based framework."
Translated into plain English, I think it means that China is a real worry so what are we going to do about it?
Former Australian diplomat and Lowy Institute Fellow Andrew Shearer said the US-China competition was likely to become more prominent. China was always quick to claim the US and its allies are attempting to contain its rise. "We'll have to wait and see how Beijing reacts to today's announcement" he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment