The AUSMIN talks in Washington this week will mean Australia becomes further entangled in stirring US rhetoric about the need to combat China’s Communist Party.

It will inevitably produce another round of recriminations and threats of possible trade retaliation from Beijing. The Chinese governments media mouthpiece The Global Times was predictably quick to denounce Canberra for reckless provocation and not thinking through the consequences, including Chinas ability to target Australian exports like wine and beef.
But the Morrison government believes it is in the national interest to be in near lockstep with the US, including formally rejecting Chinas claims as part of their joint determination to counter Xi Jinpings aggressive moves. Nuance of approach is a likely casualty in a more polarised world despite careful wording about support for an international rules-based order.
Canberra has already announced a jump in defence spending due to increasing threats in the region. No names mentioned. Although Canberras intentions have been welcomed by a US administration keen for allies to share more of the cost of defence, the practical build-up of Australias defence requires a long-term perspective.
But the short term also apparently requires further demonstrations of a shared commitment to resisting Chinas expansionism at a time when global tensions are escalating.
So Australias declaration at the United Nations over the weekend rejected Chinas maritime claims around contested islands and features in the South China Sea as invalid and without legal basis. It noted Chinas aggressive land building activities to create a series of artificial islands from reefs and rocks cannot change the classification of a feature under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Mike Pompeo: “If the free world doesnt change communist China, communist China will change us.” Getty
There is no legal basis for a maritime feature to generate maritime entitlements beyond those generated under UNCLOS by that feature in its natural state, the declaration states, also dismissing the suggestion Chinas claims to the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands, are widely recognised by the international community.
Under the 1982 Convention, every country is entitled to claim 200 miles of water from their coastlines as an Exclusive Economic Zone. China has long been in dispute often involving actual altercations at sea with neighbours including the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia as it attempts to extend its control over the South China Sea, including by artificially extending its supposed territory.
Australian warships sailing near the Spratly Islands this month encountered the Chinese navy.
The national interest test for Australia still requires accepting the erratic approach of a volatile US president basing much of his re-election strategy on blaming China for problems. In a recent speech, Paynes AUSMIN host, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, demanded all free nations rise to resist tyranny in order to triumph over the Chinese Communist Party. He will no doubt issue more stirring calls as Payne and Reynolds are alongside him this week.
But Australia understands the mutual antagonism between the US and China will be just as pronounced if there’s a Democratic administration post-November. Even if Americas relationship with allies would become less difficult, the anti-China mood in the US is now entrenched across politics, academia, institutions and the community. It has been turbo-charged this year by anger over the effect of what Trump deliberately refers to the China virus”.
That means the trade war of the last few years is just one aspect of increasing alarm about Chinas strategic rivalry with the US, highlighted again by recent well-publicised arrests of Chinese citizens for spying and the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston.
In his new book, The New Total War of the 21st Century, author Gregory Copley argues the rush to an overt wartime footing between the USA and China began consciously and urgently from the first few months of 2020 after years of phony war and the Wests reluctance to acknowledge the extent of Xis ambitions. The pandemic, he says, finally broke the cycle of globalist aspirations and the belief in the indissoluble nature of interdependence.
The pandemic has also provided cover for Chinas latest moves to bolster its authority in the region such as imposing national security laws on Hong Kong and dropping references to the peaceful reunification of Taiwan with the mainland.
Greater pushback against Chinese tactics has become broad-based, including from European countries sceptical of the US and keen on the Chinese market. But the Anglosphere, concentrated in the Five Eye intelligence network of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, is particularly pointed in its resistance.
That translates into efforts to block Chinese technology companies like Huawei supplying crucial networks. To China’s fury, Australia led the rejection of any role for Huawei in 5G a move emulated by the UK as well as the US with Canada under pressure to follow.
For Australia, it’s another sign “living in interesting times” will be permanent.