How Australia got badly out in front on China

Since 2016, Australia has embarked on a policy U-turn, adopting a strategy to push back, call out and be out in front in needling and confronting China.

Australia is increasingly committed to the idea that a new Cold War is developing between the US and China. Illustration: David Rowe

Max Suich

May 17, 2021 – 12.01am

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Seventy years ago when The Australian Financial Review launched, Australian armed forces were embroiled in the Korean War and were still, in a minor way, part of the armed forces that occupied Japan.

Australia, deeply traumatised by the Pacific war, was painfully negotiating an unsatisfyingly limited security assurance to protect us from Japanese resurgence. That became the ANZUS treaty. The paper’s modest voice reflected those uneasy times.