NewsBite

Australia's China challenge

This Month

The AI economy has a massive vulnerability

Subsea cables channel data and power, but they face escalating dangers, and multiple incidents in the past few months have highlighted those risks.

USS Halsey, JS Sazanami and HMAS Warramunga on a “regional presence deployment”.

Australia’s allies must step up in the Indo-Pacific

Readers’ letters on dealing with Donald Trump’s isolationism, looking to Congress for tariff relief, Rio’s clean energy move, Peter Dutton’s track record, and a CANZUK alliance.

We have seen how Trump deals with countries he views as free riders. At the same time as the White House was melting down over Zelensky, Australia was meekly observing three Chinese war ships circumnavigating our continent.

Labor says supporting Ukraine an easy choice, but what about Taiwan?

The Chinese live-fire fiasco showed the government’s short-term domestic political considerations are hampering our ability to deter and damaging our credibility as an alliance partner.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Kevin Rudd at last week’s super summit.

Worried about the world? Rudd argues the 1980s were scarier

Kevin Rudd has attempted to soothe strategic anxieties as Donald Trump upends the international order.

Behold the current mood in the White House as Albanese expressed certainty on ANZUS.

Albanese is as misinformed on the US alliance as live-fire drills

The petulant demand of tribute to the Trump empire and his transactional ethos surely now challenges the agreed balance sheet between Australia and America.

Advertisement
The F-35 fighter has components made in Australia, but it is not exported from Australia to Israel in its totality.

Dutton pledges $3b to buy new fighter jets amid Chinese warships row

The opposition leader hopes to re-establish the Coalition’s traditional strength on national security.

February

Albanese all at sea when it comes to fine details

The controversy over the Chinese live-firing drills in the Tasman Sea has come at an uncomfortable time for Anthony Albanese.

Arriving in Rarotonga feels like stepping into a living postcard.

Emboldened China signs Pacific mining deal amid Tasman naval drills

A minerals exploration deal between the superpower and the Cook Islands is Beijing’s latest push for influence in a region historically aligned to the West.

A Chinese J-16 fighter pilot at a training base in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province.

Australia locks out China from PNG ports as military tensions flare

Australia’s $4 billion taxpayer-funded Pacific bank has signed a deal to upgrade one of Papua New Guinea’s major ports and keep Beijing out.

January

Large language models are the most significant change to how we access and process information since the printing press. DeepSeek shows that controlled-by-China LLMs pick sides.

Why DeepSeek’s breakthrough is Australia’s new China challenge

Australia needs a high-risk foreign vendor framework that is public and applies to critical infrastructure and democratic institutions, as well as government.

United States Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, center, sitting next to Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, right, listens during a meeting with Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles, and Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the Unites States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

US calls on Australian banks to step up Pacific ‘soft power’ push

Pressure on Australian banks to remain in the Pacific is likely to stay under the Trump administration, America’s second most powerful diplomat says.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his New Year message.

China poised to hit its 2024 growth target: Xi

The Chinese president’s disclosure capped off a year of economic uncertainty, with the growth goal initially seen as a ‘target without a plan’.

December 2024

Australian citizen and former US Marine Daniel Duggan has been in custody since October accused of training Chinese pilots, but denies doing anything illegal.

Australian fighter pilot to be extradited over China training claim

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said he considered all evidence before him before deciding father of six Daniel Duggan should face court in the United States.

Chinese exporters hope to ship as much cargo as possible to the United States before Donald Trump enters the White House.

Australian rare earth miners warned on US-China trade war

Australian critical minerals companies reliant on China for processing or production could face more headwinds as the Beijing-Washington trade war heats up.

November 2024

Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian’s call for closer defence ties glosses over Beijing’s aggressive tactics in the South China Sea and its tacit support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

No ambassador, we are not ready to get tight with China on defence

While the relationship must progress, glossing over the facts and real risks is dangerous – Canberra and Beijing are far from ready for closer defence ties.

Advertisement
Jamieson Greer, then chief of staff to the trade representative, in an APEC trade meeting in Chile.

Trump’s ruthless new trade tsar is surprisingly ‘nice’

Jamieson Greer shares his boss’ tough stance on Beijing. But he is also known as a French-speaking, co-operative diplomat.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio.

Ray Dalio bets Trump steeling America for China war

The billionaire hedge fund manager said investors should “pay attention” to policy shifts that result in national security for energy and critical minerals.

Defence minister Richard Marles meets with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and director general of the Japan Defence Agency, Gen Nakatani, on November 17.

Australia, US, Japan to strengthen military ties in face of China threat

Defence ministers agreed to a new “commitment to consult” over regional security issues and invited Japanese troops to train in Darwin.

October 2024

China Southern will start new flights between Beijing and Sydney and Melbourne in December.

Why these super-cheap flights to Europe could be under threat

Australians are prime beneficiaries of Chinese airlines’ ultra-low airfares to Europe. But the European carriers want Brussels to level up the playing field.

KWM global boss Sue Kench will step down from the role at the end of the year, and will retire from the partnership in mid-2025.

King & Wood Mallesons global chief executive to step down

Sue Kench will depart at the end of the year and retire from the partnership next year, as the firm doubles down on its Sino-Australian alliance.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/australia-s-china-challenge-1njg