China aims to dominate the world: Antony Blinken

China wants to institute a new world order characterised by illiberalism, says US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Antony Blinken in Melbourne on Thursday. The US Secretary of State says ‘our partner of first resort is going to be Australia’: Picture: AFP

The Chinese government’s strategic ambition has expanded so that it now aims to dominate the entire world in military and economic power, according to Antony Blinken.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, the visiting US Secretary of State said China wanted to institute a new world order characterised by ­illiberalism.

In comments that dramatically underscore the now global nature of Beijing’s challenge to the US and its allies, and to the inter­national rules-based order, Mr Blinken said: “To my mind, there’s little doubt that China’s ambition over time is to be the leading military, economic, diplomatic and political power not just in the ­region but in the world.”

He also said he would strongly back the US and its allies as a more formidable coalition than the emerging China/Russia ­alignment.

He also committed the US to working to find the fastest ways to get nuclear-propelled submarines for Australia under AUKUS. However, he did not mince words in describing Beijing’s behaviour: “What we’ve seen in recent years is China acting more ­repressively at home and more aggressively to the region.”

He stressed that while the US, Australia and other like-minded nations should resist this, it was important to emphasise that these nations were advocating a positive and liberal order:

“From the perspective of the US, and I think for Australia too, what we are about is not standing against China, per se, not trying to hold it down or contain it, but standing up for the rules-based order that is being challenged,” he said.

“China also wants an (inter­national) order, but the difference is its world order would be profoundly illiberal. Ours is liberal.

“Those are values that must be defended against whomever is challenging them.”

Mr Blinken said both the US and Australia found the China relationship was among the most difficult, and also the most ­important. For both the US and Australia, there were substantial elements of competition in the relationship, as well as areas of co-operation but increasingly Washington found an “adversarial” element to the ­relationship.

He repeatedly stressed that like-minded nations were more ­effective in dealing with China if they stood together.

He expressed enthusiasm for the AUKUS agreement and promised the Biden administration was determined to find a way for Australia to acquire nuclear-propelled submarines as soon as possible.

“Remember, AUKUS is months old, it’s really just getting going.

“We’re focused very intensively on the pathways to the submarines, looking at what the most efficient and effective pathway would be. That’s being very ­actively looked at by our experts right now.”

Mr Blinken would not be drawn on the possibility that Australia might lease second-hand nuclear submarines from the US, nor did he rule it out.

However, he also said AUKUS was much more than nuclear-­propelled submarines: “Let’s not lose sight of the flip side of the AUKUS coin, the work we’ll be doing together on critical emerging technologies, whether it’s ­artificial intelligence, Quantum computing, the work we’re doing on building supply chain resilience – you can’t define AUKUS by a single weapons system.

“Even before AUKUS, we had a comprehensive and extensive ­security partnership (with Australia) that builds deterrence across a number of areas.”

Mr Blinken personally insisted on making the trip to Australia even in the midst of the Russia/Ukraine crisis., and he brought a significant party of senior American officials with him.

Most unusually, he is spending three days in Australia, an exceptionally long stay for a US secretary of state in any one foreign spot.

The Secretary of State wanted to signal the importance of the Indo-Pacific to the Biden administration and its commitment to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

However, Mr Blinken also wanted to underline Wash­ington’s deep commitment to Australia.

“The alliance (between the US and Australia) is foundational for us,” he said.

“It’s foundational because of history. We’ve been together side by side since World War I in virtually every part of the world.

“It’s also foundational going forward because in looking at the multiplicity of challenges we face, whether it’s in the security domain or beyond, we have the shared proposition that we’ll be much more effective together.

“Since we have the same basic outlook, values and interests, it’s only natural that our partner of first resort is going to be Australia.”

That is a strong, powerful ­endorsement of the strategic ­centrality of the alliance by a serving Secretary of State.

Mr Blinken acknowledged that the newly close co-operation of Beijing and Moscow posed some challenges, but noted that this co-operation itself was not new.

He suggested that China could well have serious reser­vations about Russia’s potential new aggression towards Ukraine, “given the focus that China constantly tries to bring to the sanctity of state sovereignty”.

He also said: “One wonders what Beijing thinks about the ­impact renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine could have on energy markets and oil prices.”

However, his fundamental judgment is that the alliance of ­democracies is far more powerful than the alignment of dictatorships represented by Russia and China.

Mr Blinken said: “At the same time Russia and China are talking, we’re talking too, but we’re talking and working and co-ordinating with literally dozens of allies and partners through NATO, through the EU, the Organisation for ­Security and Co-operation in ­Europe and, of course, here in the Indo-Pacific, with our closest ­allies, whether it’s Australia, Japan, South Korea.

“As well, we are constantly putting new coalitions, new partnerships, together, whether it’s the Quad or AUKUS.

“One of the greatest strengths we bring to bear is the system of voluntary alliances.

“President (Joe) Biden has been determined to revitalise them and, as necessary, to reinvent them.

“I would put our partnerships, our alliances, our coalitions against anything anyone else has to offer.”

Mr Blinken will join his counterparts from India and Japan, as well as Australia’s Marise Payne, for the formal Quadrilateral ­foreign ministers’ meeting in Melbourne on Friday.