The looming challenge to Australia’s independence is not the US but China. This reality seems to have escaped critics of our relationship with the US and advocates of ever-closer ties with China. The China challenge is not about having to choose between China and the US. It is about how much independence Australia will be permitted in a Chinese-dominated regional order led by the formidable Xi Jinping, who after the recent Communist Party congress commands more power and influence than any of his Leninist or imperial predecessors.
