Why are Australian officials hinting at war with China?

For a country with a much smaller military and no nuclear weapons, Australia is suddenly hinting an awful lot about a war with China. On April 25, the symbolic date of Anzac Day, when Australia honors its war dead, newly appointed Defense Minister Peter Dutton said a conflict with China over Taiwan shouldn't "be discounted," adding that Australians needed to be "realistic" about tensions around the region. In another Anzac Day message, the top official at Australia's powerful Home Affairs department, Mike Pezzullo, told his staff "free nations" were hearing the "drums of war" beating again.

A few days later, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced $580 million in military upgrades. One week on, several newspapers published a confidential briefing by Australia's Maj. Gen. Adam Findlay to special forces soldiers, in which he said conflict with China was a "high likelihood."

The idea of Australia fighting a war against China on its own is ridiculous. Last year, Australia's military spending was about $27 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. China's was estimated to be 10 times higher, for the same period, at about $252 billion, the second highest in the world. Plus, China is a nuclear power. Australia is not.

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Australian defence chief says war between China and Taiwan would be ‘disastrous’