Will Australia And China Become Close Allies?

Rowan Callick, The Australian: Beijing waits for Canberra to make ‘the China choice’

China is preoccupied with domestic and global issues galore.

Although Australia is not at the front of Beijing’s thoughts, we are not as remote or exotic as it seemed a decade ago when the rise of a Mandarin speaker as prime minister was mind-blowing for many Chinese.

The range and depth of engagement is now vast. Within Chinese universities there are 31 Australian Studies centres — almost as many as there are at Australian institutions.

A conference was held at the weekend at the Foreign Studies University in Beijing on “China, the US and Australia Relations in the

Trump Era”. The prelude to the conference was the launch of the first “blue book” — published in Chinese — on developments in Australia and in Australia-China relations, which will become an annual review.

It came soon after a flurry of excitement in Chinese foreign-­affairs circles when Australia’s ambassadors were “recalled” for a meeting in Canberra.

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WNU Editor: China and Australia may have close economic ties .... and they may agree on many issues .... but the political and social culture of both countries are complete opposites that would make any deep political alliance very unlikely. This also does not help ....

But China is making i clear to Australia that they are on their "radar" .... Chinese naval ships close to Australia? 'Get used to it', experts warn (Sydney Morning Herald).

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