Australia can’t afford to bite its tongue on China

The CCP wants obedience, obeisance and to eliminate the display of dissent by governments, including with respect to domestic policies and decisions. It is why Beijing has punished Asian and European countries in the past and it is why we are now on the nose.

The objective, as the CCP itself makes clear, is to entrench a permanent hierarchical order where it has the capacity to exercise influence and even veto domestic and foreign policy decisions taken by countries in its periphery. It is picking on Australia because we are the most forward leaning in refusing to conduct relations on these terms. Beijing is seeking to punish Australia for daring to make bold sovereign decisions and, in doing so, warding off others from trying to do the same.

What is occurring is best seen as a painful but necessary negotiation undertaken by the Morrison government to set acceptable terms for our relationship with China. Others have gone through pain and emerged with varying degrees of success.

Japan held its ground and eventually conditioned China to accept Tokyo's preferred off ramp. Others such as South Korea and several Southeast Asian states compromised too much for short-term relief, only to find that Beijing subsequently demanded even more rather than less.

This is the upshot. What is occurring is not about Australian stubbornness, miscalculation or pandering to Washington. It is about creating room to exercise the rights of our sovereignty rather than exchanging that for silence or, worse, servitude. Doubling down on the US alliance, reinvigorating the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue nations' economic and security co-operation, the Pacific step-up and assisting Southeast Asian nations to uphold their rights and privileges better is partly about making it more difficult for Beijing to impose its preferred conditions on Australia and other nations.

For those obsessed with a more independent foreign policy, this is precisely what a brave and creative smaller power ought to be doing.