WHAT are we to say of the recent high-level briefings to the media about the strategic underpinnings of the Government's defence white paper? Let me state this plainly: it makes no sense for Australia in 2009 to base its long-term strategic policy on the highly contentious proposition that Australia is on an inevitable collision course with a militarily aggressive China.
For our own part, Australia should be proactive, working with our allies in encouraging China's constructive engagement with the region and globally, across the whole gamut of economic, environmental and security challenges facing the world. We are at our best when we are honest, up-front and true to ourselves; neither an intermediary nor an apologist but a straightforward, respected and distinctively Australian voice in the great debates of our time.
Given China's experience through its history of unwelcome foreign intervention, it is important China be reassured that we in Australia have no interest in policies of containment, directed at China or anyone else. In longer-term defence calculations, we must be extremely careful not to confuse our analysis of China's aspirations for a credible modern military with an assumption that building more sophisticated defence systems will necessarily translate in the decades beyond into an aggressive mindset of force projection.
China has shown no inclination since the 1970s to export its ideology. Having spent some time working in both China and Siberia and knowing a little about the strength of feelings on both sides of the border, I must say that I have been very impressed by the way China has recently confirmed its borders with Russia. Very large Chinese territories in the northeast of China were acquired by the Russians following the unequal treaties of Aigun (1858) and Beijing (1860). China's pragmatic acceptance of these historical wrongs is not indicative of a nation intent on a program of global expansion.
So while it would be unwise to discount entirely any contingency (that) may arise from a shift in the regional balance of power, nonetheless I believe the Prime Minister would have been wiser and stayed closer to the facts if he had avoided rhetoric about an Asian arms race. Let's be very clear about this: there is no conceivable security challenge for Australia in the foreseeable future, be it border protection, preventing the spread of swine flu or, indeed, any emerging regional tensions that will not involve Australia working closely and co-operatively with key allies such as the US and Japan as well as our other friends and partners across the region.
We need China to be a responsible stakeholder in helping meet these challenges as they arise, and over recent times China has demonstrated an increasing readiness to step up to this responsibility. We welcome China's broader engagement and look forward to China playing a leading and constructive role.
As Alan Dupont, reflecting on the recent media leaks about the strategic calculus of the defence white paper, pointed out in The Australian (April 14): "It makes no sense to allow worst case assessments of China's intentions and capabilities to determine the next 20 years of Australian defence spending and strategy, especially when these views are based on prejudice rather than informed analysis."
Under the Howard government we had enormous success in building a much stronger, broader and deeper relationship: opening dialogue at the highest levels across the issues of security, defence and human rights; better using people-to-people links going back six generations, and developing mutual understanding through the tens of thousands of young Chinese students choosing Australian universities for their further education.
What's more, we did it while at the same time also strengthening our ties with the US, Japan and India: a very significant diplomatic achievement. This was a commonsense approach to the conduct of relations between two countries so vastly different in traditions and values, while never forgetting that a readiness to stand up resolutely for one's own interests is a respected quality, in Asia as elsewhere.
This is an extract from a speech by federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull to the Lowy Institute in Sydney yesterday.
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