Faced with economic or military coercion from the People’s Republic of China, the best Australian strategy is not to be aggressive or obstreperous but quietly implacable. That means building an Australian Defence Force focused tightly on the job of sinking ships and shooting down aircraft that threaten our landmass. Australia can defend itself against the might of the People’s Liberation Army, even without American help, and it doesn’t need to bankrupt us.
Geography is Australia’s biggest asset. It’s more than 7,000 kilometres from Sydney to Hainan Island, China’s southern fleet headquarters. China is clearly capable of sending a flotilla that far, but it’s an extremely taxing and expensive journey, and it is difficult for even the most capable navy to sustain forces at those distances.
Provocations, such as China’s weapons drills earlier this year, are unnerving, to put it mildly. But the right response is to continue the quiet work of making Australia into anechidna: unthreatening to those who mean the nation no harm, but prickly and indigestible to those who do.
