The 2013 Australian Defense White Paper
(DWP) has left pundits scratching their heads rather than their favorite itch — could it really be that ‘the China threat’ is more puff and magic than an actual dragon at the doorstep? Abstraction aside, the new DWP’s focus on security in Australia’s “near neighborhood” should give pause to policy hawks obsessed with the next great clash of world superpowers. The real issue here isn’t whether China poses a security threat to Australia. The real issue is the threat it poses to Australian influence in the region.
Original Title
Time for Australia to Rethink Chinese Influence in Pacific Islands
The 2013 Australian Defense White Paper
(DWP) has left pundits scratching their heads rather than their favorite itch — could it really be that ‘the China threat’ is more puff and magic than an actual dragon at the doorstep? Abstraction aside, the new DWP’s focus on security in Australia’s “near neighborhood” should give pause to policy hawks obsessed with the next great clash of world superpowers. The real issue here isn’t whether China poses a security threat to Australia. The real issue is the threat it poses to Australian influence in the region.
The 2013 Australian Defense White Paper
(DWP) has left pundits scratching their heads rather than their favorite itch — could it really be that ‘the China threat’ is more puff and magic than an actual dragon at the doorstep? Abstraction aside, the new DWP’s focus on security in Australia’s “near neighborhood” should give pause to policy hawks obsessed with the next great clash of world superpowers. The real issue here isn’t whether China poses a security threat to Australia. The real issue is the threat it poses to Australian influence in the region.
843.271.6891 ph pacificislandssociety.org web Domestic Non-Profit Organization Time for Australia to Rethink Chinese Influence in Pacific Islands By Mr. Miles McKenna Published: May 20, 2013
The 2013 Australian Defense White Paper (DWP) has left pundits scratching their heads rather than their favorite itchcould it really be that the China threat is more puff and magic than an actual dragon at the doorstep?
Abstraction aside, the new DWPs focus on security in Australias near neighborhood should give pause to policy hawks obsessed with the next great clash of world superpowers. The real issue here isnt whether China poses a security threat to Australia. The real issue is the threat it poses to Australian influence in the region.
The DWP is nothing short of a repudiation from the more hawkish stance of its 2009 predecessor. Rather than decrying Chinas military spending as a threat to global stability and suggesting it may be time to pick a side between the United States and Asias largest economy, the DWP is now taking a more pragmatic position of partnership and shared opportunity.
The latest Lowy Institute report, Big Enough for All of Us: Geo-strategic Competition in the Pacific Islands by Jenny Hayward-Jones, takes that one step further. Hayward-Jones debunks much of the hardline rhetoric framing Chinas current interests in the South Pacific. Both papers speak to the need to fundamentally rethink what composes security in the South Pacific. As Hayward-Jones writes, the Cold War mentality of geo-strategic competition is not only inappropriate, it is counter-productive.
Chinas ability to seriously challenge the role of longstanding powers in the region such as Australia and the United States is limited, Hayward-Jones writes. Yet, there is this insistence on measuring security in an outdated framework.
What kind of security are we really talking about here?
As Fijian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Solo Mara recently pointed out, the security interests of the worlds superpowers mean little to most Pacific Islanders.
In Papua New Guinea, 85% of the population lives in rural areas relying on semi-subsistence farming. How concerned are they over submarines or nuclear deterrence?
A real security threat for Pacific Islanders is a human security threat. The disastrous drought in the Marshall Islands is a threat, as is water scarcity and disastrous storms. These are all threats intensified by climate change that directly threaten peoples livelihoods.
Miles McKenna is a senior freelance foreign correspondent based in London who covers foreign policy issues and climate change in the Asia-Pacific. He formerly worked in China and Taiwan for a number of major international andnational news outlets, including China Daily. The Wire Observations from Foreign Correspondents Pacific Islands Society | The Wire | May 20, 2013 Australia has long been an ally and generous donor to Pacific Island Countries. It has helped to build resilience to these threats and helped in recovering when they have occurred. The problem is that Australia has been an inconsistent ally, as a recent study by the University of Melbourne explains.
And this is where China comes into things.
What growing Chinese engagement really means in the region is simple: choice.
The government in Suva has a choice. The trader in Nukualofa has a choice. Australia is losing its securityit no longer controls the policy space.
To those in the development community, the finger wagging of China-skeptics is a shocking display of ahistorical hypocrisy. Accusations of Beijing wining and dining diplomats, locking countries into oppressive debts, supporting regimes and arming foreign militaries these arent new threats, this isnt a new game. Its just someone else playing it.
The reality is that many states are willing to hedge their bets with China as the trump card. Zhou Enlais Eight Principles of aid have proven remarkably attractive to other late developing countries, while simultaneously making it more difficult for Western powers to impose liberal economic and political values on those who may not want them.
The argument has always been that China lacked the soft power to ever truly make an impact in geopolitics. It may be time to rethink that.
China doesnt have to be the largest donor or the strongest military presence to affect the balance of power in the South Pacific. All it has to do is offer a choice.
(Advances in Parasitology Volume 86) Kramer, Randall - Yang, Wei-Zhong - Zhou, Xiao-nong-Malaria Control and Elimination Programme in The People's Republic of China-Academic Press, Elsevier (2014) PDF