Hugh White and the mythical third-way with China

Hugh White, China will inflict pain if Abbott blunders on

... [Tony] Abbott has swung Australia dramatically away from an even-handed position towards strong support for Japan. To Beijing this is a clear move against it on an issue of vital importance...

And it is an extremely serious thing to say ...

Abbott will keep getting foreign policy badly wrong until he learns differently, and the Chinese are about to teach him...

The right approach is not to do whatever China says - and certainly not to take China's side against Japan. Choosing sides in any way is not the answer. Instead we need to think deeply about where our real interests and values lie ...

This is the same nonsense that Kevin Rudd banged on about. We need to "think deeply", try harder, walk the fine line, seek a third way, etc. It's all nonsense. There is no fine line with China. China has made its intentions very clear e.g. Beijing’s Appetite For War.

There is only one sane response to China: a policy of containment. Hugh White is right about one thing, China will not like it and it risks blow-back. But the mythical third option to somehow accommodate China's rise is suicide. It exists only in the minds of academics and ideologues like Hugh White and Kevin Rudd.

And note the tone, fickleness and tension Hugh White associates with the rise of China: it has the tone of a ticking time-bomb that needs careful defusing. That in itself should tell you there is something fundamentally wrong with the rise of China.

File under: Chinese goods are not cheap.