• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News World News

Australian leader says US-China war no longer inconceivable

Canberra has been strengthening its defence relationship with Washington in the past few months amid rising Sino-US acrimony.

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
August 5, 2020
in World News

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison says his government holds a less dramatic view of US-China tensions than a predecessor who warned of a potential “hot war” before the American election this November.

But Mr Morrison says what was previously thought “inconceivable” amid rising acrimony between the two states was no longer considered impossible.

Former prime minister and China scholar Kevin Rudd wrote in the Foreign Affairs journal this week that the risk of armed conflict between the US and China in the next three months was “especially high”.

Defence policy

Mr Morrison said his administration had expressed similar views in a defence policy update last month, when he announced a 270 billion Australian dollar (£145 billion) package of new warfare capability spending, including longer-range missiles.

“Our defence update expresses it differently and certainly not as dramatically as Kevin,” Mr Morrison told the Aspen Security Forum in an online address from Canberra.

“But in our own defence update, we’ve acknowledged that what was previously inconceivable and not considered even possible or likely in terms of those types of outcomes is not considered in those contexts anymore.”

Mr Morrison disagreed with many in Washington that the US was in a new Cold War with China, saying the “circumstances are quite different”.

RelatedPosts

‘Donald J Trump ain’t going anywhere’ – Trump remains the dominant force at US conservative conference

US implicates Saudi crown prince in journalist’s killing as 40% of UK arms exports sold to country

‘Thank you everyone’ – Man leaves church after years in sanctuary to avoid deportation

Germans are refusing the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine

He had no answers for how China’s push for power in the South China Sea, on the Indian border and in Hong Kong should be handled.

Virus Outbreak Trump
US President Donald Trump has increased his tough talk aimed toward China in the past several months (Alex Brandon/AP)

“I’m an optimist, Australians are indefatigable optimists about these things,” Mr Morrison said.

“We have to take an optimistic attitude but not an unrealistic or naive attitude.

“We’ve got to set out and wed ourselves to the objectives here and that is not the suppression or containment of any one state, it’s about the productive and strategic balance that can be achieved.”

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue

Australia and the US share a bilateral security treaty as well as an alliance with India and Japan through the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which China views with distrust.

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping
Despite appearances in this meeting at the G-20 summit in Japan in June last year, Sino-US relations have nosedived under the leadership of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping (Susan Walsh/AP)

Australia’s relations with China, its most important trading partner, has plumbed new lows in part because of Australian calls for an independent investigation into the origins of, and responses to, the coronavirus.

Mr Morrison said he had not met Chinese President Xi Jinping since the pair spoke on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Japan in June last year. Australia has extended an open invitation for further talks.

“I don’t get hung up on these things, to be honest,” Mr Morrison said. “What matters is that the trading relationship, the economic relationship is able to be pursued. That is occurring. It has its frustrations from time to time.”

Related – Johnson wobbles on tightrope over China leaving Westminster dazed & confused

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

George Eustice urged to apologise for pushing fishing firms to brink of ‘collapse’

Chancellor Rishi Sunak outside 11 Downing Street, London, before heading to the House of Commons to deliver his Budget.

Rishi Sunak confirms he will cut Universal Credit in October

Credit;PA

PR company founder resigns after ‘blacks, gays or Catholics’ post

More white people arrested for terrorism than any other ethnic group for third straight year

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.