Her warning came in the context of a discussion of whether Washington’s much-vaunted pivot to Asia, which she claims as her initiative, is succeeding as a bulwark against China’s economic and strategic might.



Clinton refrained from storybook language as she explained the strategy, but as she outlines the effort which was formally launched in 2012, for the US to reassert itself in Asia, there was a hint of the poor little countries of the region, a freckle-faced Australia included, being pushed around by the Beijing bullies; and of them pleading with their American buddies to walk down the street with them – just in case the agro in the air became more than menacing.



With an insatiable appetite for natural resources, China now accounts for more than 35 per cent of Australia’s trade.

In the past, Mr Abbott wanted to lecture the Chinese leadership on human rights and territorial bad manners, and on winning government last year, he at first seemed to irritate Beijing. More recently, the Prime Minister has taken a different route – in China in April, he did not mention the US by name; and on reform, he talked about what the Chinese were doing as opposed to not doing.

“Australia is strong enough to be a valuable partner, but not a dominant one – Team Australia is here in China to help build the Asian century,” he said during the visit. As he departed, the PM quoted an old line from reformist Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping – “To be rich is indeed glorious” to which he added an Abbott flourish – “But to be a true friend is sublime.”

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And in the same week that Ms Clinton spoke to Good Weekend, Mr Abbott was in the US, demonstrating the belief that Australia can keep doing the splits.



Citing China as a superpower rival to the US, rather than as the potential threat seen by Australia and its regional neighbours in Ms Clinton’s telling of the genesis of the US pivot to Asia, Abbott told a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Washington: “As citizens of a great power, it’s understandable that Americans should be wary of potential rivals, [but] for Americans to begrudge what the Chinese haven’t achieved more than to admire what they have is out of character – especially as the movement, in just a generation, of hundreds of millions of Chinese into the middle class is a transformation unparalleled in human history.”