Australia, the great American columnist Charles Krauthammer once noted, is an “island of tranquillity in a roiling region”. We understand that peace and prosperity, he said, do not come with the air we breathe, but are maintained by power – once the power of the British Empire, now the power of the United States. Anything that disturbs the regional status quo is not in our national interest.

Australia in the middle: We can continue to walk the line between the United States and China. Credit:

However, the cold hard reality is that as China’s power grows, its definition of national interest increases. As a result, it will seek a sphere of influence on which its future prosperity and stability depends.

Nothing odd about that; it’s what all rising great powers do. Think of the US in the 19th century when it pushed the European powers out of the western hemisphere.

Nor is it surprising that, in response to China’s rise, Washington will go to great lengths to stop Beijing from dominating East Asia and marshal a coalition of states to contain China. What, after all, was the point of Barack Obama’s “pivot”? Or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent visit?