Chinese power forcing rethink on Asian alliances

Australia must decide how to “make its own way” in Asia, negotiating relations with China that are politically independent of US trade policy and historical ties to Britain, according to a Canberra academic.

Australian National University defence policy analyst Hugh White says US dominance in the Asia Pacific region “is ultimately likely to fade” as a result of president Trump’s chaotic foreign policies and trade protectionism.

“It’s a big change. But it is just what we would expect from the biggest and fastest shift in the distribution of global wealth and power since the Industrial Revolution – and that is what China’s rise is,” he says.