Full article in South China Moring Post (link)
“For Australia, a key takeaway is that although we may hope for reconciliation [with China], the odds favour a partial separation,” according to a submission by Alan Dupont, chief executive of geopolitical risk consultancy, The Cognoscenti Group.
Dupont said Australia’s decoupling from China “is not an attempt to isolate China … but rather to establish a sustainable relationship” between China and the United States as the world is dividing into two competing trading and geopolitical blocs.
He said that Australia may be able to stay in a trading bloc with China and a security bloc with the US, but there is a growing possibility that Australia has to take sides, and if Canberra sides with Washington, the bilateral free trade agreements with Beijing and other countries will not hold.