Economic Power and Vulnerability in Sino-Australian Relations

FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, Australias leaders have expressed the expectation, or perhaps the hope, that the countrys mutually beneficial trading relationship with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) would flourish regardless of occasional political disagreements between Canberra and Beijing. Despite different political systems, divergent values, and Australias steadfast commitment to the US alliance, many inside the Australian government insisted that cold politics would not extinguish hot economics.