Kevin Rudd: Australia’s China Policy Requires a ‘Realist Premise’

Australians voted for change on May 21 in a historic election that replaced almost a decade of conservative rule with Anthony Albanese and an Australian Labor Party-led government. Under Albanese’s predecessor, Scott Morrison, relations between Australia and its biggest trading partner, China, had reached a low ebb. Ten days into the election campaign, China signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands that seemed to catch both Australia and the United States off guard, raising fears that China could build a military base on the strategically important archipelago just 1,000 miles off Australia’s northeast coast. Morrison’s rhetoric toward China had become increasingly strident, and his defense minister, Peter Dutton, had told Australians to “prepare for war” this year. But Albanese has taken a defiant tone on China. Joining the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (known as the Quad) summit in Tokyo one day into office, Albanese called a notorious list of demands by Beijing in 2021 “entirely inappropriate” and said sanctions on Australian products would have to be lifted for the relationship to move forward.