How to deal with an aggressive China: lessons from Australia

What can the UK learn from Australia and its occasionally rocky relationship with China? The welcome decision to ban Huawei from Britain’s 5G network has prompted concerns that China will find a way to hit back. This is hardly surprising, as the Chinese ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, has warned Britain that ‘if you want to make China a hostile country, you will have to bear the consequences’.

Australia is perhaps further down the same road. It has not gone out of its way to anger China but decisions the Australian government has taken over the last six or seven years have nonetheless had that effect.

First, there was the decision to ban Huawei from the national broadband network. At that time, in 2012, the Chinese government barely reacted. But the new generation of ‘wolf-warrior’ diplomats certainly reacted more harshly to a decision by the Australian government in 2017 to reveal Chinese attempts to influence Australian politicians.