\n\n“While Australia was pivoting to China, Beijing was orchestrating its own pivot: Xi had delivered a very different address to his countrymen before his speech to the Australian parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January 2013, shortly after becoming the chairman of the Communist Party and just months before becoming Chinese president, Xi laid out plans to make China a global superpower through economic and technological might.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That meant going after the Western alliance \u2014with Australia as the weakest link. So while publicly promising sincerity and trust, Xi secretly sought to squeeze the island nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First came the cyberattacks, with Chinese state-linked hackers going after the Australian parliament<\/a>, the country\u2019s Bureau of Meteorology<\/a>, the Australian National University<\/a> and numerous others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then came attacks on Australia\u2019s Chinese-language media<\/a>, with reports of coercion, bullying and intimidation at any outlet daring to depart from the Communist Party line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reports emerged that China had reached deep into the Australian political establishment, seeking to steer<\/a> policy in China\u2019s favor. Investigations found Beijing-linked businesses were the largest sources<\/a> of donations with foreign ties, and the money went to both sides of the political spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The financial intrusions rattled Australian politics. In 2017, Australian Labor Party Senator Sam Dastyari was forced to resign<\/a> over his ties to Chinese Communist Party-linked donors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Later in 2017, China\u2019s security chief warned Labor leadership<\/a> the party would risk losing support among Australia\u2019s Chinese diaspora community if it didn\u2019t back an extradition treaty Beijing wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And over the past 18 months, China hit Australia with a series of trade restrictions<\/a> and tariffs in response to Canberra\u2019s call for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, which emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, China was also building its military might in the region, making sweeping claims to the South China Sea and squeezing Hong Kong and Taiwan \u2014 moving southward toward Australia.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Australia, having once extended Beijing a hand of friendship, is now back in the arms of its old associates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier in September, Canberra announced a wide-ranging security partnership with the U.S. and U.K. The pact, dubbed AUKUS, comes amid a broader Australian attempt to pivot its economy away from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe level of Chinese economic coercion and cyber espionage against Australia was once unimaginable, so our security agencies have learned to consider worst-case possibilities,\u201d said Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University and author of “Indo-Pacific Empire.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n AUKUS, he said, \u201cis an alignment made in Beijing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the new Anglo-American alliance, the U.S., U.K. and Australia have agreed to share advanced technologies with one another, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities. Australia also abandoned a submarine deal with France<\/a> worth more than \u20ac50 billion to acquire American nuclear-powered submarines instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a remarkable collapse in Australia-China relations and a massive deterioration in Australia\u2019s security outlook that\u2019s led to this outcome,\u201d said Michael Shoebridge, a director at the influential Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank, which receives funding from the Australian and other governments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n