Engaging China (paperback)

As the strategic rivalry between the United States and China rapidly deepens, growing distrust and fears of China are once again shaping Australian media coverage and public discourse, with potent implications for Australia’s China policy.

At this crucial historical moment, Engaging China offers a full-throated defence of engagement. This volume brings together a diverse set of Australia’s seasoned diplomats, experienced journalists and renowned scholars to assess the current state of Australia–China relations and offer pragmatic advice for how Australia can restore a healthy and stable relationship with China.

Over the past five decades, Australia’s engagement of China has facilitated a deepening economic relationship alongside expanded cultural, educational and people-to-people exchanges, fostering greater understanding between the two countries and populations.

The contributors to this volume share a common vision: Australia and Australians should continue to engage with China and Chinese people for mutual benefit. The chapters take stock of past achievements, identify recent challenges and offer practical suggestions for how the Australian government and Australian firms, institutions and individuals can proactively, productively and securely engage with China.

Australia’s rich and diverse relations with China extend far beyond the political and economic interactions that tend to dominate news headlines. In explaining how and why an engagement strategy continues to serve Australian interests, Engaging China offers a timely alternative to the prevailing public and policy discourses on Australia’s most challenging bilateral relationship.

Jamie Reilly is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He has been a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, and served as the East Asia Representative of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in China from 2001–2008.

Jingdong Yuan is Associate Professor at the Centre for International Security Studies, University of Sydney, and an Associate Senior Fellow at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Dr Yuan’s research focuses on Indo–Pacific security, Chinese foreign policy, Sino–Indian relations, China-EU relations, and nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. He has held a number of prestigious visiting appointments in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Chapter 1: Engaging China: How Australia can lead the way again by Jamie Reilly and Jingdong Yuan

Part I. Foreign and security relations

Chapter 2: What a difference a decade can make by Geoff Raby

Chapter 3: Australia–China security and defence relations at 50: Hardening positions on both sides by Bates Gill

Chapter 4: (Un)reliable Partner? Australian Security, the American Alliance and China in Uncertain Times by Brendon O'Connor, Lloyd Cox and Danny Cooper

Part II. Economy

Chapter 5: Australia–China Trade: Opportunity, risk, mitigation, ballast – progress? by James Laurenceson and Weihuan Zhou

Chapter 6: Lessons from the rise and fall of Chinese investment in Australia by Wei Li and Hans Hendrischke

Chapter 7: Australia–China ties: Why business is a cornerstone by Glenda Korporaal

Part III. Media, education, and culture

Chapter 8: Cold War journalism, the China threat agenda, and the framing of Australia–China relations by Wanning Sun

Chapter 9: China–Australia higher education relations: Promise unfulfilled? by Anthony Welch

Chapter 10: Cultural diplomacy on the ground: Bridging the Australia–China divide by Ien Ang

Chapter 11: China and the opening of the Australian mind by Stephen FitzGerald

Contributors

Index

“This book offers important insights on Australia’s most difficult and consequential foreign-policy challenge. The authoritative authors transcend the simplistic pro-China v anti-China dichotomies that distort so much of our national debate, to capture the true complexity of the issues and explore the real opportunities to manage relations with China to our long-term advantage. It is a fine example of exactly the kind of contribution we need to help us navigate our region’s economic and strategic transformation in the difficult decades ahead.”

Hugh White AO, Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University

 

Format: paperback
Size: 210 × 148 mm
320 pages
1 bibliography, 1 glossary, 1 index, 11 graphs, and 4 b&w tables
Copyright: © 2023
ISBN: 9781743329221
Publication: 01 Sep 2023
Series: Public and Social Policy Series