2021-04-29 11:05:34 GMT2021-04-29 19:05:34(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) Australia should seek cooperation with China, not confrontation, said a recent opinion piece in the South China Morning Post. There is nothing for Australia to gain from being excessively confrontational, said the opinion published Tuesday.
In the opinion, author Ciara Morris, policy officer at Australian independent policy institute China Matters, noted that the main purpose of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India, is containing China.
However, simply following the policy of Australia s alliance is a dumbing-down of its own diplomacy, and does not serve Australia s interests, Morris wrote.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison attends the virtual Quad summit in Sydney on March 13. Australian politicians refer to “shared values” to justify its alliance-driven foreign policy. Photo: AP
Opinion
Ciara Morris
Australia has to step away from grandiose US Quad ideas and work with China, not against it
Australia must stand up to China on issues that matter, such as the arbitrary detention of its citizens, but not by clinging to US coattails at Quad meetings
Only by sitting at the same table as Beijing and discussing the security of the region together can Canberra ensure peace and stability
Ciara Morris is a policy officer at China Matters, an independent Australian policy institute. Ciara is in the final stages of a master of public administration degree at Peking University. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours I) in government and international relations and Chinese studies from the University of Sydney.