While the drift in most areas of public policy is becoming alarming, perhaps our so-called China policy is among the most concerning.
China was a late entrant to a mature world trade and investment system, and has a vested interest in not being too disruptive, although many question the full impact of its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. Although the reality is that China will soon be the world’s largest economy, this has been a peaceful rise, certainly not a threat, and a very real opportunity for us.
Chinese President Xi Jinping makes his speech at the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in April.My personal experience in China now spans almost 30 years, across politics, in business , academic relationships, attending many conferences, the Beijing Olympics, and so on. I therefore led a delegation of opposition leaders and shadow ministers to Beijing, not as a media event but to clearly make the point that, as China then wished to join the World Trade Organisation and to build significance influence in global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, it would be expected to move to adopt Western standards of human rights and governance.
This would be a much more effective break on Chinese influence than us attempting to outdo them with such projects, country by country.
The only opportunities to be seized are what can be seized in Australia by China. It's not a level playing field, so stop making it out to be so. Australians are not permitted to purchase Chinese real estate. Return the ownership of Darwin Port back to the N.T Government.
And also look at OTHER markets.