In the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed an extraordinary turn toward warmongering against China in the Morrison Government. The major driver of this swing appears to be domestic politics as Morrison seeks to move beyond Rapegate and Vaccinegate to the safer Coalition ground of national security.
How do we know? Because the Morrison Government has no obvious policies to rebalance the economy away from China, which would be the hallmark of a broader plan for decoupling. Instead, this looks like its usual disordered politics and gaslighting.
I remain of the view that this is inadvertently in the national interest given it forces an insulted CCP to decouple the Chinese economy from ours. It is a whacko way to go about it. But getting it done is the main thing.