Australia's China Policy

Primarily driven by the rise of China and the relative decline of the US, the basic pattern of geo-politics is undergoing substantial changes in the Asia-Pacific region. The emerging multipolarity not only will not remove the sources of the existing security challenges in the region but may arouse new uncertainties. This is one of the departure points for Australia-China interaction in the years ahead. My dissertation comprehensively examines the Australia-China relations from the angles of politics, security and economics in the fast changing world. The broad and central question this dissertation tries to answer is how Australia should respond sensitively and sensibly to a rising China: how Australia adjusts its China policy to maximize its national interests, especially economic and security interests; and to deal with the inevitable negative consequences either through its own hedging strategies or through strengthening ties with its allies, especially the US. The theoretical approach involves international relations theories such as realism, liberalism, middle power and China's new security concept which are used to analyze the political and security relations. International trade theories such as absolute advantages and comparative advantages, strategic trade policies, and national competitive advantages are used to analyze the bilateral economic relations. Bilateral political relations are not free of challenges due to differences of the two countries in many areas. Security relations have not been developed systematically and are still heavily affected by the US influence. Although the uncomplementary factors do exist and from time to time causes trade disputes, but overall, the complementary nature of the bilateral economic relations has benefited both countries. The study of the bilateral relations shows the two countries have a solid foundation for a friendly and cooperative partnership and a good relationship with China serves Australia's vital interests.My findings in my four years of research reveal that although the Australia-China relations have not been problem-free, they present a classic case for two vastly different states to interact and cooperate in the various fields in international politics. One of the key reasons is that both countries behave based on their national interests and these interests do converge more than diverge. Conflicts that exist in the bilateral relations are unavoidable but manageable