Richard Leaver and Alex Stephens of Flinders University write that in the Vietnam era Australian policy attitudes to China "begged the question ‘when is your enemy not your enemy?’ and delivered the seemingly obvious answer: ‘when he’s your fifth biggest trading partner’."

Yet in its recently released Defence White Paper, "the Australian government has peered out over the time horizon to dimly detect the makings of a distant Chinese strategic threat. Meanwhile, on a different stage, the government looks to trade with this very same China to ignite the domestic growth that will produce the revenue streams to pay for this capital spending in Defence." Beijing, Leave and Stephens conclude, "has been given a very loud speaking part in this Australian defence debate. Chinese authorities will therefore have, if they so choose, a string of opportunities to make Australian governments pay a high economic price for singling them out."