Playing deputy sheriff on Taiwan comes with costs Australia will wear |
Calls for Australia to take a more forward-leaning stance on Taiwan repeat a familiar pattern – moral symbolism paired with strategic vagueness. Past experience suggests the applause is loud, but the economic consequences are real and largely borne alone.
Another report, another invitation to play deputy sheriff – with the risks written in transparent ink.
Australia, according to the latest report cited by the ABC from the United States Studies Centre, must deepen its defence and diplomatic ties with its 12th-largest trading partner – worth about 3 per cent of total trade – even if this provokes its largest, which accounts for over 35 per cent of Australian exports, delivers a healthy trade surplus, and underpins everything from iron ore royalties to lobster farms.
The report urges Canberra to take a “more forward-leaning posture” on Taiwan. That means attaching defence officials to Taipei, removing longstanding diplomatic guardrails, and stepping closer to what Beijing considers a red line – all in the name of deterrence, values, and middle-power responsibility.
What the ABC story doesn’t include is what Australia should do after the chestnut is pulled from the fire.
What would retaliation look like?
Which sectors would be first to suffer?
What’s the plan for insulating exporters?
No. Just the usual nod to “short-term risks” before the gaze lifts heroically toward the horizon of shared values.
It’s stirring stuff, until you remember we’ve done this before – and the burn scars are still visible.
The ABC report breathes heavily on the importance of our trade relationship with Taiwan.
“While Taiwan is one of Australia’s top trading partners, the federal government is constrained by its decades-old One China policy, which recognises the........