Penny Wong has a new mantra for Australia China relations.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong previously said, “Co-operate with China where we can, disagree where we must.” This week, she has told the press that in her meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi she described her outlook as “Australia will be Australia; China will be China.” In other words, “Whatever will be, will be.”

I find this disappointing, to some extent cheerful, but uninspiring and fatalistic. It certainly lacks vision.

On 20 March, China’s Foreign Minister and Director of the CCP Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi participated in a Foreign and Strategic Dialogue meeting in Canberra. Bilateral relations had warmed up enough to justify resumption of official connections and a return to some kind of “stability”, to use another of Penny Wong’s formulations.

“A stable relationship between Australia and China doesn’t just happen, it needs ongoing work,” she told the press. In coming months,........

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