Reaction to Gareth Evans essay in The Australian
Craig Turner, 24 September 2024
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/defending-nations-sovereignty-is-not-appeasement-a-response-to-alexander-downer/news-story/ed85f96ee0a3fe0f6f9705cfa0dcf96f

Gareth Evan provides a textbook-worthy example of appeasement in the
twenty-first century.

"It is not unreasonable to think much of China's assertiveness would be
significantly moderated were the US to step back from demanding recognition of
America's continued primacy, with Washington now seeing just about every arena
as a zero-sum struggle for dominance."

This argument is without foundation.

The basis for America's system of alliances is a rules-based system that
combines trade and security. Trade is not a zero-sum game, it is win-win.

Instead, it is the CCP that views the world through a zero-sum lens. They
treat every matter as an us-vs-them power calculation, even when they do so to
their own disadvantage, as when they make tariff decision that do their
opponents no damage but harm their own interest. Theirs is a barren, zero-sum
worldview.

Washington's error - and it is an understandable one - was to believe that
China would behave as a rational actor. It has been some time since China
operated as a rational actor. The CCP only respects hard power, and the US has
wisely adjusted its strategy towards this reality.

Evans/Keating/Carr are still invested in the obsolete worldview. They build
arguments from fantastic ideas about how the world should be, rather then the
evidence we have.