Reaction to Gareth Evans essay in The Australian -- 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.