Australia’s National Security Strategy And Its Policy Towards China Since 2008

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, China’s sustainable economic development presents a sharp contrast with the general situation of declining Western economies. The reciprocal relationship of strength between China and United States triggered the heated debate and study on the future power shift in the Asia-Pacific region. The rapidly rising Chinese power and overall increasing strength in the East Asia has increased the weight and gravity of Asian region in the US global strategy. The American strategic focus started to turn eastward from high-profile announcement of "Return-to-Asia" to finally the "Asia-Pacific Rebalance" strategy. The rise of China and the structural adjustment of US external strategies are bringing about new variables and uncertainties for the security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region, and will have a profound impact on the development prospects of the Asia-Pacific pattern as well as the making of external strategies of other states. Australia and China both are important members of the Asia-Pacific region. The adjustment of their foreign strategies and development of bilateral relations is of great significance to national interests of both countries, even to the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region.This thesis regards the Australian national security strategy as a starting point of analysis and the changing security situation in the Asia-Pacific as research background. Then, the paper makes a detailed analysis on the recognition of China’s rise in Australia and the Australia’s responses to the US "Asia-Pacific Rebalance" strategy, has a comprehensive discussion on the adjustment of its strategic options to China, and summarizes the overall features and strategic considerations of in Australian China policy. On this basis, the paper further explores the future trends and challenges encountered with Australia as a middle power.Firstly, the thesis explains Australia’s national security strategy, focusing on a comprehensive summary and analysis of the cornerstone of Australia’s national security strategy—The US-Australia alliance. To align with the "great and powerful friend" has long been the core of Australian foreign strategy. Since the founding of Australia before more than 100 years, the national security strategy has transformed from "British centralism" to depending on the US-Australia alliance. As the cornerstone of Australia’s national security strategy and defense policy, US-Australia alliance exerts a profound influence on Australia’s foreign policy-making and future options. Through analyzing the evolution of US-Australia alliance, this section emphasizes on sorting out the various phrases of alliance formation, consolidation and adjustment, and researching on the context and motivation of alliance adjustment, so as to lay the foundation for further analysis of Australia’s China policy.Secondly, it tries to review the evolution of Australia’s China policy after World War II and analyze the current changes of the Asia-Pacific pattern. After World War II, Australia’s China policy went through the relationships from hostility and confrontation to friendly cooperation. By reviewing the development context of bilateral relations, the paper finds out the characters of every phrase of Australian policy towards China and the potential dynamics of changing bilateral relationships behind and the bilateral relationship. And it analyzes the influence of China’s rise and America’s "Asia-Pacific Rebalance" strategy on the pattern of the Asia-Pacific, and further elaborates the cognition on China’s Rise in Australia. The tendency of Australia’s future foreign policy is bound to be constrained by many other factors such as situation change. Its strategic options will encounter with the double challenges resulting from the rise of China and US " Asia-Pacific Rebalance " strategy. The Analysis of this part paves the way to discuss completely on Australia’s China policy since 2008.Thirdly, in the context of the profound changes of the Asia-Pacific situation, this thesis makes an in-depth analysis of adjustments and changes in Australia’s China policy, and examines the general features of Australia’s China policy and deep strategic intentions during from the Rudd government to the Abbott government. The promotion of China’s strength and development of China’s military capability is more or less treated by the Australian government as a threat or a source of insecurity. This knowledge led to relatively strong realism in Australia’s security policy toward China. Meanwhile, the Australian administration is in the course of exploring and attempting to use effective policies in order to deal with China’s rise, so there are differences in foreign policies and attitudes towards China between different governments. Overall, there is no big change of Australia’s China policy among three Australian administrations since 2008. They generally take "active engagement" and prevention policies towards China, which presents the character of pragmatism. They all attempt to seek the balance between China and US, which means depending on the US-Australia alliance in security and maintaining close ties with China in economy and trade. Australia repositioning its China policy like this would make Australia caught up in a situation of difficult balance.Finally, the thesis makes a comprehensive assessment of Australia’s China policy, and then discusses the future choices of Australia’s China policy. As a middle power, Australia’s China policy has always been faced with intractable dilemma. On the one hand, Australia’s is trapped in the Sino-US game. The future of Sino-Australia relations will obviously depend on the Asian strategic order and future situation, and more on the future of Sino-US relationship. How to avoid choosing sides between China and the US has been a test of the wisdom of the Australian administrators. On the other hand, there is another dilemma resulting from the gap between the vision of middle power and the scope of its strength. This dilemma makes it difficult for Australia to hold absolute independent stance in policy-making towards China. Once there is a conflict between China and the US, Australia would be difficult to maintain its balanced strategy and have to make a choice. The thesis further analyzes several future possible options of Australia to deal with China.