Letter

In response to The Trump effect is a wrecking ball, and we’re in the blast zone

The Enemy

Thank you for reposting Peter Varghese’s AFR article, which I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. Could you also please pursue some other perspectives? With his strong international affairs credentials I hesitate to question what I have missed or failed to grasp in the underpinning narrative about “The Enemy” to us, that is China.

It’s not as if we are located where Taiwan is, for example, or even — say — Singapore which hasn’t seemed to have taken “sides”. I struggle to understand the underlying animosity towards China in a discussion of next steps in what he says is becoming a more multipolar world – it feels like the schoolyard.

If, as he says, “we must deepen our regional relationships”, don’t we want “deep but clear-eyed relationships” with all our neighbours, not just China, and with the US too, for that matter? Surely, we are capable of having adult conversations and walking and chewing gum at the same time in all our international relationships?

Also, and perhaps I am naive, but I do wonder to what extent building relations and trust with China is a chicken and egg situation – how much are we creating The Enemy and mistrust between us?

— K M from Canberra