Nations question terms of their friendship with ChinaInvestigators believe China is trying to influence Australian politics by targeting state and local government elections. Tourism and international education arrivals from China might suddenly be cut, Australian goods may find passage across Chinese wharves more difficult. While aimed at containing North Korea, China saw the threat too. The clash is not just economic or diplomatic, but involves fundamental differences in values that Western nations embedded in the international system after World War II. She concedes many Western nations make a weak case for those values today, not least a Donald Trump-led United States.

Source: Stuff December 13, 2017 15:56 UTC