US warns China wants ‘illiberal’ world order

CHINA’S strategic ambition has expanded so much it has world military and economic domination in its sights, the visiting US Secretary of State claims.

Antony Blinken, who has travelled to Australia for a Quad meeting with Foreign Minister Marise Payne, India and Japan, said China had plans for a new world order, albeit one marked by illiberalism.

“To my mind, there’s little doubt that China’s ambition over time is to be the leading military, economic, diplomatic and political power, not just in the region, but in the world,” Mr Blinken said.

“China wants an (international) order, but the difference is its world order would be profoundly illiberal.

“Ours is liberal. Those are values that must be defended against whomever is challenging them.”

Australia’s Defence Minister said he agreed with Mr Blinken’s assessment.

Peter Dutton said it was important “not just to look at Secretary Blinken’s words but to look at the words of President Xi (Jinping) and the spokesman for the regime”.

“That’s the reality and we need to deal with that. And from Australia’s perspective, we want to be a reliable partner,” Mr Dutton told ABC Radio.

“In China, we want human rights to be respected and we want to build the relationship, but that’s a two-way process.

“And many other countries face that same difficulty because China has moved quite dramatically away from the principles we thought were built over a period of time.”

Mr Blinken stressed his belief in the power of the US and its allies as a stronger force than an emerging China-Russia coalition.

Mr Dutton told parliament on Thursday that Australia was facing its most “complex and potentially catastrophic regional security environment since the Second World War”.

“The threat now posed by the Chinese government aggression is very real, and it’s growing,” he said.

Mr Dutton said the “unholy alliance” between China and Russia should “cause great concern around the world”, but Australia was working “very closely” with its partners.

He then claimed the Chinese government had “decided” to back the Labor Party to win the upcoming federal election, telling Question Time on Thursday there was “evidence”.

“We now see evidence that the Chinese Communist Party has also made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election … and that is open and obvious,” Mr Dutton said.

“And they have picked this bloke (Anthony Albanese) as their candidate.”