As China Rises, Australia Asks Itself: Can It Rely on America?<br />withdrawing." Still, the essay performed a useful service, Mr. Shearer said, by drawing attention to the rapidly shifting balance of power in Asia and the need for a more coherent response by Washington.<br />that is premature in reaching the conclusion that President Trump will acquiesce to Chinese supremacy, and that the United States is already<br />Mr. White said that Not only is America failing to remain the dominant power, it is failing to retain any substantial strategic role at all.<br />Mr. White wrote that We all underestimated China’s power and resolve and overestimated America’s,<br />"The major players are testing their relationships with each other, while undergoing rapid change themselves." Foreign policy experts say the white paper’s assessment of American staying power does not reflect a growing consensus among many Australian policymakers<br />that the United States, at least under its current leadership, cannot be relied on as a stable partner.<br />3, 2017<br />BEIJING — When the Australian government set out to write a new foreign policy paper, it faced hotly contested<br />questions shaping the country’s future: Will China replace the United States as the dominant power in Asia?<br />Michael Fullilove, executive director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, described what many Australians see as a fraying of the liberal international order because, he said, "the president<br />of the United States is neither liberal in his inclinations nor orderly in his behavior." Many say it’s time for Australia to stop pretending about American intentions, and begin considering other options.<br />Citing concerns about China’s advance into the South China Sea, the government’s white paper backed the idea of joining India, Japan<br />and the United States to promote a free and democratic Indo-Pacific region that could offset China.
