AUSTRALIA/CHINA/FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Mike Pompeo, the United States secretary of state, came to Sydney a few days ago and described the American relationship with Australia as an ‘unbreakable alliance.’ I was there, at the State Library of New South Wales, surrounded by Australia’s foreign policy elite (including Malcolm Turnbull). I noticed both Mr. Pompeo’s stiff delivery of his upbeat, prepared remarks and his more comfortable, combative responses in the question-and-answer session. Sitting beside Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, he was most animated when discussing why standing up to Beijing has become a priority for the Trump administration. At one point, his voice slightly raised, he stressed that the American trade war with China was not just about economics…The idea that trade and military power go hand in hand is nothing new in geopolitics, of course. But what emerged there in the library, and throughout Mr. Pompeo’s tour of the region, is an American view of China that encapsulates how the Trump administration views the world: through the lens of having been wronged, for far too long, by far too many.”
–Damien Cave, “Australia’s ‘Unbreakable,’ and Worrisome, Alliance,” The New York Times online, August 8, 2019