Framing China as threat risks mismanaging contested relations: Australian scholar

The scholar cautioned that hyping up the China threat theory to counter China makes it harder to manage the contest by seeking a new modus vivendi, and easier to mismanage it by sliding into war.

SYDNEY - Some Western leaders have applied "Cold War" tropes to explain China, which not only obviously misrepresents the country, but increases the risk of mismanaging the contest with China, an Australian scholar of strategic studies has warned.

Hugh White, professor emeritus in the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies at the Australian National University, voiced this opinion in an article published on Aug 2 on the Interpreter, a website run by Australia's Lowy Institute, featuring daily commentaries and analyses on world affairs.

He said such leaders as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison have begun to describe their contests with China "in starkly ideological terms, as a defence of democracy against authoritarianism" while saying that China threatened to replace the "liberal international order" with a new one.