“Chinese War Games” with Sam Roggeveen

<p>How should medium-sized countries respond when they're bullied by a superpower? The question applies as much to Canada dealing with President Trump as to Australia reacting to China.</p> <p>Last Friday, the pilot of a Virgin Australia flight from Australia to New Zealand noticed a flash of weapons from a Chinese warship just a few hundred miles off the coast of Sydney. Other passenger planes suddenly got mid-air warnings to divert course. The Australian government scrambled to reassure citizens that nothing was amiss.</p> <p>But this is the first time China has sent naval assets so far south down the Australian coast. It's the first time they've conducted live-fire exercises so close to Australia, inside its exclusive economic zone, in a busy flight corridor linking the region's only two Western democracies.</p> <p>What's going on? How should we react? Is a China-U.S. war in the 21st century inevitable?</p> <p>Sam Roggeveen is a former intelligence officer and a foreign policy analyst who now heads the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute, Australia's preeminent international policy think tank.</p> <p>He and Josh discuss China's belligerence, the Australia-U.S. alliance, Trumpist isolationism, Taiwan, NATO, and immigration. His book is <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/echidna-strategy"><em>The Echidna Strategy</em></a>, an argument for developing an independent security strategy.</p> <p><strong>Watch this conversation on</strong> <a href="http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_"><strong>YouTube</strong></a><strong>. And you&rsquo;re missing out on our best ad-free content if you haven&rsquo;t popped over to the</strong> <a href="https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe"><strong>Uncomfy Convos Substack</strong></a> <strong>page.</strong></p> <p><a href="http://twitter.com/joshzepps">http://twitter.com/joshzepps</a></p> <p><a href="http://instagram.com/joshszeps/">http://instagram.com/joshszeps/</a></p> <p><a href="http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations">http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>