BERNARD LANE
AUSTRALIA could end up "taken as a prize" by China if a US policy of military containment leads to defeat for our American allies, former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has warned.
"If we have been a compliant ally of a virtually defeated super-power would we not be regarded as a prize - a prize to be taken?," Mr Fraser says in a submission to the Asian Century white paper.
He argues that Australia's decisions to welcome US troops to the Northern Territory and to entertain the idea of US surveillance drones in the Cocos Islands were part of a bigger picture of Australia as a subservient partner in an attempt to contain China by military means.
Yesterday he told The Weekend Australian he believed hostilities between China and the US were likely within the next 40 to 50 years unless the US abandoned its policy of containment.
And his submission argues that China would win.
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