Greg Sheridan has always been provocative. The foreign editor of The Australian is well known for his strident view that Australia should fully embrace American military power. One recent sermon focused on the need to support the U.S. Navy base at HMAS Stirling. “Frankly,” he writes, “I’d much rather entrust Australia’s security to the U.S. Navy than to the Albanese government.”
Sheridan then moves to flattery for Labor’s resident Kentucky Colonel, aka the minister for AUKUS, Richard Marles. Marles, he says, has “done quite well on the critical question of U.S. alliance management.” Despite his distaste for most things Labor, Sheridan concludes that Marles is a good fit for the job at hand: kowtowing to the U.S. military and its boss, the belligerent Pete Hegseth. He claims we don’t need to pretend that Stirling is an Australian military base because “we actively and happily shelter under the U.S. extended nuclear umbrella.” Sheridan proposes that the U.S. and Australia should now draw up “common battle plans” to prepare for conflict with “the only candidate for adversary – China”
There is no doubt China has developed its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) land, navy, air force, marines, rocket force, and cyber warfare capabilities to now claim military ascendancy in the South China Sea and beyond. In June, the Lowy Institute in Sydney released a well-researched analysis of the PLA’s military strength entitled “Understanding the Chinese military threat to Australia.”
