According to ABC News Scott Morrison has unveiled a more aggressive defence strategy aimed at countering the rise of China, while warning that Australia faces regional challenges on a scale not seen since World War II.

The extent of this shopping spree will put Australia's defence spending at 2% of GDP, a almost $70b increase from Australia's defence spending pledge in its 2016 Defence White paper. However no matter how many missiles, ships, gigantic space death robots Australia buy, it cannot risk an actual war with China as the existence of nuclear weapons would mean escalation could lead to unthinkable and Armageddon like consequences.

True power in the 21st century is via economic means, India is not losing all of its neighbours like Nepal, Pakistan or even Sri Lanka to China due to its impressive military, but rather simply because China can provide those countries with more economic opportunity than India ever could. The United States for all its power conceded to China in the recent trade war, not because China is simply is so strong and invincible that the US cant win but rather because China has so many trading partner via OBOR that the US simply cannot sanction them all. The Soviet Union's military power till the 80s were head on head with the West in terms of military power, however it is inability to project economic soft power that led it to lose the Cold War against the West.

In 2017 French, German and Italian leaders — seeking to prevent Chinese firms from snatching up companies in strategic sectors — wanted EU leaders to jointly call on the European Commission to examine “ways to screen investments from third countries.” However their effort was derailed by an ad hoc coalition of smaller countries that included traditional champions of free trade like Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. They were backed by Portugal, Greece, Malta and the Czech Republic, all of which have received high levels of Chinese investment, according to two trade attachés and an ambassador from a Western EU country present at the negotiations. The Soviet Union for all its military might could not even dream to do this to Western Europe at its height, but China can as it knows economic power matters more than military means.

When Australia tried to create a FTA with Taiwan in 2018, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop that China opposed any boosting of ties between Australia and the independence-leaning government of Tsai Ing-wen at a series of meetings in 2017 and 2018. Shortly after the deal was scrapped as Australia simply knows its costly then to confront China.

And now today as the China/Australia trade war rages on, Australia seems to forget that if the US can't beat China in a trade war how can Australia? Scott Morrison and the rest of Liberal National Party lacks vision for Australia. It is this lack of vision which led them to stuff up the NBN, our defences against the bushfires, the corona virus and now the great economic struggle against China too. He seems to forget that with all the ships he can buy, a single accidental Chinese virus virtually crippled the entirety of Australia. Why? Because we live in a globalised world and a globalised world means that the smallest impact from another country could reach any corner of our world. And what better means to influence the world than economic power? A power that does not stop at borders like warships, but rather go beyond to the homes, the offices, the industries, and the governments of any country on Earth.

Such is the incorporeal nature of true power in the 21st century, and if Australia does not see that then it will do as well this century as the Soviet Union did the last.