Luke Grant speaks to Dr Paul Monk, the former head of the China desk in the Defence Intelligence Organisation & author of ‘Thunder From the Silent Zone: Rethinking China’ (2005) and ‘Dictators and Dangerous Ideas’ (2018).

In an opinion piece in The Australian recently he posed the question, Go soft on socialism?  Answer: Don’t delude yourself. This is all about the conversation some say we shouldn’t have, does a change of government present risks to our strong stance against Beijing’s bullying.

Mr Monk says there are numerous issues that will shape the outcome of the next federal election, among them divisions within the Liberal Party.  But one issue ought to be uppermost in the minds of voters: the future of our national security policy and our relations with China.

Our economic future, our political future and our sovereignty are all at stake. He says, there are grounds for believing, should the Coalition be replaced by an ALP government, the robust posture we have adopted vis-a-vis the singularly unpleasant and aggressive regime in Beijing, would be softened.

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