Centre-right Coalition Senator James Paterson has warned that Australia is engaged in a “zero-sum” game for influence in the Pacific against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Paterson, who is chair of the Australian Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said the federal government had known for some time that Beijing had “expansive ambitions” for the Pacific.
“They have been wanting to establish a permanent and militarised presence in the Pacific for some time, and the government of the Solomon Islands is not the first one to receive an offer like this, and it won’t be the last,” he told Sky News Australia on May 5. “We have to be on guard to this threat. It is a very serious one.”
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