The need for like-minded democracies to form a global alliance to counter China’s threat to the free world was a key focus of the 2021 Halifax International Security Forum (HFX). The annual forum based in Halifax, held this year between Nov. 19 and Nov. 21, included issues ranging from human rights abuses to cybersecurity. Malcolm Turnbull, former Prime Minister of Australia, said an international alliance should prioritize resisting Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region and ensuring a rules-based order where all the regional countries are respected. “We want an Indo-Pacific where the strong cannot do as they will and the weak do not suffer as they must,” Turnbull said at the fourth plenary of the Halifax forum on Nov. 20. “That rule of law… is what we are fighting for in the Indo-Pacific. That’s it. No corruption, no coercion, and no covert subversion of our democratic values or our institutions. …