Does Australia continue to provoke and insult China not so much to hurt our biggest trading partner as to motivate our most important ally – the United States – to maintain a strong economic and military presence in the area? Australian and American soldiers, fresh from their latest military triumphs in Afghanistan, will hardly have a chance to rest before they are being eagerly re-organised for potential conflict with China – a rather different adversary from the Taliban, even if the latter was more than enough for the combined forces of the United States, NATO and Australia. This time about…