The new Australian centre-left Labor government will soften its language with China’s ruling communist party (CCP) to adopt a “respectful” tone, says new defence minister Richard Marles—implying a lack of respect from the former centre-right government, which was unabashed to call out the CCP’s bullying of Australia.
Speaking in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue defence summit on Saturday, Marles laid out his party’s vision to build stronger economic ties with China and suggested that China’s neighbours should not become overly concerned about the regime’s large-scale military build-ups.
