Australia Keen to Keep ASEAN Focus on Trade, Not Beijing’s Influence

With ASEAN underway in Melbourne today, the Australian government—this year’s hosts—is determined to keep the focus on trade and economic development, and not on Beijing’s growing influence in the region. That’s despite revelations last week that a former politician had conspired with foreign agents—later confirmed to report to the CCP—and “sold out” the nation while still in office. Further, it follows the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr telling the Australian Parliament that he would not allow “any foreign power to take even one square inch of our sovereign territory,” in a thinly veiled reference to his country’s dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea....