Behind Beijing's Grand Seduction: Beijing's grand seduction of ruling elites in the Pacific, Southeast Asia

It was once said that the CCP external objective was merely to seek security for its authoritarian institutions and approach. The CCP has become much more ambitious than that. It wants to promote and entrench some of its values and practices in other countries to extend its geopolitical advantage and influence at the expense of countries such as Australia. We can use the tools at our disposal such as aid and other forms of statecraft ethically – but with a geopolitical purpose – or we can excuse ourselves from the contest only to find ourselves eventually in a far more dangerous neighbourhood than we once thought possible.