Artificial interference
As Anthony Albanese heads to China, Beijing’s AI trade push underscores Australia’s delicate balance between economic opportunity and security risk.
A year after lifting its final tariffs on Australia, Beijing’s offer to fold artificial intelligence into Australia’s bilateral trade deal is being met with wariness in Canberra.
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese jets to China this week, he faces an ongoing dilemma: stabilising relations with Australia’s largest trading partner, which is simultaneously viewed in Canberra as our biggest national security threat.
There is also a sense that Beijing may be testing the reliability of the US alliance under Trump 2.0.
Albanese travels to Beijing having already secured what he sought — a stabilised trade relationship. Unusually, it is Washington where delicate diplomacy is now required, given anxiety over tariffs and the future of AUKUS.
