Richard Marles says Australia has 'inconvenient truths' to confront with China

Australia must confront the "inconvenient truths" about China, Defence Minister Richard Marles says as Australia seeks to repair its economic relationship amid a significant military build-up. The Deputy Prime Minister on Tuesday morning said despite recent trade breakthroughs with Beijing, the relationship with China remained "very complex". Mr Marles said it was a relationship that could not be defined with "simplistic platitudes" after China wound back trade restrictions on Australian timber last week and with signs sanctions against barley could soon dissipate. The immense threat China posed in undertaking the largest conventional military build-up since the Second World War must…