The new era with China rests on an old order

Overall, Australia is China's 13th largest trading partner; for imports alone, it's China's third-largest supplier. China's share of Australia's exports has grown from 5 per cent in 2002 to 35 per cent. That's high-level interdependence, and neither China nor Australia can be prosperous without the other. What Australia now expects from China in the short term is a return to stability - "no surprises", as Mr Albanese puts it - in a relationship that Canberra believes will be less straightforward than in the past. What Australia wants for the next 50 years is a China that continues to play by…