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There's no pretending anymore. It's out in the open.
Scott Morrison and Donald Trump are on a joint ticket when it comes to China.
The unanswered question is whether the public alignment of the Prime Minister and the US President on China will be to Australia's short-term detriment, long-term gain, or both.
No matter how the Prime Minister might dismiss what he calls the "binary narrative", Australia is caught between a patriot US President prepared to drag out his trade war with China, and a trading partner who could do significant damage to the Australian economy in the blink of an eye.
The two leaders are now preaching a near identical message on China, arguing on consecutive days that China should no longer be regarded as a developing nation, a status that allows it to claim concessions in matters of trade.
They both say China should be treated as a developed nation and accept the rules and responsibilities that come with that.
Today, Mr Trump went particularly hard on Beijing, telling the United Nations that Xi Jinping's China was "gaming" the system at other countries' expense.
He condemned China's use of state subsidies, currency manipulation, product dumping and the theft of intellectual property, which the President said was happening "on a grand scale".
This echoes complaints Mr Morrison has made about China in recent months, including in Chicago yesterday.
It's now clear that when the President told reporters in the Oval Office a few days ago that his guest Mr Morrison had some "very strong" views on China, he was reflecting conversations with the PM before the cameras rolled on that freewheeling Tour de Trump impromptu press conference.
Where they likely differ is where this should end.
Push to overhaul global trade rules
The PM says rules governing membership and obligations under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) need an overhaul.
He hasn't given up on multilateralism just yet, even though he's pessimistic change can come soon.
But the way the President used his UN speech to rail against globalisation suggests that Mr Trump has no time for the WTO, even if it does tighten up its expectations of China.
"The future does not belong to globalists, the future belongs to patriots," Mr Trump said.
"The future belongs to sovereign and independent nations, who protect their citizens, respect their neighbours and honour the differences that make each country special."
Prime ministers of both political stripe have long asserted that Australia does not need to choose between China and the United States.
"The United States is our great ally, China is our comprehensive strategic partner," Mr Morrison said in New York.
Australia has believed itself capable of playing a negotiator in the strategic contest between Washington and Beijing. Perhaps it's been kidding itself all along.
On security, Australia, did choose long ago which side it was on.
The ANZUS defence treaty, signed in the early 1950s, and the decision to host a joint intelligence facility at Pine Gap in the 1970s, attest to that.
But balancing the push and pull between the values and security ties with the United States and Australia's economic reliance on China, might have just got harder.
Topics: foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, trade, world-politics, australia, united-states, china
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