Lincoln Fung has a good point.
I suggest Australia needs to be more imaginative participating in the new Asia with China’s rise.
Prof Ross Garnaut made the comment on slowTV “China as a great Power” and the implications of being an ascendant Civilizational State.

The new East Asia Architecture will be negotiated by China and the rest (Japan, Korea and Asean) to mitigate return to a “Middle Kingdom Tributary System”.
The era of ascendant US Naval power will follow the sunset of the British Navy thus changing the power equation in our region.

We can no longer leverage US hegemony to progress our interests in the region.
Japan and Korea calibrate their economic benefits derived from a China oriented market and the future economic pull of the US and the EU.
Of course, military security is another dimension to consider.
Will India play it’s historical role in the region when it was a cultural well spring?

The future rise of China is not pre-ordained nor the continued US hegemony.
But the rise of China seems more likely and the decline of the US to a peer amongst equals fits historical trends.

Whatever the case, Australia has to adapt and progress its position as a meaningful player in the region to capture economic growth.
We need to do the same.

They can live by their own as a region.

They have enough weight and strength to be equal with EU or the US.

They need to think and act as a region, not a handicap.

It is interesting but not always helpful to naturally link to the US when people discuss about Asia, or East Asia.

People should not always live in the past. They need to look into the future.

Further, it is especially unhelpful for outsiders to tell Asia or East Asia what they should do for their own affairs.