The shock reelection of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal-National coalition is good news. Morrison is a strong U.S. ally against Chinese imperialism in the Indo-Pacific region.

The same cannot be said of the man who was expected to triumph over Morrison. Now-former Labor leader Bill Shorten had pledged to build closer ties with China in return for Beijing’s economic investment. Shorten had also suggested his amenability to China’s price tag for that investment: degrading Australia’s close military relationship with America.

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