Introduction

This chapter examines the array of challenges the PRC's overseas political activities have presented to liberal democracies, as well as the significant risks involved in responding, drawing primarily on Australia's experience. It argues that Australia's experience offers cautionary lessons for other China-engaged liberal democracies. Proponents of aggregation argue that viewing the full array of authoritarian threats to liberal democracy through a national security lens is important to overcome political inertia and mobilise coordinated action among democracies. The contrasting analytic approaches of aggregation and disaggregation point to divergent policy approaches. The analysis in this paper points instead to a differentiated set of measures designed methodically to eliminate, minimise or mitigate each particular risk identified. The complexity of engagement with the PRC, and with the Chinese world more broadly, means evaluation of these other important policy areas will lie beyond the scope of this paper.