The approach is not doctrinal, but is about speaking frankly to both Washington and Beijing.
Here is a foreign minister speaking about Australia’s China debate: “We Australians tend to have a habit, a cast of mind, which seeks for simplicity, and is uneasy with complexity, in foreign policy. We tend to see issues in terms of simple dichotomies – black or white, either-or, all or nothing.
Australia employs 'straddle' diplomacy with China and the US