The pandemic is unwinding in Australia and much of the developed world just as it started two years ago, with a desperate reliance on medical imports from China.
Look on the backs of the packets of rapid antigen tests and you will invariably see the names of companies in cities in inland provinces that few outside of the localities have ever heard of. Indeed, the flip side of Xi Jinping’s COVID-zero policy of harsh lockdowns in response to handfuls of cases is a world plentifully supplied not just with masks, but with iPhones, Teslas, fertiliser and so forth.“Globally, there’s no ripple effect from supermarkets in Sydney having to limit purchases or shut temporarily because they can’t get workers,” wrote Bloomberg’s James Mayger.
This is hardly surprising, given Australia’s history. We have long-time military alliances and natural centres of gravity in the bureaucracy, in the Defence Department and the intelligence agencies.The securitisation of all aspects of government policy, really since 9/11, also means the government is much better at talking about buying military equipment and locking up terrorists than managing economic security in the bifurcated new world order.