“When we are acting alone against Chinese excess in commercial areas, we are about 25 per cent of world GDP. When we’ve got allies and partners with us, depending who it is, it’s 50 to 60 per cent. It’s a much heavier weight for China to ignore.”
The Biden administration’s approach would include “not denigrating our allies” and not pulling back from international bodies and ceding influence to China.
“I believe that President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China,” Mr Blinken said.
“I disagree very much with the way he went about it in a number of areas but the basic principle was the right thing, and I think that’s actually helpful in our foreign policy.”
Research director of the Perth USAsia Centre Jeffrey Wilson said Mr Blinken’s comments would be welcome in Canberra.
“For Blinken to come out and say we see this behaviour from China and we are going to step in, this is strongly in our national interest,” he said.
Mr Blinken will be a key figure for the Morrison government in dealing with Washington. While he is familiar to Canberra’s diplomats from his time in the Obama administration, Mr Blinken also has a personnel connection to Australia: his late stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was educated in Melbourne after surviving the Holocaust.
But government sources have identified the incoming National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan as the major point person in establishing a relationship with the new administration.
Mr Sullivan, another Obama-era veteran, proactively sought to weigh in on behalf of the new administration when he tweeted support for Australia after the Chinese Foreign Ministry shared a doctored image of an Australian soldier committing a war crime.
“That was an important signal of solidarity and their thinking, unprompted by us,” said a senior government source.
In addition to Mr Sullivan, Mr Biden has named his former deputy national security adviser, Ely Ratner, as the top adviser on the Pentagon’s Asia policy. Mr Ratner has been described as a China hawk.
Mr Ratner’s appointment comes after Mr Biden tapped another former Obama veteran, Kurt Campbell, for the new role as Indo-Pacific co-ordinator.
Mr Campbell has been described as “Mr Australia” and one of the officials who will work under him on the National Security Council, Ed Kagan, will be another conduit for Australia in his role as senior director for East Asia and Oceania. Mr Kagan has been a diplomat posted to Canberra.
While Scott Morrison had a strong relationship with Mr Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, there is a feeling in the government that Mr Biden’s second-in-command, Kamala Harris, will not play a major role in foreign affairs as the new administration focuses on domestic challenges. Ms Harris also has the casting vote in a deadlocked Senate, tying her more to Washington.
The Morrison government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to building ties with the new administration that began before Mr Biden’s election.
This included ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos and other diplomats making private contact with potential appointees or through semi-public events such as webinars hosted by think-tanks.
Since the election, many of these officials became reluctant to talk to avoid a repeat of the Russian controversy involving Mr Trump’s shortlived national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
However, Australian officials have spoken to “influencers” or grey eminences such as veteran Democrat official John Podesta, who will not have a role in the administration but whose words carry weight.
For officials who may be little known to Australians, such as incoming Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, a former army commander in the Middle East, the government has scoured through the bureaucracy and military to find people who may have worked with them at one stage.
Mr Morrison has also instagated a structured approach across government departments for engaging with the new administration, identifying China, COVID-19 and climate change as policy priorities.
The government is drawing up specific and practical proposals to put to the White House as early areas of potential cooperation. For example, with Mr Biden campaigning on “Buy American”, the government will make the case that Australian firms can be trusted to be part of reconfigured supply chains in areas such as health and critical technology.
Mr Morrison dismissed Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s attack he had damaged the US relationship by getting too close to Mr Trump and failing to denounce him over inciting violent protests on the Capitol Building.