, Columnist
Australia Won't Be So Easy for Trump to Bully
A diversifying economy relieves pressure from big trading partners (and surly presidents).
Lighten up.
Photographer: Photographer: Pete Marovich/Pool via BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
When President Donald Trump berated Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull two months ago over 1,250 refugees the U.S. agreed to accept from Australia, the phone conversation was perceived ominously: A decades-old alliance that was already strained by Australia's economic reliance on China was now being put under greater stress.
In that narrative, Australia needed all the international support it could get to counteract weakness caused by a resource-dependent economy. Chinese demand for Australia's iron ore, natural gas and coal, the thinking went, could force Australia to comply with the whims of its biggest trading partner, especially if relations with the U.S. cooled.