In an opinion piece, Tom Plate, a professor at Loyola Marymount University, quoted Sarah Teo of RSIS in Singapore, who said Australia “must be careful not to overplay its hand [as a US ally] and become perceived as working to curtail China’s rise or of being dismissive of the smaller states in the region … [if it wants] to achieve closer relations with its Asian neighbours”. Teo’s essay, “Can Australia Be One of Us?”, appeared in a recent edition of Australian Foreign Affairs.