In ‘Australians in Asia, ‘Asia in Australia’, Knight explored the relationship between Asia and Australia and discusses how there was limited trade and economic deals made due to the anxiety that Australia had towards Asia. Australia had established a relationship with Asia in the late 19th Century, however, were reluctant to further their bond, due to their tie they had with the British Empire. Consequently that all changed after the Pacific war, where Asia began transforming their economic stance in the world.
Knight discusses of how Australia had established their relationship with Britain in the late 18th century. This relationship was the foundation of the Australia nation, where Australia relied heavily on the British empire for their …show more content…
Knight stated that Australia was still opposed to understanding the Asian language, even though Japan was the biggest exporter for Australia (p.229). However, that all changed with the Whitlam government where he removed the white Australian policy, introduced the People of The Republic of China, terminated deals with Taiwan with the anti-communist government and ordered the Australian forces out of South-Vietnam which ended the Vietnam War. Knight’s detailed analysis showed how Whitlam’s government began the engagement of Australia and Asia’s foreign and immigration deals (p.229). However, Knight’s method of analysis failed to form a coherent timeline structure, with the majority of the information is going back and forth decades, for example, he mentioned the White Australian policy in 1972 on p.226, then goes to the Japan war with Russia in 1905 p.226, but further down the page. Nevertheless, with the criticism aside, Knight developed an influential examination of the relationships between Asia and Australia and how it evolved from the British Empire to what is formed in present