It is not possible to understand China without understanding race and racism. Specifically, without understanding whiteness. Yet far too often the conversation around the rise of this new superpower is in predominantly geo-political terms, about authoritarianism versus democracy, about human rights — or whether we will go to war. But race sits at the heart of it all. We were reminded this week when China described the AUKUS agreement — between Australia, the UK and the US – as a race-based military bloc of white countries. China's Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, says that's how it appears to people in...