China doesn’t need a military base to wield power in the Pacific - AFR

The article signals that China's Indo-Pacific strategy is shifting toward non-kinetic, economically-driven influence, reducing the salience of traditional military deterrence and making Australia's hard-power posture (submarines, bases) potentially less pivotal in preventing Beijing's regional consolidation. This undermines Pillar 7 (Alliance cohesion) by highlighting a asymmetric competition in which Beijing's preferred tools—finance, supply-chain leverage, diplomatic pressure—fall outside the AUKUS/5-Eyes domain.