The plan for an Asia Pacific Community (see here, here and here for analysis on the Asia Pacific Community) is another level up from the $62 million Labor pledged for Asian language teaching in Australia.

Rudd’s immediate plan on the latter front would see Australians equipped with the necessary language skills to take effective advantage of opportunities throughout Asia. His goal, in the longer-term, is to fashion an Australia that’s regarded as the ‘go-to place’ when it comes to knowledge of the wider region.

Yet the ambition goes well beyond that. As Rudd said in Singapore, the way in which countries like Australia and Singapore respond to China’s rise will be critical to their fortunes in the future. Which in turn means, as Rudd said, that, ‘how countries … seek to influence China’s view of its role and responsibility in the merging global and regional order, is also of great importance.’

An Asia-literate Australia, part of an Asia Pacific Community, might just hand Australia the role Rudd hopes it might play in an increasingly China–dominated future.