The U.S. and China rivalry has necessitated U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region to reconsider their relationships with the U.S. and China respectively. In this paper, we seek to understand the factors that influence variation in the strategies and behaviours of U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific vis-à-vis the U.S.-China power competition. We theorize that while the level of economic vulnerability of these states to China impacts strategies, the role of tensions in territorial or maritime disputes between these states and China changes the impact of vulnerability, affecting the strategies of these states. We hypothesize that the combination of lower vulnerability and higher tensions in territorial or maritime disputes with China make it more likely for U.S. allies and partners to actively help the U.S. balance against China, while higher vulnerability and a lack of territorial or maritime disputes with China make it less likely for these states to balance against China due to fear of retaliation. We examination the case of Australia's strategies toward and about China from 2012-2025.
