At the NCC National Conference in February this year, retired U.S. Brigadier General Robert Spalding succinctly explained what he believed Australia needed to do to counter an increasingly belligerent Beijing. He advised: “Decouple , have industrial policy, invest in your people, science and technology, STEM education, infrastructure, and manufacturing; and, for heaven’s sake, build a secure, encrypted internet for your people where you can protect them from outside inf…