Australia ‘louder than we should have been’ in criticising China, former Asio chief says

Former director general of Asio Duncan Lewis says Australia should not have been at the forefront of criticising China. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Australia’s former intelligence chief Duncan Lewis says Australia has been “rather louder than we should have been” in public criticism of China when a better approach, given escalating regional tensions, should have been “speak softly and carry a big stick”.

Lewis has told the Australian National University’s national security podcast Australia had been at the forefront of China criticism “when we might well have been better to have been one back and one wide”.