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Australia and Japan continue to hope for the best from China, but they are putting in place mechanisms to deal with the worst.
This is the grave purpose underlying the new "special relationship" that Japan's Prime Minister has declared with Australia.
The two countries restated their commitment to the shared peace and prosperity of the region, but girded, unmistakably, for the possibility of war.
Shinzo Abe's appearance in Canberra on Tuesday ranks with Barack Obama's Canberra speech in 2011. They are companion pieces, threshold moments in the Western bloc's response to China's rise.
Obama's appearance gave force to his "Asia pivot" by announcing the US Marines for Darwin. Abe's visit gave weight to his reinterpretation of Japan's constitution to allow it to help defend its allies.
Last week, Abe declared the redefinition of his country's post-war "peace constitution".
It was a momentous decision that brought Japanese citizens onto the streets in protest and sent Beijing into furious denunciations of a militarist "coup".
But it brought relief in Washington. It was "none too soon", said the former admiral in charge of the US Pacific Command, Dennis Blair.
The move "should give pause to potential aggressors", he said, and "provides tangible support for the US pivot to Asia".
Abe told a joint meeting of the Australian Parliament on Tuesday: "So far as national security goes, Japan has been self-absorbed for a long time.
''Now, Japan has built a determination. As a nation that longs for permanent peace in the world, and as a country whose economy is among the biggest, Japan is now determined to do more to enhance peace."
Abe signed a defence agreement with Tony Abbott to allow the exchange of military technology between their countries.
"That will make the first cut, engraving the special relationship in our future history," Abe said.
Specifically, it will allow Australia to buy Japan's submarine technology, the best conventional capability in the world, in renewing its own fleet.
Abbott gave Abe strong endorsement: "Give Japan a fair go," he told a joint press conference. "Japan should be judged on its actions today, not its actions 70 years ago."
He embraced Japan as an "exemplary international citizen".
On Wednesday Abbott escorts Abe on a trip to the Pilbara. Why? "It's about the future," said an Abe adviser travelling with the Prime Minister, Tomohiko Taniguchi.
"It's location, location, location. Australia just happens to be on the same longitude as Japan. You happen to send your ships to Japan without passing through the contested areas like the South China Sea. My own take is that Australia will gain even more strategic salience for Japan."
In other words, for Japan the intensified relationship with Australia is all about hedging against a bellicose China. Abbott won't say so plainly, but Australia's embrace of a tougher new Japan is in search of just such a reassurance.
