Liberal Senator Jim Molan says Australia and America both have “grounds to be concerned” by the threat of China.

In a joint statement, Australia and the US agreed to ramp up their deterrence strategies against China after condemning Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims and new sweeping security legislation in Hong Kong.

“The PM came out only two weeks ago and announced that he is so concerned with the deterioration or the uncertainty within the strategic environment that he’s put $270 billion over the next 10 years into the Australian Defence Force and areas that directly support it,” Mr Molan told Sky News.

“(The announcement demonstrated) a really seismic change in the way that we consider ourselves and our ability to use force, that is we are willing and able to use force in our own interests against malign actors in our region.”

Mr Molan said it was good to see Australia becoming increasingly self-reliant, not just the defence force, but also in manufacturing and cyber-warfare. Mr Molan added China’s general attitude of ‘picking a fight’ with its neighbours had turned many neighbouring countries into a de-facto alliance. “

(China’s) picked a fight with India, it’s always had a fight with Taiwan and at the moment it’s conducting an amphibious exercise within the close proximity of Taiwan,” he said.

“It’s turning so many of the neighbours, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, many of the south-east Asian nations, the alliance nations that we have, the Japanese, the Americans, the quad nations as they call them, US, Japan, America and India, they’re turning that into a de-facto alliance.

“I think that is going to be the long-term answer to our problem.

“One day, China will wake up to the fact that it can’t take us all on.”