Fifty years ago in December, a Labor government led by Gough Whitlam signed an historic agreement with Communist China establishing diplomatic relations between Canberra and Beijing.

The price China demanded was that Australia agreed to the One China policy, which demoted the independent nation of Taiwan to the status of a renegade Chinese province.

Half a century later, the Communist government demanding that Australia sticks to that agreement, recognising the right of the People’s Republic of China to bring Taiwan under its control.

But is Australia bound by the terms of its 1972 agreement? Or should we follow our conscience by standing by Taiwan in the face of potential aggression from the mainland?

Kevin Andrews served in Federal Parliament for 31 years serving as a minister in the governments of John Howard and Tony Abbott, before retiring at the May Federal Election.

He is a frequent visitor to Taiwan from where he recently returned from a fact-finding trip.

He joins Menzies Research Centre Executive Director Nick Cater for this podcast conversation.