This from far-flung Western Australia where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting with Defence Minister Stephen Smith at the Ausmin talks.

Last week, Western Australia premier (like a state governor in the US) Colin Barnett told parliament “a key reason” behind Mitsubishi’s decision to pull the plug on a A$6 billion deep water Oakajee port project “was tension between Japan and China over its territorial dispute in the South China Sea, as well as the Japanese group’s profitability slide.”

News Ltd reports: Barnett said he was surprised at the extent of the “total breakdown” between the nations in a political dispute that had huge economic ramifications, with the Chinese boycotting Japanese products.