Abstract: This paper contends that Australia’s negative perception of China has much to do with the way Australia constructs itself, which features front and centre in the White Paper.  Producing a foreign policy white paper, like making foreign policy in general, involves first and foremost the making of something ‘foreign’.  Without the existence of the ‘foreign’, then by definition it does not make much sense to speak of ‘foreign policy’. One reliable way of making something foreign is to talk oneself up in a way that sets oneself apart from that ‘foreign’ object.  This is precisely what the White Paper has done, which kicks off with a chapter on ‘Australia’s values’: “political, economic and religious freedom, liberal democracy, the rule of law, racial and gender equality and mutual respect.” As soon as those values are used to define what Australia is, China’s ‘Other’ or ‘foreign’ status becomes almost assured.  Understood this way, the depiction of China as a threat in the White Paper is neither a pure reflection of hard reality on the ground, nor a product of some inexplicable ‘anti-China’ mentality.  It is a function of international identity politics that underpins Australian foreign policy making.