To date, the collective strategy towards China has been focused on countering its activities. Such an approach tends to leave one constantly on the back foot, reacting instead of leaning forward. And, the strategy is one dimensional – reliant almost exclusively on military power.

So how do Australia and its partners get on the front foot? By aggressively engaging China to connect with them in and around the South China Sea. For example, China recently established a base in Djibouti to ensure the safety of its commercial shipping from piracy in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia. However, according to 2017 and 2018 statistics from the United Nations and the International Maritime Bureau, these waters are not the world’s most perilous seas. The sea lanes around the Malacca Straits and in the Java and South China seas are where pirate attacks occur most often.

So why not engage China to use these new land masses in the South China Sea as bases for joint or combined operations with regional partners to block piracy and/or people smuggling? Additionally, such joint/combined bases could be used as forward staging areas for conducting humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations.

Instead of being bases to challenge regional security, they could be used to enhance confidence and co-operation with Australia, the US and other South China Sea claimants. These newly constructed land forms could also be used for weather radar sites, space tracking stations or for tsunami monitoring. The point is, there are endless uses that would benefit all nations.

You cannot surge trust, it is acquired over time. And, while China claims it wants to improve its co-operation and dialogue with Australia and other regional nations, there is no denying its expanding power projection capabilities and stated national ambitions cause one to pause and doubt China's sincerity when it comes to investing in actions that encourage and preserve regional freedoms and promote prosperity.

An offer to co-operate militarily with China would hold President Xi Jinping accountable for his 2015 public assertion at the White House that China would not “pursue a militarisation” of the islands it has made in the South China Sea. Such an offer would put the the ball in China's court - if it says no, it ought to explain why.

It is time for both nations to roll up their sleeves and get on with the job of forging trust. China's created islands in the South China Sea serve as the perfect means for turning rhetoric into action and doubts into conviction.

John Powers is a fellow with the National Security Institute, University of Canberra. He is a retired senior executive in the US Defence and Intelligence Service and a permanent resident of Australia.