Kevin Rudd’s premature departure in March from his post of Australia’s ambassador to the US is a surprise, but perhaps not as unexpected as it might initially appear.

Rudd’s term had another year to run. Any extension would have been limited. His old job as president of Asia Society had opened up, giving him the opportunity to re-devote his main attention to China. He will head the society’s Centre for China Analysis.

Rudd said in his statement he’d always believed “the future of US-China relations […] to be the core question for the future stability of our region and the world”. Last year he published a book titled How Xi’s Marxist Nationalism is Shaping China and the World.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday described Rudd as “regarded as perhaps the world’s most eminent and sought after expert on China and China-US relations”.

There is no reason to disbelieve Albanese when he says Rudd’s decision to leave early was his own. Rudd and the Albanese government had ridden out the worst of the bumps his past mouthings-off had caused in........

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