Australia, China and the torch
This week I got to witness the modern-day gold rush that is Australia's resources boom.
I paid a flying visit to an iron ore mine in the , a massive hole carved into the landscape where those giant yellow "Tonka" trucks work through the day and night to feed China's almost insatiable demand for Australian resources.
The drivers of these beast-like vehicles work 12-hour shifts, and when they need to take a meal break they are replaced at the wheel by fill-ins.
The production schedules are so intense, so tight and so relentless that there is no time for even the smallest halt in the production process.
A train full of iron ore leaves one of Rio Tinto's mines every hour - and the trains are over a mile long. The Anglo-Australian mining giant expects to double its iron production over the next five years to meet the growing demand from China.
At present, about half of the iron ore exports from the Pilbara head in the direction of China. It helps construct things like the , an amalgam of Swiss design, courtesy of Herzog and de Meuron, Chinese ambition and, in parts, Australian materials.
Western Australia is the beneficiary of geological endowment and geographic convenience - Chinese companies have decided its easier to import coal from here than Brazil.
Its economy is growing at 6.3% a year, twice the rate of growth for Australia as a whole. Productivity in the region should give Australia some welcome protection from the worst effects of the global downturn.
China has just overtaken Japan to become Australia's biggest trading partner, which is partly why the arrival of the Olympic flame throws such an interesting spotlight on Canberra's relationship with Beijing.
Kevin Rudd faces the most tricky and potentially perilous of balancing acts.
During a , he has already deployed his fluency in Mandarin to criticise Chinese human rights policy in Tibet - though he said he delivered his rebuke as a friend.
The arrival of the torch, and the demonstrations that will greet it, has once again tested his steadiness and poise.
The prime minister has said the police will come down "like a ton of bricks" on any unruly protesters, and has seemingly been happy for the authorities to construct a wire fence - the Great Wall of Canberra - on the streets of the capital.
But at the same time, he has decided that the role of those tracksuited , who Sebastian Coe described as "thugs", will be limited.
After much confusion over exactly what they would be allowed to do, the late, breaking news is that three 'flame attendants' will always be near the torch but have no official security role.
Rudd is also leaving town for the day, perhaps to disassociate himself from the whole event.
Whether the Chinese security guards will follow the Australian-imposed ground rules is anyone's guess. The Chinese ambassador in Canberra has already said they'll leap from the coach if the torch is threatened.
Rudd's approach to China is a matter of careful and closely measured calibration. Has he got the balance right? Is that fence over the top?
Was he right to limit the role of the Chinese security guards? And when it comes to human rights in China, should Australia follow its conscience or follow the money. Or can it do both?
I'm 
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