The great thing about being a China hawk who is fighting against his own country’s sell-out is that my greatest ally is always China itself.
This is something that the domestic China grovellers cannot counter.
I have many times noted that this is the case:
- when Chinese interests were busy buying the balance sheet of Australian households via property in 2013-17, it was Beijing, not Canberra that stepped in and ended the trade with capital controls;
- it was China that drove Canberra to overreach in its systemic bribe of politicians leading to Malcolm Turnbull’s Dastayari laws;
- when China dropped COVID on the world, it was Beijing, not Canberra that rendered itself unviable for Australians: siphoning off PPE, obscuring virus origins, launching wolf warrior diplomacy;
- it was China that overreached in the Solomon Islands, triggering pushback across the Pacific;
- when relations were strained it was Beijing, not Canberra that fully exposed its agenda in the 14 conditions to end democracy and trade coercion.
Beijing’s compulsive acts in the Australian interest, and against its own, are the direct consequence of its dictatorial system:
- tyranny cannot allow opposition rumours and innuendo, it lives in a permanent state of paranoia for existence;
- tyranny cannot allow its citizens freedom of investment, lest it breeds liberty;
- nobody is smart enough to make all decisions, let alone glass-jawed apparatchiks like Xi Jinping.
And so, today we come to the end of the recent dalliance of Europe with China thanks to an embittered Emmanuel Macron who, I suspect, wanted to shove a shit sandwich down Australia’s throat:
French President Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic efforts to enlist China’s help to intervene in Russia’s war in Ukraine has suffered another blow.
The Chinese Ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, told the French network LCI that the ex-Soviet states don’t have sovereign status as independent nations, a statement that ignores the internationally recognized borders in Eastern and Central Europe.
Lu’s comments triggered furious reactions, particularly in the former Soviet bloc countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which announced plans to summon Chinese diplomats in their capitals. The Biden administration had already expressed irritation with Macron on his outreach to China, according to people familiar with the matter.
France is now in the court of Moscow as it seeks to reinstall the Iron Curtain. Well done, Macron!
This is the idiocy of tyranny. We can always rely on China to balls-up its push for power because it is only ever seeking to perpetuate itself, an utterly obnoxious and hostile system of repression.
And so, I raise a glass to Beijing today, for it is our own best ally against itself.
Certainly better than our own leaders. Take Wanning Sun, for instance. The professor of nothing (otherwise known as media and communications) has written the worst piece of journalism I can recall, and that is saying something:
Despite the recent sparring match between former Labor prime minister Paul Keating and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, the two do agree on one thing: Australia’s media need to lift their game. Keating was scathing about many journalists; Wong, more diplomatically, stressed the need to “lower the heat”.
Keating’s responses to questions at his recent National Press Club talk offended many reporters, in his audience and beyond. But to those who have a growing sense of despair over what historian James Curran calls “groupthink” in our media and public commentary — on the AUKUS agreement, defence policy and talk of a China threat — watching Keating tearing into journalists must have been almost as cathartic as it was for feminists watching Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech.
But can Keating and Wong jolt journalists out of a groupthink mindset? Is a soul search by journalists likely soon?
If you look at how the media — from The Sydney Morning Herald to Sky News — reported on Wong’s National Press Club address, focusing on the personal tension between the two personalities rather than an analysis of policy differences, you realise it’s business as usual.
Why should we not expect the media to change quickly? There are several reasons.
First, as recent studies have shown, when it comes to reporting on foreign policy involving China, the Australian media are already well into a gradual but progressive paradigm shift to cold war journalism. Central to this form of reporting is what media scholars have called “cold war-mindedness”.
What crap.
First, Wanning Sun works at UTS’s disgraced Australia-China Relations Insitute, which was founded by the same exiled Chinese billionaire that triggered the Dastayri Affair. That is, ACRI is a literal example of CCP bribery and propaganda. UTS has a gigantic conflict of interest via billions from Chinese students.
Second, the Aussie media spent twenty years groveling to China. This culminated in Fairfax and even ABC running paid Chinese propaganda leading up to the Dastayri Affair. The rising hawkishness of recent years is bringing balance.
Third, China is now permanently wargaming an invasion of Taiwan. To describe debate around this as “cold war mentality” and “warmongering” is pure Beijing propaganda, deliberate or otherwise. China is daily illustrating that it intends to annex Taiwan, via war if necessary. But shhhhh?
Fourth, James Curren is a card-carrying China groveller in everything that he writes on the subject.
Fifth, “lowering the heat” of the debate is not a neutral outcome. It is a win for Beijing’s creeping takeover. Cordial relations are the fig leaf behind which economic integration proceeds. This clearly represents a failure to prepare the economy for any oncoming China conflict. To wit:
The office of West Australian Premier Mark McGowan extended special invitations to Seven West Media to join a trip to Beijing, instructing other publications to request an invitation from businesses in China.
Two journalists from The West Australian, run by the Kerry Stokes-controlled publisher, were the only media added to Mr McGowan’s travel group. They were the only Australian reporters in China for the trip after other outlets were unable to secure visas for the visit.
Hand-picked journos by a China-addicted billionaire. That’s Wanning Sun and Crikey’s “lowered heat” media right there.
Keep up the good work…Beijing. We need you to keep tackling our China grovellers!
