John Hewson celebrates China grovelling as world flees

John Hewson has been a card-carrying fake lefty for years, but his nonsense on China in The Saturday Paper was a new low.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison seemed to go out of his way to visibly support the US position against the “China threat”. He was happy to do former president Donald Trump’s bidding in calling for an investigation of the “Wuhan virus” and for China to lose its developing country status in the World Trade Organization. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has sustained much of this, as well as scaremongering over the threat of war with China.

This is still an area for clarification with the Chinese. We need to make it clear that, even with the trilateral AUKUS security arrangement, we don’t see ourselves as part of the US war establishment, and that we will not support the US if it goes to war against China over Taiwan, nor do we subscribe to its “China threat” rhetoric or strategy.

In the spirit of celebration of the Whitlam visit, Albanese would be wise to follow the Whitlam example and the substance of his approach to China. He might also take the advice of Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, who has urged acceptance that “China’s rise is a fact that needs to be managed in a way that avoids frustration”. Lee concedes there will be “rough spots” that should be dealt with in terms of “a partnership which you want to keep going”.

…Mutual respect is a key element of an effective partnership. China expects and should be afforded considerable respect for its economic transformation, which has lifted millions of people out of poverty. It will be important for both sides to share a longer-term vision of the future of the relationship in our region, and of their respective roles therein, to which they can each commit in a shared effort to build that future.

…Close cooperation and association between our two peoples is both natural and beneficial.

What is it with former politicians and China grovelling? This piece is factually inaccurate, poorly reasoned and wrong.

Australians overwhelmingly subscribe to the “China threat” doctrine. The Lowy Poll says it all:

On mutual respect, China undertook the “silent invasion” in the post-mining boom period, bribing its way to power in corporations, universities and parliaments. We only awoke to it in the nick of time and it was Malcolm Turnbull that engendered the pushback, not Scott Morrison.

It was in Australia’s interest to know where COVID came from. Sure, PM Morrison was his usual divisive self. But his provocations ripped the mask from Beijing and showed us what it is really about: the 14 conditions to end democracy.

Moreover, opposition leader Peter Dutton has hosed off his rhetoric after losing Chinese diaspora votes in the last election. How about John Newson discuss what that means instead of encouraging the Khumbaya fantasies of the fake left.

But don’t ask me. Nothing speaks to the structural division between the vicious Chinese tyranny and liberal states than capital flows:

A massive retreat of funds from Chinese stocks and bonds is diminishing the market’s clout in global portfolios and accelerating its decoupling from the rest of the world.

Foreign holdings of the nation’s equities and debt have fallen by about 1.37 trillion yuan ($188 billion), or 17%, from a December-2021 peak through the end of June this year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the latest data from the central bank. That’s before onshore shares witnessed a record $12 billion outflow in August alone.

Even more revealing, foreign direct investment is in hard reverse:

This is all for one simple reason: risk. Markets have grasped that China is hostile to the liberalism that underpins their function, is planning war, has no intention of decarbonising, and has painted its economy directly into the middle-income trap.

Why Australian leaders of the 1980s can’t grasp these basic facts I leave to you.