Back in the brief glory days of Australian foreign policy sense, when PM Morrison sued for a partial divorce from China, I noted that the response from Labor was treasonous.
In 2020 and 2021, Australia was pushing back against the Chinese “silent invasion” as well as fighting for clarity on the origins of COVID.
The response was to come under attack in a cyberwar, suffer harm in a trade war, and endure daily insults from Chinese Communist Party media.
China’s soft power war on Australia culminated in the 14 conditions to end democracy.
The Morrison government counter-offensive took it into the hallowed halls of global liberal democratic power.
There, Australia served as a shining example of why the free world should band together and fight rather than allow China to buy it off individually.
It was integral to the formation of AUKUS.
Yet, while the Morrison government was defending the country against Chinese attacks abroad, instead of offering bipartisan support at home, the entire Labor Party grovelled to Beijing, led by then opposition leader Anthony Albanese.
“I remember Prime Minister [Kevin] Rudd giving a speech in China, in Mandarin, of course, which was critical of human rights issues, but done so in a way that also was designed to make clear our values but not designed to offend for offence sake,” he said.
“And what we were able to do, and the Howard government was able to do as well, is have relationships that built that economic interaction that was very important for us.
“This government seems to have presided over a complete breakdown of relationships.”
The Belt and Road agreement has been heavily criticised by Mr Andrews’ detractors and it has fuelled conspiracy theories as an intense spotlight fell on his government during the coronavirus second wave.
He copped heat over the deal throughout his state’s lockdown, and yesterday he was asked again by reporters whether he would be turning his back on it — given what has happened between Australia and China this week.
“This relationship is far too important to farmers, to manufacturers, to workers, to profits for Victorian companies and therefore prosperity for our state,” Mr Andrews said.
“This is not just our biggest customer, but it is all about jobs. We need a good relationship but it has to be a fair and respectful one.”
He called on the federal government and China to “refocus on trying to repair” their relationship.
“I just want us to continue to have good, friendly relationships with our long-term trading partners.
“They buy an enormous amount of our products, we buy a much smaller amount of their products.
“It’s been a beneficial relationship for both countries and I think we need to make sure we have cool heads and work things out by discussion and not confrontation.”
Labor Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk:
“What the mining companies are saying to me is the last thing they want to see are mines closed in Queensland,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“That could have an impact on Queensland jobs.
“It’s not just Queensland — it’s Western Australia … private companies are saying to us, as heads of government, that they are concerned for local jobs — and we are seeing that across now a whole different variety of sectors, so it is a national issue.
“We have National Cabinet next week, so I’m quite sure it will be raised at National Cabinet.”
I continue to be worried about the ease (or, in some cases, excitement) with which some public figures talk loosely about the possibility of war. I include in this our alternative prime minister, Peter Dutton, who as defence minister declared it “inconceivable” that Australia would not join such a war — as though we are discussing some minor re-run of Margaret Thatcher in the Falklands, rather than a conflagration that could lead to World War III.
…It is to all our benefit that Prime Minister Albanese has taken the temperature down in Australia-China relations in his recent meeting with President Xi Jinping. Just as it is good that presidents Biden and Xi had done likewise for the US-China relationship for the immediate period ahead.
…the core strategic challenge for medium- to long-term US-China and Australia-China relations outlined above should no longer be kicked around as a domestic political football — either to win favour within the internal politics of the tawdry conservative political ecosystems of the Liberal and National parties, or as an attempted electoral wedge against Labor for being allegedly soft on China, as Dutton and Morrison sought to do during the last election, and spectacularly failed.
Not to mention the endless anti-Americanism and Beijing grovelling from Labor greybeards like Paul Keating and Gareth Evans.
Even more damning, once in power, Anthony Albanese has led a policy push that looks quite a bit like the 14 conditions to end democracy.
- Instead of diversifying exports like everybody else, Albo has concentrated it in China.
- Instead of repatriating supply chains, Albo has concentrated them in China.
- Instead of continuing the cleansing of clandestine Chinese influence in our parliaments, he has gone soft.
- Instead of bringing sanitising sunshine to all transactions, such as universities, he has buried them in yesteryear’s corrupt darkness.
- Instead of spending time at the G7 coordinating the China pushback a’la ScoMo, he goes to Beijing on his knees.
- Instead of saying “China” when we mean “China,” he has issued a fatwa against using the name.
- Instead of banning Chinese WeChat or TikTok, he bans American media.
- Instead of defending the “anti-China think tank” (ASPI) he is moving to defund it.
Fast forward to today and Labor’s national betrayal has returned to haunt the US relationship.
Kevin Rudd is deeply compromised as US ambassador after a string of ill-tempered insults thrown at Donald Trump.
Moreover, over the weekend, Emperor Xi cunningly feted Albo as his model leader.
Beijing has touted Anthony Albanese as the leader other US allies should follow as they juggle security ties with Washington and trade relations with China under the “hawkish” incoming Trump administration.
An editorial published on Friday in China’s strictly controlled state media praised Mr Albanese’s support of Beijing as a trading partner amid “unprecedented geopolitical complexity and uncertainty” after the election of Donald Trump.
The editorial in the China Daily, one of the country’s most influential mastheads, set the tone for an expected meeting between Mr Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of APEC and G20 leader meetings in Peru and Brazil over the coming days.
This is clearly an effort to further wedge Labor from the incoming Trump administration but it was Labor that handed Beijing the chance.
Labor is not all for China. Its commitment to AUKUS has been sustained, though even this comes under intense attack from within the party.
It is also the case that a strong alliance has unimpeachable support from the Australian people, constraining Labor policymaking.
But Labor’s recent history of China grovelling will rightly trigger deepening questions in Trump officials about how much it can be trusted in a China crisis.
Most pointedly, why should the US share its most critical strategic technologies with such a China patsy?
