A Chinese Communist Party newspaper has said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is making a “U-turn” on his China policy, adding that Australia’s “unhealthy political environment” is damaging bilateral ties.
The editorial published as a leading story by the state-run Global Times newspaper on both its English and Mandarin platforms also said Australia was exaggerating the extent of Chinese espionage activities in the country.
“Australia became an anti-China pioneer in the last two years,” it said.
The editorial compared Mr Turnbull’s comments about China ahead of his visit to the United States last week with those he made late last year — in Mandarin — on the proposed changes to Australia’s foreign interference laws.
“Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told Sky News that ‘we do not see any hostile intent from China … we do not describe China as a threat,'” the editorial said.
“He declared in Chinese last December that ‘the Australian people have stood up,’ indicating Australia’s national sovereignty and dignity brook no infringement.
“Is Turnbull’s China policy experiencing a U-turn in only two months? … Or was Turnbull acting tough against China only to divert public attention from domestic politics?”
The editorial claimed Australian politicians sometimes “play the China card” because of political issues at home.
“The country’s unhealthy political environment prompts its politicians to play the China card. Apparently, the above cannot be altered in the short run, and will exert long-term negative effects on Sino-Australian ties,” it said.
“Turnbull’s remarks show positive signs for the Sino-Australian relationship. Canberra’s complicated attitude toward Beijing will gradually take clearer shape in the long run.”
The blow back for protecting our democracy continues though as I have said previously I agree that the Turnbull Government has overblown its rhetoric, party for politics and partly because it is inept.
There’s blow back at home too, from paid China-spuiker Professor James Laurenceson, deputy director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS:
As I sit at my desk contemplating the latest round of panicky comments about China’s influence operations in Australia – including claims about how they are supposedly undermining the military technology lead of the US – my attention keeps being drawn to two astonishing statistics.
Both are in a US National Science Foundation report published in January. The first standout conclusion: no less than 23 per cent of US international articles in science and engineering are now co-authored with Chinese collaborators. This is up from a mere 5 per cent in 2002.
Researchers in the US these days are nearly twice as likely to work with those in China than those in the UK, which finished in second place.
The Australian share was just 6 per cent.
So the reality on the ground is that Donald Trump’s America is living cheerfully with China being its premier international research partner.
…Yet academic Clive Hamilton, whose new book says Australia is in danger of becoming a Chinese puppet state, would have our universities abandon joint research with China in artificial intelligence and other areas, such as supercomputing. That’s right, abandon research collaboration with China in the very areas the US has so enthusiastically embraced.
How about on per capita basis? Is 6% of Australian research output in collaboration with Chinese unis in these selected areas really so awful? We’re only 0.3% of the global population. We could do a better assessment based upon the number of researchers but given how high 6% is in per capita terms it’s probably still going to show us outperforming.
Rather than the absence of some alleged paranoia, the US lead is more likely the result of their huge investment in these disciplines, especially biosciences. And from Chinese seeking to take advantage of the US’ huge lead in technology funding. Professor Laurenceson would be better off arguing for a boost in these areas for Australia if that’s what bothers him.
Resign from the pro-Chinese spruik tank, founded with the very Chinese dough that is now in question, then we’ll take you seriously James.
