Via Paul Kelly:
Australia risks talking itself into a strategic and financial dilemma — more convinced than ever of a dangerous threat from a China destabilising the region at the precise time our national budget spending is shot to pieces from the pandemic.
The COVID-19 legacy both weakens Australia’s financial position and intensifies its deepening tension with China. That contradiction demands a selective and tough-minded national security policy, unlike much of the wild rhetoric of the past fortnight. What counts are the tools to manage an assertive China along with telling the public the price it might have to pay for an antagonistic China relationship.
In an interview with Inquirer, former head of both the Defence Department and Foreign Affairs and Trade Department, a former ASIO chief and Washington ambassador, Dennis Richardson, outlines the principles to follow and the traps to avoid. His core message is to beware the flawed prescriptions of the national security hawks.
Richardson warns government cannot be turned over to a sweeping national security agenda fuelled by anti-China sentiment, pandemic-induced multiple security alarms, protectionist industry policy and changes to elevate security over economic and foreign investment necessities.
This is all well and good if you have faith in Australian institutions to act in the national interest, which includes the protection of the democracy and our freedoms.
But why would you? What is the evidence for how our institutions are coping with Chinese influence?
At the political level it was close to disastrous two years ago. Chinese influence was erupting in both political parties via cash donations. There’s been some pushback since. But a CCP stooge still holds the Government’s majority in her hand today and the ALP is riven by Chinese influences from the ground up. Political normatives have shifted away from Chinese influences somewhat, for now, but its hardly a battle that is won. The bribes keep flowing into political parties and nothing structural has been done to stop them.
Another problem is in Australian capital. Here the Chinese influence is rampant. From iron ore to apartment builders, Chinese profits dictate terms. There is no will here to defy China.
A related problem is the universities, which have been comprehensively bribed into suppressing free speech, actively spreading CCP propaganda, co-operative research producing tyranny tech and treasonous activity any time the flow of kiddies is interrupted. This demands a royal commission to clean it up. Yet where is it?
The media is also an issue. Much of it relies upon real estate inflation for profits these days. The flow of Chinese property buyers is a material component of this and has corrupted viewpoints for many years. Where is the push to clean it up?
And all of these institutions at once are supportive of the mass immigration model of growth that strengthens CCP influence, both by increasing the size of the Chinese diaspora, which will win more seats in parliament for the CCP to bully and by yoking growth ever closer to the supply of Chinese largesse.
Sure it will cost Australia to defend itself. But the notion that you have a choice is wrong. The CCP has damn near stolen Australia from under our noses already. Our institutions have barely held on and many are utterly corrupted with no redress in sight.
As a culture, Australians are not driven by a strong moral centre, they are ethically lazy, pragmatic and irreligious. They are easily bought.
The conclusion is straight forward. If you do not choose to keep China at bay today then you are choosing the CCP to govern your children tomorrow.
