WA should discover a bit of self-respect:
Mark McGowan has lashed out about Australia’s deteriorating relationship with China after $2million worth of lobster was left stranded in Shanghai.
…’We don’t share the same political system, we don’t share many of the same attributes as countries,’ he said.
‘But that doesn’t mean we can’t get on, that doesn’t mean we can’t work together, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to trade together.
‘I’ve said this to the prime minister numerous times … if we lose our trading relationship with China, that is in effect a mass reduction in national income.
‘That means big consequences for people’s jobs, employment and living standards.
‘We built a relationship with China over 50 years and we need to continue to protect that relationship.’
For forty years China liberalised which was worth supporting. Then it turned around and went the other way and we found ourselves building an existential threat to our way of life in the last decade as:
- China turned outright tyranny under Xi Jinping.
- China militarised the South China Sea.
- China launched systematic cultural genocide across its border communities.
- China undertook to bribe Australian politicians in influence operations.
- China sought to capture Australian universities via influence operations.
- China warped our media with lawfare, propaganda and other influence operations.
- China lied about a pandemic, demanded we keep borders open to catch it and siphoned off our PPE while we did so.
- China sought to bribe the emerging world with BRI.
- China crushed Hong Kong freedom.
- China daily insulted and bullied every Australian.
What did we do? Sold it stuff. Welcomed Chinese to become Australians. Sought clarity on a once per century pandemic. Pushed back in a basic way against a toxic white-collar insurgency. And did our best to defend the multilaterialism that gives China room to move.
In short, we did nothing wrong as China transformed from liberalising hope into neo-Nazi horror story and global pariah.
WA needs to get over it. The China era is over thank god. We were fine before it and we will be fine after it.
