Courtesy of an academic of course. At the AFR comes Percy Allan, economist and a visiting professor at the Institute of Public Policy and Governance, University of Technology, Sydney:
…we must not forget that Australia targeted China before it targeted us.
- Blocked more than 100 Chinese imports using a dumping duty approach inconsistent with World Trade Organisation rules;
- Led the charge globally to ban Huawei from the 5G network;
- Officially condemned human rights violations in China without shaming neighbouring countries (e.g. India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, etc);
- Condemned China for breaching international law by seizing a disputed coral atoll in the South China Sea while ignoring Donald Trump tearing up international agreements such as the Paris Climate Change Accord;
- Banned China from promoting its interests and influence in Australia while not blocking other nations from doing so;
- Publicly requested the World Health Organisation to investigate the origins of COVID-19 after talking to the Trump administration, but not giving prior notice or let alone having any dialogue with China; and,
- Now banned virtually any investment from China or any bilateral co-operation between state governments and universities and their counterparts in China.
Finding a détente is essential. China insists Australia take “concrete steps” to fix the relationship to allow high-level dialogue to resume.
These seven points are all symptoms not causes.
The Australia/China relationship has collapsed because it was always going to. The relationship can be seen in two phases. The first, from 2003, was Chinese liberalisation and Australian commodity exports. But the structure of the relationship fatally shifted from 2012 to 2017 when Xi Jinping illiberalised Chinese politics just as economic integration with Australia evolved into services investment, which included a wave of foreign corruption and influence that undermined Australian liberalism.
By 2017, our democracy did what any free society would. Corrupted politicians came under media suspicion and disgrace. Various forms of influence were unearthed and exposed by the press. As alarm in the polity rose, the government acted to shore-up sovereignty.
The great thing about the recent collapse in relations is it revealed exactly what China intends, which is the structural alteration of Australian democracy so that it fits neatly within the illiberal CCP imperium:
That is, China wants to curtail Australian freedom so that it can occupy it without a fight.
How any Australian can defend this, let alone an economist who should understand that the basis of our prosperity is liberalism not China, is beyond my understanding.
