MB has won the China debate. Readers will remember a time in the not too distant past when legends of Australian journalism, business and politics were still intent upon selling Australian feedom to China for a few yuan more.
Thankfully that time has passed. Normatives have diametrically flipped and the accepted wisdom of today is that China is dangerous, courting it is at best stupid and probably treasonsous, and preparing for a deterioration in its behaviour is the priority.
This was made clear last night by that bastion of bourgeois dross, Q&A, which took Paul Keating’s recent kowtowing to the woodshed:
Paul Keating’s views on China have been labelled “entirely wrong” on Q+A, with the former prime minister accused of basing his beliefs on 1970s politics.
Mr Keating addressed the National Press Club on Wednesday in a wide-ranging discussion on China.
He said Australia should not get involved in tensions over Taiwan and “China does not represent a contiguous threat to Australia”.
His remarks came amid renewed tensions between Canberra and Beijing over trade and human rights, as well as Australia’s recent AUKUS defence pact.
Mr Keating’s comments were championed by China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson but on Q+A, they were described as everything from “wrong” to “delusional”.
Nine’s political editor Chris Uhlmann was most strident in his criticism of Mr Keating.
“He said China was not a threat.
“I have a list in front of me that was handed to my colleague last year of 14 demands of Australia that was handed to him by a Chinese official and it was backed in by the foreign ministry and by the Chinese media.
“It complains about the fact Chinese companies have been stopped from foreign investment, that we banned Huawei from the rolling out of 5G, called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 and things our MPs and papers say.
“If you don’t believe there’s a clear and present danger, there is a threat from China, you’re either delusional or wilfully blind.”
International relations expert Lavina Lee said Mr Keating’s views on China were out of touch with the current political climate.
“I think that’s a kind of wrong basis from which to act.”
Dr Lee said Australia was not the only nation in the Asia Pacific region to have issues with China.
“Australia is not an outlier here,” she said.
“China is the only dissatisfied power in Asia, in the region.
“It is revisionist and it has expanded its ideas of what its territorial borders are. It used to be satisfied with consolidating control over its land borders in Xinjiang and Tibet.
“Now it sees the South China Sea and the East China Sea as part of its natural territory and seeks a permanent presence there.”
China has been vocal in its criticism of the AUKUS pact with the United States and United Kingdom that will see Australia acquire nuclear submarines, and has accused Australia of threatening regional stability.
Dr Lee said despite China’s disdain for Australia’s AUKUS pact, it was one which many nations in the region could look upon favourably.
She said China needed to give “due deference to the interests of other countries in the region”.
“What Australia is doing through things like AUKUS is going back to the Anglosphere, but the fact remains we have a strong alliance with the US and the UK,” she said.
“We should use those alliances to build our capabilities.
“Other countries in Asia are actually looking to us to play a part in deterring and balancing China, to send it a signal that there are costs associated with [their type of expansionist behaviour.”
Some Asian nations view both US and China as bullies
Yun Jiang, managing editor of the China Story blog at ANU, said Australia’s move to immediately look to those allies reflected a racist in the nation’s foreign policy.
“When we talk about history and talk about kinship, we only talk about the US and the UK,” she said.
“I think that really reflects the fact the foreign policy establishment in Australia is very much dominated by white people.
“People only think of Australia in terms of a white history.”
Ms Jiang said even though Australia enjoyed close ties with the United States, many in Asia saw the US in a different way and as far from a benign or friendly power.
“From the perspective of a lot of countries in Asia, the US is not as benign power, as we see the US,” she said.
It was a statement that Uhlmann sought to shoot down as he suggested China was the bigger of two evils.
Dr Lee also said other Asian nations were right to be wary of Chinese interests, especially as President Xi Jinping continued to consolidate his power.
“I think we always have to be careful with the Chinese Communist Party’s rhetoric,” Dr Lee said.
“Their own narrative is all about being bullied by outside powers, yet, its current behaviour is about bullying other smaller countries in its neighbourhood, including Australia.
“Since 2012, China has been building islands, militarising them, bullying the other claimant states in the South China Sea, using coastguard, militia, stopping countries like Malaysia that have been extracting oil in its close territorial waters from actually continuing to do what they’ve done for decades.
“So countries in Asia are very wary of China.”
Should Australia defend Taiwan?
One of those is Taiwan.
Over the past year, tensions between mainland China and Taiwan have escalated through trade embargoes and rising military tensions.
Western nations such as the US have repeatedly stated they are watching the situation there closely, which has prompted warnings from China about the need for foreign agents to stay out of its policies.
Mr Xi has not ruled out China taking Taiwan by force in the future and the possibility of conflict in Asia has been talked about more in recent days and weeks.
Mr Keating said acting on Taiwan was not in Australia’s interests.
The panel mostly felt that military involvement would not be the right option but that Australia, in Labor MP Ed Husic’s words, “should have an interest”.
“We should be working towards stopping any military conflict there,” Mr Husic said.
“We should have an interest in what happens to Taiwan.
“They’re also one of the largest producers of semiconductors, one of the most essential items in electronic and tech all over the world.
“There is an interest in us maintaining their ability to produce because of that economic benefit that is derived from that and the importance it has. We do need to take an interest in what happens there.”
Ms Jiang said she thought Australia needed to “think about our interests” in regards to Taiwan and support democracy but Dr Lee suggested action if it was needed.
“Australia has agency in this issue,” Ms Lee said.
“So it’s in our interests to actually show support for Taiwan.”
With China the subject of such impassioned debate, the panel also spoke about the treatment of Chinese Australians.
Audience member Steve Khouw said he felt anti-Chinese sentiment was rising.
He asked Ms Jiang about the marginalisation she felt when asked by Liberal senator Eric Abetz about her attitude towards the Chinese Communist Party, during a parliamentary inquiry into diaspora issues.
Ms Jiang said she “underscored the point that we should not put a higher bar for Chinese Australians to express our loyalty than other Australians” before she went to the inquiry.
“They were actually not interested in hearing what I wanted to say about the increased suspicion on Chinese Australians,” she said.
“What they wanted to know is whether I would denounce the Chinese Communist Party.”
Ms Jiang said she felt as if her loyalty to Australia had been questioned and that she felt targeted.
“I should have the right to criticise my government and so should everyone here,” she said.
I guess we can allow ABC its racial obsession even though this was only ever about freedom.
The battle is not over. There are plenty of bought interests still at large. The ALP is still not fully cleaned out though its political radar has corrected. The universities are a giant China fellatio machine. The CCP useful idiots in the press will scream blue murder over every hot button issue.
There are big debates to come. Chinese immigration must be stopped to protect the political economy from Beijing’s baleful manipulations. The likely new Labor Government must be kept on the straight and narrow. Taiwan is bleeding sore and there is the entire recalibrating Indo-Pacific alignment oto manage.
But MB won the first battle which was to shift public opinion by poking, prodding, exposing and humiliating those on the take. With the obvious aid of the CCP itself, which could not hide its true nature once its plague arrived.
Now we can sit back and watch as the subaltern Australian press does our work for us.
