It’s always nice when you give somebody enough rope to hang themselves. I was once a great Paul Keating fan but these days I look on with a mix of pity and wonder:
Former prime minister Paul Keating says the US is “exceptionally ungrateful” to allies like Australia who have long been loyal, urging Canberra to “walk away” from the AUKUS security agreement scheduled to deliver the nation a nuclear submarine capability.
In a wide-ranging speech at La Trobe University on Wednesday night, Mr Keating said it was “not intelligent” for Australia to be “owned” by the US and trashed the Quadrilateral security dialogue between the US, Japan, India and Australia, as well as the G7 grouping for failing to include Beijing.
“The Quad is a piece of strategic nonsense,” he said. “We shouldn’t be stringing together the US, Japan, India and Australia to try to contain China.”
…“The US is exceptionally ungrateful for people who have (supported it) for a lifetime. I am one of them. For two decades within the Labor Party … I supported the United States against what was then the pro-communist left.”
…Mr Keating said if he were prime minister, he would “say no” to joining a war launched by the US should China move to seize Taiwan. “Taiwan, I repeat, is not of vital Australian interest,” he said. “If I’ve got any advice for them (the US) it’s to stick to strategic ambiguity like glue.
“The chances of the Americans having a victory of Taiwan is nil, in my opinion, and why would we want to be part of that defeat?”
…The comments follow Mr Keating’s fiery rebuke of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Taiwan earlier this year, which he said was “unprecedented, foolish, dangerous and unnecessary”.
Mr Keating said there would never be “an operative, peaceful world” with the current G7 structure, a group of the seven most advanced countries – excluding China – which he said was “the stabilising power in Asia”.
“The US could run the world co-operatively with China. In other words, the US consolidates the Atlantic, which includes bringing Russia into Europe, and in the east, the stability is provided by the Chinese,” he said.
“And that model would be, I think, advantageous for the whole world, because the Chinese are not trying to overturn the existing system. Let’s get this clear: China is not the old Soviet Union. It’s not exporting ideology.”
Goodness me, that is naive. What does Keating call the 14 conditions to end democracy if not exporting ideology!
The Quad and AUKUS are paths to Chinese containment and may or may not be effective. Who can tell? But they are not the main game. That is Taiwan.
Keating makes more sense on the Taiwan issue. That war would be stupid and the US should absolutely stick with strategic ambiguity. However, I’m certain Keating would resile from the opportunity that such a war would present to boot China out of the global economy, which is the only credible threat that will prevent it from happening, or cost it enough afterward to end further expansion.
As for his concert of great powers running the world, well, I assume he’s been drinking. Aside from the pure innocence of it, in that construct, what happens to Australia in the Chinese-dominated zone?
I can tell you what: power and wealth for Keating cronies and Pilbara gulags for any underling that steps out of line.
What kind of repayment is that for the Australians that put him into public service?
You can see where Albo’s cowards find their mojo.
