What Went Wrong, Australia?

"In April 2015, in Beijing, China, President Xi Jinping assured me that China and Australia did not have historical animosities or conflicting fundamental differences. Chinese investment in Australia was growing year by year, over 200,000 Chinese students were at Australian universities and 133 flights went from Chinese cities to Australian cities every week."

"The president acknowledged our two countries had different values and would differ on issues from time to time. But any differences could be dealt with in a constructive fashion."

Malcolm Turnbull, Australian Prime Minister, 2015/2018 

La Trobe University’s Bec Strating, right, in conversation with former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull, left, and Kevin Rudd (Supplied)

 

What went wrong with this neighbourly live-and-let-live arrangement of prosperous trade and academic cooperation? Australia, an independent sovereign nation with the courage to find fault where it exists and to comment negatively on it, viewing China's aggression from the perspective of other neighbours bearing the brunt of a powerful nation's territorial aggression victimizing them in disputed territories, found a champion in Australia. And Australia found an enemy in China.

In 2017 Beijing took great umbrage at Australia's criticism of its unilateral and illegal building and militarization of islands in the South China Sea, giving it the impetus and bold impulse to suggest that the neighbourhood bully think again, consider its relations with its neighbours and consult with them. Much less respect the decision of the International Court of Arbitration and abide by the internationally recognized law of the sea.

China has a long, unforgiving memory; it will not tolerate being slighted criticized, or confused with a country that just shrugs off constructive advice. A year later Australia passed new laws that would prohibit corrupt, coercive or covert interference in the country's political arena. A law that looks and sounds and appears by all metrics as a descriptive of China. Recognizing the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department which establishes itself comfortably in other countries to direct and coerce Chinese expatriates living as citizens of other countries.

China does not recognize citizenships gained by Chinese expatriates. It expects and calls upon all Chinese to honour their land of birth as an imperative, and to collaborate and cooperate with Beijing's values, to the extent of betraying their adopted countries' values and laws in favour of China's. Beijing strenuously objected to this new Australian law, enacted to honour and protect Australian sovereignty. China recognizes only its own sovereignty.

Still in 2018, the Australian government, as one of the Five Eyes intelligence group comprised of the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, made the decision that Huawei telecommunications would be banned from participating in Australia's 5G communications networks, in the knowledge this was the right step to take in mitigating the real risk of cyber espionage. 

The final death knell to smiling relations between China and Australia was struck two years later when Mr. Turnbull's successor as Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, proposed the intelligence-gathering utility of an independent enquiry into the origins of the Wuhan virus. Leading to a deep freeze in the two countries' relations and to crippling trade sanctions, imposed by China as punishment for unforgivable audacity on the part of Australia.

 

Canberra sees suffering economic repercussions for “standing up to China” as a badge of honor. Brendon Thorne—Bloomberg/Getty Images

 

Australia winced but would not backtrack while their exporters looked for other markets to ensure the economic impact would be marginal. Ironically, China is now in the throes of an energy crisis and took steps to resume its imports of Australian coal. Beijing's obnoxious aggressiveness has led to the Australian public, like the public in Canada, regarding China in a far less favourable view than it formerly enjoyed. 

That view has been spreading to others within the international community and for very similar reasons; Beijing's aggressive entitlements from its territorial imperative that land, sea and air whose borders are in question and as yet unresolved, are China's to possess. Added to China's relentless search for control of rare earth minerals, and other natural resources in international markets hugely reliant on them for their future technical advances.

 

Chinese detention facility for Uyghurs in Xinjiang (East Turkestan) Province  NYT

“'Chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes'," That’s how Hu Xijin, the editor of the Chinese Communist Party–run Global Times, described Australia last year. The disparaging description is typical of the disdain that China’s diplomats and propagandists have often shown toward governments that challenge Beijing—like Australia’s."

"China is now the great power of Asia—or so Beijing believes—but those pesky Australians, mouthing off about human rights and coronavirus investigations, refuse to bend the knee. Beijing has turned to economic pressure to compel Australia to fall in line. 'Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off', Hu wrote, of the gum and of Australia. But the Australians have proved impossible to shake, and have instead caused some embarrassment for their image-obsessed tormentor."

The Atlantic