Australia’s confused & confusing stand on China
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May 18, 2020
by Susan Safi for The Saker Blog
To understand what is happening between China and Australia
currently, we need to examine some of the undercurrents in Australian
politics and culture.
In the West, including Australia, “Democracy” has been presented to
and instilled in the people as the measure of civilization, development
and justice. Maybe there was a time when this was true for some,
provided they turned a blind eye to so many things.
This writer once believed democracy could be achieved by stronger,
skilful participation in a political party where motions voted on and
passed could even make their way into national policy. This is how it
looked in Australia because the framework was there. Having ongoing
access to Senators, Ministers, Members of Parliaments, shadow ministers
and other senior politicians in opposition and smaller parties,
indicated an accessible, tangible semblance of democracy where ideas,
concerns, contributions to solutions could be freely discussed,
including issues related to foreign policy, security and agricultural
innovations. But was it all a cynical game? Some politicians, before
they reached the most senior positions, were honest about many issues.
One of them, not too long ago, told us in confidence something we
already knew; that the West was supporting terrorists to take down the
Syrian government. Did any of those politicians we had frank discussions
with truly possess any power to discuss such issues or opinions with
their peers and in parliament? If they had, would they have got away
with flouting the “rules”; that is, to never go against big power
interests, the American Embassy and any other big lobbies with clout.
This is the status of democracy when it comes to Australia, and it
should not be a surprise to anyone.
But is there also a cultural side to the current problem being
discussed. Australia has a history of believing that it cannot stand
alone and must have a protector, a strong military alliance with the
biggest power of the day; first it was Britain, the former colonizer and
then the USA. Until the end of the Second World War, Australia saw
Britain as its protector, despite Australian soldiers being used as
expendable cannon fodder by the Empire during WWI. But that was not
enough to nudge Australia into waking up and seeking neutrality. The
fear of invasion regularly entered the national discourse, likely at
strategic times pushed along by government propaganda. After WWII, the
geopolitical shifts led to Australia welcoming the United States as the
new protector and ally. Australia is also a member of the intelligence
alliance known as “Five Eyes” as well as the military ANZUS Alliance.
Even in the political framework, which is based on a duopoly, a
two-party system, each of the two major parties in Australia considers
its political ally to be either the American “Republicans” or the
“Democrats”. The two major political parties in Australia disagree and
fight over every issue regardless how insignificant, but the one thing
they both would never re-visit, is their bi-partisan approach to
following America’s directives on foreign policy. And, when America asks
Australia to jump, the Prime Minister answers “how high?” and the
opposition does not bat an eyelid. Never mind what wars and mischief any
of those American administrations involved themselves in, started or
lied themselves into, dragging their small, compliant ally, Australia,
into sharing the blame but not the “spoils” of wreaking death,
destruction and sheer piracy world-wide, under the guise of “protecting
our way of life”.
The COVID-19 issue seems to have caused some unintended consequences
in terms of the perceptions and realities of the order of the world. Are
the people of Australia going to allow their leadership, whatever party
they come from, to, as usual, follow the orders of their “master” and
sink with them to the bottom of the sea? Why would a nation such as
Australia, a wealthy country with everything going for it do that? Does
its leadership in parliament and its leadership–in-waiting truly think
their great “ally” and “partner”, the USA, cares one bit about Australia
and her well-being?
The only viable option for Australia’s politicians is to realise they
must urgently engage in serious nation building, ensure good relations
across the world and be officially a neutral county. Perhaps a good read
of the book “Dangerous Allies” by the former conservative Prime
Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser, might enlighten some. Here in
2014 he discusses his book. That’s a long time ago in this fast-changing
world. Why is it that Australian leaders don’t take heed of his
warnings? Australia must listen to Fraser when he addressed Australians
saying that (we) must “recapture our strategic independence”. Retired,
ageing leaders often are more open about such realities and have little
to lose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F69baWypks
So commonly in Australia, there are displays of anger and outrage at
some event affecting the country, intertwined with displays of a great
sense of victimhood. Have we in Australia not done a study to identify
our unique trading items which China badly needs? Have we not analysed
whether or not disentangling from the USA is necessary and instead
taking the road of neutrality, independently working on making that
important trading relationship with China into one of win-win? And if
that is not possible, have we not other trading partners? We need to
believe in ourselves and we need to show that we possess strong
bargaining tools and only accept fair, reciprocally beneficial deals.
Australia’s dependence on trade with China is not a one way street as
many Australians, including the media and politicians seem to portray.
It may well be the other way around. Afterall, Australia is by far the
world’s largest producer of iron ore, which is very accessible, of very
high quality and inexpensive to transport to China. As the largest
producer of lithium, a highly strategic material for military and
electronic applications, Australia is a reliable supplier of this to
China. Furthermore, it is estimated that by 2021 Australia will be the
world’s top producer of gold up from its current second position, and
although Australia should be storing great reserves of it, the bulk of
it goes to China. We have so much to offer, but we should come only from
a position of strength, and, above all, the approach to this trading
relationship should be from a national perspective of benefitting the
collective rather than allowing individual business tycoons to dominate
the relationship.
Australia imports 595 types of goods from China; that is 27.6% of
total imports. Of those items, 167 are apparently deemed as “critical”.
The rest of the Western world is in a similar predicament after allowing
its manufacturing base to deteriorate and increasingly becoming
dependent on goods from China’s burgeoning manufacturing sector. The
implications of winding down the nation’s manufacturing base and other
essential industries seem not to have been analysed during that winding
down process, and neither has the potential impact on national security
or compromising national sovereignty been considered. We are apparently
now in a situation where we don’t have the ability to manufacture common
medicines for the nation; https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/greatest-peril-study-finds-australia-most-dependent-on-china-among-the-five-eyes-20200514-p54ssg.html
The story of trade and relations with China, when it comes to
Australia, is perhaps similar to that of many other Western countries
where the good of the nation is not taken into consideration but rather,
the big businesses rush to China to make dizzying fortunes and quick
profits. The relationship of a sparsely -populated but resource rich
country such as Australia with China needs to be part of the national
development plan, and not a free game card for the tycoons. We somehow
need to change the culture of Australian politicians and parties who
only care about short-term gains, because they are only concerned with
getting elected and re-elected. If we don’t take action urgently to
awaken and alarm these politicians, where will their motivation be to
engage in substantial nation-building projects, ensuring the viability,
well-being and security of the nation and being true leaders and
servants of the people? We will in fact truly become “victims” if we
don’t heed this warning.
Australia should eschew all that is wrong with the ally we follow and
obey. We followed their footsteps in taking our manufacturing base
off-shore, thereby inevitably strengthening those nations and eroding
the backbone of what makes a viable nation. We followed their economic
models and many of their social policies, turning our backs on what
underpinned commonly held values in Australia. Where do we stand today
with the fall-out of the COVID-19 issue which exposes the reality of the
nature of ruin in United States and the fact that we followed their
philosophy of “the American/Western way of life”?
China often threatens Australia with trade sanctions and has already
imposed an embargo on Australian beef. And recently, the Australian
Trade Minister is having problems communicating with the Chinese because
allegedly they are not returning his phone calls. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-17/coronavirus-china-investigation-trade-barley-beef/12256896
The beef industry is up in arms trying to resolve the impasse, and the
government sees a silver lining in China’s rising dependence and
“addiction” to Australian baby formula milk. As a matter of fact,
Australian products are highly prized by Chinese consumers and are
regarded to have exceptionally high quality. This is a huge plus for
Australia.
It is as if the Australia Government is totally unaware of its
bargaining power and the extent of Chinese dependence on Australian
imports that they are unable to source from other suppliers.
China can get beef from Brazil or Argentina for example, but where
would China go to find iron ore in the quality and amounts it imports
from Australia? Where will it source its highly prized lithium from and
what about Gold? And this is not to mention other supplies of which
Australia is a major global producer.
The issue at hand here is that China deals with Australia
collectively. In Western language, this is seen as “totalitarian” and
taboo. But on the other side of the scale, Australia does not only
pander to the USA, but it also allows Australian companies to make
international deals even if they are damaging to the national economy
and security. In the Western language, this is called “free enterprise”.
With all the above said, the manner in which Australia deals with
China is rather farcical. Raising the ire of the Chinese would be the
fact that, on the one hand, Australia implores them to remove Chinese
sanctions on Australian goods, whilst at the same time, Australia
sailing out with their strongman American ally, into waters are under
dispute, just in order to demonstrate their “world policemen” cabal
status. Then, at this delicate time, adding insult to injury, Australia
enthusiastically participates in the US led push for an enquiry into
China and the WHO, with the implication of legal ramifications. The
hypocrisy of this all is palpable, a grovelling trade partner one minute
and a participant in world policing the next. China must look at
Australia and wonder whether this trading partner is a valued and
reliable one, or merely one that when it is necessary, needs to show
their loyalty to their military and political ally, America.
Australia needs to redefine its position in the world, be on good
terms with all nations, including China and America, on terms that can
be negotiated in a manner that suits all, with all parties on equal par
with each other.
Afterall, if land-locked, tiny and resourceless Switzerland was able
to stay neutral during WWII, why is it that Australia cannot even try?
https://thesaker.is/australias-confused-confusing-stand-on-china/
