CHINA views Australia as a threat to its planned domination of the South Pacific and will continue its aggression for years to come, an expert has warned.
Former deputy secretary of strategy for the Defence Department Peter Jennings said the Chinese government feared that Australia held too much influence over the world’s major democracies.
HUAWEI
“Beijing hated our decision on 5G not because of the value of the Australian market,” Mr Jennings wrote in an article in Saturday’s Weekend Australian newspaper.
“But because it judged our decision to exclude Huawei would impact what other democracies would do.
“That fear is turning out to be well founded.”
Mr Jennings said, given the current climate, it was imperative the Morrison government supported US plans to re-establish its 1st Fleet in the region.
“If Singapore is reluctant to host a land-based headquarters, then we should offer to be the hosts,” he said.
“Make no mistake, there is substantial deterrence value for Australia to have the US Navy and Marines on our shores, working with our military.
“Any country looking to do us harm would have to factor the US presence into calculations.”
In a Sky News interview this week Mr Jennings said the US might consider basing its fleet at either Freemantle or Darwin ports.
“These are the two most consequential naval facilities Australia has looking north and looking west.”
Mr Jennings said this was critical notwithstanding China’s 99-year lease of Darwin’s port.
“The government has the power to take ownership back and it should work to make the Port of Darwin and HMAS Stirling the military and strategic hubs they need to be.
CHICKEN
“There are areas in our region, the South China Sea, Taiwan, areas under the control of Japan where China is on a daily basis engaged in aggressive military games of chicken.
“They’re flying their aircraft into other countries air spaces and making challenges.
“I think a larger American presence here would give China pause and would also give the countries of South East Asia more confidence that the United States, Australia and the democracies have their back.
“That they don’t have to simply accede to China because it’s close and powerful.”
Mr Jennings said he expected China would continue this behaviour for some years and that the more they got away with, the more threatening they would become.PC
So China’s upset about Morrison’s call for a transparent investigation into the cause of the Wu-flu, because it has a cultural need to “save face”. That cultural need is well understood, even by children. Yet when it is pursued at all costs, it is self-defeating. Face is never saved by overtly acting to save face. A far more dignified response, from a mature state, is to show equal respect for the cultural needs of others. Australia for instance, does not cower to bullies. It’s time for Chinese Australians, who span both cultures, to speak up about maintaining a sufficiency of space for both cultural needs to be respected, equally. Of course they cannot do this, if they have loved ones living in the old country, who might be at risk of retribution.
Good article Sean. Thanks to the efforts of Andrew Hastie and like minded patriotic Labor backbenchers who form the group the Wolverines, the chinese threat is becoming better understood by the populace. The weak politicians premise that the relationship needs to be managed is code for rolling over, and eventually ceding our sovereignty to them. Of course we’ll take some hits when weaning our trade away from them, but it’s a far preferential outcome to them taking us over, and there’s sufficient trade to be had elsewhere to maintain our prosperity.
Yes, Australia has every right to defend its sovereignty and independence of decision making; we are a middle power with powerful allies and not a pushover that CCP seems to think.
While our exports to China are important we can survive and prosper without China!
CCP has made a few strategic mistakes within South East Asia and now it is making yet another with Australia!
Clearly CCP has very little if any understanding of our history, our culture, our Democratic way of life and our fighting spirit.
CCP’s banal, crude and arrogant practice of diplomacy is not a winning formula!
No doubt, there are some Australians who would sell their grandmother for personal gain; but I don’t know any Australians who would condemn their children and grandchildren to a life of CCP bullying and oppression for the sake of preserving export income. I think that most true Australians would agree with the PM – that our values and sovereignty aren’t for sale.