AUSTRALIANS would never sell out to China and would stand by their national principles despite calls for appeasement from Labor MPs and profit-driven executives.
Australia’s ambassador to Washington Arthur Sinodinos told a US audience this week that Aussies would never “compromise national interest to safeguard economic interests”.
Mr Sinodinos, a former Liberal Party federal Industry Minister, said Australia was always open to talking with China “but on terms that safeguard our national interest”.
BUMPY
“It can’t be a situation where we are being asked to essentially compromise our national interest to safeguard our economic interests,” he said.
“We cannot infringe our sovereignty in that way. That is why … I think we could be in for a bumpy time for a while.”
Mr Sinodinos said he believed Australia had always been principled in its dealings with China.
“Now if that is coming at an economic cost, we have demonstrated a preparedness, at least to date, to wear that cost,” he said.
“Do we suddenly say ‘yes, we will have Huawei?’ No self-respecting government can do that.”
Mr Sinodinos’ comments follow some mixed messaging from ALP MPs and senior Australian businessmen.
Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong has earlier accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of “mishandling” the China relationship and playing to a domestic audience.
“We need to think about the China relationship in 30-year terms, not in three-year terms. Unfortunately, there’s been a little too much, from the Morrison government, of reflex to short-term domestic politics on this relationship,” Ms Wong said.
Meanwhile, high profile miner Andrew “twiggy” Forest appeared to side with Chinese interests and against Australia’s call for an open enquiry into the origins of the Coronavirus.
COERCIVE
He has been stingingly accused of whitewashing the origins of Coronavirus as a cost of doing business with China.
Backing Australia’s stand, however, is US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Mr Pompeo said Australia would never stand alone in its quest to promote its values in the face of bullying behaviour by China.
“The US commends the Morrison government for standing up for democratic values and the rule of law despite intense continued coercive pressure from the Chinese Communist Party to bow to Beijing’s wishes,” Mr Pompeo said after this year’s Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in Washington.
“It is unacceptable for Beijing to use exports or student fees as a cudgel against Australia. We stand with our Australian friends.
“The burden Australia has undertaken to uphold democratic values is not yours to bear alone,” he said. “The US knows the threats that you and the rest of the free world face, the US stands with you in our unbreakable alliance.” PC
Any politician seen to put China’s interests or Marxism above Australian interests should be removed from office. Business leaders should be named and shamed. The “woke” mob is so keen to name and shame anyone who does not embrace lefty ideals, but is silent on national interest matters. Our ANZACs did not die for nothing and we should defend the legacy they left us or risk losing our freedoms and our children’s freedoms.
Wear the cost? We must, otherwise the cost of not doing so will be horrendous. Andrews and his BRI and current tyranny in Victoria is but a glimpse of things to come if we stand down.
Our Universities warm embrace of the Confucius institutes, and their compliance with with the directives from China has long worried me. I’m not sure that our VC’s are prepared to let them go.
To paraphrase a Nigerian friend of mine when I suggested that they would have been better off to stay under UK rule “I would rather be poor and lying in the gutter than be subservient to the Communist Chinese”.