China is ‘cashing in on coronavirus chaos’: US envoy
The Chinese government has created a global pandemic through their “gross negligence, obsessive secrecy and brazen dishonesty” — and is now using it to advance their interest in our region, the United States ambassador to Australia says.
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The Chinese government has created a global pandemic through their “gross negligence, obsessive secrecy and brazen dishonesty” — and is now using it to advance their interest in our region, the United States ambassador to Australia says.
Condemning China over its culpability in the spread of COVID-19, Ambassador Arthur B. Culvahouse described President Xi Jinping’s communist regime as “bullies” who were trying to destabilise our region with a “shocking new vigour” while the rest of the world dealt with the health and economic consequences of the coronavirus.
Mr Culvahouse, nominated US ambassador to Australia by US President Donald Trump in late 2018, said that China was taking full advantage of the pandemic to assert itself in a fashion typical of the Chinese Communist Party “playbook”.
“What Foreign Minister Marise Payne rightly referred to as destabilising activities are hardly new tactics from the CCP playbook, but they are being pursued with shocking new vigour as the rest of the world is focused on combating the COVID-19 pandemic, one which the CCP — through gross negligence, obsessive secrecy and brazen dishonesty — first covered up while exporting it to the world,” he said.
“Sadly, in this playbook creating a global pandemic is treated as one more opportunity to advance geo-strategic objectives.”
Mr Culvahouse made the remarks in an article he wrote on the “unbreakable” Australia and United States alliance, published on a government and defence website Defence Connect.
His comments follow Ms Payne’s criticism of China for reportedly sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat and stepping up other “destabilising activities” in the South China Sea.
In his opinion piece, Mr Culvahouse asserts that the “unbreakable alliance” between the US and Australia is essential while the CCP has “aggressively deployed its navy, coastguard and maritime militia across the South China Sea, seeking to advance a spurious claim of sole proprietorship over this massive international waterway”.
“Having only recently sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat and locked naval weapon systems on a Philippine ship, it is even now in the midst of another outrageous confrontation over oil and gas rights within Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone.”
Mr Culvahouse described the manoeuvres as “Beijing’s heavy-handed attempts to unlawfully impose its territorial claims on the rest of the region”.
“To counter this, three US Navy warships were joined by Australia’s HMAS Parramatta for a series of important bilateral exercises in the South China Sea,” he said.
“This activity was an important demonstration that the US and Australia will continue to stand strong together for our timeless values and mutually beneficial interests.”
While China continued to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Culvahouse said he did not believe the “bullies” would win.
“This is why I believe we will ultimately prevail, because bullies don’t have partners, and they certainly don’t have friends who come close to matching the durable, comprehensive, and integrated quality of the Unbreakable Alliance between the United States and Australia,” he said.
“For the sake of all who value open commerce and the rule of law, we shall not go gentle into that good night.”
The United States has supported Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins and outbreak of COVID-19, with the resolution on it going to the World Health Assembly on Monday where a consensus will be sought on the matter.
China has relentlessly attacked Australia for proposing an inquiry, with its ambassador in Canberra last month threatening a boycott of Australian trade.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticised China’s economic retaliation against Australia following the call for an inquiry.
“Who in the world wouldn’t want an investigation of how this happened to the world? We would urge every country, all of our partners, to demand that we get answers for what happened here, but also that we ... get the transparency, that the world gets the transparency it needs,” Mr Pompeo said last month.
Mr Culvahouse, who has been in Australia for just over a year, serves as the President’s personal representative to the government and people of Australia.
In the piece, he writes that Australia and the United States share the same view of the world and have the same values.