Andrew Bolt: Paul Keating’s slavish devotion to China a disgrace that weakens the nation

Paul Keating, our vain former prime minister, has loaned himself to a brazen attempt by China to interfere in our domestic – and foreign – politics. How can he be so blind?

Paul Keating has disgraced himself by seeming to help China’s communist dictatorship divide the Albanese government and weaken the country.

Keating, the former Labor prime minister, will deny that’s his aim, yet check what looked like his good-doggie jump when China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, whistled to him to come again to heel.

Come see me in Sydney on Thursday, said Wang. Come after my meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Come, good doggie, come.

You betcha, said Keating, who cannot be faulted for his slavish devotion to a tyranny that’s punished Australia with massive trade sanctions, threatened war and launched cyber attacks on our businesses, government agencies and even Parliament House.

Paul Keating should have said to the Chinese Foreign Minister: ‘I see right through you’. Picture: Getty Images

What Keating should have said to the arrogant Wang was: “I see right through you. And no to this meeting. There is only one prime minister in this country, and it’s not me.”

Instead, this vain man loaned himself to a brazen attempt by China to interfere in our domestic – and foreign – politics.

How could Keating not see this? Wang is publicly honoring him because Keating is the most damaging pro-China critic of the Albanese government, having such influence within Labor that no minister dares attack him.

What hasn’t Keating said that China doesn’t love?

He’s blasted Wong for being too hard on China, deploying her “deeply concerned frown to rattle the China can”.

He’s mocked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a “befuddled” American puppet, waving “an American sword to rattle at the neighbourhood to impress upon it the United States’ esteemed view of its untrammelled destiny”.

Penny Wong was forced to remind China ‘Mr Keating … does not speak for the government nor the country’. Picture: AFP

He’s joined China in savaging our AUKUS deal to get nuclear submarines to better counter China, calling it our “worst international decision” in a century.

He’s laughably denied China has threatened us, and abused Taiwan, which China threatens to invade, as a “so-called democracy”.

Keating has even brushed aside China’s persecution of Muslim Uyghurs, claiming there are “disputes” about what China actually did wrong and gaslighting Australia instead: “What if the Chinese said – what about deaths in custody of Aboriginal people in your prison system? Wouldn’t that be a valid point for them?”

No wonder Wang Yi wants to feed China’s pet poodle, forcing Penny Wong to remind China “Mr Keating … does not speak for the government nor the country”.

One thing is clear about this meeting, other than Keating’s character. It’s that for all the Albanese government’s crawling to China, it’s never enough.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Paul Keating’s slavish devotion to China a disgrace that weakens the nation