Andrew Bolt: Labor premiers playing dangerous game with Chinese dictator

China threatens Taiwan, crushes democracy in Hong Kong and hits Australia with trade sanctions. But that can’t stop some Labor premiers spreading its dictator’s propaganda.

Xi Jinping is one of Vladimir Putin’s biggest supporters. Picture: AFP

Some Labor premiers are playing a dangerous and despicable game. They’ve joined the Chinese dictatorship to smear the Liberals as “anti-Chinese”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was the worst this week, claiming “the Liberal Party are a nasty, bigoted outfit” who were “anti-Chinese people”.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan meanwhile accused the Liberals of “a lot of knocking of the China relationship” and “commentary that is highly dangerous about war”, adding: “I don’t agree with any of that.”

McGowan preposterously suggested Chinese president Xi Jinping could be playing peacemaker over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Andrews also splashed on the whitewash, refusing on his visit to China last week to plead for Australian journalist Cheng Lei, jailed for two years over fake claims of hurting China’s security.

Why? Because many ethnic Chinese voters here feel some loyalty to China and Labor wants their votes. So don’t criticise the dictatorship!

Daniel Andrews won’t criticise the Chinese dictatorship. Picture: David Crosling

Mark McGowan considers Xi Jinping the solution in Ukraine. Picture: Philip Gostelow

Talk about karma for the Liberals. For years Liberal governments welcomed mass migration from China, and we now have 1.3 million Australians of Chinese background.

The Liberals thought this would help both Australia and their party. Chinese Australians tend to be high achievers, and also tended to vote Liberal.

But that’s savagely changed.

Take the Liberals’ shock loss in the Aston federal by-election last weekend. More than 14 per cent of voters there are of Chinese background, which may be why Andrews spent the week before in China, pledging friendship to the dictatorship.

In last year’s federal election, seats with one in five voters of Chinese background swung 8 per cent against the Liberals, twice the swing elsewhere.

In last month’s NSW election, electorates with the most ethnic Chinese voters also swung hard against the Liberals, which NSW Labor MP Jason Yat-Sen Li blamed on the Liberals’ “fearmongering around China”.

China is indeed a threat. It’s threatened war over Taiwan, crushed democracy in Hong Kong and hit Australia with trade sanctions and cyber attacks.

But when Liberal governments spoke out and stepped up our security, China accused them of spreading “anti-Chinese” racism, and now Labor premiers are repeating that propaganda, confusing fear of the genocidal communist dictatorship with hatred of Chinese people.

How can any of this politicking make us safer?