Andrew Bolt: Why Wong’s warning on China shows faulty thinking

The threat of war from China is real and alarming — so why is Labor’s Penny Wong warning us not to speak of it?

Sure, it was funny when John Cleese stomped around in Fawlty Towers shouting: “Don’t mention the war!” But it’s frightening when Labor’s Penny Wong shouts it, too.

Wong, Labor’s foreign affairs spokesman, attacked the head of the Home Affairs Department for telling staff in an Anzac Day message we should be “bracing again, yet again, for the curse of war”.

Michael Pezzullo didn’t have to say “China” because everyone knows exactly who threatens us most.

Which is actually the point, right, Penny?

But Wong demanded the Morrison government explain how such warnings of war “further Australia’s national interests”.

Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Penny Wong. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Let’s take stock. China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, insists he wants to take Taiwan, a democracy with 24 million people, and his defence ministry warns that “Taiwan independence means war”. But Wong says don’t mention this war.

China sends up to 25 planes to test Taiwan’s air defences, and Xi has three times urged his army to “prepare for war”. But Wong says don’t mention this war.

US Asia Pacific commander Philip Davidson says China could invade Taiwan in the next six years. But Wong says don’t mention this war.

Major-General Jin Yinan, a professor at China’s National Defence University, this week said China’s critics in Australia were “white supremacists” and “if they do intervene in the Taiwan Strait issue, it will only bring them disaster”. But Wong says don’t mention this war.

Major-General Jin Yinan this week dared ‘white supremacist’ Australia to ‘walk on the forefront of the conflict’ over Taiwan.

Britain is so alarmed by China’s threats of war that it is sending a fleet of British warships and military aircraft to the Pacific to show it’s standing with democracies like Taiwan and the US. But Wong says don’t mention this war.

Australia is so unprepared for war — with a small defence force of 60,000 people, new submarines still decades away, nuclear weaponry banned — that the government is ramping up military spending to get weapons more suitable for a war soon with China. But Wong says don’t mention this war.

The threat is so real that the government on Wednesday ordered a huge upgrade of military training bases in northern Australia to support more exercises with the US — where we, in effect, practise for war against China. But Wong says don’t mention this war.

What is Labor’s preferred strategy? To hope China changes its plans if we just shut our mouths? To leave the public ignorant of the threat until it’s too late?