China-Australia relations at low point following AUSMIN talks

China’s anger at Australia has gone up a notch with Beijing accusing Canberra of a smear campaign and “unbearable consequences”.

Australia is “hypocritical,” “disregards basic facts,” is “reckless,” tells “lies,” “has not learned its lesson,” and has “blatant double standards”.

That’s the damning assessment from China that in recent weeks has seemed to increase the frequency of its attacks on Australia.

It’s even had a pot shot at our diplomats saying the Canadians and British are far better at managing bilateral relationships than we are.

China watchers have said Beijing’s bellicose barbs aren’t “pleasant reading” and demonstrate a “palpable sense of anger and resentment”.

There’s no doubt China-Australia relations are far from great right now. But is China’s increasingly furious tirades something to be concerned about or just colourful froth and bubble?

In the last week, China’s embassy in Canberra, the foreign ministry in Beijing and the state-owned Global Times have taken potshots at Australia. The Global Times, which has direct links to the Communist Party leadership, has singled out Australia three times for a drubbing.

The roofs of the Chinese embassy, just a stone’s throw from the Australian parliament. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch.

The latest flashpoint was the Australia-US Ministerial Consultations, better known as AUSMIN, which took place in Washington DC last week.

Foreign minister Marise Payne and defence minister Linda Reynolds met their counterparts including US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. China was high on the agenda.

The Australian reported that the US and Australia had agreed to create a “top-secret defence co-operation framework to counter Chinese military aggression”.

Mr Pompeo praised Australia, “for standing up for democratic values and the rule of law, despite intense continued, coercive pressure from the Chinese Communist Party”.

Australia was more restrained. It resisted US calls to join so-called “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea which Beijing claims much of, a claim disputed by just about everyone.

Ms Payne said Australia would make its “own decisions” when it came to China.

Nonetheless, Beijing still hit back.

A statement from the Chinese embassy in Canberra on Wednesday said assertions at AUSMIN were in “disregard of the basic facts, violated international law … and grossly interfered with China’s internal affairs”.

“Any attempt to pressure China will never succeed,” the statement added. “We urge Australia not to go further down the road of harming China-Australia relations”.

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Foreign minister Marise Payne with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo at last week’s AUSMIN meeting in Washington DC. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / POOL / AFP.

‘UNBEARABLE CONSEQUENCES’ FOR AUSTRALIA

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accused the US and Australia of “hyping up the so-called China threat and smearing China”.

The Global Times, as is often the case, was someone blunter.

Australia was “likely to face unbearable consequences,” it said last week for “undermining China” in favour of the US.

Ms Payne’s more measured tones at the AUSMIN meeting were all a ruse, the newspaper said.

“Australia wants to fool China to avoid economic damages.”

Ms Payne’s comments were “hypocritical gestures of showing nice to Beijing”.

“Wanting to please everyone is actually pleasing no one. Australia will remain as a US henchman by dancing to the US’ tune to contain China,” the Global Times quoted a Chinese academic as saying.

“The relationship between Australia and China has now deteriorated to a very bad point and the chance for a turnaround is slim in the near future,” it thundered.

Earlier this month Chinese news agency Xinhua accused critical Australian MPs of “attempting to smear China with lies and push the China-Australia relationship to the brink of an abyss”.

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China's President Xi Jinping has taken an increasingly hard line against Australia and other nations. Picture: The Yomiuri Shimbun.

WHAT’S POKED THE DRAGON?

Trade unites Australia and China but much divides the two Asia Pacific nations.

Australia’s calling out of the treatment of the Uighur population in Xinjiang province; the trammelling of any pretence of democracy in Hong Kong; the banning of tech giant Huawei from 5G infrastructure, the upping of defence spending and the backing of an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic have infuriated China. Even popular app TikTok is in the midst of a diplomatic spat.

In retaliation, China has put tariffs on Australian barley and refused meat from some abattoirs.

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China has upped tariffs on Australian barley recently. Picture: Ina FASSBENDER / AFP.

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Last week, Alan Dupont from think tank the Lowy Institute said it meant Canberra was now fully in Beijing’s cross hairs.

“Although other countries have suffered comparable falls from grace, Australia seems to have been singled out for special retribution.

“There is a palpable sense of anger and resentment in the increasingly shrill denunciations of Australia by Chinese officials and the state-run media,” he wrote in a piece published in The Australian.

“Perhaps this is because hopes were once high that Australia and China could put past enmities behind them.”

AUSTRALIA ‘NOT LEARNING LESSON’

Ms Dupont said Beijing once believed the economic benefits flowing between the two nations may have been enough to draw Canberra further away from Washington’s orbit. If Australia wavered, some might other democracies.

“It must now be crystal clear to (Chinese President) Xi Jinping that Australia will not be charmed or cowed into obedience.

“The risk is that Beijing will decide to teach us a lesson, as it threatened to do with India last month,” he said.

The very same day Mr Dupont wrote those words, the Global Times warned darkly: “Australia has not learned a great lesson. If it still insists on going on the current path, the possibility that China will take strong counter measures cannot be ruled out”.

Australia has said it could allow Hong Kongers to emigrate to Australia following the passing of a draconian national security law. Picture: Anthony WALLACE / AFP.

CHINA NEEDS US TOO

However, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney Professor James Laurenceson told news.com.au what China said and what China did was often quite different.

He said that Beijing’s responses to the AUSMIN meeting was “pretty formulaic”.

“They are not pleasant reading from an Australian perspective but I didn’t detect a serious upping of the ante.

“At the official level the situation is plainly strained. But equally, for the most part, both Canberra and Beijing have had the good sense to let Australian and Chinese households and businesses get on with the engagement both sides see as being in their interests.”

He added that the Global Times’ stock-in-trade was overt nationalism. That might chime with some in the Chinese leadership but it was by no means the consensus.

“Beijing isn’t as trigger happy as it is sometimes portrayed. If China really wanted to use trade to punish Australia, it could have done so by now, and to a far greater extent than putting a tariff on barley and decertifying four meat processing facilities.”

It’s been a long time since China-Australia relations were so cordial, Xi Jinping could address the Australian parliament.

That’s not to say it won’t, said Prof Laurenceson, but it would be better to focus on Beijing’s polices rather than hyperbolic editorials.

There was also a danger that Australia could slip into a narrative of it being beholden to China’s whims, said the Lowy Institute’s Mr Dupont.

“China buys our iron ore, thermal coal and agricultural produce because they are high-quality and competitively priced, not because it is doing us a favour.”

It wasn’t desirable, or even feasible, to stop buying Australian minerals.

He added that if China’s aim had been to create a bloc to counterbalance the US, it had failed.

“Xi has already lost the Anglosphere. And Europeans have grown wary of China’s inducements and are increasingly irritated by the hectoring tone and threats of his wolf-warrior diplomats.”

Prof Laurenceson said Beijing was more “pragmatic” than it might seem.

“There’s plenty of reasons for them to more restrained, not least of all because China benefits from trade with Australia too.

“The complementarities between the two countries are deep. While this doesn’t mean economic engagement is impervious to political tensions, it is far more resilient than many commentators imagine.”