Australia refuses to match allies sanctioning China over support for Russian war

Singapore: The vision of volunteers racing to dig patients and staff out of the smouldering rubble of a  children’s hospital in Kyiv last week was the latest reminder that Russia’s barbarous efforts to conquer Ukraine knows few constraints, not even sick kids.

The Kremlin’s missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital came as world leaders arrived in Washington, D.C., for the annual North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit, where Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine once again dominated the agenda. By the end of the summit, the alliance had pledged a further €40 billion ($64 billion) in military aid and support to Ukraine, and affirmed the country was on an “irreversible path” to NATO membership.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenzky and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

But it was NATO’s decision to denounce China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war machine that marked a turning point among the 32 member countries, calling out Beijing’s duplicity in claiming neutrality in a war it is aiding by supplying Moscow with dual-use technologies used to manufacture weapons.

“The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” the NATO leaders said in a final communique, their strongest condemnation to date of China’s military support for Russia.

Beijing furiously denounced the statement. A spokesperson for China’s Mission to the European Union said it was “filled with Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric” and contained “obvious lies and smears”.

Australia is not a NATO member but Defence Minister Richard Marles, who attended the summit, endorsed the group’s message. He told the ABC last week that Russia and China’s “no limits” partnership was “hugely consequential for us in the Indo-Pacific. Lessons are going to be drawn from this conflict, good or bad”.

What to make of the fact, then, that Australia has not followed its closest allies – the United States and the United Kingdom, but also the European Union and Japan – in sanctioning Chinese companies accused of supplying Russia with the dual-use materials and equipment?

It is a glaring omission in Australia’s otherwise admirable and necessary support for Ukraine, which included another $250 million in military aid pledged by Marles last week, taking the total beyond $1.1 billion since the war began in 2022. It is a commitment grounded in Australia’s essential support for the post-World War II international order that democracies cannot be left to fall at the hands of dictators.

But it’s an incomplete one. As the ANU’s Dr Benjamin Herscovitch points out, the Albanese government has been a prolific user of sanctions, slapping them on Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, and, of course Russia. As recently as May, Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned that “those who provide material support to Russia’s illegal and immoral war will face consequences” as she announced further sanctions on North Korean entities supplying arms and material to Russia.

The message probably heard in Beijing, Herscovitch says, is that “Canberra is a paper tiger on this issue”. That China can be a “decisive enabler” to Russia’s destruction of hospitals, killing of civilians, terrorisation of the Ukrainian people, and attempted takeover of a sovereign nation largely without consequence when it comes to Australia’s foreign policy settings – save for some strongly worded statements – is not the lesson Marles and Wong would be hoping to impart.

Analysis by the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre in March noted that China was exporting more than $US300 million ($442 million) worth of dual-use products each month that were considered by the US, UK, EU and Japan as “high priority” items for weapons production. This includes equipment and raw materials such as semiconductors, microchips and radar technology needed to produce missiles, drones and tanks.

The reality is we don’t know why the Australian government has not taken the step of sanctioning Chinese companies. Wong, as the minister responsible for the country’s sanctions regime, has not been pressed on the issue publicly, and questions put to her office failed to elucidate an answer.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said that Albanese and Wong had raised concerns about “Chinese companies implicated in Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion directly with China”. The spokesman noted that the government did not speculate on considerations about sanctions.

There’s no question that decisions around sanctions are enormously complex but, in the absence of any clarity on the government’s thinking, speculation is all we’ve got.

“The calculation could be that Australia is only a peripheral actor in terms of limiting the flow of dual-use items to Russia and the blowback closer to home from taking a more forward-leaning approach to sanctions is simply not worth it,” says Professor James Laurenceson, the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, with a federal election looming late next year, will be keen to champion his government’s success in recalibrating Canberra’s relationship with Beijing after years of diplomatic hostilities under the Morrison government. This includes the lifting of $20 billion in coercive trade bans China slapped on Australia’s export industries in 2020-21.

It’s possible that hitting a slew of Chinese companies with sanctions could push China to change course with new bans, or stall the removal of the last remaining blocks on lobster and beef.

Russia is not the only country bombing hospitals. Australians are constantly confronted with the uncensored carnage coming out of Gaza on social media as Israel continues its bombardment of the strip. Tens of thousands of civilians are dead, many of them children, as part of an almost year-long campaign by Israel carried out with weapons supplied and financed largely by the US.

The war has become veritable fodder in the Chinese propaganda machine’s daily campaign to cleave support away from the US-backed international system, and weaken America’s status as the world’s key security provider. Its appeal is aimed at the global south, where grievances about the double standards of US power resonate strongly, and where China is strengthening its alliances.

Dr Anton Moiseienko, a renowned expert in global sanctions regimes from Australian National University, says one of the challenges confronting governments when it comes to sanctions are questions around the consistency and fairness of application.

“Whenever you sanction a particular group, a particular actor, then very often you would have those questions of ‘what about this other threat?’” he says.

“The best that the governments can do is to try and set out clear parameters within which they operate, and they try to follow those parameters.”

Freedom of debate and transparency in government decision-making are fundamental features of Australian democracy – ones that set us apart from China, Russia and the vision of world order they jointly seek. And so it is welcome news that a Senate inquiry established at the urging of the Coalition will soon begin scrutinising Australia’s sanctions regime.

The challenge now will fall to senators to put aside the lure of pre-election politicking and grandstanding and ensure Australia’s sanction regime is serving our national interest in the best way possible.

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