Anthony Albanese cannot take Xi Jinping’s Trump-inspired conversion to free and fair trade seriously
Xi Jinping’s rampant disregard for the global rules-based order on human rights, sovereign borders, cyber and trade makes a mockery of his Donald Trump-inspired passion for free and fair trade.
The Chinese President’s overnight conversion cannot be taken seriously for a dictator who encourages industrial-scale theft of intellectual property, state-sponsored cyber-attacks and mass subsidies for industries, including clean energy, to destroy competitors.
The Chinese government’s indiscriminate bans on trade exports valued at $20.6bn to punish the Morrison government ahead of the 2022 election was the most egregious example of foreign interference in modern Australian history.
Trump, who prides himself as an unpredictable wildcard, could theoretically follow the lead of Xi in undermining a prime minister and shifting negative sentiment against an incumbent Australian government.
While Trump is nothing like Xi, his administration could potentially slap symbolic tariffs on some Australian products to exert maximum pressure on Anthony Albanese.
If Albanese cannot replicate the efforts of Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison in winning tariff exemptions from Trump, pressure would build on the Prime Minister to explain why he could not personally win a reprieve for Australian exporters.
The Xi of 2022, or when he claimed power a decade ago, is very different from the current day version. His economy is faltering amid a weak property market and confused economic policy.
Over the past week, the communist leader has been “speed dating” with leaders at the G20 and APEC summits in South America and pleading with middle powers to help Beijing advocate against Trump’s 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports. Trump has also threatened tariffs of up to 20 per cent on all other tariffs, including products from Australia.
With China’s economy flatlining and its mass population facing damaging downturns under Xi, the usually unflappable leader is showing signs of weakness. Xi’s invocation of the 10-year anniversary of his federal parliament address in Canberra to celebrate the China-Australia free trade agreement is a desperate move for a leader whose record is underpinned by irresponsible trade practices.
Albanese is walking a tightrope in balancing Australia’s US alliance and booming trade with China.
Asked by The Australian on Tuesday about whether Xi’s pledge on fair trade is disingenuous given China’s track record, Albanese said “my job is to speak on behalf of Australia … and Australia has an interest in free and fair trade”.
“China will speak on behalf of China. We’re a trading nation and Australia believes that there should be international norms of trade … that we should abide by them,” Albanese said.
“I raised (with Xi) the issues of human rights. I raised Taiwan. I raised cyber. I raised the supply of assets to Russia. I raised the ICBM missile test that I previously raised as well with the Chinese Premier. So, we raised issues that matter to us, to Australia.”
There are concerns that Albanese, his team and hand-picked US ambassador Kevin Rudd are unprepared for a Trump hurricane that will hit global markets in January. If Trump feels Albanese is drifting too close to Xi, he will not hesitate to enforce the full reach of his American First 2.0 agenda on Australia.
Amid expectations of either a March or May election, Albanese is under pressure to separate the economic and trade partnership with China and security and investment relationship with the US.
So far, Peter Dutton is doing a good job in winning back support from aspirational Chinese-Australian voters who abandoned Morrison in key seats and helped Labor claim majority government.
For Albanese, any overreach to China or the US presents damaging outcomes for a government and leader trailing the Coalition and Dutton months out from the election.
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