China doesn’t like our Japan deal? Bad luck

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attend a bilateral meeting at Suga's official residence in Tokyo. Picture: AFP

So China doesn’t like Australia’s forward leaning posture, having signed a new strategic defence agreement with the United States and Japan. Bad luck. It says if we treat it like an enemy it will be an enemy. Fine.

It is the duty of democracies the world over to treat non-democracies with extreme caution. Especially non-democracies like China, which have shown an increased preparedness to expand their sphere of influence, twist arms internationally and defy basic international norms. The rise of authoritarian states is something to be fearful of, not something to tolerate.

To be sure, we are not dealing with a benevolent super power here. The rise of China is the world’s biggest security threat. Forget the skirmishes in the Middle East, or the craziness in places like North Korea. These are micro problems. China is a macro problem.

Its willingness to walk all over the rule of law and due process is something to be feared. The fact that we are so economically reliant on China doesn’t change that. If anything, it heightens the fear and the worry Australians should feel. Hearing China – in full knowledge of the power it wields – amplify its rhetoric when we do deals with our like-minded allies only serves to confirm the value of Australia tightening its defence and strategic alliances as China continues to rise.

Yes, the risk Australia faces is that China retaliates each and every time it doesn’t like what Australia does. That’s what bullies always do. Because of our trade dependence on China when it does so we suffer. Businesses get worried. Our economic prosperity is put at risk. But it is better to fight and risk dying on one’s feet than eek out an existence on one’s knees. China wants materialist self-interest to lead more Australians towards the latter way of living (or surviving), but where does the bullying end if we go down that path?

The answer is it never does. Appeasing China is short-term thinking.

Australia’s ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, has talked about the importance of China working within the world’s rule-based order. Hopefully that goal will be easier once America transitions away from the Trump Presidency. Whatever the fears are about Joe Biden, he will adhere to international norms in a way Trump is incapable of. Biden is a deal maker, we just have to hope deals made are worth the price of admission. China just might react to the return to normal positively. Team Biden has indicated a desire to work with China.

But the prerequisite to the above must be China respecting institutions in a way it hasn’t done so far.

Australia has long been the ham in the proverbial sandwich when it comes to China and the US. One is our closest ally, the other our closest trading partner. Australian prosperity rests on successfully straddling the two. But if we are forced to choose, that choice is obvious: we are a democracy and we observe the rule of law and respect the international system. China does none of those things, and it is anything but a democracy. China is an authoritarian dictatorship, a bully and a subjugator of minorities within its own borders. We can’t forget that.

Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University