The high-risk reality behind the trade yarn spun by Andrews and China

The Australian, Friday:

Daniel Andrews’s Department of Premier and Cabinet has refused access to details of crucial national security advice it received before signing up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

BRI agreement with China signed by Andrews, October 8, 2018:

… based on the aspiration of promoting the silkroad spirit centring on peace, co-operation, openness …

Andrews trumpets another BRI deal, October 23 last year:

(One priority area will be:) Trade development and market access to enhance two-way trade between Victoria and China in agricultural products, food, nutraceuticals and cosmetics.

Guardian Australia, Wednesday:

China’s decision to impose tariffs on Australian barley imports has highlighted how reliant some sectors are on Chinese demand, with wool producers now “particularly exposed” by the threat of a further escalation …

The Australian, Thursday:

Victoria is locked in critical final-stage negotiations with Beijing over investments worth billions of dollars at the same time as its Treasurer has savaged the Morrison government’s “vilification” of China over trade and the COVID-19 pandemic.

China’s state-run People’s Daily, April 27 last year:

When Andrews was re-elected on November 24, 2018, he promised the biggest road and rail infrastructure agenda in the state’s history, worth $100bn. The whole project is linked to the BRI, he said …

The Age, May 2:

(New Victorian legislation) provided access to $24.5bn in new borrowings, putting the government on a path to more than triple state debt from the $21.8bn inherited by Andrews to $73.8bn by the end of the next financial year.

John Varano, Australian Institute of International Affairs, May 13:

Preferential treatment and access (to Victorian infrastructure projects) for China over Australia is probable … If a significant disparity arises, Victorians will consequently be impacted through the loss of business and job opportunities available to them.

Peter Martin, The Age, April 10, 2018:

(China lent African country Djibouti $US1.1bn) to develop a port (and in 2016) was granted a commercial lease at the port that quickly escalated to becoming a commercial and military logistics hub, and then a full naval base. By November 2017 Chinese troops were conducting live-fire drills.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings, South China Morning Post, Thursday:

Very few state officials have security clearances or the need to access information from our intelligence agencies and the national security establishment. The result is state and territory governments tend to be incredibly naive when it comes to dealing with the (Chinese government).

Andrews, media statement, October 23 last year:

We don’t see China as our good customers, we see them as our good friends.

Smash the US trade enemy! China’s Global Times, August 13, 2018:

The farmer once warned in pain, / How can you warm a vicious snake in your bosom! / Now we emptied our pockets to help you appease a storm, /

And yet you opened your bloody mouth to us and increased the tariffs. /

You use Taiwan as a pawn against us, /

And envy our Belt and Road Initiative and our high-speed train. / Noisy as the sparrows and crows are in the West, / China will fly to its goal like a giant crane.