A well-balanced regional policy

As a former prime minister and current president of the international advisory committee of the giant China Development Bank, run under the jurisdiction of China’s ruling State Council, Paul Keating knows more than most people about Australia’s relationship with Beijing. But he has erred in asserting the Turnbull government’s foreign policy is “barren” in seeking to “contain” China while ignoring predictions its economy will be double the size of the US economy in 20 years. “The foreign policy of Australia is the foreign policy of the US,” Mr Keating complained to a recent conference in Sydney. “And the US has no policy on China as it hasn’t been able to conceive of one.’’ He also condemned the government’s moves to restore Australia’s involvement in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with the US, India and Japan. That grouping, he said, echoing Beijing’s peeved view, was trying “to put a ring around China”.

It is hard to comprehend how Mr Keating could reach such conclusions when the Coalition, as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says, has negotiated and signed free-trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea. Mr Keating’s beef about the “Quad” is also incomprehensible. As foreign editor Greg Sheridan wrote on Saturday, it echoes the “hysterical” view of the China lobby that “even having four democracies talking over security is somehow an affront to Beijing, as though we should be ashamed of being a democracy and must avoid ever being seen in the company of another democracy”. The worst commentary on the “Quad” was that of our former ambassador in Beijing, Geoff Raby, now a business consultant in China. He tried to condemn it as something it is not — a formal military alliance with a binding military assistance clause. That view, as Sheridan wrote, is “absurd and deeply dishonest”.

It is erroneous to claim the Trump administration has no policy. Donald Trump’s nine-day visit to the region, embracing Japan, South Korea and China and his attendance at summits of the main regional leaders in Manila, reflected Washington’s ongoing preoccupation with the region’s security and economy. Australia’s best interests, as Malcolm Turnbull and Ms Bishop state, lie in our commitment to the primacy of the US security alliance, especially in view of the nuclear threat from North Korea. As Ms Bishop has said: “Our special relationship with the US gives us an even greater standing and relevance in the region. We are balancing (our) relationships ... with deft diplomacy, consistency and pragmatism.” Last week’s assessment by former defence officials Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith left no doubt about the importance of Australia maintaining the best possible relations with Beijing, while preparing to meet any possible threat. Mr Keating and members of the China lobby should heed their arguments. China’s aggressive push into the South China Sea cannot be ignored. Neither can its failure to rein in North Korea or its attempt to achieve economic domination through its vast Belt and Road initiative. The headline on Rowan Callick’s report on President Xi Jinping on Saturday spoke volumes: “Xi jettisons last pretence of the rule of law”. Australia must balance our relationships between our largest strategic ally and our largest trading partner. Such significant matters require careful consideration and steps.