Albanese must rethink on China

The invitation to brazen transnational criminality implicit in China’s bounty on Hong Kong democrats living abroad, including in Australia, leaves Anthony Albanese with no viable alternative but to seriously reconsider his path for a rapprochement with Beijing. It should also make foreign judges – reportedly including former Australian High Court judges – who continue to sit in Hong Kong courts reconsider their positions. Their presence lends a veneer of respectability to an odious regime that, as China’s outrageous $HK1m ($191,800) bounty on the head of each dissident shows, no longer has any. As Greg Sheridan wrote of the arrest warrants issued by Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, a former policeman: “(They create) as brutal and naked a confrontation as Beijing and Canberra had at any time during the so-called wolf warrior diplomacy phase that Beijing indulged in for a couple of years. These developments should cause the Albanese government to reconsider the path of rapprochement it is undertaking with Beijing.” Opposition home affairs spokesman Senator James Paterson was right to express concern on Wednesday about the prospect of Mr Albanese visiting China later this year “to meet President Xi (Jinping) and stand alongside him shaking his hand and smiling as if nothing has happened”. Doing so would, indeed, be extremely difficult at a time when several Australian citizens are imprisoned on trumped-up charges in Beijing and Australian citizens have been targeted.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning demanded Australia “stop providing a safe haven for fugitives”. China’s manifestly criminal intention to provoke action against people living peacefully in our country adds immeasurably to perceptions of Beijing’s utter lawlessness and total disregard for the sovereignty of other countries. Mr Albanese is right to want to improve relations with China. But that must not come at any price.