China backs ‘handsome boy’

Anthony Albanese should be deeply embarrassed and Australians worried about Chinese state media pointedly praising him during an election campaign. Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times accused Peter Dutton of “beating ‘the drums of war’ against China”, Will Glasgow reports. The comments were made as a Chinese “research” (spy) ship, the Tan Suo Yi Hao, makes its way around Australia’s coast. The vessel arrived just weeks after a People’s Liberation Army Navy flotilla of warships circumnavigated Australia and conducted live-fire drills under the busy flight path between Australia and New Zealand. The warships’ presence, drawn to authorities’ attention by a Virgin Australia pilot, forced 49 aircraft to divert from their normal flight paths.

Under these circumstances, the Opposition Leader’s comments on the research vessel have been restrained. He accused the Prime Minister, aptly, of a “wet lettuce” response. As Mr Dutton said on Wednesday, the Australian Defence Force, not the Border Force, should be monitoring the Chinese ship. On Monday, Mr Albanese said he “would prefer that it wasn’t there” but said Australian navy ships routinely operated in the South China Sea. As Greg Sheridan commented, Mr Albanese needs a geography lesson: “An Australian navy ship in the South China Sea is not analogous to a Chinese vessel off the coast of Australia.” Most of the South China Sea is nowhere near China. Nor does Australia recognise Chinese sovereignty over it. And security analysts warn the ship has dual-purpose military applications and no doubt is studying Australia’s oceanography to assist the PLA Navy in future submarine operations. The China Daily says it “serves as a base for the submersible, deep-sea expeditions and engineering”.

Australia’s half-baked defence of our sea approaches will be noted in Washington, as Peter Jennings wrote, with China out to steal defence intellectual property: “On submarines … the US maintains a significant technological advantage over China. Protecting this becomes a top US priority. For AUKUS to work, the US must have a high level of confidence that Australia has the means and intellectual toughness to protect the technology.” That is one reason defence should have a bigger focus in the campaign. Despite Mr Albanese’s suggestion that spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence is enough, he and Mr Dutton should commit to lifting the total to 3 per cent and explain how to pay for it.

Beijing officially refuses to comment on other countries’ elections but its state media routinely makes its preferences clear. The Global Times comments have put regional security, strategic policy, defence and the Australia-China relationship at the centre of the election campaign. The commentary about Australia appeared as China stepped up its belligerent intimidation of Taiwan, rehearsing a full-scale blockade of its neighbour including hitting ports and energy facilities. Led by aircraft carrier CNS Shandong, the battle group that appeared menacingly off Taiwan’s coast on Monday includes cruisers, destroyers and frigates supported by more than 70 combat aircraft.

A statement by the PLA did not hide the battle group’s objectives. They were a preparation for “combat readiness patrols at sea and in the air, seizing comprehensive control (of Taiwan), striking maritime and land targets and imposing blockade controls on key areas and routes”, the statement said.

China’s manoeuvres are a significant ratcheting up of the communist regime’s threat to Taiwan amid the current confusion in Washington. The exercises around Taiwan demand reassurance that despite the Trump administration’s isolationist tendencies the US remains committed to defending the island nation’s democracy. China may be demonstrating, as The Wall Street Journal reported, that it is “more ready than ever to surround Taiwan, cut it off from the world, and try to squeeze it into submission”. But if driving home that perception and seeking to intimidate Taiwan’s 24 million people is what the communists’ display of force is all about, that makes it even more imperative that Donald Trump wastes no time in making clear that he will not sell out the island state.

In response to Beijing’s massive “blockade rehearsal” off Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping must be disabused of any belief that Mr Trump’s skewering of a succession of longstanding US allies since he returned to the White House – Ukraine, Europe, Canada, Panama and Denmark – signals any similar retreat from Washington’s commitment to Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region.

That commitment is in US and Australian interests. On both sides of the Pacific, this is no time for complacency.