China’s extraordinary world view

Amid a thawing of tensions between Canberra and Beijing, Tuesday’s shindig at the Chinese embassy in Canberra to mark the new year, to say “thanks” to “our friends” in the media and to heap praise on the Labor government was warm, verging on syrupy – until it turned worrying. In his prepared speech, China’s articulate, urbane ambassador, Xiao Qian, emphasised that the bilateral relationship was “at a critical stage of turnaround”. The bonhomie dried up, however, when he was asked about Japanese ambassador Shingo Yamagami’s warning, revealed in The Australian on Tuesday, that Australia and Japan should be “vigilant” towards China and that Beijing’s more constructive tone was yet to be matched by a shift in behaviour. “I’m afraid our colleague from Japan is not doing his job,” Mr Xiao complained. Or was he doing it too well?

Harking back to Japan’s bombing of Darwin in 1942 for which “they do not apologise”, Mr Xiao made the extraordinary claim “they might repeat the history … once somebody threatens you, he might threaten you again”. In 1957 Japanese prime minister Kishi Nobusuke expressed “heartfelt sorrow for what occurred in the war” to the people of Australia. In 2012, Japan’s consul-general from Sydney officially apologised for the raid on Darwin 70 years earlier that killed at least 243 people. In 2018, Shinzo Abe laid a wreath at Darwin’s war memorial.

While hostile to Mr Yamagami giving advice to Australia, Mr Xiao doled out plenty of his own. AUKUS, he said, was neither constructive nor helpful, “especially when you’re targeting China as a potential threat or adversary”. Australia purchasing nuclear-powered submarines was “an even worse idea”, especially for taxpayers. It “set a bad example” of a nuclear-weapon state transmitting nuclear-weapon material to a non-nuclear state. He conveniently ignored China’s military build-up, the largest since 1945, its militarisation of the South China Sea and the surge in incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone. Nor did he mention China’s six nuclear-powered ballistic-missile subs, six nuclear-powered attack subs and 46 diesel-powered attack subs, which the US Defence Department says are part of the world’s largest navy.

Australia and its allies need each other, and AUKUS. We welcome the reassurance of US Democrat congressman Joe Courtney, a member of the House of Representatives seapower committee, that claims that building submarines for Australia could stress the US industrial base “to breaking point” were inaccurate.

After tensions over Covid-19 and China’s coercive trade war against Australia, which need to be resolved, the Australia-China relationship needed improving for the sake of both nations. The Albanese government has done well to build on China’s desire for a fresh start and reopen communication. Like Mr Xiao, we welcome progress in 2023. We appreciate his choice of a good Australian shiraz at the reception and look forward to his compatriots regaining access to it. But his myopic view of the region’s strategic tensions is far removed from reality.