Coronavirus: China exploits the crisis in seeking to divide and rule

An anguished world, plagued by death and economic destruction, deserves the truth about the coronavirus. COVID-19 has infected 4.2 million people, claimed almost 300,000 lives and put tens of millions out of work. That China is shamed for its culpability, or obliged to pay reparations, is not the purpose of an international inquiry. Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne have fronted international calls for an independent probe into the outbreak that has caused havoc. The principles at stake are accountability and transparency. China, chastened yet forever opportunistic, is positioned to exploit the pandemic: more repression at home and global dominance.

Our robust democracy is running in circles, exhaling in a cacophony of voices — big egos, commercial interests and politicking. Usually on national security there is bipartisanship. But normal politics, having emerged from a furlough of social isolation, accentuates small differences. Labor admonishes Senator Payne for her low-key method on China policy, compared with a vocal posse of backbench MPs. One critic foolishly, bizarrely said the government was playing “deputy sheriff” to the US. Canberra was early out of the blocks on a global inquiry. Hyperkinetic attention-seekers such as Kevin Rudd and Julie Bishop — former foreign ministers with harsh lessons in dancing with Beijing — have slouched in to lazy punditry. Self-interested magnates, too, should concentrate on commerce and leave strategic policy to those whose first duty is the national interest.

The noise and froth suits Beijing’s shock troops. It is a distraction from questions about the pandemic’s source. As well, it feeds China’s “wolf warriors” red meat. The Chinese Communist Party’s playbook is to disrupt, divide and distort, at the best of times. But with COVID-19 the CCP has its back to the wall, lashing out instinctively. After Boris Johnson’s government backed a global virus inquiry, China’s envoy to London declared British MPs were “addicted to their Cold War mentality”, thus poisoning relations. From France to Brazil, such belligerence to hosts carries Chinese President Xi Jinping’s imprimatur. Last year he demanded envoys show a new “fighting spirit”.

The gambit of Beijing’s mouthy ambassador to Canberra, Cheng Jingye, was to intimidate, warning there would be trade retaliation against Australia for daring to push for an inquiry. Senator Payne responded calmly, but directly, calling out the bullying as “economic coercion”. Yet we are facing an 80 per cent tariff on barley and suspension of beef into China from our producers. China’s foreign ministry claims it’s a technical matter, to “secure the health and safety of Chinese consumers”. But what about the wellbeing of the rest of the world? China insists it is ready to work with others to promote that. “We hope relevant parties will do more to enhance mutual trust instead of talking one thing while doing the other,” the ministry said in a statement. Here are the CCP’s two faces: a smile for clueless locals, a scowl for foreign devils.

Yet China did nothing to protect the world from the worst of this calamity. As we detailed on Saturday, late last year when the coronavirus emerged in Hubei province, the CCP denied, delayed, obfuscated, punished the messengers, and showed a reckless disregard for the rest of the world. Its malign propaganda and cringe-worthy philanthropy are shameless, if not predictable. The CCP surely welcomes the useful fools aiding its message and strategic assault. That’s the cold truth of misguided interventions, from Andrew Forrest’s recent stunt to the pensioned doves and pandas in our midst. Well before anyone had heard of Wuhan, China’s growing militarism, territorial grab, debt-trap financing, interference and espionage were dominating geopolitics. For Beijing, pandemic or not, the long march continues.

For us the challenges are manifold, marked by traps and dilemmas. The pandemic legacy weakens our financial position and intensifies tension with China. As former head of both the departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs and Trade, Dennis Richardson, told Paul Kelly, government cannot be turned over to a vast national security agenda fuelled by anti-China thoughts, pandemic-induced security alarms, protectionist industry policy, and elevation of security over economic in foreign investment decisions. “A strong economy is foundational to national security,” he said. But we should be wary, realistic and seize our destiny.

Trade is mutually beneficial. How could it not be? China craves our iron ore, coal and gas. There is no cut-price alternative. Still, it is prudent to push for free trade globally, and to diversify into new markets, especially for premium offerings such as education, tourism, medicines, food and wine. That means governments must reduce the cost to business of regulation, energy and tax so it can compete; price infrastructure sensibly for investors and taxpayers, so we get goods to market reliably; prepare our young for the jobs of the future. The nation must hold its nerve in the face of Beijing’s taunts and trade disruptions and maintain pressure for a COVID-19 inquiry for the sake of all humanity. We can use this horrible crisis to strengthen our foundations and assert our values.