Opposition falls for China trap

Illustration: Johannes Leak

Leaders seeking to make political capital out of our crisis in relations with China are not what Australia needs right now. Yet, with exquisitely poor timing, that is what Anthony Albanese, Bill Shorten and others on the ALP frontbench have done by breaking ranks with Scott Morrison in a way that plays into Beijing’s hands. Doing so inevitably will undermine the significant wave of international support for the nation’s steadfast stand against China’s belligerence and bullying.

In federal parliament on Monday, the Opposition Leader commendably pledged Labor’s backing for the Prime Minister’s condemnation of the notorious and highly damaging Chinese tweet of a fake image depicting an Australian soldier allegedly slitting the throat of an Afghan child.

Mr Albanese joined in describing it as “gratuitous, inflammatory and deeply offensive”. Australia’s condemnation of the image was, he rightly declared, above politics. “We all stand as a nation in condemning it.”

By Wednesday, however, Mr Albanese was singing from a different song sheet. Doubtless to the delight of Beijing’s hot-headed “wolf warrior” diplomats who place blame for the crisis entirely on Australia, Mr Albanese accused the government of presiding over “a complete breakdown” in Sino-Australian diplomacy. He was, he said, amazed that Morrison government ministers could not get their Chinese counterparts to return calls. He contrasted this with his own record as a minister able to meet Chinese officials.

“We need to work on the relationship,” Mr Albanese told 2SM radio, adding “that doesn’t mean compromising our values or preparedness to speak up for them”. He recalled a speech made by prime minister Kevin Rudd, “in Mandarin, of course”, that was critical of human rights issues, “but was done so in a way that also was designed to make clear our values but not designed to offend for offence’s sake”. (That would be the same Mr Rudd who revealed his uniquely inoffensive diplomatic skills when he was heard at a climate change summit in Copenhagen in 2009 saying “those Chinese ratf..kers are trying to ratf..k us”.)

Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese and Shadow Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten.

Mr Shorten supported Mr Albanese, joining in the pile-on against the Morrison government by saying it had not “handled this up to now as well as they could have”. Opposition assistant Treasury spokesman Stephen Jones also weighed in, playing further into Beijing’s hands by accusing government MPs of “inflaming tensions with China”. Such criticism can hardly be more unhelpful or ill-judged when Australia is faced with such potentially dire economic consequences as a result of Beijing’s onslaught and its clear determination to do as much damage as it can to our economy and the jobs of Australians.

Mr Albanese and his colleagues are entitled to their views. But, given what is at stake in terms of the national interest, it should not be too much to expect them to resist making criticisms that boost Beijing’s blame game and embarrass those such as the leaders of our Five Eyes partners, notably New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who have joined in strongly backing Australia’s outrage over Beijing’s antics.

Countries across the world are showing significant support for Australia. Ms Ardern has incurred the wrath of Beijing’s febrile propaganda machine by demanding answers. Members of Britain’s House of Commons, while debating measures to further curtail the activities of the Huawei telecom company, have heard new warnings about Chinese spying in the UK. The US State Department on Wednesday declared solid support for Australia over what it termed a “new low” for the CCP in “spreading disinformation and fabricating an image”. Two hundred MPs from different political parties in 19 countries issued a call for consumers everywhere to join in buying Australian wine in deliberate defiance of China. The White House joined in, announcing Australian wine would be featured at a special holiday event.

As countries across the region that are threatened by Chinese bullying closely watch Australia’s standoff with Beijing, it would be hard to exaggerate the importance of our own leaders not saying or doing anything that plays into China’s hands. Anything that suggests we are divided as a nation in our response to Beijing would do just that. Bipartisanship, not party political pointscoring and ill-timed criticism, is vital if Beijing’s destructive belligerence is to be successfully confronted.