A Chinese destroyer’s sonar blast on Australian Navy divers last week presented the first serious test for Anthony Albanese’s ongoing relations with China.
Would he raise the matter with President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in San Francisco, making good on his pledge to “disagree where we must”?
Or would he pretend nothing happened, allowing officials to raise Australia’s concerns through “normal channels”?
It looks a lot like the latter, but it’s hard to be definitive because the PM is refusing to say. Failing to clarify whether he raised the incident with Xi leaves the government looking weak and flat-footed.
Because make no mistake, this was a serious incident.
Military-grade active sonar systems send out piercing metallic pings at up to 235 decibels – double the noise level emitted in live performances by the world’s loudest rock bands.
At lower levels, the audio shockwaves can disorient nearby divers and puncture their eardrums.
At higher levels, they can rupture internal organs and cause fatal brain haemorrhages.
It was enough to cause at least minor injuries to one of the divers, though Defence is yet to provide further details.
The Chinese ship knew what it was doing. It had already been hailed by HMAS Toowoomba, which warned it had divers in the water clearing the vessel’s propeller.
The incident happened before Albanese left Australia for APEC, but the government put off releasing news of the incident until the PM was heading home from the summit.
The government rolled out cabinet ministers and even Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, to try to clean things up.
“We do not comment on the detail. (It’s) longstanding practice of governments – Liberal, Labor and Callithumpian,” the former PM told ABC radio.
Hours later, Albanese emerged on Sky News on Monday to condemn the Chinese vessel’s “unsafe and unprofessional” conduct.
The PM said the matter was raised “through all of the appropriate channels in all of the forums that are available to us”. But he couldn’t bring himself to say whether he confronted President Xi on the matter.
“I don’t talk about private meetings on the sidelines, discussions I have with any world leader,” he said. “That’s how you keep communications open.”
In fact, world leaders – including Albanese – reveal details of their conversations all the time.
Albanese has already said he, President Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed trade matters, the countries’ stabilised bilateral relations, and a potential trip to Australia by Premier Li Qiang next year.
If the PM raised the sonar incident, there are many ways he could convey that to the Australian public. So it’s probably safe to assume he didn’t.
Albanese’s disciplined performance in restoring ties with Beijing has been a net positive for the government.
Stable ties are important, allowing governments to raise difficult bilateral issues when they need to. Failing to do so when it counts will be rightly condemned as kowtowing to Beijing, and dodging the question amounts to much the same thing.
More Coverage
