China not a big concern: Greens

The Greens say ­Taiwan was not a direct concern for Australia and the party has no problem with Solomon Islands’ decision to forge ties with Beijing.

Jordan Steele-John says Australia’s concern over the Solomons-China agreement is‘paternalistic and actually racist’. Picture Kym Smith

The Greens say China doesn’t pose a threat to Australia and the party has no problem with Solomon Islands’ decision to forge a ­security partnership with Beijing.

Greens’ peace and disarmament spokesman Jordon Steele-John said Australia’s concern over the Solomons-China agreement was “paternalistic and actually racist”, and that the future of ­Taiwan was not a direct concern for Australia or the US.

As Labor attempts to neutralise national security as an election issue by matching the Coalition’s defence commitments, the Greens have called for military spending to be slashed and the AUKUS agreement cancelled.

The party wants the nation’s nuclear submarine and hypersonic missile programs to be axed, Pine Gap closed and US marines out of Darwin.

While China has built the ­region’s largest navy, and ­deployed missiles on South China Sea islands that can reach Australia, Senator Steele-John said it was Australia’s responsibility to “de-escalate” tensions with Beijing.

“I don’t see China as a military threat to Australia,” he told The Australian.

Senator Steele-John said Labor and the Coalition were “happy to see Australia treated as an American aircraft carrier”, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing.

“The Greens absolutely oppose this. We must have an independent foreign and defence policy, which allows us to work with our neighbours to de-escalate,” he said.

The senator said Australia should also butt out of the affairs of Pacific states, arguing they should be free to “defend their territorial boundaries and build relationships” as they saw fit.

Australian and US officials fear the Solomon Islands-China ­security pact will allow Chinese naval patrols to operate from the country, and open the way for the establishment of a permanent Chinese base 2000km off Australia’s northeast coast.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Prime Minister Manasseh Damukana Sogavare of the Solomon Island in 2019. Picture: Getty Images

Senator Steele-John said the West’s objection to the agreement stood in stark contrast to its support for Ukraine’s ability to forge its own security alliances.

“Solomon Islands is a sovereign country that is seeking to build relationships with its ­regional neighbours as best it can and it is making those decisions as a sovereign country should,” he said.

“We absolutely support the right of Solomon Islands to do that. The Greens see it as a double standard that is both paternalistic and actually racist. It is a racist, paternalistic double standard that needs to be called out.”

His comments come ahead of a trip to the Solomons by US President Joe Biden’s Indo-­Pacific security tsar Kurt Campbell to warn its Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, that the proposed deal with China threatens his nation’s sovereignty.

Senator Steele-John said the Greens were “deeply concerned about authoritarianism” and “deeply concerned about human rights violations wherever they exist”.

While the Greens supported Taiwan’s right to independence, he said the West should not become militarily involved in defending the territory from forced “reunification” with China.

“What we have when we look at the South China Sea, when we look at the relationship between China and Taiwan, is actually a bunch of dynamics between ­nations which are best resolved by those nations themselves,” Senator Steele-John said. “They don’t actually need Australia and the US continually inserting ourselves into these conversations.”

Under the Greens’ “peace, disarmament and demilitarisation” policy, defence spending would be reduced from about 2 per cent of GDP to 1.5 per cent.

Less than a fortnight after Australia agreed to fast-track ­hypersonic missiles development with the US and Britain to match Chinese and Russian capabilities, Senator Steele-John said the weapons could lead to “the ­destruction of the world”.

He said the Greens would “lead the international community in the process of banning this technology, as we have with cluster bombs and mines”.

Under longstanding Greens policy, the ANZUS alliance would be renegotiated to “free us up to act independently in relation to our diplomatic relationships with other countries”.

He said Australia’s relationship with the US would have key “red lines”, including “the ­removal of all foreign bases and foreign troops from Australian soil”.

Scott Morrison greets Manasseh Sogavare for a bilateral meeting during the Pacific Islands Forum in Funafuti, Tuvalu in 2019. Picture: AFP

Senator Steele-John said climate change and the existence of nuclear weapons were “the two greatest threats to global peace and security”, and the Greens would continue to campaign heavily to address both threats.

Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, said the planned Solomons-China agreement was a failure of Australian policy, ­arguing the government had been “asleep at the wheel” in maintaining key Pacific relationships.