Dan Andrews, Bob Carr guests of honour in Chinese victory parade
The former Victorian and NSW Labor premiers are among ‘former statesmen’ listed as attending a major anniversary – along with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.
Former Labor state premiers Bob Carr and Dan Andrews will attend a sprawling military parade in Tiananmen Square marking 80 years since the end of China’s war with Japan alongside Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, the Chinese government has announced.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei announced on Thursday the two “former statesmen” would be esteemed guests at the official ceremony held on September 3, marking the “victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the world anti-fascist war”. Their visit has left some foreign policy experts on high alert, saying the pair risked “becoming organs of the Chinese propaganda machine”.
Joining China’s President in this historic acknowledgment of “anti-fascism” will be North Korean dictator Kim and the Russian President.
Mr Carr told The Australian he was attending the event in order to mark China and Australia’s shared military history during World War II, arguing that Chinese resistance defended Australia from direct naval assault by Japan.
The Australian understands the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was not consulted on the attendance plans of Australians outside of government.
When asked if the appearance of Putin and Kim gave him pause in attending the event, Mr Carr said he would be “spending (his) time with two former New Zealand prime ministers and acquaintances from Southeast Asia”.
“I’ve met Putin before. I met him at the G20 in St Petersburg (in 2013); I would not expect to meet him again,” the former foreign affairs minister said. “The Australian people support a good bilateral relationship with China.
“It makes it all the more important that we Australians here (are) acknowledging that China’s victory in World War II was historically very important, including for Australia. That’s what’s being celebrated.”
Mr Andrews and Foreign Minister Penny Wong were contacted for comment. The Australian understands Defence and DFAT officials from the Australian embassy in China will attend the event.
“I’m not tremendously surprised that those two are going. They’ve been quite clear in their recent dance that they view the PRC fairly favourably and don’t seem to have tremendous problems going to events that clearly have a proper propaganda function like this,” Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior adviser Alex Bristow said.
“It is entirely reasonable that we recognise the sacrifice of the Chinese people … It doesn’t necessarily mean you can therefore go to an event which is clearly aligned with CCP propaganda.
“It is not about trying to brush past the tremendous sacrifice the Chinese people made; we should be open about that and some of our histories have not sufficiently acknowledged that, but by going to this event Andrews and Carr becoming organs of the Chinese propaganda machine.”
Mr Carr led the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney from 2014 to 2019, arguing for Canberra’s diplomatic alignment with Beijing in the year’s since Mr Andrews faced widespread scrutiny for his decision to sign Victoria on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, before it was vetoed by the Morrison government.
Mr Hong said world leaders from 26 countries would attend the military parade, the majority from Asian neighbours. “In terms of peace and security, China has the best track record among all the major countries of the world. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, our country has never waged a single war, never encroached upon an inch of foreign land, never started a proxy war,” he said, according to a memo from the PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said the Democratic People’s Republic of [North] Korea was a key historic ally and “friendly neighbour” to China.
“China and the DPRK are friendly neighbours connected by mountains and rivers,” Mr Hong said. “The peoples of China and the DPRK supported each other in resisting Japanese aggression and contributed to the victory of the world anti-fascist war and to the cause of justice for humanity.”
The commemoration was heralded by global media as an unprecedented trilateral appearance of the North Korean, Chinese and Russian leaders. Mr Xi in May attended Russia’s 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s “Great Patriotic War”.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico will be the only Western leader attending. He will be joined by former prime minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama and former New Zealand prime ministers John Key and Helen Clark.
China’s conflict with Japan occurred against the backdrop of Mao Zedong’s communist revolution against the nationalist government of the Guomindang – with the GMD left to handle the vast majority of the war efforts and incur the bulk of casualties numbered in the millions.
Four years after the Japanese surrender, GMD leader Jiang Jieshi fled China for Taiwan and the CCP formed government in Beijing.
In The Australian last week, Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian invoked this history by recalling China and Australia fighting “side by side” against the Japanese in the 1940s to declare “Taiwan’s return to China must not be denied”.
Former Australian ambassador to China Geoff Raby said Australia should be conscious of its diplomatic relationship with Japan in how it recognised China’s V-Day celebrations.
“We’ve got very close relations with Japan. That relationship is of great importance to us. So we will balance the level of representation with consideration of our relations with China and Japan,” he said. “We have basically forgiven Japan for the war, and we did that a very long time ago.
“China and Japan have never had a rapprochement.
“Bob (Carr) was only shortly foreign minister, but Dan Andrews – I don’t even know why they would think of asking him.”
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