Belt and Road deal a cause for alarm, warns former US adviser

A former US national security adviser warns Victoria’s agreement with China will come with ‘strings attached’.

National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster.

Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative agreement with China should alarm the community because it will come with “strings attached’’, including the expectation of backing the communist giant’s foreign policy, according to a former US national security adviser.

Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster warned it was unrealistic to expect the Chinese Communist Party to treat people from other nations better than they treat their own population.

Speaking during a Menzies Research Centre webinar, General McMaster said there were ­potentially serious implications for countries such as Australia that strike deals with China.

While there was the opportunity for some economic gains, the costs included having to transfer data to China and exposing local communities to having to support Chinese foreign policy, General McMaster warned.

He said the upside for a state like Victoria was that with a relatively open and transparent democratic system it was harder to conceal information.

“I think it should alarm you a lot because these great deals come with strings attached,” he said from California.

“You can really get quite a bit at a discount from China, especially in the area of telecommunications, but the price for that is, of course, that you’re transferring your data to Beijing.

“And I think it’s unrealistic to expect the Chinese Communist Party to treat our citizens better than they treat their own people. And so I think that I would make sure you look very carefully at the terms of the agreement.”

General McMaster was national security adviser to US President Donald Trump for a year from 2017 to 2018 in what is one of the most difficult and important strategic jobs in the world.

He has written a new book, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, and is considered one of the most influential military officers the US has produced in the past 30 years.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews signed a BRI memorandum of understanding with China in 2018. It is not a legally binding agreement, but the Victorian government is pursuing the agenda against the advice of Canberra, which is alarmed at the increasingly predatory behaviour by China in Australia and the region.

General McMaster said the implications for countries such as Australia were not necessarily as severe as for poorer countries, which could become indebted to the communist regime.

“Certainly, I think in Australia with the … transparency and rule of law that you have, it wouldn’t be as great of a risk,’’ he said.

The BRI is a Chinese policy aimed at exerting influence in large parts of the globe through maritime and rail trade routes.