Daniel Andrews’s BRI broker praises China on virus

An MP leading Daniel Andrews’s Belt and Road Initiative negotiations with Beijing lauded China’s handling of the virus.

Danny Pearson claimed Australia was “fortunate” China’s reaction had “given us time” to prepare for the pandemic. Picture: Andy Brownbill

A Victorian Labor MP leading Daniel Andrews’s Belt and Road Initiative negotiations with Beijing lauded China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak amid emerging global suspicions about the communist regime’s secrecy over the pandemic.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on March 5, Danny Pearson, parliamentary secretary to the Premier, claimed Australia was “fortunate” China’s reaction had “given us time” to prepare for the pandemic.

Mr Pearson’s robust support for China’s coronavirus response came as he was due to finalise a draft Victoria-Beijing “co-operation road map” for the BRI by the March deadline.

“When you look at it, I think we have been fortunate in the way in which China has dealt with it and the way in which this disease has played out in terms of having these interventions to try and prevent the spread of the disease,” he told state parliament.

“Yes, the disease has spread, but imagine if those measures had not been put in place in a city like Wuhan and you had a pop­ulation of five million people going about their business ­without that sort of rapid state ­intervention and the imposition of martial law — which I appreciate for the ­people in the communities ­involved would be very challenging.

“But imagine if you had five million people who were in Wuhan for Chinese New Year and those five million people spread — they went to Beijing, they went to Shanghai, they came to Melbourne or to Sydney — and China had not responded in the way in which it has.

“How much worse would it be? What China has done has given us time to be able to invest money in the Doherty Institute, and I am really pleased the Premier and the Minister for Health were able to provide significant funding to the Doherty to help us try and find a way through this.”

The Essendon MP is named in the China-Victoria BRI “framework agreement” — signed by Mr Andrews in October — as the deputy chair of the Joint Working Group on Jointly Promoting the Belt and Road Initiative.

His co-deputy chair is China’s National Development and ­Reform Commission deputy ­secretary-general Su Wei.

At the time of Mr Pearson’s comments, criticism alleging a Chinese cover-up had not become full-blown but questions were being raised in late January and February about the communist regime’s transparency and whether it had tried to conceal the seriousness of the virus.

Mr Pearson, who led a Victorian government delegation to China in 2019, declined to respond to specific questions on Thursday when contacted by The Australian, instead releasing a statement: “The government’s position on the BRI has been clear — it’s another part of our ­relationship with China that supports local jobs.”

Mr Pearson failed to respond to detailed questions on his comments to parliament and BRI lobbyist and government consultant Jean Dong, whom The Australian understands he has met.

Revelation of Mr Pearson’s comments follow Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas’s pro-Beijing intervention last month in which he claimed the Morrison government was “vilifying” China by pushing for a global investigation into the origins of the corona­virus, which has killed more than 400,000 people.

Ms Dong, a self-proclaimed pro-Chinese influencer, was awarded two government contracts valued at $38,650 to advise the government on the BRI, which she was already lobbying the Premier to sign.

Mr Pearson went on an official government visit to China on September 1-3, telling parliament: “The purpose of this travel was to meet with high-level representatives of the Chinese government to pursue avenues of mutual benefit for Victoria and China. I met with numerous Chinese government officials as well as private sector representatives.”

He issued his defence of China’s pandemic response during a parliamentary debate on the Health Services Amendment (Mandatory Vaccination of Healthcare Workers) Bill.

“Who would have heard of coronavirus three months ago or six months ago?

“It is something we have had to try and respond to fairly quickly … This is a new disease.

“The impact … is going to be quite profound.”

Scott Morrison ramped up pressure on Mr Andrews on Thursday to rip up the BRI agreement. “It is not a program the Australian government has signed up to. It is not the Australian government’s foreign policy and all states and territories should not be doing things that act inconsistently with federal policy,” the Prime Minister said.