Ex-spy boss Dennis Richardson fears China Cold War

Former Defence secretary Dennis Richardson has warned of a ‘technological Cold War’ ­between China and the West.

Former Defence secretary Dennis Richardson. Picture: Kym Smith

Former Defence secretary Dennis Richardson has warned of a “technological Cold War” ­between China and the West marked by the emergence of rival communication networks for 5G and beyond.

Mr Richardson, a former ­director-general of ASIO and ­ambassador to Washington, said the consequences for Australia could be negative, with the country­ denied access to some of the best available technologies.

He also argued that Beijing was on track to eclipse the US as the dominant military power in the western Pacific, but argued Australia would “get it wrong” if policymakers responded by treating Beijing as a threat.

“There is a risk that we are going to move into a technol­ogical Cold War,” Mr Richardson told The Australian. “What you see happening is the Chinese and Huawei on the one hand and the US on the other.”

Mr Richardson — who is today named a Companion of the Order of Australia for his service to public­ administration and leadership in national security — said Australian governments should take a cautious ­approach to rising Chinese milit­ary strength.

He said Australia should call out bad ­behaviour, including the militarisation of the South China Sea, its involvement in cyber attacks and the exertion of “undue influence” on the Chinese ­diaspora.

His comments come a week after the government was critic­ised for not announcing a visit by three Chinese warships before they arrived in Sydney Harbour — a visit which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

“We’ve got to be cautious of China, but the starting point can’t be it is a threat,” Mr Richardson told The Australian. “It has the ­potential to be a threat. There are serious points of tension, but there are also positivities in the relationship. To simply see China as a threat is to simply ignore the positivities­, to throw them all in a ­corner.”

He said it was possible tensions with China and the West could deepen given US concerns over Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Security experts and some government MPs have expressed concerns over Britain’s decision to allow the company to build parts of a new super-fast mobile network amid concerns it could compromise the Five Eyes security alliance between Britain, Australia, the US, New Zealand and Canada.

“Are we entering a world in which we start two separate technologic­al frameworks for 5G and beyond? One Chinese and one that’s Western?

“If it does come to that, it is not impossible to see us being denied the best technology because, up until now, we’ve been able to choose technology on the basis of quality. The potential introduction of a political element would make those choices more complex­ and risk, for the first time, us not having access to the best technology.”

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds told The Australian yesterday that the relationship with China was “dynamic, complex­” and “engages a range of ­national interests”.

“Australia and China have differences on some issues, which we manage on the basis of shared interest and mutual ­respect,” Senator Reynolds said.

“The United States-China ­relationship is one of the most significant and important relation­ships for our region and globally.

“We encourage positive and constructive engagement.”

The executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Instit­ute, Peter Jennings, told The Australian it was “simply not accurate to say that Chinese technology is necessarily the best in the world”.

He also said the government had made the right decision last August to exclude Huawei from the 5G network in Australia. “There are alternative sources that are available and alternative manufacturers that are available that present less of a security risk.”

Mr Jennings argued that the involvement of Huawei in Britain’s 5G network and its implications for intelligence sharing between the Five Eyes nations should be taken “very seriously”.

“I would hope that a future UK Conservative prime minister would change that apparent decision,” he said. “We do know from the stories at the time that Theresa May’s decision … was opposed by their intelligence agencies. It was a shocker of a decision from a frankly average-quality prime minister. I would be surprised if it wasn’t actually changed.”

Mr Richardson said there had been “no standard Five Eyes ­approach to Huawei” and questioned­ whether there was a need for a uniform position.

Speaking in Singapore last week, Scott Morrison said that 5G was “an incredibly important platform for the success of our economies into the future”. “The sheer scale and scope of the technology means that we have to be very mindful of other security interests, not directed to any particular nation at all, for that matter,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr Jennings said that developed democracies had “got themselves in a mess” by failing to take the necessary steps to sustain technology choices that were not Chinese.

“In due course, 5G will be overtaken,” he said. “But I hope there will be viable technology choices available by then that will not be Chinese.”

Labor defence spokesman Richard Marles said yesterday the government had shown a “complete lack of confidence” about the management of the Chinese relationship by failing to properly announce the arrival of the naval task group last week. “I can tell you how we as a nation manage our relationship with China will go to the security and the prosperity of every Aust­ralian through most of this ­century,” Mr Marles told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“The idea that the government felt so insecure about its handling of this relationship that it wasn’t willing to make public the fact that a couple of Chinese navy vessels were going to come in for replenishment in Sydney Harbour says everything about their total lack of confidence.”

Mr Richardson also said he was “surprised that it wasn’t ­announced in advance” but suggested the naval task group’s visit was positive for Australia. “I would have thought that it’s a bit odd to think that three Chinese naval vessels are going to sail into Sydney Harbour (and) no one says anything,” he said. “Given the broader framework, I think it was odd that something wasn’t said a few days out.”

He argued that the relationship between China and the US would shape the 21st century and last for longer than the Cold War of the 20th century, in which the US and the USSR were locked in a strategic competition for global dominance.

“If the Chinese economy holds together. And if they continue to develop the way they are, China will probably become the dominant military power in the western Pacific,” he said.

“However, we’ve got a lot at play here. We’ve got the United States, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia­, India. If you draw an arc from North Korea around to Pakistan, China has a couple of client states and a few countries who are intimidated by them but for the most part people want to benefit from the Chinese econo­mic relationship.

“They want to see China being more actively engaged but they do not want to see a region totally and utterly dominated by China. And I think we’ve got enough to play with here, so that that doesn’t happen.”