It’s less contradictory than it seems. Beijing’s message around the world today is: tremble and obey, and we will reward you with goodies if you do.
The Chinese ambassador has moved from generally interfering in Australian politics to making naked threats of trade retaliation if Canberra persists with its perfectly reasonable proposal that there should be a review of how the pandemic spread, initially in Wuhan, later internationally, and what lessons we can learn from it.
Frances Adamson, the head of DFAT, rang the ambassador to object to his threats and his tone, and Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia would not give in to “economic coercion”.
Penny Wong on behalf of Labor has been bipartisan on the substance, while reasonably suggesting the government should have locked in greater international support for its proposal before going public.
On Wednesday, Hunt made a joint announcement with mining magnate Andrew Forrest of the purchase of 10 million COVID-19 testing kits from China. Although Hunt would not confirm or deny the matter, sources say that to his astonishment when he arrived at the event, he was confronted with the presence of China’s consul-general Long Zhou.
The Morrison government appreciates Twiggy Forrest’s role in securing the testing kits. There were a number of countries after these kits and everybody was willing to pay the relevant price.
Very often when billionaires get involved in matters like this they can inadvertently make life more complicated for the government they are trying to help — either by bidding up the price or just generally gumming up the works. But sources close to this transaction say no one else could have secured these testing kits, which will make a major contribution to Australia’s ability to keep the virus under control, other than Forrest.
Hunt had to make a split-second decision on whether to accept the diplomat’s presence and agree he should speak at the function. He decided to say yes on all counts. He was rewarded with a genuinely, indeed remarkably, positive speech from the diplomat.
Zhou said in part: “China very much appreciates and (is) thankful to the compassion, support and sympathy of the Australian people to the Chinese people in our fight against the virus and vice versa. We are doing everything possible to help Australia. This project is another testimony of the friendship and the co-operation between our two countries and our two peoples.”
Later he added “We’re all in this together”, Scott Morrison’s characteristic phrase.
So which face of Chinese diplomacy is the true face — the threatening ambassador or the smiling, helpful consul-general? The truth is, both are. In past weeks, China’s “coastguard” has sunk a Vietnamese fishing vessel, harassed a Malaysian oil survey ship and locked its radar, normally an action preparatory to firing, on a Philippines ship in a burst of military assertiveness in the South China Sea.
At the same time, Beijing has been providing medical equipment and assistance all over Southeast Asia.
In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry rebuked the Chinese embassy for posting on its website messages claiming the French had left their old people to die in aged-care facilities.
The Chinese embassy to the EU in Brussels also reportedly threatened the EU with trade sanctions if it published a report outlining Beijing’s consistent propaganda and disinformation campaigns denying that the virus started off in China and may instead have been introduced to China by visiting US soldiers.
Yet Beijing has also provided significant amounts of medical equipment to European nations. It is threatening and seducing at the same time. This combination is not as unusual as you might think in history.
Nonetheless, the ambassador’s trade threats this week indicate two big changes in tactics. Change one is that China has moved from merely interfering in other nations’ politics to making direct threats. Change two is that this newly belligerent tone is being adopted by Beijing diplomats around the world.
That means it is deliberate, considered policy by Beijing.
That means it’s not Australia’s fault but also there’s likely very little we can do to make it better.
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Australia’s relations with China went into a kind of hyper-drive of schizophrenic contradiction on Wednesday, with the Chinese ambassador in Canberra breaking diplomatic rules to reveal private conversations with the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and roundly abusing the government along the way, while the Chinese consul-general in Melbourne sang a virtual love duet with Health Minister Greg Hunt.