Scott Morrison to visit Taiwan, warns against ‘appeasing’ Beijing

Scott Morrison will travel to Taiwan early next month to show his support for the self-governed island, just weeks before Anthony Albanese visits China to patch up relations with Beijing.

Scott Morrison with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019. Picture: Adam Taylor / PMO

Scott Morrison will travel to Taiwan in early October to show his support for the self-governed ­island, just weeks before Anthony Albanese visits China to patch up relations with Beijing.

The former prime minister will visit Taipei for the October 11-12 Yushan Forum, where Tony Abbott branded China a “bully” and urged “solidarity with Taiwan” in a speech two years ago.

Declaring that the region’s security would not be achieved through “appeasement”, Mr Morrison said his trip would present an “interesting contrast” to the Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to ­Beijing.

He said Mr Albanese’s scheduled trip to China before the end of the year carried significant risks, and Beijing could use it to create the impression of “a backdown by Australia”.

“I certainly don't think that’s what the intention is. But once you get on that plane and go there, well, they are controlling how that is represented, and their microphone is very big,” he said.

“They will describe it how they will describe it, internally and more broadly. And that's not something one would ever have control over.”

His visit to Taipei should garner significant attention given his status as a former prime minister whose government was at the forefront of the West’s push back against Beijing.

Mr Morrison, who is still a sitting MP, said he was pleased to address the forum, which gives Taiwan an opportunity for global engagement in the absence of ­official diplomatic links with most of the world.

He said the future of Taiwan was “totemic in the whole Indo-Pacific peace and security agenda … I think it’s really important that I go there and express support, but do so in a practical way.

“Because (Taiwan) is the one issue that if not handled well, poses significant threats to the region. But that has to be secured through strength, not appeasement.”

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Picture: AFP

Mr Morrison’s comments to The Australian came as dozens of Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait that separates the island from China, prompting protests by ­Taipei.

Mr Albanese has confirmed he will visit Beijing before the end of the year, but his travel dates have not yet been disclosed.

Both China and Australia have said the visit will mark the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s historic trip, from October 31 to November 4, 1973.

Mr Morrison told partyroom colleagues before Mr Albanese formally accepted the invitation that his successor should not be “too keen” to visit China.

He cautioned at the time against “the government‘s acquiescent and concessional approach” towards restoring ties with Australia’s largest trading partner.

Mr Albanese’s China trip will be a delicate balancing act, with Beijing likely to try to cast it as a ­triumph of Chinese diplomacy and as an example for other countries on how to get along with them.

Relations between Canberra and Beijing cooled markedly under Malcolm Turnbull, who banned “high risk” Chinese telcos Huawei and ZTE from Australia’s 5G network.

But it was the Morrison government’s call for a UN investi­gation into the origins of Covid-19 that really infuriated Beijing, which then responded with co­ercive trade sanctions against Australia that are yet to be  fully wound back.

Mr Abbott delivered a scathing rebuke to China at the Yushan Forum in 2021, declaring there was nowhere in the world where “the struggle between liberty and ­tyranny (is) more stark than across the Taiwan Strait”.

“Nothing is more pressing right now, than solidarity with Taiwan if we want a better world,” he said.