Beijing dismisses US pledge to not ‘leave Australia alone on the field’
The Biden administration won’t work to improve ties with Beijing until China stops its economic coercion of Australia.
Beijing has dismissed a demand by the Biden administration to stop its economic coercion of Australia if it wants to improve relations with Washington.
The US commitment — given by President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell — was made as the superpower enlists its allies and partners ahead of a high-level meeting with senior Chinese counterparts later this week.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian brushed off America’s demand.
“The root cause of the current difficulties in bilateral relations is Australia’s wrong words and deeds on issues concerning China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, which have undermined the foundation of mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries,” he said at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday evening.
“The Australian side knows the ins and outs better than anyone else.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will on Friday (AEST) meet China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the first senior face-to-face meeting between the world’s two most powerful countries in almost 9 months.
Ahead of the meeting with the Chinese, the Biden administration is waging a sweeping charm offensive with its allies and partners in the region, with senior officials visiting Japan, South Korea and India.
The intervention by Mr Campbell — Biden’s most senior Indo-Pacific adviser — made clear Australia’s situation will also be raised by the American team.
“We have made clear that the US is not prepared to improve relations in a bilateral and separate context at the same time that a close and dear ally is being subjected to a form of economic coercion,” Mr Campbell said in an interview published on Tuesday.
“We are not going to leave Australia alone on the field.”
China has launched trade strikes on Australian exports worth more than $20bn-a-year after the Morrison government last April called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus without giving notice to Beijing.
In recent years, Australia has angered Xi Jinping’s administration by banning Huawei from its 5G network, increasing scrutiny of foreign interference within its borders and criticising China’s actions in the South China Sea, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
Experts were doubtful the Biden administration’s public pressure would lead to any short-term change to the blacklisting of Australian coal, lobsters and timber, or unwinding of crippling tariffs on wine and barley.
“I doubt that Beijing will revise its policies in the near-term, and surely Biden administration officials don’t expect instant success,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
“But perhaps, over time the US can devise and implement a strategy that will be successful in influencing Chinese behaviour. That strategy will have to involve imposing costs on China,” she told The Australian.
Darren Lim, a geoeconomics expert at the Australian National University, said the timing of Dr Campbell’s comments was “evidence of pessimism on the US side that anything can be achieved” at this week’s meeting.
“If they were optimistic, they would make these demands behind the scenes,” said Dr Lim.
But he said going public allowed the US to send a “long-term signal” to partners that it is looking to co-operate on countering economic coercion.
While dismissing the Biden administration’s demand to end economic coercion of Australia, China’s foreign ministry spokesman said this week’s meeting was a chance to bring China-US relations “back to the right track”.
“The two sides should respect and treat each other as equals, enhance mutual understanding through dialogue, manage and dissolve differences,” he said.
State-sanctioned tabloid the Global Times was sharper in its response, calling Dr Campbell’s remarks “absurd”.
“On the surface, this seems to re-emphasize the strong and tight alliance between the US and Australia, but in fact the US’s purpose is to keep Canberra in Washington’s anti-China circle,” said the Global Times.
“Campbell’s statement is pushing Australia further into the anti-China frontline,” the paper reported.
This week Trade Minister Dan Tehan said Australia would ask the World Trade Organisation to decide if China broke free trade rules when it imposed an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley, weeks after the Morrison government’s call for an inquiry.
The latest step in Australia’s WTO action was announced after negotiations between the two sides failed to resolve the dispute.
More Coverage
Rudd dismisses ‘lies’ over USAID funding for think tank
Australian ambassador to the US, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has categorically dismissed any claim that he or a think tank he formerly led had received funding from the US foreign aid agency.
Cook Islands’ Beijing pact triggers strategic waves across Pacific
The small but strategically important Cook Islands has blindsided its neighbours with the news its Prime Minister is heading to Beijing to sign a murky ‘strategic partnership’ with China.