Xi Jinping’s ‘belligerent attitude’ to blame for China-Australia tensions, John Howard says

Former Prime Minister says Australia must ‘tread on eggshells’ when dealing with China as he points finger at Xi Jinping for diplomatic tensions.

John Howard meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2014. Picture: File

Former prime minister John Howard says the deterioration in Australia’s relationship with China was due Xi Jinping’s “belligerent attitude” as he also labelled Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan “stupid schoolboy taunting”

Speaking at the Kings College, London, Mr Howard challenged assertions from former foreign minister and ex-Australian high commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer, that Australia needed to “tread on eggshells” when dealing with the Chinese president.

Mr Howard said he had met Mr Xi on several occasions, including when he was prime minister and Xi was a local Chinese governor destined for greater power.

“He is very different (to his predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao) – the deterioration in the (Australian-Chinese) relationship is entirely, in my view, (due to) a belligerent attitude taken by him.”

While Mr Xi’s predecessors were “dictatorial” and “nothing non-democratic”, 83-year-old Mr Howard argued they still had a more accommodating attitude to the West than Mr Xi.

Mr Howard said Australia needed to maintain close relationships with countries in the region, including Japan and South Korea, as well as more formal alliances such as AUKUS and the Quad.

However, his political instincts were on full alert when the speaker of the US House of Representatives became the first politician to visit Taiwan in a quarter of a century in August.

“I thought Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was stupid,” he said bluntly. “It may have gone down well in domestic politics but it achieved nothing in international politics.

“We should avoid digging into the current anger on things. We should not throw stones nor engage in schoolboy taunts. Xi is from a different generation; his attitudes were formed during the cultural revolution, his family was persecuted, legend was that he lived in a cave. The point is he is different, and I think we have to tread on eggshells without conceding our position. And we have to work in co-operation with the Americans and the Japanese.”

Mr Howard said Australia should remember the devastation China experienced before 1945 at the hands of the Japanese.

The audience, a mix of Australian and British business executives and political staffers, also heard Mr Howard’s position about Australia becoming a Republic.

He said that the republican sentiment in Australia was even less than what it was during the Republic vote on his watch back in 1999. He attributed this to Australians’ fear of the United States’ bill of rights system of governance.

“The last referendum was 55-45 (against being a Republic). Do I think that would be replicated in the near future? No, it would be defeated even more heavily.”

He said pro-republican politicians such as former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull or current prime minister Anthony Albanese would have brought forward a vote if the numbers were there. He said the United States’ bill of rights system, in which a court can overturn decisions such as abortion or same sex marriage, which are decided in Australia by parliament or a plebiscite – worried Australians.

“Many Australians look to the United States and are a little bewildered. People think ‘gee if that’s the alternative we should stick with what we have got’.”