China caught Australia napping. This is why it’s a problem
The Albanese government was caught napping when Chinese warships showed up off the coast of Australia. And two countries would be watching closely.
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ANALYSIS
That the Albanese government was caught napping when Chinese warships showed up off the coast of Australia and started conducting live fire exercises that were only picked up by a Virgin Airlines flight crew should come as no surprise.
It is only the latest data point in the long running down of Australia’s defence capability that last year saw us unable to send a single ship to help an American-led effort against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
The fall-off in Australia’s defence capabilities did not start under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, but they have certainly accelerated under his watch.
Which is why the comments of former prime minister Scott Morrison are so relevant.
Morrison, in his time in power, took a polar opposite approach to China.
Rather than seeking pats on the head (who can forget Albanese eating up being called a “handsome boy” on his 2023 trip to China?) and seeing trade agreements as the measure of his government’s relationship with Beijing, Morrison was a stalwart advocate for Australian sovereignty.
Morrison also helped ink the AUKUS agreement with the Biden administration, eventually securing us nuclear submarines.
As he tells this masthead, “The Chinese Government has been on a charm offensive towards the Albanese Government, in recognition of the complete failure of their bullying tactics of coercion and wolf warrior diplomacy.
“Yet this has not stopped the Chinese Government from pushing the envelope with their old playbook of gunboat diplomacy.”
“China wants to completely dominate the Indo Pacific. They want to dominate the region. That does not change however many photos you have taken with them or however many nice moments you share in Beijing.”
Morrison says that it was strange that Albanese wasn’t more across what was going on, saying he would have been “sweating on every brief.”
Indeed, yet the response of the Albanese government has been strangely passive, particularly as it was quick to characterise a security agreement between China and the Solomons as a “massive” foreign policy failure when Morrison was in power.
Not only has the PM taken a distressingly “meh” approach to the whole episode – which now sees the same flotilla that cause so much alarm on a journey that could see them circumnavigate the country, gathering data and intelligence the whole way – but his cabinet has as well.
Defence Secretary Richard Marles defended the flat-footed response saying, “it wasn’t a real incident”, rather missing the point.
It is hard to fathom exactly what is going on with Labor’s response, although they now claim the ships are under heavy surveillance.
But whatever the explanation, we are entering a time when the United States is rightly asking its defence partners to shoulder more of the load.
Australia’s actions will have been noted in both Beijing and Washington.
The worry is that both capitals will have found us wanting.
Originally published as China caught Australia napping. This is why it’s a problem
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