Let’s keep our wits about us

The Government’s unwillingness to confirm the Premier’s meeting with the Chinese Ambassador was intriguing and in stark contrast to previous visits by Chinese ambassadors, events the Government has tended to shout about from the rooftops.

Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye.

IT is in nobody’s interests to shout cover-up when there isn’t one. But the Government’s unwillingness to confirm Premier Will Hodgman’s meeting yesterday with the Chinese Ambassador to Australia was intriguing to say the least.

Such meetings are stock-standard events on any visit to our state by ambassadors and consul-generals. Indeed, the same diplomats also often book time with local newspaper editors while they are in town. It’s very routine.

It was odd, then, that it took more than seven hours yesterday for the Government to confirm the Ambassador Cheng Jingye was even in the state, let alone that he had met with the Premier. The reluctance to do so stands in stark contrast to previous visits by Chinese ambassadors, events that the Government has tended to shout about from the rooftops.

PREMIER SILENT ON AMBASSADOR’S VISIT

And for good reason. China has been one of the key pillars on which Tasmania’s economic fortunes of recent times have been built. Tasmania welcomes more than 50,000 tourists from China each year, almost 3000 of the students at our university are Chinese, and many of our businesses enjoy a growing export market into what is now the world’s second biggest economy.

None of this was by chance. This economic success story can be traced all the way back to the late 1970s, and the foresight shown by then Labor premier Doug Lowe to foster a closer relationship between China and Tasmania. The late premier Jim Bacon then put China at the forefront of his Labor government’s mind. Consequently, in 2001 Mr Bacon was gifted an honorary citizenship by the then governor of Fujian province, with which Mr Lowe had signed a sister-city agreement. That governor was none other than Xi Jinping. By 2014, Mr Xi was of course China’s president when Premier Will Hodgman visited to extend a formal invitation to Tasmania. That visit – and the attached investment summit – changed the game, exposing our island and its opportunities for leisure and business to literally billions of eyeballs in China.

Four years and billions of dollars on, and our state has benefited greatly. But there is a real – and growing – challenge in balancing this lucrative relationship with the fact it comes from an increasingly assertive communist superpower, and one in our region.

The Hodgman Government says there is nothing to be worried about, and that we should welcome the business from China as we would any other investor. Mr Hodgman said that as Premier and Minister for Trade he regularly met with senior representatives of key trading partners, ambassadors and high commissioners – with such meetings “excellent opportunities to outline what our state has to offer and strengthen our future cultural and economic ties”.

The Mercury agrees with all of this, but only to a point. We also should not ignore the fact that in China’s case, the investment is coming from a country that is not a democracy, and where the lines between government and business are seriously blurred. China is also a country Australia has indicated it might be prepared to go to war with in the event of a conflict in the South China Sea. We therefore believe there is a very real need to guard against any investment here being linked to China’s ongoing and aggressive efforts to increase its influence in our region.

Mr Cheng’s visit yesterday came as the Prime Minister revealed a cyber attack by a “sophisticated state actor” (that is, another country) had recently targeted Australia’s political parties. The ASIO boss warned the damage might not become clear for “many years, even decades”. The attack is a timely reminder that foreign powers remain that, and the protection of our national sovereignty should always be paramount.

(And, no – Mr Cheng did not make an appointment with the Mercury.)