Look at how favourably situated Australia is in the world. As the foundations were put in place for the Asian Century, most profoundly by China, Australia was in the right place at the right time and it benefitted inordinately. Looking forward, as the rise of China continues and a range of Asian countries, including India, Indonesia and Vietnam, look set to follow suit, further marvellous opportunities beckon. And our response: Australia is now turning itself into a massively militarised American satellite state. How did we let this happen?
“Stop doing dumb stuff” is how the Guardian reported pivotal advice given by the economist, Saul Eslake, recently if Australia wants to fix its home affordability crisis. Obtuse strategic assessment in Canberra extends well beyond the framing of local housing policy, however.
For more than 25 years, from 1991, Australia broke the record for uninterrupted, recession-free economic growth in the OECD, according to the Economist. This was a visible consequence of the exceptional engagement of the Australian economy with the rise of China. Then, around a decade ago, Australian geopolitical policy-setting began to be warped by a shrill new imperative, part home-crafted, but profoundly meshed with an intensifying imperial anxiety attack tormenting America.
The artful “China Threat” narrative, advanced by varied commentators, well-connected advisers, and major, eager media outlets (guided and brazenly cheered on from Washington) gained traction remarkably swiftly. To begin with, it drew on too readily-tapped “yellow peril” fears ingrained within the collective Australian psyche. Next, the initial outbreak of the shocking COVID 19 pandemic in Wuhan in China was regularly reviewed and widely reported in the mainstream media in ways that emphasised the Sino-alarm aspect.
Hostile, accusatory rhetoric was soon unsheathed. Beijing, unsurprisingly, glared back and responded harshly. Trade continued, but there were significant interruptions and much clenching of teeth. The best, most cost-effective supplier of 5G telecommunications equipment, Huawei, was summarily proscribed almost overnight by Canberra, which charmed Washington. Beijing plainly would have preferred this had never happened. However, the resulting serious 5G lag-time Australia baked in for itself, ultimately turned this exclusion into a case of heads-China-wins, tails-we-lose.
Nevertheless, Canberra was by now ardently ticking boxes on an extended, dismal Washington curated list. The US was most pleased as were Australian elite and back-up operatives who deeply favoured this huge Sino-scowling project.
Much worse, militarised Washington boot polishing was to come. “Australia isn’t a real nation” Caitlin Johnstone acutely observed last year, “it’s a US military base with kangaroos”.
Then there is AUKUS (sometimes known as USUKA):
“Paul Keating says AUKUS is ‘The worst deal in all history’. Gareth Evans reckons it’s ‘one of the worst defence and foreign policy decisions Australia has ever made’. Bill Kelty condemns it as “the greatest folly of them all” and Hugh White says it is a ‘charade’.”
But suppose we were to stop doing so much “dumb stuff” and suppose, wondrously, Australia relocated its backbone. Think of what then becomes possible.
First of all, we could lock away that sinister, Uncle Sam Understand-a-scope and instruction manual gifted to Canberra by Washington and lose the key. Never mind the Washington instructions to rely on them exclusively when framing Australian geopolitical policy – look instead at their malevolent influence. The drover’s dog can see how, today, that manual says, on page one: loath China; love Israel; and pay no attention to the evidence. The rest of the world, outside the Global West, can see this, too, and how deeply and continuously, this rubric influences Canberra.
In fact, the “Middle East’s only democracy” has surely hit the ball miles out of the park in the Terrorism World Series with its latest display of homicidal, hi-tech wickedness in Lebanon. Will Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be called back to Washington for still more Congressional standing ovations to celebrate this hideous achievement? Who knows. But an independent Australia could step past all the abhorrent gaze-averting and dithering blessed by Washington (which currently steers Canberra’s response) and identify Israel for what it now truly is: a depraved terrorist state.
And we could begin paying acute attention to Australia’s national interest by embracing the manifest cogency in Keating’s longstanding argument that Australia must find security “in”, not “from”, Asia. As it happens, twice as many in Australia thought Australia should be, as Keating argues, “an independent middle power with influence in the Asia-Pacific region”, rather than “an ally of the US” according to a Guardian poll earlier this year.
The foundations would then be in place: to halt — and reverse — the massively alarming American-khaki invasion of Australia, initially green-lighted by the Gillard Government; and to look squarely at how to unwind the astounding AUKUS charade.
There is no question that China presents major challenges for Australia and not just opportunities. It is already the world’s largest economy, measured by Purchasing Power Parity, and it is still developing prodigiously. But the last 40 years prove that China is overwhelmingly interested not in going to war (like the US) but in working exceptionally hard and intelligently while avidly trading with the rest of the world in its entirety.
Beijing’s highly educated, singularly experienced leadership is drawn from a total talent pool more than 50 times larger than Australia’s comparable selection zone. China has a conspicuously strong government which is unwaveringly committed to advancing its best interests. Moreover, its socio-economic performance scorecard now eclipses all others in world history.
Addressing this demanding reality is the verifiable, real test that Australia faces. And why we need to “stop doing dumb stuff”. This is the challenge Australia should be preparing for in dealing with China – not the “new yellow peril” martial threat conjured by Western war-drumming in the interests of maintaining full-spectrum, American-led global dominance. That prejudicial narrative, created to advance messianic American interests, has been assiduously consumed by Canberra. This recklessness has left Australia stunned politically and morally and saddled with a gravely compromised ability to think for itself. We have to fix this.
Richard Cullen is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He was previously a Professor in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
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