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Opinion | Australia’s war posturing against China is out of tune with the region – and dangerous
- The militaristic chest-thumping from the Australian political class, a growing military-industry complex, and the decline of Asian literacy are creating a toxic cocktail
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Tugged by the strings of traditional alliance on the one hand and the prospect of economic growth on the other, Australia found itself in the 21st century between the proverbial rock and hard place.
Yet, rather than smashing into one side of the binary, Australia, until 2014, managed to maintain its alliance with the United States and build a productive relationship with its largest trading partner, China.
Flash forward to last week’s announcement of the “Aukus” pact, and a multibillion-dollar procurement of nuclear-powered submarines, and it’s clear the “drums of war” with China are beginning to beat in Australian discourse. But is the drummer off-key and out of touch with the rest of the band?
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Even to the most indifferent observer, the decline in Australia-China relations has been spectacular.
Perhaps we can trace this to 2017 when former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, in championing legislation against foreign interference, claimed that Australia would “stand up” against foreign interference, in a poorly disguised provocation against China – part of the statement was, after all, delivered in Mandarin.
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But it was Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s call last year for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 that tipped the scales. While the origins need to be investigated, it is curious that Canberra went out of its way to lead the charge against China.
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