Edtirorial: Australia must not give in to Chinese bullying

Just a fortnight ago, Chinese Premier Li Qiang — second in command to President Xi Jinping — was enthusiastically greeting his “old friend” Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Laos. Mr Li said he had great confidence that relations between the two nations would continue to improve, achieving “winning outcomes” for both. There was none of that warmth and optimism in Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Li Jian’s furious tirade against Australia on Wednesday evening. Australia was a notorious human rights abuser and the worst type of hypocrite, he said. “Out of their ideological bias, Australia, the US and a handful of other Western countries stoked confrontation at multilateral platforms for their selfish political interest,” Li Jiang said in response to a question from state-owned broadcaster CCTV. “Australia, long plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes, has severely violated the rights of refugees and immigrants, and left Indigenous people with vulnerable living conditions.” “Australian soldiers have committed abhorrent crimes in Afghanistan and other countries during their military operations overseas. “These Western countries turn a blind eye to their severe human rights issues at home but in the meantime point their fingers at other countries. This says a lot about their hypocrisy on human rights.” Australia’s transgression? Australia’s UN Ambassador James Larsen this week urged Beijing to implement the recommendations of a report from the UN into human rights abuses in Xinjiang, where the bulk of China’s Muslim Uyghur minority lives. “No country has a perfect human rights record, but no country is above fair scrutiny of its human rights obligations,” Mr Larsen said. “It is incumbent on all of us not to undermine international human rights commitments that benefit us all, and for which all states are accountable.” Fairly mild comments, which provoked a frenzied response. But that is the nature of working with China. Their propensity for hurt feelings is well known. Australia has only just extracted itself from China’s bad books, having been placed in the deep freeze by Jinping for a number of perceived insults by the Morrison government, including calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus and the 2018 decision to ban Huawei from building Australia’s 5G network. The subsequent defrost has been hugely beneficial to Australia, unlocking billions in trade as China unwound punishing trade tariffs. And China did so without Australia making any major concessions. That saga demonstrated that although China’s wrath is painful, it’s not fatal. The economy survived, industries previously reliant on exports to China found other markets. What Australia can’t afford is to allow China’s bullying to deter us from speaking up for ourselves, and for what we believe in.