The most striking thing about Beijing Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Australia is how empty the official events around it have been.
The public words of Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong have been carefully chosen to convey the impression that there have been stern words from her in private, but nothing that could cause a ripple of discomfort to Mr. Wang or his Beijing boss Xi Jinping.
Modest public mentions of human rights, our “shock” at the death penalty given to Australian citizen Yang Hengjun, and volatility in the nickel trade in her press conference are meant to convey the success of frank dialogue behind closed doors.
So, you wouldn’t know that in recent days the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has further tightened its grip on the people of Hong Kong and made its national security laws apply to anyone, anywhere in the world, who criticises its governing of Hong Kong.
Beyond this, Australian critics of the regime in Beijing now face the risk of arrest and extradition to China if they are in countries subject to Beijing’s reach.
Was any of this raised with Ms. Wong’s counterpart and if so, to what effect? We can’t and won’t know.
You also wouldn’t know that the Chinese state’s campaigns of mass abuse against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, and anyone who dares speak the truth about CCP control of China’s people are continuing to cause mass suffering.
What About Beijing’s Military Aggression?
Ms. Wong mentioned “our concern—our serious concern—about unsafe conduct at sea, our desire for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in our region.”Just who might be engaging in this unsafe conduct remained a mystery, though, as it did during Australia’s hosting of the recent ASEAN meetings.
It must be impolite to mention that the CCP’s military, coastguard, and fishing fleets are acting violently against other nations in parts of the South China Sea; that Xi’s China is trying to seize from countries from the Philippines to Vietnam, right down to Indonesia.
But if the Australian government can’t mention that it is Xi’s China that is engaging in this unsafe behaviour, how on earth do we expect our “concern,” even our “serious concern” to be taken seriously?
Instead, Ms. Wong talked about Australia and China’s “respective roles in upholding a region that is peaceful, stable, and secure.”
That is more than an odd form of words given that the role the CCP is actually playing is destabilising the region and creating risks of war.
Australia’s role is to work with allies and partners to deter Beijing from such aggression and from thinking that a path to war over Taiwan or the South China Sea makes any sense.
That’s why Australia is spending billions of dollars to strengthen our military—buying more frigates, getting nuclear submarines, and why we are strengthening our military alliance with the United States and UK through AUKUS.
Just a Rehearsal for Bigger Fish
The calculation seems to be that Ms. Wong’s vague and carefully scripted words at her stage-managed press conference are enough to placate the Australian domestic audience, while also being understood by Mr. Wang and his accompanying entourage as simply formulaic utterances without expectations they be taken seriously or acted upon.Accommodating Mr. Wang’s preference to have no engagement with the open press in Australia has enabled this surreal situation to occur, and the visit to be yet another signpost on the path to a yet more triumphant visit by a CCP luminary to Australia in the form of Premier Li Qiang later this year.
And Then There Was Keating
But the oddest aspect of Mr. Wang’s visit comes from his meeting with former Prime Minister Paul Keating. That meeting, like the entire visit, is shrouded in secrecy as Beijing’s terms dictated.Beijing’s purpose with that very publicly announced but very privately held meeting was not about any transparent discussions for Australians to see.
It was to create the ridiculous perception that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Senator Penny Wong’s approach to the relationship with the CCP is too hardline and edgy and needs to become more uncritically pro-Beijing, in accordance with Mr. Keating’s various mutterings in recent years.
Simply having the meeting with Mr. Keating lets Mr. Wang achieve this perception, even if the truth is that the former prime minister has had limited influence on government policy for some years.
So, Beijing continues to get a lot out of the Albanese government—they have bought Australia’s silence and have yet to buy a single bottle of wine for the price.
