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Showing posts with label Australia-China relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia-China relations. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 March 2023
Thursday, 16 March 2023
Six months before the loss of government & his prime mininstership, sinophobe Scott Morrison signed Australia up to the tripartite AUKUS security pact & now those in the mainstream media who backed him whilst in office are beginning to beat the war drums
CEO former Australian citizen Rupert Murdoch, News Corp:
The Australian, 14 March 2023
‘It’s more than one plus one plus one’, from the pen of Canberra Bureau Chief Joe Kelly
…..“The sum of the three is more than one plus one plus one in this case,” Mr Albanese said.
“And I think that the co-operation we’ve had is really exciting. “We see that this is an investment in our capability. At the same time, of course, we’re investing in our relationships in the region as well.
“And I’ve been talking with other leaders in the region, as well, explaining our position. And it’s been well-received and understood why we’re doing this. It builds on our long-term relationship.” Mr Sunak said the deal was “about our commitment to the Pacific region, which, even though it’s geographically a long way from where we are, it’s important in a way to demonstrate our commitment to the values that we hold dear as countries.” Mr Albanese began his day with a walk alongside Chief of Navy Mark Hammond, declaring: “It’s a new dawn in San Diego, and it will be a new dawn in Australian defence policy tomorrow.” Before his trip to the US for the AUKUS announcement, Mr Sunak expressed concern about China’s future direction and role in the international system.
“It’s a country with fundamentally different values to ours, and I think over the last few years it’s become increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad,” the British Prime Minister was quoted as saying in a report in The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s behaviour suggests it has the intention – but also its actions show it is interested in reshaping the world order. And that’s the crux of it.” Mr Sunak told The Wall Street Journal that threats to security were increasing. “The world has become a more volatile place,” he said. “What we need to do as allies is out-cooperate and out-compete our adversaries.” …..
‘Epoch-defining challenge’, from the pen of North Asia correspondent Will Glasgow
The hugely expensive project to acquire “world-leading” nuclear submarine capability – likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars – is a key plank in the response by America and its allies to the massive build-up of the capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army over the past decade. Beijing last week further ramped up military spending by more than 7 per cent to more than $330bn. There is widespread support for the AUKUS project in Taipei. Lo Chih-Cheng, a member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said Taiwan’s government saw the security pact as part of a crucial effort to change Beijing’s calculus on ever using force in an attempt to bring the self-ruled island under Communist Party rule.
“Your decision to acquire nuclear submarines and to build up strength in your defence capabilities is conducive to redressing the imbalance that is happening now in the region,” said Mr Lo, a government member of Taiwan’s foreign affairs and national security committee. “We may not be able to stop China’s continuing military expansion, but it is imperative for us to stop the continuation of this kind of military imbalance.” Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), also welcomed the submarine acquisition. “We welcome measures to address the future balance of power in the western Pacific. And we would like to see a stronger Western alliance in terms of military capability and technology,” said the KMT’s top international adviser Alexander Huang….
The Age, 14 March 2023:
A partnership on the front foot, from the pen of International editor Peter Hartcher
Australia-India relations are thriving, driven by a mutual mistrust of China and shared economic self-interest.
Among the countries this week raising their voices against Australia's plan for nuclear-propelled submarines, you will not hear India, the world's most populous nation and fastest growing major economy….
"India did not object to AUKUS when it was announced," explains a leading Indian strategic analyst, C. Raja Mohan, because "it had no reason to. Stronger deterrence against China on the east is welcome for India," says the senior fellow of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
If you wondered why Australia's relations with India are suddenly booming - beyond the stale comforts of curry, cricket and the Commonwealth - the shared imperative of deterring the Chinese Communist Party's adventurism is key. That is the only reason Australia is arming itself with nuclear-propelled submarines…..
CEO former Liberal federal treasurer Peter Costello, Nine Entertainment Co:
Be alert and alarmed, but don't be duped on China, from the pen of columnist Crispen Hill
Australians should take special heed of the analysis of the noted defence strategist Peter Jennings and then draw the exact opposite conclusion from his about what should be done.
Jennings, who for 10 years was executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and was a deputy secretary of the Department of Defence, was one of five defence experts lined up by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in a series titled Red Alert. Its aim was to provide a more public discussion about Australia's defence needs than what will come out of the secretive Defence Strategic Review. And it was widely taken up by other media.
The five's conclusion was to expect war with China sooner rather than later because China was determined to take over Taiwan by force if necessary. The US would then move militarily to defend Taiwan and Australia would have to join in.
Jennings pointed out that in the first 72 hours, China could fire missiles (with or without nuclear warheads) on the naval fleet bases in Sydney and Perth, on RAAF bases near Brisbane and Darwin, and on communications bases near Alice Springs and Exmouth, among other targets.
The five concluded that war with China was almost inevitable and Australia needed an urgent massive upgrade and spend on its military and must maintain and strengthen its alliance with the US.
Those conclusions defy logic. Surely if Australian cities are going to be bombed because we are mad enough to follow the US blindly into a conflict that has nothing to do with us, the better course of action would be not to follow the US into that war and to loosen the ties with the US so that Australia could have its own defence policy and aims.
And the main aim should be to avoid war…..
BACKGROUND
X-Services News Pty Ltd
Australian Veteran News, 1 December 2021:
Made in Taiwan: Scott Morrison has concocted a phony war with China to take to the next election from the pen of Leo DiAngelo Fisher
“Even as Australia licks its wounds from the ignominy of the fruitless war in Afghanistan, arguably Australia’s most pointless war, the Morrison government is paving the way for a costlier, deadlier and even more contentious conflagration. This time the trumped up military foe is China….
Antagonising China – never a difficult task – has been a hallmark of the Morrison government. At first blush this might easily be attributed to the government’s diplomatic and foreign policy ineptitude. And there is that. Morrison is not a deep thinker on most fronts and especially when it comes to foreign affairs. This is a government that has wantonly sidelined diplomats and policy experts within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – how else to explain the AUKUS debacle? – in the belief that every decision by a government is political and in the moment.
There is none so one-dimensionally political as Scott Morrison. Morrison is not a prime minister troubled by the “vision thing”. His vision rarely extends beyond the next set of headlines. For Morrison, each day is a stepping stone to the next election.
That is the only prism through which the Morrison government’s incessant goading of China can be viewed. Australia’s historical bogeyman of choice, the “yellow peril”, has been reprised with unblushing enthusiasm by this government.
The Morrison government has deliberately and relentlessly fanned tensions with China: the more it riles China, the angrier China becomes, the more tangible the threat of war becomes.
Dutton used his recent National Press Club address to raise the prospect of war with China over the future of Taiwan.
Under Dutton’s Doomsday scenario, an “aggressive” China is poised to invade Taiwan, which it considers a renegade territory. Left unchallenged, an emboldened China would inevitably seek to wrest control of the disputed Senkaku Islands, currently administered by Japan, in the East China Sea.
“If Taiwan is taken, surely the Senkakus are next,” Dutton gratuitously speculated with overtones of the discredited “domino theory” of the 1950s and 60s, which mired the West, including Australia, in futile conflicts in Indochina.
Such was the ominous tenor of Dutton’s address as he mounted the case against China.
Monday, 9 January 2023
Are multinational fossil fuel corporations leading Australian governments & regulators by the nose?
By the time Word War II drew to a close 77 years ago the world geopolitical map saw Australia identified not just as an existing state within the United Kingdom's wider economic zone, but as a prospective permanent political and economic client state of other Big Powers. Its natural resources to be harvested by fossil fuel corporations & extractive industries, exploited by foreign investors and its population a reliable supplier of future cannon fodder in support of their individual and sometimes joint global ambitions.
For her part, Australia would present as obligingly grateful for being treated as a commodity 'owned' by the wealthy top percentile of the northern hemisphere and the largest transnationals.
Nothing much appears to have changed since then…..
The Saturday Paper, 7 January 2023:
A United States congressional committee investigating fossil fuel disinformation has published internal documents on a major Australian fossil fuel project – described by energy multinational Chevron as “an Australian icon” – in what has become the investigation’s final publication before Republicans took control of congress on Tuesday.
The second and final memo, released by the US house oversight and reform committee, includes information from internal documents subpoenaed by the committee about Chevron’s plans to extract gas from its Gorgon project on Barrow Island, off the coast of Western Australia, beyond 2056. The committee included Gorgon as an example of how the industry is “doubling down on long-term fossil fuel investments” while publicly claiming that gas is “merely a ‘bridge fuel’ ” to cleaner energy in spite of scientists’ “significant concerns about continued reliance on natural gas in a warming climate”.
The committee released memos in September and December last year, alongside thousands of pages of internal documents subpoenaed from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute. A sixth subpoena issued to the American Chamber of Commerce did not result in any documents being provided.
The two memos include references to the Australian activities of three of the four big oil companies it investigated – BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil – however, the December 2022 memo includes a particularly detailed focus on the Gorgon project, a joint venture led by Chevron, with partners including Shell and ExxonMobil.
According to the committee, the documents reveal that Chevron “is prepared to swoop in and expand its own fossil fuel business … even if other companies ultimately agree to reduce oil and gas production …”
In total, more than 200 of the 589 pages of Chevron documents published by the committee in December relate to Chevron’s operations in Australia, although many are covered almost completely by black boxes. The documents include a heavily redacted 179-page binder provided to Chevron board members visiting Australia and the Gorgon project in 2016, including details ranging from cultural advice on how to order a flat white to information on Chevron’s long-term ambitions for what it is describing as the “largest single-resource development in Australia’s history”.
According to the committee, internal documents shared with the board by then chief executive John S. Watson “emphasize” Chevron’s “long-term intentions for [Gorgon], despite climate concerns” and “the profits Chevron predicts it will reap”…...
Of the unredacted pages related to Chevron’s Gorgon trip, some are less pertinent than others. A cultural information section explains how light mocking should be considered “friendly banter” and not “an insult”. A rare unredacted section of the agenda shows the executives, directors and spouses were scheduled to receive a two-hour overview of Australian politics from Peter van Onselen, who is introduced as contributing editor at The Australian.
The December 2022 memo was not the first time the Gorgon project attracted the committee’s attention. Its September 2022 memo noted a carbon capture and storage facility at Gorgon that had “repeatedly failed to meet its storage target by about 50%” as an example of problems with that technology.
Another Australian example included in the December memo relates to BP’s strategies towards working with regulators here. A 2016 email from a BP executive to John MingĂ©, chairman and president of BP America, compares the company’s mindset in engaging with regulators in countries including Australia, the US and Germany.
The email describes how BP had gained an “advantaged position” with the regulator of its Australian oil refinery by engaging “proactively”. According to the internal memo, BP documents provided to the committee “show BP executives acknowledging that the company’s actions are often obstructionist towards the development of climate policy”.
Overall, the internal documents, along with further scientific sources cited by the memo, reveal that many of the public claims made by fossil fuel companies have been intentionally misleading.
As the committee’s then chair, Carolyn Maloney, said at a hearing in February: the investigation revealed that ExxonMobil scientists knew about the dangers of fossil fuels in 1978, and in the decades since, the fossil fuel industry has “waged a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign” to prevent climate action, “all to protect its bottom line”…..
On December 25, journalist Amy Westervelt reported that, contrary to previous plans stated by the committee during its term, the December 9 memo may be the last document it publishes.
That same week, the new chair of the Democratic minority in the house oversight committee, Jamie Raskin, shared that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma.
The committee’s work being abruptly curtailed after only 18 months contrasts with the long-term time scales of the companies it is investigating, such as Chevron’s plans to secure profits beyond 2050. The Saturday Paper put a request for comment to Chevron but did not hear back before going to press.
Although the committee’s investigation is on hold, the US is significantly in front of Australia in its attempts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable.
Last month, Puerto Rico became the latest US jurisdiction to file climate accountability lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, joining dockets filed by seven US states and at least 35 municipal governments.
Puerto Rico – an unincorporated territory of the US in the Caribbean, where storms made worse by climate change have caused major recent disasters – is the first to use the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in its climate fraud case against Shell and other companies.
According to Wiles, it could be a “big loss” for these cases if the million pages held by the committee “never see the light of day”.
“The documents that have been released so far definitely provide new evidence on the side of the plaintiffs against the defendants.”
In Australia there are currently at least two court cases related to so-called greenwashing making their way through courts, including one case lodged by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.
In 2022, two Australian regulators, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, announced plans to investigate greenwashing using existing laws.
Considering the memo’s revelation that BP has internally described its more proactive approach of working with regulators in Australia, it is unclear to what extent regulators alone can address the industry’s influence…..
BACKGROUND
North Coast Voices:
Friday, 6 January 2023
Monday, 2 January 2023
Saturday, 30 April 2022
Saturday, 6 November 2021
Quotes of the Week
"In an extraordinary diplomatic feat, Morrison has somehow managed to have China, France and the United States offside simultaneously. It’s an outstanding trifecta, when the Chinese refuse to talk to you, the American President thinks you are a boofhead and the French President calls you a liar." [ Journalist Niki Savva, The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 November 2021]
"He has sacrificed Australian honour, security and sovereignty. Now that is a shocking thing for an Australian Prime Minister to do." [Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, ABC Radio National interview with Sabra Lane, 3 November 2021]
“If only we COULD move on from Morrison, the colossal hole he has created in our ability to defend ourselves in coming decades, or the damage done to our global reputation. His is shaping up as not merely the most corrupt government in federal history, but the most disastrous.” [Crikey journalist Bernard Keane, on Twitter 4 November 2021]
Sunday, 19 September 2021
With his focus firmly on his own re-election and retaining his Australian prime ministership, Liberal MP for Cook Scott John Morrison continues to lay waste to established relationships with a number of other nations having trade or sovereign territorial interests in the region
On Thursday 16 September 2021 a forgetful geriatric US president, an English buffoon of a UK prime minister and, a somewhat desperate, 'trumpian' braggart Australian prime minister suddenly robbed of an active war zone to use in his upcoming election campaign photo ops, came together in a digital space to make an announcement - with as yet no substance behind it - which disturbed, upset, irritated or angered at least five other nations and possibly a well-established common market.
Our largest two-way trading partner in goods & services China accounting for est. one-third of our trade with the world; our oldest regional ally New Zealand; our most populous close neighbour Indonesia; another of our defence & regional security partners with which we a long-term, strong trading relationship Malaysia, a country known to use violent force in the Pacific against those it feels threatens its interests France; and, the European Union our third largest two-way trading partner in goods & services.
ABC News, 18 September 2021:
Senior French officials have accused Australia of deliberately keeping the country in the dark before announcing it would procure nuclear-powered submarines from the US and the UK, criticising a "breach of confidence".
The diplomatic spat is now threatening to spill over into Australia's trade relationship with Paris. Australia is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union.
When referencing the negotiations France's European Affairs Minister, ClĂ©ment Beaune, told broadcaster France 24: "I don't see how we can trust our Australian partners."……
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the Australian and US ambassadors were recalled on request from President Emmanuel Macron, adding the decision was "justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements" made by the new AUKUS alliance between the US, Australia and the UK.
Mr Le Drian said the cancellation of the deal constituted "unacceptable behaviour between allies and partners, whose consequences directly affect the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe".
BBC News, 18 September 2021:
How do you even pronounce Aukus? Something along the lines of "awkward" came the wry suggestion from one Brussels diplomat this week.
And while France has condemned the Australia-UK-US security pact as a "stab in the back", it is certainly awkward for the European Union too.
Firstly, because not only were they not in the room for discussions, they barely seemed to know the room existed…...
“We regret not having being informed, not having been part of these talks. I understand how disappointed the French government will be” Josep Borrell,EU foreign policy chief ….
The Sydney Morning Herald, September 2021:
Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob fears the new three-way defence alliance between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom will trigger a nuclear arms race in the contested Indo-Pacific.
On Saturday, Malaysia joined Indonesia in raising alarm bells about the military build-up in the region and the impact that the AUKUS pact, which includes Australia acquiring nuclear-propelled submarines, could have on regional stability……
“At the same time, it will provoke other powers to act more aggressively in the region, especially in the South China Sea,” his statement said. “As a country within ASEAN, Malaysia holds the principle of maintaining ASEAN as a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality.”…..
Aaron Connelly, an analyst at Singapore’s International Institute for Strategic Studies…..As Australia moves ever closer to the US under the AUKUS deal, Connelly thinks other nations in the region “will be less likely to side with Australia on specific issues because Australia has done this”…..
The Washington Post, 17 September 2021:
China on Thursday slammed a decision by the United States and Britain to share sensitive nuclear submarine technology with Australia….
At a regular news briefing in Beijing, Zhao said the alliance “seriously undermined regional peace and stability, aggravated the arms race and hurt international nonproliferation efforts.”…..
On Thursday, the state-run Global Times described the United States as “losing its mind trying to rally its allies against China” and accused Australia of becoming a “running dog” of Washington…..
The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 2021:
Australia’s plan to arm itself with a fleet of nuclear-propelled submarines to combat the rising threat of China has been met with alarm by near neighbour Indonesia.
South-east Asia’s largest country has expressed unease about Australia’s dramatic enhancing of its military, notably its intention to use US technology to build eight nuclear-powered submarines as part of the new three-way defence alliance with Washington DC and London.
In a statement issued on Friday, Indonesia foreign affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Jakarta had taken note of Australia’s decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and stressed “Indonesia is deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region”….
Naval News, 16 September 2021:
Following yesterday’s announcement that the Australian Government will no longer be proceeding with the Attack Class Submarine Program, France’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Defense issued the following statement:
France takes note of the decision just announced by the Australian government to stop the “Future Submarine Program” ocean-class submarine program and to launch cooperation with the United States on nuclear powered submarines.
It is a decision contrary to the letter and the spirit of the cooperation which prevailed between France and Australia, based on a relationship of political trust as on the development of an industrial and technological base of defense of very high level in Australia.
The American choice which leads to the removal of an ally and a European partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether on our values or on respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law marks an absence of coherence that France can only observe and regret.
While the joint communication on the European strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region is being published today, France confirms its desire for very ambitious action in this region aimed at preserving the “freedom of sovereignty” of everyone. . The only European nation present in the Indo-Pacific with nearly two million of its nationals and more than 7,000 soldiers, France is a reliable partner which will continue to keep its commitments there, as it has always done.
The regrettable decision just announced on the FSP program only reinforces the need to raise the issue of European strategic autonomy loud and clear. There is no other credible way to defend our interests and values in the world, including the Indo-Pacific.
Newshub.com.nz, 16 September 2021:
New Zealand's Prime Minister has now responded, saying she discussed the arrangement with Australia's Scott Morrison on Wednesday night [15 September 2021].
"New Zealand is first and foremost a nation of the Pacific and we view foreign policy developments through the lens of what is in the best interest of the region," Ardern said.
"We welcome the increased engagement of the UK and US in the region and reiterate our collective objective needs to be the delivery of peace and stability and the preservation of the international rules based system.
"New Zealand’s position in relation to the prohibition of nuclear powered vessels in our waters remains unchanged."
UPDATE:
Reuters, 20 September 2021:
PARIS, Sept 19 (Reuters) - France has cancelled a meeting between Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly and her British counterpart planned for this week after Australia scrapped a submarine order with Paris in favour of a deal with Washington and London, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Parly personally took the decision to drop the bilateral meeting with British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, the sources said.
The French defence ministry could not be immediately reached. The British defence ministry declined comment.
The sources confirmed an earlier report in the Guardian newspaper that the meeting had been cancelled…...
Saturday, 18 September 2021
Tweet of the Week - with video
Back to the Future.......
Everything you need to know about Australia's defence policy... #UtopiaABC pic.twitter.com/nadv8IVVBV
— Working Dog (@workingdogprod) August 30, 2017
Saturday, 1 May 2021
Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Prime Minister Scott Morrison's arrogance brings Australia closer to an all out trade war with China
China is said to account for around one-third of Australia's export income.
This may not continue into the future.
Given the growing tension between Australia and China, caused in great measure by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison acting as US President Donald Trump's annoying little barking dog snapping at the heels of Xi Jinping, it is possible that in 2021 Australia could face over $105 billion in lost trade with China.
The Monthly, 15 December 2020:
…..Beijing appears to have officially blacklisted Australian coal for the foreseeable future. The Chinese government sure knows how to hit where it hurts. Australian coal exports to China were worth $14 billion last year, and, for the many coal-lovers in the Coalition, the one argument for the industry’s continued existence – the financial one – has just been crushed. It was hard enough justifying a project such as Adani’s Carmichael mine before; now it looks ridiculous. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has urged China to clarify the reported ban, calling it unacceptable and discriminatory, while Scott Morrison somewhat hopefully called the reports “media speculation”, and warned that a blacklisting would “obviously be in breach of WTO rules and our own free-trade agreements, so we would hope that it is not the case”. It’s a lot more than media speculation, of course. And it’s hardly coincidental that this news has arrived hard on the heels of the stoushes over Australian iron ore. Where is all this heading?
Australian businesses are going to suffer, and people are going to get hurt. Journalist Anna Krien has been tracking a terrible situation involving sailors marooned off the coast of China, on ships full of Australian coal. For up to eight months, these ships have been unable to offload their cargo into Chinese ports due to an informal government ban. “China doesn’t want it. The seller won’t leave. A game of chicken except these men’s lives are at stake. Three are on suicide watch,” Krien reported via Twitter. “Their medicine has run out. The water they are being supplied with is bad – causing rashes that won’t heal and [are] pus-filled. They have families. One sailor’s father back home in India has died, his mother is dying.”
Some of the stranded seafarers haven’t been allowed to disembark for 20 months due to COVID-19. Do Birmingham, Morrison, Canavan, Pitt and Payne care about these workers? Does the Minerals Council? Let alone the hundreds of thousands of workers in the other sectors hit by China’s abrupt strikes on Australian products…...
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