Since Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison came to power a little over a year ago (starting at the end of August 2018 until today), Canberra has put in a lot of effort into restoring its position in the South Pacific, which has been considerably weakened in the last 10 years because of strong pressure from China and less involvement of the United States (Australia’s key ally) in the Pacific Ocean.
In the Australian media they have in recent weeks being waging an information war against China. One recent illustration of this was the publicity given to a Chinese defector. He was presented in the media as a former senior official in China’s spy agency who had carried out a number of activities in East Asia on behalf of China.
For most of its history, trade and foreign policy did not create dilemmas for the Australian ruling classes. Until the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1941 Australia regarded its trade and foreign policy interests with the United Kingdom to be synonymous. The rapid collapse of the British Army in Asia shattered that pipe dream. Thereafter, Australia looked almost exclusively to the United States as its guarantor of security.
A Chinese delegation headed by Wang Chen, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, visited Mauritius from June 8-11, 2019 for a meeting with the country’s Prime Minister, Pravind Jugnauth, and acting President, Barlen Vyapoory. Readers will remember that in June 2018 Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the island.
US Ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse Jr. wasted no time at his new diplomatic post to begin strong-arming Canberra into adopting Washington’s confrontational policy vis-à-vis Beijing.
A Reuters article published by the South China Morning Post titled, “China using ‘payday loan diplomacy’ in the Pacific, claims new US ambassador to Australia,” would claim:
If there were any lingering doubts that Australia actually followed its oft-repeated mantra of being a country that adheres to fundamental principles of law, they were surely dispelled this past week. The Foreign Minister Marise Payne released a statement on the attempted coup d’état in Venezuela. The statement said, in part:
The next election in Australia is expected to be held on a date between March and May 2019. If two years of opinion polls are a reliable guide, the Opposition Labour party is expected to win comfortably. It should present an opportunity for a fresh start in Australia’s foreign and defence policies. That is unlikely however to be the case.
