My Take | US proxy Anthony Albanese goes to Beijing
- While Australia’s formal sovereignty resides with the British monarch as part of the Commonwealth, its real sovereignty is to be found somewhere in Washington
What national interest? Maintaining China as Australia’s biggest trading partner? Well, up to a point.
While Albanese didn’t cite them specifically, experts say it’s pretty clear what those contentious issues were that he said he would not hesitate to bring up with President Xi Jinping. These include Beijing’s maritime claims in the South China Sea; the security of Taiwan; the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic; China’s human rights records; and the security of sea lanes in the Pacific.
Albanese does deserve some brownie points for taking the trouble to visit China, a first in seven years from Canberra, rather than following the footsteps of his predecessor, Scott Morrison, who preferred giving Beijing the middle finger at every opportunity.
However, none of those “contentious” issues really concern Australia’s national security or core interest, rather the opposite. They are a laundry list handed to Canberra by the United States to justify the latter’s containment policy against China in the Asia-Pacific. By involving its regional allies, even if against their own interests, the US gains diplomatic cover for flexing its muscles on the other side of the globe.
If anything, by joining the Americans in creating more potential conflicts clearly not in its own national interest, including over Taiwan - which is the core national interest of China - Australia risks being dragged into a larger regional conflict.
