Australia’s China bias and colonial blinkers mean it fails to see big picture for Pacific islands’ development
- Canberra had chosen symbolic gestures and feeble investments over more practical initiatives now being offered by Beijing, failing to heed its island neighbours’ needs
- Australia must shed its colonial mindset and stop claiming to have the moral high ground over China
But Australia, yet to shed its colonial mindset, sees China’s venture into the Pacific as an encroachment into its backyard.
Through its initiatives in the Middle East and Africa, China has shown a willingness to maintain cordial relations with all countries. This model is being replicated in the Pacific to help rejuvenate infrastructure and lift economic standards.
China’s attempt to have cordial relations with everyone is not so much the catalyst driving countries to seek Chinese investment and input into their development. Instead, it is very much the arm-twisting and nascent colonial attitudes that have seeped nauseatingly into the 21st century.
It is in the assumption of the heirs apparent that the developing world does not know what is in its best interests, and the imposition of their ideals through symbolism and boomerang aid – an Australian expression for money that ends up in the pockets of consultants and companies that deliver the aid projects.
In decrying the Solomon Islands for crossing a geostrategic red line by signing a security deal with China, Australia came across like America’s deputy sheriff, chastising a subordinate for disobedience.
Even in the madness running up to the Australian election, there was no public attempt by either the outgoing Morrison government or the Australian security establishment to assess the policy failings that contributed to the Solomon Islands’ move.
Former foreign minister Marise Payne denied reports that she had been aware the deal was brewing well beforehand but failed to prioritise it – a characteristic trait of Australia’s relations with its Pacific neighbours.
Australian heads of government have the third-lowest attendance rate at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting, at 67.4 per cent, with only the Solomon Islands and Palau having a worse record. On the other hand, New Zealand’s attendance record of 88.4 per cent reflects that it considers the region a priority.
A cornerstone of Australia’s relations with the Solomon Islands was a 2003 peacekeeping mission, when the country began falling into civil unrest, which ended in 2017. Most of this aid was in the form of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), which helped prevent conflict.
As the situation improved, aid funding decreased by 35 per cent per year on average under the coalition government compared with the previous Labor government, which provided an average of A$171.7 million (US$119 million) and A$228.5 million per year respectively.
Yet, even this aid was not a cash injection into security infrastructure; money pledged to the Solomon Islands was spent on services provided by the Australian Federal Police and their security consultants.
The Australian security establishment needs to look beyond empty words and hollow gestures, and stop its virtue signalling to Pacific nations by constantly claiming the moral high ground over China.
Had these investment initiatives come from the United States, Canberra would probably have been full of praise. But, because it’s China, the deep-rooted bias and Cold War mentality prevent Australia from seeing the bigger picture, which is the betterment of the Pacific island community.
Sameed Basha is a defence and political analyst with a master’s degree in international relations from Deakin University, Australia