From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp277-8
…
Think about Russia, surely well above Australia in the weight divisions. It’s militarily formidable, and not afraid of defending its interests. It keeps Europe nervous. The United States is furious with it because it may have changed the outcome of the presidential election. China treats Russia as a serious player in the global strategic game. Yet consider this fact. In 2016, the GDP of the Russian Federation stood at US$1.28 trillion. Australia’s stood at US$1.20 trillion. By 2020 our economy will be bigger than Russia’s. So why do we feel like a koala to Russia’s bear?
More to the point, why are we so terrified of annoying China? Why have we allowed this increasingly bellicose power to spread its shadow over us? As this book argues, one factor dominates all others. Since the 1980s, we have set the economy before everything else and put power in the hands of those who tell us we must sacrifice everything to it, including our sovereignty as a free country.
When I began working on this book I believed that China’s attempts to promote its position in Australia were ham-fisted and self-defeating. Its official spokespersons and media come across as strident and bullying, a throwback to the Cold War more likely to turn people off. But I slowly began to realise that the PRC’s campaign to change Australian perceptions has been extremely effective. In addition to silencing most of its critics and winning over or intimidating the Chinese diaspora, the PRC has cultivated a highly influential cohort of pro-Beijing voices among this country’s elites and opinion makers. In the media, and among business leaders and politicians, voices that are either pro-Beijing or urging appeasement are the loudest. Self-censorship among academics in our universities is rife. In the wider Australian community, PRC programs aimed at promoting a benign view of China have drawn in individuals and organisations attracted by the lure of Chinese friendship and money.
The subservience and self-interest of our elites provide the primary explanation for why we believe we are so powerless to resist the PRC takeover of Australia. There is a widespread view that China’s rise is unstoppable, that our economy’s fate is in Beijing’s hands, and that China’s size means it must dominate Asia. So it’s best if we go along with this historical inevitability, because we don’t really have any choice, and it won’t be such a bad thing anyway. So we pursue ‘friendship and cooperation’, accept the flood of money, sell our assets, jump when China’s diplomats shout, look the other way when our technology is funnelled offshore, recruit Beijing’s agents into our political system, stay silent on human rights abuses, and sacrifice basic values like free and open inquiry in our universities. In the nation’s post-settlement history, has there ever been a greater betrayal by our elites?
Protecting our freedom from the PRC’s incursions will come at a price. We have seen that Beijing has made itself the master at pulling economic levers for political and strategic ends. As we begin to resist, Beijing will respond first with belligerent rhetoric and threats designed to scare us. In January 2018 the Global Times threatened ‘strong counter-measures’ if we continue to support the United States in its freedom-of-navigation exercises.2 Then it will impose economic pressure at our weakest points, those sectors of our society most vulnerable to its blackmail and to which politicians are most sensitive. If we value our freedom, Australians will need to remain resolute and take the pain.
Experience shows, however, that Beijing backs off when others stand up to its economic bullying. Even so, it would be prudent to see past the self-interested or deluded demands of the China lobby and embark on sustained efforts to diversify our economy so that we become less reliant on China. In particular, forging stronger trade, investment, migration, student and tourist links with the other Asian giant, India, a democratic nation whose values mostly overlap with ours, would not only help insulate Australia against PRC coercion but contribute to India’s emergence as a strategic counterweight to China.
At the same time, we could build a more balanced alliance with the United States by pursuing an Alliance of Asian Democracies, bringing together the democratic states of India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia. The alliance would work towards reinforcing the freedoms of democratic governance across the region, countering the PRC’s systematic program of undermining sovereignty, and forging strategic and military cooperation to the same end. Let’s remember that resisting the PRC’s influence in Australia is only one of many battles going on in a global war between democracy and the new totalitarianism. …
278
Tgk1946's Blog 