Amid our own modest post-election chaos, China is advancing its effort to secure hegemony across the Indo-Pacific region. We ignore this activity at great peril to our allies, economy, security, and values.
One of America’s closest allies, Australia, is again in the Communist Party’s sights. As the Sydney Morning Herald notes, “Australian businesses across the seafood, wine, barley, sugar, copper, coal and timber industries are bracing for a sudden halt to their exports to China on Friday.” One Australian trade official referred to this as a potential “D-Day” scale attack on the nation’s $120 billion export market to China.
The effects are already being felt, with a major Australian lobster delivery being forced to rot on a Chinese runway earlier this week after customs officials refused to approve its importation. The Sydney Morning Herald points out that “The Australian industries targeted by Chinese authorities have produce that can be sourced from elsewhere and are not seen as critical to China’s economic recovery.”
Indeed.
Still, in a totally unsurprising act of hypocrisy (I’ll write more on this later), China was, at the same time, touting its openness at an import exposition in Shanghai. Speaking there, Xi Jinping declared that “China will stay committed to openness, cooperation, and unity for win-win results. We will steadfastly expand all-round opening up … Our aim is to turn the China market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all. This way, we will be able to bring more positive energy to the global community.”
The truth of China’s economic policy towards Australia and all other nations, from Canada to Eastern Europe to Africa, is one of unbridled bullying. This is not a regime with any interest in a “shared market” full of “positive energy.” Rather, it is a Communist authoritarian regime that uses trade as a means to consolidate its domestic authority and advance its global power.
That latter concern explains why Australia is being punished right now. It’s because Australia, more than any other nation, has had the moral and political courage to join America in restraining China’s imperial gambit. Australia knows that China’s effort to make the South China Sea its own private swimming pool, subjugate the region, and undermine Australian democracy is similar to that of another imperial power in the 1930s and 1940s. Over the longer term, China aims to use its established dominance to impose a political and economic feudal lordship over Australia.
The United States should not be an idle witness to what Beijing is doing.
President Trump has made his mark on the world by finally unleashing American power to counter China’s imperialism. Joe Biden often speaks of the need to restore alliances and America’s global credibility. Witnessing what China is now doing to one of our closest allies, each man has reason to act in Australia’s support. China is banking on Washington’s distraction. Instead, Trump and Biden should pledge to impose immediate new and reciprocal tariffs on China, should Beijing’s D-Day attack go forward.
