In July, I argued that if China were to impose tariffs on Australia, the United States should respond in kind against Beijing.
Facing Beijing’s capricious new import restrictions on Australian coal, the U.S. should impose new tariffs on China’s export of plastic-based goods. Standing at $19 billion in 2018, plastics are one of China’s smaller export markets to the U.S. Nevertheless, the new tariffs would send an important message that America stands with its closest allies.
The need for action follows Xi Jinping’s decision to punish Australia for its American alliance. The punishment is real. Responding to rumors that China is cutting its coal imports, Australian energy firms on Tuesday saw significant hits to their stock prices. Beijing’s primary Western-facing propaganda outlet then confirmed the import restrictions in a crowing editorial. The Global Times even played to Xi’s utterly disingenuous pledge that China will be carbon neutral by 2060.
“Taking into consideration China’s ambitious carbon-neutrality goal, observers are already suggesting that Australian coal exports to China would fall sharply regardless. In this sense, the overall decline of Australia’s trade with China and its implications for the Australian economy may be the actual most pressing issue the Morrison government should feel anxious about,” it reads.
The editorial was clear, however, that this import cut isn’t about economics. It’s about politics. Australian “politicians need to reflect on their China policy and make necessary adjustments.” The propagandists continued, “Only when the China-Australia relationship gets out of the doldrums can the market restore confidence in bilateral trade.”
This is blackmail, pure and simple.
But Australia isn’t a solitary victim here. What China is doing with these import cuts is advancing the message that nations that fail to do its bidding will be punished economically. It’s proof positive of the fundamental nature of China’s massive “One Belt Road” global economic agenda. Where Xi says that agenda pursues mutually beneficial economic growth, the road actually serves Beijing’s feudal mercantile based international order. Beijing’s not-so-silent message is clear: “Do our bidding and get our investment. Resist us, and face pain.”
China’s strings-attached investments are quite unbearable. Consider, after all, a few examples of where Beijing demands a blind eye from the world. There’s China’s imperial militarism in the South China Sea, its thievery of Indian territory, and its threats against democratic Taiwan. There’s Beijing’s war on impoverished fishermen and endangered marine wildlife. There’s Beijing’s proud intellectual property theft, its forced technology transfers, and its unrepentant manipulation of global trading rules. Then there’s Xi’s Nazi-style treatment of Uighur Muslims and his illegal shredding of Hong Konger rights.
Put simply, there’s a whole world of injustice that waits for those nations which bow to Beijing’s diktats. Those billions of dollars in Chinese investments will ultimately cost a lot more than they produce.
That brings us back to Australia.
More than any other U.S. ally in recent years, Australia has supported the U.S.-led liberal international order against China’s undermining of it. Canberra has done so despite facing down Chinese intelligence, trade, and political pressure. The easy choice here was for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government to play nice with Beijing — to stay quiet amid China’s abuses, except for a few rare statements at the United Nations. In other words, to do what New Zealand’s highly-overrated government has done. Instead, Morrison has made hard choices in recognition that far more is at stake here than the bottom line.
As the U.S. grapples with China’s threat, it cannot afford to take allies like Australia for granted. Explicitly tying his action to China’s coal import cuts, President Trump should impose tariffs on Beijing’s plastic exports.
