Imagine, in 1938, a senior Australian government minister saying, ‘Yes, I know the Nazis are a bit on the nose, but we really, really, want those Volkswagens and Leica cameras.’ Yet, that’s the gist of what our odious foreign minister is saying, in regard to communist China.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has warned that Australia has no choice but to work closely with China to safeguard the economy and needs to harden its defences against disinformation, foreign interference and cyber attacks, which intelligence chiefs warn Beijing is deploying on an industrial scale.
Does this fatuous bint even listen to herself? She’s straight-up admitting that China is acting exactly as a hostile, belligerent foreign nation would, but, hey, we want their money. Is she serious?
The suspicion that Wong is either completely demented or just taking the piss is only hardened by her next pronouncement.
“China is our largest trading partner, the world’s second-largest economy and a key player on climate action,” Senator Wong told the Australian Institute of International Affairs in Canberra on Monday night.
Key player on climate action? What planet does this loon live on? Because it’s clearly not the one where China is the world’s single-biggest polluter. Not just the world’s single-biggest carbon dioxide emitter, but literally the most-polluted nation in the word. China emits more than twice as much carbon dioxide as its nearest rival, the USA, and more than four times as much as the next, India.
Wong is out of her ever-lovin’ mind. Or just a grandiose liar. You pick.
But then, her grovelling obsequiousness toward the Nazi Germany of the 21st century is all of a piece with the Albanese government’s obscene kowtowing to the communist bully.
Her push for a more nuanced understanding of Australia’s China relationship follows Anthony Albanese’s record-long visit to the country in July, when he said President Xi Jinping had given him “no reason” not to trust him.
I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word – Neville Chamberlain, on Adolf Hitler.
Senator Wong compared China favourably with Russia, Iran and North Korea, saying Beijing would “continue trying to reshape the region according to its own interests”, while Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang would “continue to sabotage and destabilise”.
So, ‘at least they’re not Iran or North Korea’ is hardly the most rousing endorsement she could think of?
At the same time, she warned Australia faced a surge in “disinformation, interference, transnational repression, cyber attacks and the unregulated use of AI” – all of which are being harnessed by Beijing to disrupt the rules-based order. “We are witness to a collapse of truth. False voices. Fabricated images. Manufactured narratives. Algorithms amplifying fiction masquerading as fact,” Senator Wong said.
Well, Wong would know all about that.
A week after Beijing leveraged its rare earths monopoly to force a trade settlement with Washington, Senator Wong said “some states” were also seeking to “weaponise trade and undermine supply chains”.
Meanwhile, China is doing everything to act like a hostile belligerent, short of literally invading.
While the government is determined to improve diplomatic ties with Beijing, Australia continues to face military tensions with China, with a People’s Liberation Army Air Force jet firing flares into the path of an Australian surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea last month.
PLA Navy warships also undertook a circumnavigation of Australia earlier this year in what experts said was a rehearsal for an attack on Australian cities.
Oh, but what’s a rehearsal for invasion, between trading partners?
But while Wong and Albanese are all Pollyanna blind optimism, China is straight up telling its people to get ready for war.
Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to “focus all its energy on fighting” in preparation for war, a Chinese Communist party mouthpiece has reported.
Pictures of Xi, who recently secured a third term as party leader, in his army uniform during a visit to a command centre featured prominently on the front page of the People’s Daily on Wednesday.
Xi said the army must “comprehensively strengthen military training in preparation for war”.
While the Chinese focus all their energy on fighting, our leaders are focussing all their energies on ensuring the military meets their DEI quotas.
So, now we know how it must have felt, watching the Munich conference unfold in 1938.
