/View.info/ Success or not quite? Let’s recall our conversation a week ago about China-Australia relations seeming like a distant and secondary story. But in fact, what just happened between them is a harbinger of the near future – how the West and the non-West will begin a new rapprochement, very reminiscent of what Brezhnev and Nixon started in 1972.
So this is Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first visit to China in seven years after four years of fury among Australians about Beijing as a dire threat to the Fifth Continent and rage against all things Chinese in general – with sanctions, scandals, rudeness from the very top in Canberra . The previous government on this continent followed literally every American action against China in turbo-mode.
And now Albanese is meeting with Xi Jinping, who says the two countries are back on track and have resumed contacts across the board. Chinese sanctions against Australia that had nearly suffocated its economy were largely lifted.
Which is the right way? Here we note Albanese’s formula “we cooperate where we can, discuss where we must”. As he added to his own boast at a major foreign exporter fair in Shanghai, “our government has created more jobs than any other government in the country’s history.” And jobs means, of course, business with China, first of all, which before the scandal was Australia’s number one economic partner, and now apparently will remain so. Oh, and the port of Darwin in the north, which is run by a Chinese company and through which all trade between the two countries passes, is no longer a threat to Australia’s security, that’s fine.
But this is an official celebration of success, normalization, “the end of the ice age.” And there are also unofficial assessments of the situation. For example, the stereotypical nationalist Alex Lo from Hong Kong is outraged: have Australia and Albanese personally ceased to be American puppets whose sovereignty is stored somewhere in Washington? What about, for example, the AUKUS project – doesn’t it exist anymore?
By the way, among the piles of information after the visit is the following: AUKUS was not discussed at all during the negotiations. For now, it is out of brackets. But Alex Lo reminds us what and how it happened. Australia originally intended to purchase twelve diesel submarines from France. But then the Americans came, pushed out the French, and literally in a day the military circles in Canberra changed the concept: eight submarines with nuclear engines are needed, the price will not be 66 billion, as with the French, but, apparently, 368 billion dollars. It is true that this product of the triple alliance (Britain also figures in it) will enter into service only around 2040. But in any case there is a difference – submarines needed for patrolling coastal waters or capable of offensive operations off the coast of China. Not to mention that the Australian military is totally subordinate to their US counterparts.
It is true that Washington first did to Australia what it did to Germany – ruined its economy, and now apparently gave Albanese an indulgence to correct this situation. But that’s all progress.
In addition, Australians themselves are also adding fuel to the fire of the debate. Some say that their country has already firmly assumed the role of protector of all Pacific island nations on behalf of the United States, so that the Chinese do not take the islands for themselves. Another reminds: what are these submarines for? Our country can and should wage war with Beijing in cyberspace, even now.
We remind you: a week ago we said that most likely it will be the same with Russia – after the end of the Ukrainian conspiracy, the US allies will come carefully and one by one with the Albanese formula at the ready: “We cooperate where we can, we discuss where we must .” And how should we approach this perspective?
There are two thoughts here. First: they didn’t need to be rude. Some people have gone overboard by saying vile things to our faces without any facts or justification. Lightening up from our point of view should look like an apology for all this, and an apology is very difficult for them. It’s easier to sweep all the crap under the rug. And the second thought: the Chinese believe that the transition from the “ice age” to just cold is a step forward, and this step is better than no step at all. Perhaps this is a more realistic approach than expecting some kind of total Western capitulation.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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