Australia pines for the past
Editor's note: Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert and special consultant to AxiCorp. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for media for the Chinese mainland for more than a decade. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as "The Chart Man." He is a national board member of the Australia China Business Council. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has proposed five initiatives to beef up a new "cold war" against China. His bellicose speech delivered to the USAsia center in Perth failed to mention the most significant proposal that would mitigate against the new cold war that he seems intent on promoting.
First, Morrison proposed an overhaul of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including reviving its appellate trade settlement body after former U.S. President Donald Trump refused to appoint new judges. Never mind that Morrison was absolutely silent on this issue when it first developed.
Second, Morrison lamented that China's advances had eroded the technological edge enjoyed by the United States. His solution is not to step up to the competition but to seek to restrain and pull back China's advances and by implication, deny China the right to improve living standards through advances in technology.
Third, he called on the Group of Seven (G7) nations, of which Australia is not a member, to do more to build infrastructure and provide financing. This call was made despite the cutbacks that his government has consistently imposed on these programs. He ignored the work done by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, of which Australia is a member and continued to present the false assertion of debt entrapment by China. This assertion ignores the structure of sovereign debt obligations in the region, which draw on private, institutional and sovereign sources.
Fourth, he spoke of "building sovereign capacity and resilience by bolstering defense forces, security and trade partnerships." In this vision, trade is not seen as an instrument of peace but as part of a defense solution.
It's no surprise that these proposals clearly echoed the "drums of war" speech given a few weeks before by Home Affairs Secretary Michael Pezzullo. These sentiments were never disavowed by Morrison or his colleagues. It appears they have their hearts set on conflict despite their protestations to the contrary.
In a final irony, he claimed that the liberal democracies wanted to "maintain an open rules-based global system that supports peace, prosperity and aspirations for all sovereign nations."
It is apparently just an unfortunate oversight that the open, rule-based global system does not include inviting China to the table to participate in the discussions. Nor does it appear to acknowledge China's right to continue to develop prosperity for its people via technological advancements. Morrison's vision does not recognize China's aspirations as a sovereign nation.
The very real danger is that Morrison and his cohort of like-minded, aging imperial powers will provoke an armed conflict in the region. Despite their protestations, there is a growing thirst for conflict rather than diplomatic solutions. Some members of this coalition to whom Morrison is addressing his comments have a history of such provocation.
The United States used the fabricated Tonkin Incident off the coast of Vietnam to justify bombing attacks on North Vietnam. The Japanese used the infamous Marco Polo Bridge incident to justify their further attacks on China. Reaching further back into history, the English used the arrest of Chinese crewmen on the Arrow as an excuse for the Second Opium War.
These are the real dangers that underpin Morrison's call for active cooperation among like-minded countries and liberal democracies not seen for 30 years. This risk of miscalculation grows as the saber-rattling increases. Encouraging old and aging European imperial powers like France and English to sail warships through the South China Sea is a return to primitive gunboat diplomacy and not designed with cooperation in mind.
However, this China-prodding is unlikely to be wholeheartedly supported by other nations in the region. The recent attempt to turn the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting into an attack on China was not supported by other ASEAN members.
Mitigating this so-called cold war with China is not achieved by containment. The solution comes through inviting China to take a seat at the table where the global rules-based order is created. China cannot be excluded from these discussions. It has a legitimate role to play and a voice that must be heard.
Prime Minister Morrison proposes to take this cold-war confection to the G7. While he will garner support from the U.S. and the UK, it can only be hoped that others in the grouping are more levelheaded and have a deeper understanding of how global rules can only be based on cooperative discussions. These are not rules that can be imposed.
Security and peace in the region depend upon the active and honest involvement of China in all these discussions. A more informed speech would have included an Australian commitment to support and sponsor China's direct involvement in these global forums.
Instead, the speech reflected a desperate longing for a world as it was, with all its Western imperial splendor, and not the world as it is.
(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)
相关阅读
-
澳洲学者:对美国唯命是从的澳大利亚也难逃“美国优先”大棒砸下
澳大利亚长期讨好美国,希望以此免受“美国优先”政策冲击,一边继续享受美国的安全保护,一边维持正常的澳中、澳美贸易关系。但近期特朗普的一系列离谱言行表明,这种期望可能只是幻想。
-
澳洲学者:美国说什么“强化供应链”,到头来还是为打压中国
近日,“印太经济框架” (IPEF) 下的供应链协议生效。事实上,IPEF是美国对华战略竞争的地缘政治工具,它利用其他成员国寻求供应链多元化的本意,完全以美国自身利益和战略目标为出发点,旨在围堵、遏制中国经济。
-
澳专家:G7广岛峰会嘴上说的都是“秩序”,心里想的都是“霸权”
今年七国集团 (G7) 峰会在日本广岛举办,首要议程仍是维护霸权秩序。广岛是第一个遭到核武器袭击摧毁的城市,这一会议地点和G7不断变化的关注焦点相结合,讽刺意味浓烈。G7的成立主要是为了促进共同的宏观经济倡议,以应对当代经济问题,但现在它正蓄势发起经济战。
-
Australia's adversarial China policy
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for Chinese mainland media for more than a decade. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as "The Chart Man."
-
China stock market opportunity
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for Chinese mainland media for more than a decade. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as "The Chart Man." He is a national board member of the Australia China Business Council. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
-
G7 blue dots or BRI red spots?
Editor's note: Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for Chinese mainland media for more than a decade.
-
Australia on a 'mission to provoke imperial resurrection'
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for Chinese mainland media for more than a decade.
-
Essential concepts to embrace and discard to understand China
Editor's note: Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for media for the Chinese mainland for more than a decade. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as "The Chart Man." He is a national board member of the Australia China Business Council. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
免责声明:本网所发所有文章,包括本网原创、编译及转发的第三方稿件及评论,均不构成任何投资建议,交易操作或投资决定请询问专业人士。
热门点击
-
- 【4.28】今日财经时讯及重要市场资讯
-
- 【4.29】今日财经时讯及重要市场资讯
-
- 澳储行将从抗击通胀转向保护经济增长 今年五月或降息
-
- 【4.30】今日财经时讯及重要市场资讯
-
- 2025年大洋洲首届佛教禅宗“正法眼藏,佛祖源流”传承圣典
-
- 【异动股】中国限制对美钪产品出口Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL)股价接连飙升
-
- 【5.1】今日财经时讯及重要市场资讯
-
- 【异动股】Cyprium Metals (ASX:CYM)完全控股西澳2000平方公里Paterson铜矿勘探项目
-
- 【异动股】中国稀土出口禁令引发Australian Strategic Materials(ASX:ASM)股价飙涨 Dubbo项目显现“替代性”优势
-
- 股价单日飙升近1倍!Andromeda突破性生产4N级高纯氧化铝(HPA)Great White项目再迎估值催化
-
- 澳洲最新《各州和领地经济报告》出炉 西澳连续三个季度高居榜首
-
- 【异动股】中国限制对美钪产品出口Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL)股价接连飙升
-
- 金价暴涨提振澳洲黄金股 分红惊喜可期
-
- 澳洲葡萄酒对华出口重返10亿澳元大关 美国市场承压前景不明
-
- 【异动股】铀矿巨头Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN)LHM矿场季度产量创重启以来新高