Australia Must Prepare for War: Home Affairs Secretary
Himalaya Maple Leaf Farm, Liberte
May 5 2021
We always point out, firmly, that the CCP does not represent the Chinese people. They are largely indoctrinated, bullied and oppressed by the CCP. But President-for-life Xi is several degrees-of-crazy beyond even the mainstream crazy of the CCP. This psychopathic creature has become completely untethered to reality. He is becoming isolated even within the CCP, and appears to be depending largely on only two confidantes Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi. He will certainly go down in history alongside Hitler, Stalin and Mao as the most aberrant bully.
One thing has become abundantly clear in the first quarter of 2021, the CCP only has one default setting: bully, bully, bully. He is now a one-man wrecking crew. Threatening the EU, Japan, Sweden, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, New Zealand, the US, even the most cooperative, meek even, Canada is being bullied. Let’s not forget Australia – one of the most directly bullied nation in the world is Australia. And why is this? Because Australia seems to be the one nation that has a spine. The one nation in the world which is fighting back.
Australian Home Affairs Secretary Michael Pezzullo said that “while Australia should always search for peace, it must also be prepared to send off our warriors to protect our precious liberty”[1].
Pezzullo continued: “by our resolve and our strength, by our preparedness of arms, and by our statecraft, let us get about reducing the likelihood of war – but not at the cost of our precious liberty. War might well be folly, but the greater folly is to wish away the curse by refusing to give it thought and attention as if in so doing, war might leave us be, forgetting us perhaps [1]“.
Courageous words. He sounds like a Churchill, not like the Chamberlain-Esque leaders of most western countries these days. Mr Pezzullo is a statesman to watch.
Former Australian Defence Minister Christopher Pyne recently warned Australia could be thrown into a military conflict with China in a matter of years. Mr Pyne said war may be inevitable with the authoritarian state as it becomes more aggressive and belligerent with its neighbours. “Five years ago, I would have said that the possibility was very unlikely – now I would have to say that the possibility is more likely than it was then”, he said in a speech at the University of Adelaide [1]. He emphasized that this is a real possibility in the next 5 years.
Australia’s relationship with China, its biggest trading partner, began to drastically deteriorate in April last year when Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus, which first appeared in Wuhan at the end of 2019. The plea for transparency over Covid-19 infuriated the Communist Party who retaliated by imposing arbitrary bans and tariffs.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced last week Victoria’s Belt-and-Road Initiative agreement with Beijing had been cancelled under new foreign veto powers. China’s embassy in Australia responded swiftly, expressing ‘strong displeasure and resolute opposition’ to Senator Payne’s announcement. This of course has angered petulant Xi to no end.
Xi has unleashed a furious barrage of sanctions, and import suspensions, on Australian exports starting in May 2020 on meat, iron ore, barley, sugar, red wine, logs, coal, lobster and copper, timber
On February 23, 2021, Xi went so far as to accuse Australia of being in an ‘axis of white supremacy’ with the UK, USA, Canada and NZ in an editorial. Reminiscent of the CCP tactic of stirring up racial tensions in the United States. On March 11, 2021, Australia was accused of genocide, against its aboriginal population, by a Communist Party newspaper editor. Of course, the questionable treatment of Australia’s aboriginals took place 200 years ago, compared to the Uyghur genocide which is happening now. Just an inconvenient fact. But that does not prevent the mouthpieces of the CCP from making the moral comparison, all the while denying there are any violations of human rights in China.
Australia is not the only country that is growing increasingly wary of Xi’s belligerence. He has even managed to anger one of the few countries that had coddled Beijing so far. “China, my friend, how politely can I put it? Let me see … O … GET THE FUCK OUT,” Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted on Sunday. This was a response to the flotilla of Chinese vessels moored around Whitsun Reef, which lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, as defined by UNCLOS. How long this new spirit will be allowed to remain in the Philippines Government is anybody’s guess. President Duterte is known for being too cozy with Beijing.
Australia, on the other hand has a long history of fighting spirit. Australia has become a test case for resistance to Beijing’s territorial expansion and its economic and political coercion. “It is like the canary in the coal mine,” said Heino Klinck, who was the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia until January. “The Chinese have made it clear that they are going to pull out all of the stops to try and put Australia in a box. It’s not just about Australia. It’s just that the Chinese have decided if they can put the Aussies back into a box, that sends a message to everyone else. [2]”
Up until now, Australia has tried to “have their cake and eat it”. Undoubtedly the economy has been booming thanks to a close economic relationship with China. At the same time, Australia has been protected under the security arrangements it enjoys with the USA. But what Australia, and every smaller nation that does business with the CCP, did not consider was a tendency of Beijing to “talk down” to countries which it considers dependent, or vassal states. Crude insults have been hurled by Beijing at Canberra in response to the Australian Governments’ more muscular pronouncements on Xinjiang genocide and the need for an independent investigation related to the CCP-virus.
Beijing “can’t understand why a country they see as a dependent would be acting this way,” said Alex Gray, a former deputy assistant to former U.S. President Donald Trump and now a senior fellow with the American Foreign Policy Council. “It’s almost personal in a way it’s not with other countries. [2]”
“I think there’s a growing consensus in Australia just like there’s a growing consensus in the U.S. about the true nature of Beijing,” said Eric Sayers, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former special assistant to the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. “The China optimist crowd is dwindling. It’s dying off. It certainly is here, and I think it is in Australia because the evidence is just kind of overwhelming. It can’t be ignored. [2]”
Regardless of what Xi believes he has achieved, or what he has been led to believe about the lack of tenacity of the West over the eight years of his reign, he has succeeded in one thing – galvanizing the opposition. The bullying is coming back to haunt him. Beijing did not account for the fierce independence and warrior spirit of Oz. They will not be boxed in.
Reference:
[1] “Powerful national security boss declares the ‘drums of war’ are beating in chilling warning that calls for Australia to prepare for combat with China to protect ‘our precious liberty”, Bryant Hevesi, Daily Mail, April 26, 2021
[2] “Australia draws a line on China”, Keith Johnson, FP, May 4, 2021
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