Beijing’s Chilling Threat to Australia through Global Times
The Global Times newspaper said Australia will become ‘poor white trash’. The phrase was first said about Australia by the Singaporean PM back in 1980. Article was a response to PM’s plan to stop states signing deals with China
A Chinese state-controlled newspaper has warned Australia will become the ‘poor white trash of Asia’
The Global Times, regarded as a mouthpiece for the communist government, said in an editorial that Australia could become impoverished unless it welcomes Chinese investment.
The provocative article was a response to Prime Minster Scott Morrison’s plan to stop states signing deals with foreign powers that go against Australia’s foreign policy.
A Chinese state-controlled newspaper has warned Australia will become the ‘poor white trash of Asia’. Pictured: Chinese troops in Beijing last year
Under a proposed new law, Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative deal with China could be torn up by the foreign minister if it is deemed a threat to national security.
But the Global Times warned that rejecting Chinese investment will make Australia poor.
‘As Australia suffers soaring unemployment, an old and worn-out railway system, a network speed far slower than other Asian countries’ and halted development plans, the Australian people may start to recall former Prime Minister John Howard’s encouragement of Western leaders to “welcome rise of China”,’ the article said.
‘Indeed, further decoupling with China will not send China back to poverty, but will only make former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s famous statement more likely to come true: that if Australia doesn’t open up its economy and reduce unemployment, it risks becoming the “poor white trash of Asia”.’
Lee made his comment in 1980 in a bid to urge Australia to open its economy to foreign investment. Prime Minister Bob Hawke heeded his words and focused on economic reform when he rose to power in 1983.
Under a proposed new law, Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative deal with China could be torn up by the foreign minister if it is deemed a threat. The article, written by Yu Lei, a research fellow at Liaocheng University, said Australia should ‘abandon the Cold War mentality, and conform to the spirit of world peace, co-development, and win-win.’
Investors from the United States and the United Kingdom put the most money into Australia, with China in ninth place.
Victoria made a deal with China under the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, a scheme that sees the communist superpower invest in huge infrastructure projects around the world, in October 2018.
Premier Andrews said he made the agreement to increase Chinese participation in Victorian building projects, manufacturing and trade in order to boost jobs.
Several federal politicians, fearing the expansion of Chinese power and influence, have urged the Victorian government to scrap the deal but it has refused.
Under the proposed new law, the foreign minister will be able to terminate the deal and any private contracts that are part of it.
Once the law is in place, governments and universities will have six months to reveal their foreign deals to the foreign minister, who will then decide which ones must be stopped.
Beijing and Canberra have been at loggerheads after Australia led global calls for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.
Soon afterwards, China slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley, suspended beef imports and told students and tourists not to travel Down Under in an apparent attempt to damage the Australian economy.
On Tuesday Treasurer Josh Frydenberg blocked a $600million bid by Chinese company Mengniu Dairy to buy Aussie drinks company Lion, citing national security concerns. On August 26 Wang Xining, deputy head of mission at the Chinese embassy in Canberra, said Chinese people felt deeply betrayed by Mr Morrison’s call for independent scientists to enter China and investigate coronavirus.
‘All of a sudden, there was this shocking proposal from Australia, supposed to be a good friend of China,’ he said. ‘It is approximately identical to Julius Caesar on his final day when he saw Brutus approaching him and said et tu, Brute?’ Minister Wang admitted the virus was ‘first identified’ in China but said ‘we should leave the work to scientists’ to find out where patient zero came from.
Well there should be no worry for Australia. China has been checkmated by India not only on the Himalayan Front but also on the Economic Front. India has started decoupling economically from China. India has clearly said that, no matter what, there will be no business as usual.
So Australia should also start decoupling from China in a phased manner and forge a strong economic bond with India, Japan and ASEAN.
