The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the
Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 28th, 2003.
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The US and China bring two options to Australia
WAR AND MORE WAR or PEACE AND TRADE
Last week the Australian Parliament and the Australian people were
presented with two entirely different perspectives and two virtually
opposite courses of action.
The speech of President George W Bush was almost entirely devoted to war
and was peppered with references to "murderers", "committed killers",
"terrorists", "outlaw regimes", "weapons programs", and the glory of
past wars. "Our nations must confront the immediate threat of
proliferation . We are preparing to search planes, ships, trains and
trucks carrying suspect cargo, to seize weapons or missiles shipments
that raise proliferation concerns", said George Bush.
The speech by the President of the People's Republic of China(PRC), Hu
Jintao, was devoted to peace, the development of trade and cultural
exchanges.
"I am convinced that China and Australia will shape a relationship of
all-round co-operation that features a high degree of mutual trust,
long-term friendship and mutual benefit, a relationship that makes our
two peoples both winners", said Hu Jintao. There was no talk of war.
In welcoming President Bush, John Howard, also drew upon past wars. He
listed the supposed shared values of the US and Australia - the belief
that the individual is more important than the state, that strong
families are a nation's greatest asset, that competitive free enterprise
is the ultimate foundation of national wealth, and that the worth of a
person is determined by that person's character and hard work, not by
their religion or race or colour or creed or social background.
Howard went on to say, "Our two nations have fought in defence of those
values". He listed joint Australia-US military campaigns beginning in
1918 up to the present day.
He had nothing to say about the principles which determine the
Australian Government's foreign relations with other countries, no
mention of the United Nations.
He welcomed Bush "as a standard-bearer for the values that we hold in
common."
In welcoming President Hu Jintao the next day, John Howard was much more
formal. While characterising the Australia-China relationship as "mature
and practical", he dwelt on the fact that "We are different societies,
we have different cultures, we have different traditions and we have
different histories and no purpose is served in pretending otherwise".
Howard also attempted to pose as some sort of go-between in relations
between the US and the People's Republic of China. He said, "Our aim is
to see calm and constructive dialogue between the US and China on those
issues which might potentially cause tension between them ."
However Howard failed to say that Australia believes that there is only
one China and that Taiwan is a part of that one China, yet this is a
main issue of contention between the US and the PRC.
Both Howard and Crean, who also had some words of welcome to both Bush
and Hu, attempted to raise the issue of the alleged North Korean nuclear
issue when introducing Hu Jintao. They are attempting to "line-up" the
PRC Government to put pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea. President Hu was not drawn on the issue and did not mention the
DPRK in his statement.
The choices facing Australia could not have been presented more starkly
than in the immense differences between the two addresses to the
Australian Parliament. The choice of policy that Australian governments
make now and in the future will determine whether Australia becomes a
genuine partner on an equal basis with the countries of Asia or whether
Australia remains no more than a mindless sheriff of the US doing its
bidding against Asian countries.
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