From the moment Donald Trump was elected US president Scott Morrison has aped his caps, lapel pin, hand gestures, clumsy megaphone diplomacy and verbal aggression towards China.
Who will Morrison ape now that Trump is a spent force awaiting an ignoble departure from the White House in January 2021 and how will an incoming Biden Government see Australia?
This is a snapshot of current American opinion of Scott Morrison and his government.....
New
York Times,
1 December 2020:
At
a time when Australia’s favored nation status with the Trump White
House is about to expire, there is widespread concern that a Biden
administration will focus less on America’s Pacific partners and
more on rebuilding ties in Europe. That has pushed Australia deeper
into a position of pleading for help in corralling China even as it
beats its chest for sovereignty.
“On
one level, the prime minister’s reaction was completely reasonable.
On another, it’s at the upper limit of what’s acceptable without
making things worse,” said John Blaxland, a professor of
international security at the Australian National University. “He’s
got to tread a very fine line because Australia’s leverage is
limited.”
David
Brophy, a senior lecturer in modern Chinese history at the University
of Sydney, said it had created a counterintuitive dynamic. China
often condemns Australia for doing America’s bidding, when, in
fact, Australia is trying desperately to cajole the United States
into deeper engagement.
“The
American presence in Asia is more important for Australia than it is
for America,” Brophy said. “When Australia sees any hint of
withdrawal, as we saw at the beginning of the Trump administration,
it stirs up this sense of panic. It’s not enough to wait for the
U.S. to get back in the game; Australia has to show it can do more
and will do more.”
Increasingly,
that has meant tolerating economic pain and abandoning the approach
that Australia has long followed with China — say little and do
what must be done. Morrison’s government and China’s propaganda
machine have instead been trading blows and turns at the microphone.
Geoff
Raby, a former Australian ambassador to China, described it as a
self-perpetuating cycle of paranoid provocation.
“They
are each confirming the other’s worst suspicions,” he said.
Whispered
complaints are out, replaced by competing news conferences and
laundry lists of grievances. Australia has launched two foreign
interference investigations with high-profile raids. It now plans to
file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over China’s
blocking of barley imports — one of many products that China has
rejected as tensions have soared.
University
Wire,
1
December 2020:
While
China and Australia have always been close trading partners,
Australia has also been the key United States ally in the region -
accommodating a significant American military presence and hosting an
intelligence facility at Pine Gap. A senator even demanded that
Chinese-Australian politicians denounce the CPC to prove their
allegiance to the country.
The
relationship between Canberra and Beijing has deteriorated after
Australia pushed for an worldwide inquiry into the origins of the
coronavirus in April without consulting Beijing, widening cracks in
the relationship that had been growing since Canberra banned China's
Huawei Technologies Co. from helping build its 5G telecommunications
network two years ago.
In
September two senior Australian reporters, the last in China working
for Australian news outlets, left the country abruptly after being
questioned by Chinese officials. This economic recovery development
strategy could allow China to buy considerable amounts of Australian
goods.
But
it does feel a *little* bit rich to be demanding an apology over the
post when, as far as I can see, Scott Morrison hasn't issued an
apology to the families of those who were allegedly killed.
"As
a warhound of the US, Australia should restrain its arrogance. Its
politics, military and culture should stay far away from China -
let's assume the two countries are not on the same planet", the
paper argued. "Particularly, its warships must not come to
China's coastal areas to flex muscles, or else it will swallow the
bitter pills". No matter what harsh words people use on them for
the murder, the Australian government should have accepted it.
Earlier
this month, China outlined a list of grievances about Australia's
foreign investment, national security and human rights policy, saying
Canberra needed to correct its actions to restore the bilateral
relationship with its largest trading partner.
New
York Times,
2 December 2020:
For
the past few years, Australia has positioned itself at the front of a
global effort to stand up to China. It was the first country to ban
Huawei's 5G technology, to pass foreign interference laws aimed at
curbing Chinese influence, and to call for an international inquiry
into the source of the coronavirus.
Now,
Australia is sounding an even louder alarm. Prime Minister Scott
Morrison, already vexed by China's blockade of Australian imports --
wine, coal, barley and cotton -- demanded on Monday that the Chinese
government apologize for a lurid tweet showing an Australian soldier
with a knife at the neck of an Afghan child. The world, he warned,
was watching.
But
even as he elevated a Twitter post to a four-alarm diplomatic fire,
he also called for a reset with Beijing, reiterating that Australia's
end game was still "the happy coexistence of two partners."
In that somersault, Mr. Morrison inadvertently let the world hear
Australia's internal dialogue of doubt -- one that echoes around the
globe as China increasingly asserts its might.
The
prime minister gave voice to the insecurities and anxieties that come
with being caught between two superpowers. Those jitters are partly
about the limited options in the face of China's tightening vise. But
they are also about an America in flux.
At
a time when Australia's favored nation status with the Trump White
House is about to expire, there is widespread concern that a Biden
administration will focus less on America's Pacific partners and more
on rebuilding ties in Europe. That has pushed Australia deeper into a
position of pleading for help in corralling China even as it beats
its chest for sovereignty.
"On
one level, the prime minister's reaction was completely reasonable.
On another, it's at the upper limit of what's acceptable without
making things worse," said John Blaxland, a professor of
international security at the Australian National University. "He's
got to tread a very fine line because Australia's leverage is
limited."
The
country's entire history since settlement has been shaped by
unquestioned dependence on an alliance with a distant and dominant
power, first England, then the United States. The prospect of an end
to that stability, with American decline or indifference and Chinese
dominance, fills most Australians with dread.
Voice
of America News,
2 December 2020:
On
November 17 Tokyo and Canberra agreed to negotiate the
Japan-Australia Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), the Japanese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its website. Australian Prime
Minister Scott Morrison was visiting Tokyo then to meet his
counterpart Yoshihide Suga. Japan has no similar deals with any
country besides the United States.
The
two leaders issued a joint statement that omitted China by name but
condemned its activities in the South China Sea, where Beijing took
the upper hand in a six-way sovereignty dispute after landfilling
islets for military use through 2017.
"The
[leaders] had serious concerns about the recent negative developments
and serious incidents in the South China Sea, including continuing
militarization of disputed features, dangerous and coercive use of
coast guard vessels and 'maritime militia', launches of ballistic
missiles, and efforts to disrupt other countries' resource
exploitation activities," the statement said.
Chinese
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian slammed the statement as "a
gross interference to China's internal matters."
But
Beijing cannot cast the Australia-Japan pact as explicitly
anti-China, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore
Institute of International Affairs. "China would of course not
like it, but China could not argue that it is targeting China,"
Oh said. "Any two countries could sign this kind of thing. A
third country could not say 'it is targeting me.'"
U.S.
officials, conversely, will probably smile on the Australia-Japan
deal because Washington wants its allies to help with pro-American
causes in Asia, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of
politics and international studies at International Christian
University in Tokyo.
The
U.S. government periodically sends navy ships to the South China Sea,
upsetting Beijing, and offers weapons to Asian countries for their
defense against China. Beijing maintains the world's third strongest
arms forces. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has taken
on China as well over trade, technology access and consular issues.
"The
fact that Australian troops can come and base here and engage in more
frequent and probably deeper bilateral training with Japan and of
course with the United States, because the United States is already
based here, this creates more interoperability," Nagy said. "It
creates a more cohesive bilateral and multilateral partnership to
push back against China."
The
reciprocal access agreement will mainly smooth drills and training
between countries that already work together militarily, scholars
say. Japanese already visit Australia for military training, for
example a long-range howitzer firing exercise last year.
The
two sides can learn more from each other on amphibious operations and
explore areas for joint development such as long-range strike
capability, Davis said.
"The
significance of the RAA cannot be understated," Morrison said in
a statement in November on the prime minister's website. "It
will form a key plank of Australia's and Japan's response to an
increasingly challenging security environment in our region amid more
uncertain strategic circumstances."
CNN
Wire Services,
2 December 2020:
Canberra's
tensions with Beijing may also cast a shadow on the recovery.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Frydenberg called the dispute with
China a "very serious situation."
"China
is our number one trading partner. Many Australian jobs rely on
trade," he said, adding that Australia is looking for free trade
agreements with other partners around the world — including the
European Union — in an effort to reduce the risk.
"I'm
very optimistic about the opportunities for our exporters around the
world," Frydenberg said.
Economists,
meanwhile, say the ongoing trade spat hasn't yet escalated to the
point at which it poses a real threat to Australia's economy.
Relations
have been deteriorating since Australian Prime Minister Scott
Morrison called for an international inquiry into the origins of the
coronavirus pandemic in April, a move that Beijing called "political
manipulation."…..
Politico,
3 December 2020:
The
wolves come home to roost. On Sunday, Chinese diplomat (or is
that “diplomat”?) Zhao Lijian managed to turn hostilities between
Beijing and Canberra up yet another notch when he shared a graphic
illustration on Twitter depicting an Australian servicemember
gleefully cutting the throat of a small Afghan child. Australia’s
defense minister had released a report on Nov. 19 recommending 19
Australian soldiers be investigated for what it called the “murder”
of 39 civilians and prisoners in Afghanistan. Australian PM Scott
Morrison promptly demanded an apology for the image, but he got the
opposite. “Do they think that their merciless killing of Afghan
civilians is justified but the condemnation of such ruthless
brutality is not?” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a Monday
presser.
— Nationalistic
Chinese netizens were excited by the row, lauding Zhao for “standing
up and speaking up against the enemy,” reports China Watcher’s
Shen Lu. Many raved about Zhao’s “agenda-setting capability” on
the international stage. The creator of the image Zhao posted, who
calls himself a “wolf warrior illustrator,” quickly followed up
with another creation:
This
one, which appears to depict a press corps more interested in a
violent painting than a battlefield, has received over 546,000 likes
and counting. But in posts that censors later deleted, Chinese
critics said they believe Zhao does owe Australia a mea culpa, and
delivered a reminder that Zhao used to go by Muhammad Lijian Zhao on
Twitter while he was a diplomat in Pakistan.
— Meanwhile,
incoming Natsec adviser Sullivan sure seemed to subtweet Zhao when he
wrote Wednesday on Twitter that America will “stand shoulder to
shoulder” with Australia, “as we have for a century.” It’s
another important signal that Beijing won’t get a reset on its
terms.
Univesity
Wire,
3
December 2020:
The
Australian government was among a number of Western countries that
have called for an investigation into the origin of the Coronavirus
in Wuhan. Two days later, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the
World Health Organization needed the powers of "weapons
inspectors" to get to the bottom of what happened in Wuhan.
What
followed led to a diplomatic row and a souring of relations between
the two countries not seen before - a row that reached a crescendo
this week when Mr Morrison demanded an official apology after a
graphic slur about Australia's alleged war crimes by a Chinese
official on Twitter.
