Foreign Minister Wong says it doesn’t mean that his involvement with the CCP is by no means problematic.
In a Senate investigation on February 27, Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended Australia’s response to the invasion of Australia’s Liberation Army (PLA-N) warships invasion.
Wong said Labour is taking a “moderate, consistent, reckless and arrogant” approach to the issue.
Under questions from opposition internal spokesman James Patterson, Wong said that the current government is focusing on stabilizing relations between the two countries, “it’s not going to be a problem.”
“It always means that we should be able to directly engage with China to manage the inevitable differences and issues without derailing our ability to speak to each other.”
Wong, on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa over the weekend, worked with Foreign Minister Wang Yi from Beziing, saying that “the lack of notice regarding PLA-N’s activities “clearly” was “clearly” as there were deep concerns.
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CCP Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) will speak with Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong (R) at the 14th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Conference held in ASEAN in Vientiane, Laos on July 27, 2024. Sai Aung Main/AFP via Getty Images
Wong also pushed back to Patterson that the coalition was pursuing the issue for political interests, and said opposition leader Peter Dutton only asked for a briefing from the government four days after the incident.
“If this was a very big problem for you, certainly it would have been pretty quickly to request a briefing from the government, but you weren’t.”
Wong is aiming for the alliance
Wong then said the former coalition government had left “a massive gap in the Pacific.”
“China will remain China. The man who once said he was thought not to go to war to stop him from becoming Dutton, is going to continue to beat the drums of war,” she said, referring to opposition leader Peter Dutton.
“I don’t think it’s reasonable for opposition leaders to tell the people of Menzies and Benenon that they are “pro-mina”… and engage in that kind of rhetoric in Canberra,” Wong said.
Naby Renhai Class Cruiser Zuniyi from the Chinese Liberation Army in the Solomon Sea. Courtesy of the Australian Department of Defense
“The same people who don’t take into consideration the outcomes of Australian exporters and the Australian community in China are working on it again, trying to turn China into an election issue,” she said.
In response to requests for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in 2020, Beijing has imposed sanctions on Australian goods worth $20 billion.
It also cut off diplomatic ties with the Morrison government, which implemented a series of national security measures, including banning Huawei from 5G and blocking China’s investment in important minerals.
However, their efforts and the popularity of China-owned social media app WeChat have influenced local Chinese and Australian voters by CCP rhetoric that branded Morrison as “anti-Chinese.”
This has impacted the liberal party’s vote in the 2022 election, and in an internal review that found that parts of China’s diaspora had been distant from the party.
Opposition raises pressure
Opposition parties are pressing the government on an official statement made about live fire practices, which appears to be different from the Department of Defense.
On February 26, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said civilians and military organisations had learned about the incident “at the same time.”
However, Defence Force Chief David Johnston revealed that the ADF had first received notifications from Australian Airservices, and heard from the New Zealand Army about an hour later.
“The Prime Minister makes this up and shoots it from the waist, or get out of his depth completely, or maybe all three,” Dutton told 2GB Radio.
“But what we know is that he is at odds with the chief of the Defence Force. He needs to explain why he didn’t explain why he created the facts on such a totemic issue. So what is the logic and rationale here?”
I doubt whether the shot was fired
Meanwhile, there is doubt whether the shot was fired during the “live fire” exercise.
Defense Minister Richard Marless told the ABC it is still unclear whether the government actually took place on February 21 or whether the warships announced they were going to do so.
The New Zealand frigate, which monitors the fleet, reported that it had observed actions “consistent with live-action activity,” a warship that deploys and recovers floating targets.
Still, neither Australia nor the New Zealand forces were able to confirm whether the shot was actually fired.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters believes that the meeting with the King has led the CCP to consider whether appropriate notices have been given.
“I think it’s true that he put our concerns on board,” Peters said after a meeting and dinner in the Chinese capital.
He said that since signing the cooperation agreement in 2008, he framed the issue in the context of close relations between the two countries. China is the largest importer of products and services in both New Zealand and Australia.
“We’re in the 20th year of this arrangement. This is a failure at this point and we’d like to fix it in the future,” he said.
“That’s something we believe is taking into consideration.”
