Acri says David Littleproud has long tried to bridge more security-driven parts of his party to those who support trade.
Nationals leadership is facing a choice between taking a stronger stance than Beijing or continuing to “moderate” rhetoric to avoid angering local Chinese and Australian voters, one report says.
“The public has been confining different views about the PRC (People’s Republic of China) for many years. Some numbers support dialogue and trade recovery, while others have promoted a more security-driven, skeptical approach.
On some issues, the Institute noted that Little Proud had adopted a more reconciliatory tone to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (akin to the Liberals) towards “the PRC policy after the collapse of the Union.”
He previously accused the CCP of weakness during the 2022 election campaign, but Little Proud welcomed the Albanese Labour government’s move to resume trade with China following Beijing’s arbitrary decision to ban Australian exports from entering the country.
As long as principles like sovereignty were supported, Little Proud, known as improving bilateral relations, was called “good things.”
He also supported the WTO (World Trade Organization) conflict settlement negotiations and met with senior CCP officials, including the CCP International Director, Liu Jianchao and China Ambassador for Australia Xiao Qian.
At the same time, LittleProud also outlines national security and human rights issues.
He strongly supports Orcas, a three-way security agreement between Australia, the UK and the US, calling it one of the “big legacies” of the liberal national coalition era.
He also helped bring the ’99 lease at the Port of Darwin to the Chinese-owned company Landbridge to return it to Australia’s hands.
The party leader also criticized communist China’s military pressure on Taiwan and denounced the treatment of journalist Chen Lei during CCP Premier Lee Qian’s 2024 visit.
While supporting a peaceful dialogue in Taiwan, he emphasized self-determination and warned Beijing against “sending missiles to each other.”
China “Hawks”
Severe voices within the Nationalist Party include Sen. Matt Canavan and New England MP Burnaby Joyce.
For example, Canavan wrote in response to CCP’s live fire exercises in the Tasman Sea, “If China acts more aggressively in our region in the future, Australia will remember this kind of behavior and color our reactions.”
He also called for Trump-style tariffs and said it was “not safe” to do extensive business with the CCP.
As a national leader in 2021, Joyce described the CCP as “the biggest problem facing us” because it “can remove freedom from your children” and “impact the freedom of your country.”
He described the CCP’s live fire exercise as “practice for war,” urging Australia to “wake up.” He also suggested that future parliamentary visits to Taiwan should include government officials or ministers.
Little Proud, meanwhile, has promised not to shift the nation “to the left or right.” Rather, his approach was “to use common sense rather than chasing limbs, and in fact be the wise central.”
Research shows that the brief dissolution of liberals and the people has cast some of the domestic party’s conflicting views on Chinese policy to help Starker.
