By Colin Mackerras
Prime Minister Albanese and especially Foreign Minister Penny Wong are proving to be better diplomats than their predecessors. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in particular, seemed to delight in insulting the Chinese and fawning on the Anglosphere, especially the Americans.
In this context I want to suggest five reasons why the Australia-China Friendship Society matters. In essence there are five main ones.
China has come under attack and its image in Australia and the West more generally is much worse than it was and ought to be. We need to provide China’s view much more airing than it gets in our mainstream media.
The United States is adopting a policy that looks like putting the main emphasis on maintaining its position as No 1 and holding China’s growth back. It looks as if it is even provoking war against China. We need to warn against this policy and avoid war with China, which would be the greatest possible disaster for the world.
Because of China’s declining image, the Chinese community in Australia is more under threat from discrimination and from failure to recognize its contributions to Australia’s multicultural society. The ACFS has an obligation to challenge this attitude.
Cultural relations always assist bilateral relations and attitudes. We need to help in establishing and maintaining these exchanges.
China studies in our schools and universities are not doing as well as they ought to be. We need to do what we can to assist in this area.
Geopolitics
The AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States) deal was announced on 15 September 2021, but its details were not exposed until a meeting in San Diego, California, among the leaders of the three countries (Anthony Albanese, Rushi Sunak, Joe Biden) on 13 March 2023. This told us that Australia was proposing to spend some $368 billion dollars to buy nuclear-powered submarines. Why do we need them? In essence, we don’t. They are totally unnecessary and waste of money that would better be spent on social services, education and repaying debt.
One big problem is that it seems that these submarines are aimed against China, with which parts of the media tell us we shall be at war soon. In any case, we are told, China is a threat to us, so we need to spend all that money on resisting it. In my opinion, China is in no sense a threat to us. It’s the United States that provoking war, not China.
Biden’s latest trick is to ban sales of Chinese technology that might contribute towards China’s growth, especially semi-conductors or items useful for information. It is pretty obvious that Biden has only one purpose and that is to maintain the American position as world hegemon. That is dangerous and selfish, especially given China’s repeated assurances that it aims only to be among several world powers in a multilateral world.
Since a brief border war with Vietnam in 1979, China has never sent troops into another country, over a period when American foreign invasions have been frequent and attempts to overthrow unfriendly foreign regimes have been numerous. I think the ACFS can help in promoting the view that China is not a threat, especially given that the mainstream media is so committed to that view.
Fortunately, the former Prime Minister Paul Keating gave a long interview to Laura Tingle at the National Press Club on 15 March 2023. A very experienced and knowledgeable politician he argued strongly against the China-threat theory and attacked the AUKUS agreement as the worst reached by an ALP government since World War I. He made no attempt to hold back on journalists thoroughly indoctrinated into the “China is a threat” notion and treated several with the contempt they deserved.
The Community
The implications for the role of Chinese people in our multicultural society are disturbing. The fact is that the distrust of China that Australian policy has spawned has led to some very bad trends in the way Chinese are treated in society. I don’t say this is universal, of course, but it is serious enough that the ACFS ought to try to counteract it. We should hold gatherings that welcome Chinese students, workers, scholars and community members. We should assure them of our friendship and that the mainstream media don’t represent everybody.
I have always believed that we should all try to understand and appreciate other people’s cultures. It is part of the job of ACFS to promote Chinese culture, especially at a time such as now when it appears to be under suspicion. Personally, I am a lover of Western music and opera. That’s no reason not also to love and appreciate Chinese music and opera. Chinese musical instruments such as the plucked zither guzheng or bowed fiddle called erhu are well worth our attention. We should try to promote exchanges in these areas. And we also know that there are more children in China learning the piano than in the rest of the world put together. Together we can promote arts such as the classical guitar. Nothing promotes friendship and love like playing music together. The opening words of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “if music be the food of love, play on” are apt and beautifully put. I think music does nurture love and friendship. Let’s have more cultural exchanges!
And finally China studies. The Academy of the Humanities of Australia recently issued an excellent report in which it claimed that, despite some successes, the study of Chinese language, history and culture had actually gone backwards in Australian universities in the last decade or so. As one closely involved in trying to promote the study of Chinese language and culture in the schools and universities, I find this immensely shameful, even a disgrace. How can we know less about China at just a time when it is becoming more important for us? The ACFS may not be in a very strong position, but it can at least try to contribute to reversing this trend.
Conclusion
Let nobody tell you that the ACFS is past and doesn’t matter any more! In my opinion it is more important than ever. We can’t let the ignorant mainstream media tell Australians to hate, fear and distrust China. It’s not sensible, it’s dangerous, and it’s based on lies!
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