China criticism putting Tasmania’s vital trade under threat

Exporters including winemakers are in the gun amid growing censure, says Greg Barns

TASMANIA’S

economic fortunes rely to a large extent on trade. This is a tiny, niche economy and exports play a vital role in the creation of jobs and investment. This is why the Premier Will Hodgman and the Opposition Leader Rebecca White should be very concerned at the conduct of their federal colleagues who are revisiting the 1950s Cold War with hostile rhetoric and actions directed towards China.

China is Tasmania’s largest export destination. Data released last week shows Tasmania’s total exports at $3.54 billion in the year to April. China makes up one third of that value with exports sitting at over $1 billion.

Treasurer Peter Gutwein said last week he “will lead a Tasmanian Trade Mission to China and Hong Kong in September this year to continue to build relationships, open new markets and increase international exports.”

But what the Hodgman government and the ALP are not telling Tasmanians is that the booming trade relationship with China is in jeopardy because the Turnbull government, the ALP opposition and their allies in the media are demonising China on a weekly basis. China is beginning, naturally, to tire of being beaten up by Australian politicians and media, and exporters are the ones in the gun.

If China turned its back on Tasmanian exporters which nation will fill the massive hole in investment and jobs that such a move would leave? The answer is none.

The Turnbull government and the ALP have agreed on a so called “foreign interference” law which is squarely aimed at criminalising contact with China (naturally the gross interference and bullying of US and Israel on Australian media and politicians does not matter). There are regular attacks by Australian politicians on China’s military and territorial manoeuvring in the South China Sea. And we have the besmirching of former politicians like Bob Carr, foreign minister in the Gillard government, and Andrew Robb, trade minister in the Abbott government, because both are involved with China in their post-political careers. The Fairfax media in particular has been writing a series of very hostile antiChina stories and commentaries alleging Beijing is interfering in Australian politics and the broader community. The Australian media as a whole bashes China but refuses to examine Israel and the US, both of whom are routine meddlers in Australian political and policy debates.

It is the 1950s revisited. The ‘reds under the bed’ nonsense is back. Even so-called public intellectuals and academics are contributing to the ‘red menace’ propaganda. Clive Hamilton, once taken seriously as a policy thinker at the progressive end of the spectrum, has written a book entitled Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia.

All this hostility is being noticed in China and the best way to hit back is through damaging trade. China recently snubbed Trade Minister Stephen Ciobo who sought a meeting with counterparts. The Financial

Review reported on May 11 that Beijing’s relations “with the Australian embassy in China are also limited to occasions of extreme formality, including the reading of official communiques rather than any substantive engagement.” The Global Times, a hardline media outlet in China, but one that is sanctioned by the Chinese government, last Friday launched another attack, having mused last month about China abandoning Australia as a trading partner.

The Global Times quoted Han Feng, professor and deputy director-general of the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who observed, “Australia is playing with two hands when it comes to China: On the one hand, it wants to increase trade and investment; on the other hand, it tries to exert political pressure. Obviously, that is not acceptable for China.”

Exporters to China are now feeling the heat. Winemakers are lobbying the Prime Minister. This is a $1 billion business and wine makers are complaining to Mr Turnbull that their exports are being delayed at the Chinese border for up to two months while US and New Zealand product is being allowed into the country after 10 days. As Winemakers Federation of Australia chief executive Tony Battaglene said last week, the government has a right to express policy but in this case “it runs the risk of impacting on consumer sentiment”. “Our members get told by people that’s it unhelpful and consumer sentiment can turn. No one likes someone slagging off their country,” Mr Battaglene said.

In an era where tragically a trade war is emerging, courtesy of the Trump Administration in the US, Tasmanian exporters and political leadership should demand their federal colleagues stop their crude rhetoric and activities around the world’s emerging superpower.

China does not have to buy Tasmanian produce. And it can make life very difficult, as winemakers are finding out, if there is no let up in the hostility of the Australian political and media class.