Why former PM has it all wrong on China
ACOUPLE of years ago, I spent several interesting days doing a story about the new, massive Chinese consulate in the Adelaide suburb of Joslin. Many people think the consulate is a surveillance operation for Beijing in the midst of Australia’s defence and space capital. By “many people”, I mean absolutely everyone I have ever discussed it with.
The locals in Joslin have a much more unique perspective on it, which, in a neighbourly sense, provided an ideal parable to the tensions between Australia and China that were all unfolding around the time of my visit.
The backdrop was that Beijing had just started belting our economy with tariffs on wine, grain, lobsters and beef, all because we had the temerity to suggest that it might be worth having a bit of a look at the origins of a pandemic that had destroyed the global economy and killed almost seven million people.
The consensus among the Joslin residents was the Chinese consulate had acted as a law unto itself as it went about the construction process, which under the Vienna protocols governing embassies gave them much more leeway than a normal development.
Covering this story in Joslin was a vox pop in reverse. Normally, in a vox pop, when journalists such as me approach random members of the public on an issue, 95 per cent of them tell us to rack off. On this story, people were literally chasing me down the street to give me quotes.
I had a really amazing exchange with one of the consular staff while I was there one day. While interviewing some of the neighbours, a young Chinese guy came out and, somewhat tersely, asked me what I was doing. I explained I was a journalist doing a story about concerns locals had over the consulate. I asked if I could interview him. He said no. Then he asked: “Can you tell me who gave you permission to be here?”
Huh? For me, this was a does-notcompute moment. Who gave me permission to stand on an Australian street interviewing Australian residents for a story for an Australian newspaper?
“I don’t need permission to do this,” I told him. “Permission from who?”
“Permission from us,” he replied. “Or permission from the police.”
This exchange summed up the difference between what a free society and an authoritarian one looks like.
It’s not just a system of government but a way of life, a mindset.
I am a huge fan of Paul Keating, but seeing him this week was like watching an old band you loved that had re-formed for a world tour and then realising they were now rubbish.
The US has historically been far from perfect, in a foreign policy sense. As a republican, I would sever our constitutional ties with the Poms in a jiffy. But China? Surely one of the defining political moments of our generation was the Tiananmen Square massacre, a subject that is expunged from the internet and banned in schools by Beijing.
Let alone the Uyghurs, unprovoked trade wars, sabre-rattling towards Taiwan … and a mindset that will see a group of Australians talking to each other on Australian soil and demand who gave them permission to do such an outrageous thing.