Hastie’s Nazi call enrages Chinese

CHINA has warned comments by a Federal Government backbencher comparing the nation’s rise to Nazi Germany are detrimental to diplomatic relations.

Andrew Hastie, the chair of parliament’s powerful security and intelligence committee, says Australia will over the next decade face its biggest democratic, economic and security test as China and the US compete for global dominance.

The Western Australia MP has warned against underestimating China, pointing to the experience of Europe in the face of an aggressive Nazi regime in the 1940s.

But China says its “peaceful development is an opportunity, not a threat to the world”.

“We strongly deplore the Australian federal MP Andrew Hastie’s rhetoric on ‘China threat’ which lays bare his Cold-war mentality and ideological bias,” a Chinese embassy Australia spokesman said yesterday. “It goes against the world trend of peace, cooperation and development. It is detrimental to China-australian relations.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has downplayed Mr Hastie’s remarks, saying he didn’t think it would damage Australia’s relationship with China. “He’s entirely entitled to provide his perspective,” the Liberal Leader said of his backbencher, who’s a former elite SAS soldier.

Mr Morrison says Australia will continue to manage its relationships with both China and the US, saying the benefits were more than economics. But he also hinted the Federal Government was taking steps to limit China’s increasing presence in the Pacific.

“A sovereign, independent Indo-pacific is crucial to Australia’s national interests. It’s crucial to our strategic interests more broadly for the re

WE STRONGLY DEPLORE THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL MP ANDREW HASTIE’S RHETORIC ON ‘CHINA THREAT’

gion,” he told reporters north Queensland.

In his opinion piece, published in Nine newspapers, Mr Hastie wrote that in 1940 France wrongly believed its “steel and concrete forts” would protect it from an increasingly aggressive Germany.

“Like the French, Australia has failed to see how mobile our authoritarian neighbour has become,” he said.

“Even worse, we ignore the role that ideology plays [in a communist] China’s actions across the Indo-pacific region.”

Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers said Mr Hastie comments were extreme, overblown and unwelcome. in