Washington highlights its ideological disconnect

In the alliance system of the United States, there is little prospect for an equal partnership, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made clear on Sunday. In an interview with Sky News, while admitting he was not familiar with the details of the Australian State of Victoria’s involvement in China’s Belt and Road Initiative — “I don’t know the nature of those projects precisely” — he said that every Belt and Road project needs to be looked at “incredibly closely”, and should the US consider Victoria’s involvement impacts telecommunications, it would “simply disconnect” from Australia.

Although US Ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse backtracked from Pompeo’s warning afterward, there is no doubting that pressure was once again being applied on an ally to exclude Chinese companies, particularly Huawei, from having any involvement in its telecommunications networks. The top US diplomat has been like a dog with a bone in his constant pressuring of US allies not to allow the Chinese company any role in the construction of their 5G networks.

Australia has already yielded to the constant US pressure by shutting the door on Huawei rolling out a 5G network. But it seems that Pompeo once again wanted to stress the point that the US does not want Australia to have any cooperative engagement with China.

Victoria signed an agreement with China in 2018 under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative to boost cooperation with China and the details of the agreement, in which there is no content related to US, are being finalized now.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ office later released a statement showing that the state government intends to stand firm. It said that the agreement with China created opportunities for Victorian businesses and local jobs — “opportunities that will be more important than ever as we rebuild from the coronavirus pandemic” — and asserted that having a strong partnership with China was “in everybody’s interests”. According to media reports, the state’s two-way merchandise trade with China rose to $30.7 billion last year, an increase of more than 60 percent since 2014.

A spokeswoman for the state also made clear that Victoria has not, and will not in the future, agree to telecommunications projects, because telecommunications regulation is the sole responsibility of the federal government. Something which Pompeo and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has taken the opportunity to renew his condemnation of Andrews, must be well aware of.

They are also no doubt aware that Victoria state’s cooperation with China is one of the few remaining bright spots in Sino-Australian relations, which is perhaps why it is now under attack from Washington.