Australia should stop playing with fire before the fire starts to burn

According to media reports, a delegation of Australian members of parliament (MPs) arrived in the island of Taiwan on Sunday. The six-member delegation includes members of the centerleft ruling Labor Party, as well as the conservative opposition Liberal Party and its ally the National Party.

Undoubtedly, the Australian lawmakers’ visit to Taiwan will cast a shadow on the China-Australia relationship that has seen some positive momentum just recently.

Chen Hong, president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies and director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, told the Global Times that the visit – a provocative act by some anti-China forces in Australia – serves to show unity with some forces in some countries that supports the “Taiwan independence.”

The visit comes right after some British lawmakers’ visit to Taiwan, and it shows that in Australia there are also forces that side with ‘Taiwan independence,’ trying to create an embarrassing scenario for China,” said Chen. “Meanwhile, the visit stresses ‘bipartisan’ as it has members from both parties. Also, as each lawmaker represents their own constituency, this creates a false impression that it is the Australian public’s opinion to support ‘Taiwan independence.’”

After the media exposure of the visit, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has tried to play down the significance of the visit, saying that it is a “backbench” delegation and that the visit is not a “government” one.

But Qin Sheng, executive research fellow at the Center for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that although these lawmakers do not hold cabinet positions, they have strong party affiliations and government background and their behavior is inevitably part of the government’s behavior. Chen also believes that as the delegation is scheduled to meet Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen and the island’s senior official in charge of external affairs Joseph Wu to discuss issues such as security, the visit goes far beyond the ordinary people-topeople exchanges under the oneChina principle.

Albanese also reiterated Australia’s bipartisan support of the one-China policy, but against the backdrop of this bipartisan visit, such reiteration sounds pale and more like a game of words. Albanese did not explicitly oppose the visit, but adopted an ambiguous attitude – he himself played down the visit in the hope of letting it go without attracting too much attention.

Lithuania’s experience provides a cautionary tale for Australia. Since May 2021, Lithuania has pushed its relations with China to the edge of a cliff. Nonetheless, according to Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) on Wednesday, Lithuania’s Economy Minister Ausrine Armonaite told local media in late November that “it’s impossible to completely eliminate China” and he hoped that “trade with this country will recover.”

Those who play with fire will perish by it. The politicians from certain countries who visit Taiwan to seek limelight are like political god of plague and pestilence. They bring nothing but risks and tension to Taiwan and no benefit to their own countries, and they also hijack their own countries’ China policy. As the Australian MPs’ Taiwan visit is under way, it has already generated negative impacts on the China-Australia relationship.

Chen said that Australia should start to think about how to repair ties before China responds to the visit in a firm and harsh manner, and that is what a responsible and accountable government is supposed to do. Australia should stop playing with fire before the fire starts to burn.