Either the AFR has no idea what is going on or it is a figleaf for Beijing. You decide:
China is sending a senior official to Australia this week for the first time in six years, in the latest sign that diplomatic ties are thawing despite Beijing’s criticism of the AUKUS submarine deal and the Albanese government’s TikTok ban.
China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu would travel to Australia and Fiji this week for a “new the new round of political consultation”. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said Mr Ma was invited by Australia.
The official is coming because of AUKUS not despite it. Beijing was shocked into re-engagement after Australia abandoned it for full military integration with the US.
It is the same reason that Xi’s wolf warriorism suddenly collapsed into renewed deal-making and diplomacy worldwide.
Beijing realised that it and Moscow had overreached and set back their agenda for global authoritarian dominance.
Once again, the AFR is implicitly campaigning for Beijing. Make that the Australian press, including Murdoch:
Chinese trade sanctions on Australian barley could soon be lifted after Beijing agreed to undergo an “expedited review” into the sanctions, Acting Prime Minister Penny Wong has announced.
Senator Wong said the government was “prepared to suspend the World Trade Organisation process on the basis of an expedited review” as it would lead to swifter resolution.
This is not a “breakthrough”. It is the breakdown of Australian resistance. Not to mention a sop for the Chinese diaspora to vote Labor.
Sadly, you can rest assured that all tariffs will be lifted in due course so that China’s share of Australian exports can return to previous highs under Albo:
Why would we put our heads straight back inside Beijing’s noose? The bribe is the only answer.
The bizarre and suicidal gallop of Australian soft power towards China has ever overwhelmed our hard power dash in the opposite direction today:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will not attend this year’s NATO summit The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has learned.
It follows Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s decision to send a junior bureaucrat to last week’s foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, where NATO is headquartered, despite her Asia-Pacific counterparts attending to help coordinate the West’s responses to the war in Ukraine and China’s increasing aggression.
Actually, it follows the turn of Emmanuel Macron from the champion of Pacific freedom to the cheese-eating surrender monkey of China. Let’s not forget that Albo is preparing to extravagantly bend the knee in Bejing in October when he celebrates fifty years of Gough Whitlam groveling.
Albo is the wine-sipping surrender monkey Donwunder.
