China, Asia issues in Australian
polls By Jeffrey Robertson
CANBERRA - Australians will vote on Saturday to
choose their next prime minister, and closer ties with
China and better relations with Asia are on the agenda.
Regardless of who is elected, it is clear that like
other regional states, Australia steadily is being drawn
closer to China - and maintaining a close, especially a
militarily close, relationship with the United States is
only getting more difficult.
Incumbent Prime
Minister John Howard and opposition Australian Labor
Party (ALP) leader Mark Latham have been waging a bitter
campaign on key issues of security, economic performance
and honesty in government, but just below the surface
lies the long-simmering issue of Australia's
relationship with China and the Asian region.
Australians have long struggled over how to
identify themselves, being a predominantly European
state on the periphery of Asia. The clash between
culture and geography habitually peaks around election
time. The conservative coalition of the Liberal/National
parties barricade and claim for themselves the position
of culture, supporting Australia's relations with that
small club of distant English-speaking democracies.
Opposing this, the ALP takes up the battering ram of
geography, arguing for ever closer ties with China and
the region. This campaign has been no different.
Prime Minister Howard of the Liberal Party has
never disguised his belief that Australia's relationship
with the United States is sacrosanct - a relationship he
believes is based upon shared democratic values,
cultural affinity and a history of joint sacrifice and
aspirations. On his coming to power in 1996,
commentators noted his distinct leaning toward the US in
foreign-policy decision-making.
Indeed, compared
with the coziness and solid relations with Asia espoused
by his predecessor, Paul Keating (1991-96), John Howard
seemed to have leapfrogged even Puerto Rico to claim an
Australian position as primary candidate to be the next
state, or territory, of the US.
Keating was a
very "pro-Asia" prime minister, perhaps too far ahead of
the Australian people's expectations at the time. Until
relatively recently, Australia was pretty much the same
as apartheid South Africa, only ending in 1974 what was
known as the "White Australia" policy - an immigration
policy restricting Asian immigration. In an
unprecedented move, Keating concluded a security
agreement with Indonesia, revolutionizing the concept of
Australian defense thinking from "security from Asia" to
"security within Asia".
If Labor wins, then it
will be interesting to watch for similar changes in
security/defense-policy thinking.
Howard
committed troops to Iraq, Afghanistan During his
term, Howard has committed Australian troops to US-led
missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, signed up Australia to
purchase and conduct research on the US-led Joint Strike
Fighter program, agreed to host US military forces on
Australian bases, committed Australia to participation
in the US national missile defense, and concluded the
Australia-US free-trade agreement. It is of course the
decision to commit forces to Iraq that continues to
haunt Howard's election campaign.
Yet despite
accusations to the contrary, Howard has managed to
balance foreign policy between the United States and the
Asian region, as demonstrated by his record in Asia. He
has concluded free-trade agreements with Singapore and
Thailand, and has taken the first steps toward securing
further free-trade agreements with Malaysia, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and
China. Indeed, Howard has traveled to Asian destinations
more than he has visited the US and Europe combined.
Business leaders go further, stating that it has
been Howard's personal touch that has secured advantage
for Australian companies in China, such as Woodside
Petroleum's multibillion-dollar gas-supply deal secured
after Howard's visit in May 2002.
If Howard is
re-elected, there is little reason to expect any major
change in Australian foreign policy toward China and the
region, despite the importance of business ties with
China. There was that diplomatic gaffe by Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer who, visiting China in August,
publicly questioned the commitment of Australia to
support the United States in the event of a conflict
with China over Taiwan. Howard and US Ambassador to
China Clark T Randt Jr were quick to remind the
Australian public that the 50-year-old security alliance
between the two states obligates Australia to support
the United States in the event of armed aggression.
Still, it might be Howard's relentless
reinforcement of Australian ties to the United States
that will cost him the election.
Opinion in
Australia is divided over the prime minister's
infatuation with the United States. The Australian media
vary widely in their portrayal of Howard: sometimes he
is the astute but perhaps overly traditional statesman
acting in Australia's best interests; sometimes the
Asian-hating, sycophantic deputy to a gun-slinging Texas
sheriff George W Bush.
The ALP would support a
more diplomatic version of the latter view. Howard has,
it is claimed, squandered the opportunities for closer
engagement with China and the region. His blind pursuit
of the Bush agenda, the curtailing of federal funding of
Asian-language programs in schools and his callous
treatment of asylum seekers have done severe, some say
irreparable, damage to the image of Australia in the
Asian region.
The ALP contends that following
the US line on international issues has become a
standard response for the current government - an
accusation evidenced by Australia's lonely vote along
with the United States in opposition to the July United
Nations resolution ordering Israel to tear down the West
Bank barrier. The vote was opposed by the US, Israel,
Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau -
in diplomatic terms adding Australia to a handful of US
"yes men" in the Pacific.
Labor seeks to
reintegrate Australia with Asia Latham has
stated that a key aim of his opposition ALP would be to
push Australia back into Asia and reintegrate, and he
has emphasized the compelling benefits of
multilateralism - an approach epitomized by the choice
of a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, Kevin Rudd, as
Labor's shadow foreign-affairs spokesman.
In a
speech in August to the AsiaLink foundation, Rudd
emphasized the importance of engagement with region.
According to Rudd, the Labor approach would not only
immediately re-engage with the region but also would lay
the foundations for an "inter-generational" approach to
strategic engagement through the funding of
Asian-language programs in Australian schools.
The ALP foreign policy is one of comprehensive
engagement with Asia. "We believe that Australia's
economic, political and strategic future is intimately
tied up with the future of our own region ... China is
at the core of our policy of comprehensive regional
engagement," Rudd stated in a speech on July 1 to the
Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.
"Australia stands ready to work with China in
constructing a peaceful, prosperous and environmentally
sustainable Asia-Pacific century," Rudd added.
So, whither Australia: will it maintain its
present course toward the US, or head back toward China
and the rest of Asia? The world will find out on
Saturday.
Jeffrey Robertson is a
political-affairs analyst focusing on Australian
relations with Northeast Asia, currently residing in
Canberra.
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