Australia must stay resolute against authoritarian China

This included punishing Chinese medics who reported the virus, initially denying it could spread person-to-person, delaying a lockdown of affected regions which allowed the virus to spread domestically and overseas, spreading disinformation that US troops could have been the initial carriers of the virus, and inaccurately reporting the number of deaths from covid given that social media users in Wuhan have suggested the toll could be in excess of 42,000 rather than the official figure of 3,300 deaths.

We already know of the CCP’s desire to control its own ethnic minorities in a society where 95% of China’s population is Han.

We also know that the CCP is happy controlling every aspect of Chinese society with its use of around 400 million closed circuit cameras to monitor virtually everyone.    

The CCP’s crackdown on dissidents continues with a Hong Kong academic (Wu Qiang) recently fired from the prestigious Tsinghua university shortly after he conducted fieldwork at the Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong in his role as a political science lecturer, although he continues to bravely speak out in his correct belief that “You need to comment on politics and society; that's how you participate in it”.

With such evidence, only an idiot could claim that the CCP is capable of global leadership to encourage a better world, as openly indicated by the China’s ambassador to Sweden (Gui Congyou) in 2020 when he stated “We treat our friends with fine wine, but for our enemies we have shotguns”.

You name the issue and the CCP message is always misleading and intended to mask its own interests.

In 2021, while it was claimed that China would become carbon neutral by 2060 after reducing its  energy intensity by 48 per cent from 2005 by 2019 while its share of non-fossil fuels had reached 15 per cent of the total by 2020, it was still using coal for 58% of its energy needs in 2019 and had brought 38.4 gigawatts of new coal-fired power into operation during 2020, more than three times the level of the rest of the world.

In foreign affairs, within days of the Taliban takeover, and following on from earlier meetings between the CCP and the Taliban, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying amusingly stated its intention to work with the Taliban on the basis “we respect the wishes and choices of the Afghan people”.

Tell that to the many men, women and children trying to flee Afghanistan as the Taliban took over.

Australia, in its opposition to the CCP’s actions, is indeed on the right side of history, whether or not the West prevails on behalf of humanity in this world of competitive nations.

For Australia, there is support from many powerful and wealthy nations which does offer some optimism against an increasingly assertive China.  

As of 2021, with China currently having trade sanctions on Australian coal, barley, live seafood, wine, timber and beef, the Biden Administration strongly indicated to Beijing that China must ease its "economic coercion" against Australia before it can expect improved relations with Washington.