U.S. President Joe Biden has cautioned Australia on normalising ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In a joint press conference with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House, Mr. Biden mentioned growing tensions across the globe.
“Trust but verify is the phrase,” Mr. Biden said when asked if Australia could trust the Chinese regime.
“China is having their own internal and external difficulties right now. China’s economic growth is stagnant compared to what it was. China has engaged in activities that Russia and many others have engaged in in terms of intimidation.”
Mr. Biden also cemented his intention to continue with the AUKUS agreement—a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and the UK—saying the initiative is not aimed at provoking Beijing, but to liberalise the Indo-Pacific Region from potential unipolar domination.
“When we put together the deal I was asked by Xi Jinping if we were just trying to surround China. We’re not surrounding China, we’re just making sure that the sea lanes remain open and that they (China) aren’t able to unilaterally change the rules of the road in terms of what constitutes international airspace,” he said.
“It’s about maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indian Ocean. I think it’s going to increase the prospects for long-term peace rather than anything else.”
Prime Minister Albanese arrived in Washington D.C. on Oct. 22, evening for a four-day visit to the United States. He was met at the airport by Australia’s current ambassador to the U.S., former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Mr. Albanese’s visit will be the ninth in-person meeting between himself and President Biden since Australia’s last federal election in May 2022.
The Australian prime minister hopes to push the discussion on the Beijing issue and for Congress to pass laws to allow for the further development of AUKUS. The prime minister is confident that the nuclear-powered submarine deal AUKUS comprises will find sufficient financing.
It also precedes Mr. Albanese’s planned visit to Beijing on Nov. 4, the first visit to the Chinese capital by an Australian prime minister since 2016, and marks the 50th anniversary of the first-ever visit to China by an Australian leader—Labor’s Gough Whitlam in 1973.
Trade Woes
Meanwhile, economic tensions continue after Beijing imposed export restrictions on graphite—a critical mineral for the production of electric vehicles—after the Biden Administration announced it would be curbing sales of AI chips to China last week.China is the world’s largest graphite producer, responsible for 90 percent of international supply—Australian graphite stock prices soared following the decision.
Since joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, China has faced multiple accusations of flouting WTO rules.
In 2006, the European Union, the United States, and Canada complained that Beijing’s issuance of export subsidies on its automobile industries was a violation of the WTO’s code of practice.
Then there was the trade war in 2020 waged by Beijing against Australian exporters.
After the Morrison government’s call for an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP gradually began to impose sanctions on a wide range of agricultural products including barley, beef, cotton, lamb, lobsters, timber, and wine.
Restrictions were also placed on the import of Australian coal, a decision that proved costly with China facing critical shortages of the commodity and blackouts throughout one of its harshest winters on record.
China currently faces a number of internal issues as its economy stagnates, or what economists call the “middle-income trap.”
Countries, which experience higher wage growth begin to lose their export and manufacturing competitiveness, but are not advanced enough to compete with developed countries in providing services or complex value-added goods.
At the same time, China is undergoing a major property crisis as another of its biggest developers, Country Garden, heads for bankruptcy.
Protesters hold up a white piece of paper against censorship as they march during a protest against China’s strict zero-COVID measures in Beijing, China, on Nov. 27, 2022. Getty Images/Kevin Frayer
