Time and again, abandoning principles sets the Karma bus off on its journey. Australia having to approve China attacking Taiwan is a case in point, Michael Pascoe argues.
The US is steadily upgrading Taiwan’s defence capability and its presence there – some 500 US military have boots on the ground at last disclosure, as opposed to the mere handful officially stationed there. (What? The US fibs about its military operations? Surely not.)
Our local pollies and the American variety aren’t students of history, or certainly don’t learn from it. For Beijing, on the other hand, history weighs heavily. Faulkner could have been writing specifically about China when he penned: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past”.
China would be aware America’s involvement in Vietnam started with 700 military “advisors” under Eisenhower. The “advice” continued to grow, some 21,000 “advisors” by 1964. The pretence was dropped the next year when combat troops were officially deployed.
Australia, being Australia, followed suit. Our initial 30 military advisors landed in 1962. The infantry battalion was sent in 1965.
First, they sent the advisors…
China could well be concerned about what all those “advisors” are doing on its doorstep, what kind of military power is being built there.
Of course, the best deterrent for Taiwan against the threat of Chinese military action, perhaps the only successful deterrent if Beijing were preparing to invade, as American and local hawks keep screaming it is, would be to have a nuclear capacity.
With America’s Toddler King buoyed by the praise he’s received for his Iranian adventure, his “peace through strength” catchphrase could be felt across the Taiwan Strait.
An absolute red line for China would be American nuclear weapons in Taiwan, just as Russian nuclear weapons in Cuba were an absolute red line for the US. (Yes, history again.)
America denies plans to base weapons of mass destruction in Taiwan. Cue Mandy Rice-Davies: “Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”
And when it comes to truth about its military actions, the US has as little credibility as anyone. Heck, was it only last week that Trump told Iran it had two weeks to come to the table while he was planning to bomb within days? Shades of the Japanese diplomatic mission in Washington for peace negotiations, as Pearl Harbour was bombed.
So, with the suspicion that Taiwan could be acquiring an American base and nuclear weapons, what if China used carefully targeted strikes to assassinate Taiwan’s military leadership before feeling forced to bomb the island’s military facilities to smithereens? Peace-keeping troops subsequently crossed the strait to maintain order and provide aid to civilians.
Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Wong initially voiced concern about the assassinations and called for de-escalation of tensions. The US was not happy about some of its personnel being killed in the process.
“Preventive strike”
As Xi Jinping explained the terrible bind he had been in, how destabilising it would be for Taiwan to have an American base, how for the greater good of regional stability it was necessary for China to deal with the Taiwan issue once and for all, and how “peace through strength” was good for everyone in the Indo-Pacific, Albo and Penny said they accepted the need for the bombing.
Well, they’d have to be consistent, wouldn’t they? Having accepted the principle of a “preventive strike” by the US against Iran, having torn up whatever was left of the pretence of the old “international rules-based order”, it would have been hypocritical of Australia not to go along with China’s need to impose peace and avoid a disastrous war.
Heck, we’ve done worse, joining the invasion of Iraq because the US wanted to invade Iraq. A little history again: our own spooks didn’t think Saddam had WMDs. The fake “intelligence” manufactured by the US had little to do with our involvement in that international crime.
Oh, sorry, of course that wasn’t a crime.
The US decided it wasn’t a crime, and therefore it was not a crime.
Just like supporting Israel, starving Gaza, or assassinating Iranian negotiators is not a crime. Just like launching preventive bombing raids on Iran and threatening much worse is not a crime. The US has said it is the right thing to do, so that’s what the Australian Government says, too.
Well, when you host a bunch of US bases on your soil, when the government isn’t even game to tell its citizens what role those bases play in American attacks, you have to know your place.
Michael Pascoe is an independent journalist and commentator with five decades of experience here and abroad in print, broadcast and online journalism. His book, The Summertime of Our Dreams, is published by Ultimo Press.