Richard Marles gets to the root of our problem with China

I was heartened and surprised to hear the deputy prime minister telling China to be more open. The story appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald website today. Surprised because I have no great faith in the ability of Labor politicians to act independent of ideology, though hearing the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, advance broadly the same foreign policy as the previous government was a relief. Labor is not known for its depth of talent and it’s unarguable that most of its operatives come from a very narrow gene pool in the union movement.

This link to the historical left is particularly problematic when it comes to dealing with China because China’s government, also, comes from the historical left. While Labor is vocally proud of the legacy of freedom represented by Westminster democracy, China is still sceptical because of its experience in the 19th century, a time of humiliation and disappointment. While the British monarchy was wrong to allow Parliament to attack China with steam-powered ships, on the other hand the Chinese emperor was certainly wrong to refuse to open up to the West.

So there were mistakes on both sides, but this embedded memoir of suffering and the use of force for illegitimate reasons colours Australia’s relations with the Middle Kingdom today. Marles is certainly right to focus on a root cause of distrust, which is China’s complete avoidance of a free media ecosystem in favour of approved government mouthpieces. Having said that China must be sceptical of the ability of free media outlets to steer public opinion – and thereby the direction of government – in the right way. I have no doubt that the Chinese president feels scorn for Western media given his country’s experience. Even in more recent times, in Australia, media outlets in New South Wales and other states attacked Chinese people in a way that, today, we would find reprehensible if we were exposed to it. 

Of course we are not. Perhaps the Australian government could launch a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like a royal commission that could hold hearings hearing both sides in a public forum. You could have historians and politicians, representatives from local ethnic communities, journalists and writers – all participating in a vibrant gabfest of claim and counterclaim to rival Master Chef in colour and appeal. What would such a forum do for our relations with China? It might show her that being open has its advantages.

'China Tonight' hits the spot

I hadn’t watched this program before, feeling some measure of resentment on account of Stan Grant’s constant shifting within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It seemed as though every time I looked at the primary digital channel he was hosting a different show. ‘Matter of Fact’, another late-night show, was cancelled after 10 months and then Grant moved to Doha to work with Al Jazeera (which I have problems with). 

Now he’s back though it remains to be seen how long the China program will last for. I wonder why Grant is such a butterfly? Is the problem with him or with the ABC? To make ‘China Tonight’ he teams up with Yvonne Yong, who started working at the national broadcaster in 2016 and has also worked with Sky News in London.

Grant worked in China for many years and Yong speaks Mandarin so the two hosts have a good pedigree and what I saw is promising. This type of program is especially important due to the lack of news coming out of China on account of the Communist Party’s iron-like grip on the flow of information. This has gone so far as to spawn new social media platforms for Chinese people, which are rigorous in their obedience to the Party. There is no such thing as a free media in China so Grant and Yong provide an unusual window onto its public sphere. As I’ve written in the past, much of what passes for public debate happens on social media, which can become quite boisterous despite the Party’s hunger for total control.

In the show of 18 October I saw some evidence of a peculiarly Chinese form of cancel culture. Whereas in the West when someone is cancelled it’s at the instigation of random actors who build momentum for action, in China it’s the Party that orders and carries out the cancellation, even leading to actors in movies having their names removed from credits. It’s Orwellian, and I’ve got Grant and Yong to thank for supplying light in a space characterised by darkness.