CANBERRA, April 27 (AP): A senior Australian minister on Wednesday suggested that China had deliberately announced its security pact with the Solomon Islands during an election campaign to undermine her government’s chances of reelection.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews’ accusation is consistent with her conservative Liberal Party’s argument that Beijing wants the centre-left Labour Party to win the May 21 election because Labour lawmakers were less likely to stand up to Chinese economic coercion.
Labour has described the government’s inability to prevent the deal announced by the Chinese and Solomons governments last week as Australia’s biggest foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II.
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Andrews — who is responsible for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the nation’s main domestic spy agency, and has access to classified secrets from other intelligence agencies — said Australians should be “taking notice of and paying some attention to” the timing of the Solomons’ announcements.
“Beijing is clearly very aware that we’re in a federal election campaign here at the moment. Why now? Why, right in the middle of a federal election campaign is all this coming to light?” Andrews told Brisbane Radio 4BC.
“We talk about political interference and that has many forms,” Andrews added.
Australia angered China in 2018 by passing national security laws that ban covert foreign interference in domestic politics. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time the government was prejudiced against China and had poisoned the atmosphere of China-Australia relations.
Jim Chalmers, a senior Labour lawmaker, dismissed the possibility of China attempting to use its Solomons deal to influence the Australian election.
“Even by the incredibly low standards of this government, I thought what Karen Andrews said was remarkably desperate and remarkably unhinged,” Chalmers said. “The Australian people will determine who wins this election.”
John Blaxland, Australian National University’s Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies, questioned whether Andrews was drawing on classified intelligence briefings in her comments on the Solomons.
“It certainly is plausible that they timed it this way. They would’ve been mindful of what’s happening in the elections,” Blaxland said.
“I’d be very surprised if China wanted to go public on siding with one side or the other because that’s basically a poison chalice you’re handing to that side of politics,” Blaxland added.
Blaxland suspected Beijing and Paris would both welcome a change of government in the hope of resetting their bilateral relationships with Australia.
China’s Foreign Ministry welcomed Morrison’s elevation to prime minister in 2018 after the Liberal Party dumped his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, who had banned foreign interference.
“China stands ready to work with the new Australian government to move forward bilateral ties along the right track,” a ministry official said at the time.
But bilateral relations have continued to sour.
France was incensed in September when Australia dumped a $66 billion contract for French-build conventional submarines. The United States and Britain will instead provide Australia with a nuclear-powered fleet.
The government boasts the new submarine deal is evidence of its superiority over Labour on national security.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry attacked Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s warning this week that Australians must prepare for war because of the threat from China and global insecurity spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Certain Australian politicians often seek selfish political gains by making wild remarks to smear China and clamour for war,” Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.
