CAMERON MILNER: Albanese gets warning from Chinese, keep Australia weak or else

With friends like the Chinese Ambassador, Anthony Albanese hardly needs enemies. Our very own handsome boy was told by China to keep Australia, weak or else.

The Chinese Ambassador, Xiao Qian, today entered the political fray, calling on Australia to be even more defenceless than we already are as a nation.

Qian wrote an opinion piece in Albo’s favourite national newspaper claiming that nuclear-armed China only comes in peace. His column referred to 15th-century trading fleets bringing silk and porcelain to the West as contemporary evidence.

Therein lies the fundamental problem with Xiao’s Beijing-dictated dialectical: a lot has changed in the past 600 years when it comes to Chinese colonial ambition, cyber attacks, buying of political influence and outright military aggression.

China has been building military bases in the South China Sea and equipping them with naval fleets and airstrips for bombers and fighter jets, all in internationally recognised waters.

China regularly conducts shows of massive naval and military strength around Taiwan and in its sovereign airspace. But you can trust the Chinese Ambassador, because these are all actions of a peace loving China.

No need to worry about the flotilla of naval vessels doing live fire exercises and circumnavigating our nation weeks before our Federal election. They were just mapping new trade routes for Made in China plush toys and T-shirts that shrink after one wash to be dumped on our domestic market.

It’s helpful that the Chinese leadership, through their state-owned media, plumped for Albanese in the lead-up and during our last federal election. Albo is China’s choice as our PM.

They were rightly disappointed Albanese promised to dump China Inc’s Landbridge as owners of the strategically important Port of Darwin in a desperate attempt to save the Federal Government from losing the seat of Solomon.

China and its ambassador, though, are back for round two on Australia’s commitment to AUKUS, sensing rightly that Albanese is definitely not on the US’s most liked list of world leaders.

China has openly criticised AUKUS and would love nothing more than for Albanese and Wong to blow the deal up.

Both would be feted and rewarded if, through their own lefty political leanings and calls for dialogue rather than direct hits on Iran’s nuclear weapons factories, Australia is more removed from our largest ally than ever before.

The ambassador already knows how weak Albanese is as a leader. He will have studied Penny Wong’s many contradictions to ascertain her own vulnerabilities to persuasion.

The timing of Xiao’s piece is all about questioning Albanese’s commitment to AUKUS, even as the US is reviewing the deal.

NATO got the message loud and clear and last week — with the exception of Spain, which happens to enjoy the praise and favour of China — pledged to increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035.

The White House has made similar calls to Australia and Indo-Pacific allies to do the same, but Albanese continues to publicly thumb his nose at our closest ally, the USA.

Albo was snubbed by Donald Trump at the G7. Marles, our Deputy PM, was at the very outer edge of the NATO class photo and couldn’t even get a handshake from the President.

China’s timing in calling for Australia to stay weak comes at a perfect time for Beijing, but it has fundamentally misunderstood how its intervention works in Australian politics.

Albanese was doing a perfectly fine job of stuffing up AUKUS and our relationship with the US all by himself. Wong was openly bagging Israel out and giving diplomatic high fives to Hamas at the UN and shredding our relationship with Washington all on her lonesome.

Qian Xiao though must think Australians live in a Tik Tok bubble of complete ignorance.

The facts speak for themselves. China has massively increased its military offensive capabilities. Our head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, has it known China is our No. 1 hacker and cyber interferer.

We have prosecuted Chinese attempts to bribe our politicians and expelled their leading political donors and influence peddlers.

Australians also fondly recall their COVID lockdowns, RAT tests and loss of loved ones from a virus that came from either a Chinese pangolin, a wet market bat or a Wuhan viral lab. Either way it was another peaceful export from China no doubt.

The ambassador’s ham fisted intervention will only highlight how well like Albanese’s weakness is and how it’s exactly what China wants to see from the Australian PM.

Xiao’s comments have now only increased the stakes of inaction for Labor.

Labor was hoping to muddle its way through and hope the US needed sub bases in WA more than they needed us to raise our paltry defence spending as a nation.

What the Chinese missive has revealed is that not increasing our defence spending is simply doing Beijing’s bidding.

No doubt Sinophile former Labor leaders Paul Keating and Bob Carr will back in their Beijing buddies by calling for a weak Australia policy.

Albanese was already doing exactly what China needed. Now he’ll have to react in the opposite direction to save any face.

We all know the PM loves the easy life. Today could’ve been just another lazy day.

Instead, the Chinese Ambassador has upped the ante by calling for a weaker Australia to make aggressive China’s job easier.

That’s clearly not in Australia’s national interest and with friends like Xiao, even Albanese must recognise the inconvenient truth that we need to spend more — a lot more — on Australia’s defence.

Cameron Milner is a former Queensland Labor State secretary.