Australian: Biden's 'shoulder massages' won't sway China

FPI / August 10, 2020

Australia needs U.S. President Donald Trump's continued leadership when it comes to confronting China, an Australian legislator said.

The U.S. president would be better at dealing with China than Democrat candidate Joe Biden because Trump knows “when you deal with bullies … you don’t give them shoulder massages, you’ve got to stand up to them,” Liberal Party Sen. James McGrath told Sky news.

McGrath said China was the “greatest threat to the rules-based order the world is seeing at the moment.”

He said Australia needed to ensure there was a "coalition of the willing” standing against China and required the help of a strong president in the White House.

“Biden isn’t a foreign affairs hawk, he’s like a foreign affairs budgerigar (parrot),” McGrath said.

Last month, the U.S. and Australian foreign and defense ministers pledged to renew and strengthen a united front against China.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. and Australia face “immediate crises" that must be dealt with simultaneously. Those include COVID-19 and “Chinese communist party ambitions," particularly its “malign activity in the Indo-Pacific region and indeed all around the world.”

Pompeo applauded Australia for suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, something the Trump administration also did following the new security law imposed on Hong Kong by the Chinese Communist Party. Pompeo also slammed China for using pressure to stop Australia from taking such actions by targeting exports to the country.

In November of 2019, the Trump administration took a major step toward making Australia a key part of the U.S. strategy to reduce its reliance on Chinese exports.

A partnership was announced to safeguard the nations' ability to develop “critical mineral assets”. The collaboration will consist of Australian and American scientists and companies determining what mineral reserves exist and where, in addition to modelling data on the industry to determine what minerals are in demand, Australia's news.com.au reported.

Free Press International