My Take | Tokyo the worst place to launch Western tirades against China
- Political has-beens hitch a ride in Japan to show who can sound tougher on China in a demonstration of groupthink that may doom us all
The hate-fest in Tokyo from last week had an impressive Western cast. No fewer than three former prime ministers – of Britain, Australia and Belgium – vied with each other to sound more Churchillian in warning against the West’s appeasement of China and calling for its militant containment. Given Japan’s imperialist past, though, it’s not exactly a reassuring place to send such aggressive messages.
The occasion was a symposium run by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a hawkish group of lawmakers from more than 30 countries concerned about the bogey-Chinaman. It’s part of a vanguard of democracies led by the United States against autocratic governments – except those friendly with the West, of course.
Well, failed in your own country, rejected by voters, there can still be a political afterlife. Just ask Scott Morrison, Liz Truss and Guy Verhofstadt.
Morrison cited the Munich agreement with Hitler and claimed credit for rallying democratic countries to “call out the bullying of the Chinese government”. He also demanded his own country to impose Magnitsky-style human rights sanctions on China. It all sounds like a dig at his successor Labor government.
In response, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has politely cautioned against “taking advice” from the head of the previous government.
“I’m not sure how much advice it would be sensible to take from Mr Morrison on foreign policy but … I outlined at length our position on sanctions as not the only, but one of the ways, in which Australia will express and assert its values,” she said.