{"id":51478,"date":"2019-10-25T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=51478"},"modified":"2019-10-24T19:54:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T08:54:51","slug":"beijing-drives-a-belt-and-road-between-melbourne-and-canberra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/beijing-drives-a-belt-and-road-between-melbourne-and-canberra\/","title":{"rendered":"Beijing drives a Belt and Road between Melbourne and Canberra"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The Chinese Communist Party leadership is using the decisions made by the premier of Victoria to engineer a split between the federal government and the states and territories on Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s signature Belt and Road Initiative.<\/p>\n

Daniel Andrews announced<\/a> on Wednesday that Victoria had signed a new deal with China under the BRI that \u2018will help fast track cooperation in the key areas of infrastructure, innovation, ageing, and trade development providing more opportunities for Victorian companies and more Victorian jobs\u2019.<\/p>\n

The federal government hasn\u2019t signed up to the BRI, saying only that it will consider individual projects on a case-by-case basis. So the CCP has gone around the Commonwealth to see if it can get a different answer from the states and territories, and Premier Andrews has cheerfully obliged.<\/p>\n

Foreign investment in Australia is an area in which the federal government\u2019s roles and responsibilities matter\u2014because those roles and responsibilities have led to its not signing up in the way that Victoria has.<\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s areas of responsibility\u2014foreign affairs, defence and national security, including the intersections between them\u2014equip it with agencies and insights that Victoria just does not have. And those constitutional responsibilities weigh heavily when considering an issue like the BRI\u2014because it requires a wholistic perspective that states don\u2019t naturally have, given their different roles and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Andrews has now signed a \u2018Framework Agreement with China\u2019s National Development and Reform Commission\u2019, which is the communist state\u2019s former planning commission.<\/p>\n

When Andrews signed the original memorandum of understanding on the BRI back in 2018, I wondered<\/a> what he didn\u2019t know and when he didn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n

Now, I think the conclusion must be that he does know that the BRI is not simply a set of economic investments and projects. It\u2019s also a strategic and technological path to assert the Chinese digital authoritarian state<\/a>\u2019s power and influence.<\/p>\n

Andrews is reported to have said<\/a> he wants to get more Chinese companies involved in Victoria\u2019s massive $107-billion infrastructure \u2018big build\u2019 and to explore cooperation in areas of high-end manufacturing, biotechnology and agricultural technology. This infrastructure build isn\u2019t just about physical infrastructure. Modern infrastructure runs on digital technologies, so Andrews may also be signing up to bring a whole set of Chinese communications, control and collection technologies along with this big build.<\/p>\n

And the big build will involve physical and digital critical infrastructure. Both the federal and Victorian governments will need to consider these proposals, not just from the economic perspective that\u2019s clearly driving Andrews, but as a package of security, technology and economic issues\u2014as the federal government did in making its decision on the nation\u2019s 5G network.<\/p>\n

Biotechnology is an area that Chairman Xi has highlighted as a source of both strategic and economic power in his \u2018Made in China 2025\u2019 agenda, which, like the BRI, is one of Xi\u2019s signature initiatives for making a Sino-centric global order where we all live in the CCP\u2019s \u2018China Dream\u2019\u2014along with the people of Hong Kong and Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

Andrews\u2019s visits<\/a> to China to attend Belt and Road forums and to meet with provincial, Hong Kong and Beijing authorities are showing us that Beijing has its house in order when it comes to aligning their positions on key issues like the BRI when they engage with political leaders from other nations. I\u2019d expect to see Beijing reward Andrews somehow, as a way of driving a wedge between the federal and state positions on the BRI and trying to pressure Canberra to change.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard for the Australian public or for our leaders to understand this part of Beijing\u2019s agenda, because it\u2019s pretty obvious that it\u2019s a political as well as a strategic move. But it\u2019s a bad look for Australia to have its levels of government played off against each other by a foreign power.<\/p>\n

We need to see coordination between the Commonwealth and every state and territory that\u2019s on a par with what Beijing achieves with its other levels of government. We\u2019re not seeing that now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chinese Communist Party leadership is using the decisions made by the premier of Victoria to engineer a split between the federal government and the states and territories on Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s signature Belt …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":766,"featured_media":51480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2212,1920,52,2308],"class_list":["post-51478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia-china-relations","tag-belt-and-road-initiative","tag-china","tag-victoria"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBeijing drives a Belt and Road between Melbourne and Canberra | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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