Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has warned Australia has to be frank about the threat of China in the region, urging the country to bolster its defences.
As China indicated it was ending military drills in the Taiwan Strait following US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit, Mr Dutton said China’s actions needed to be called out.
“We want to see peace prevail in our region, but at the same time we’ve got to be very frank about the threat that is there,” he told ABC radio on Thursday.
“There’s no imagination required here that the Chinese Communist Party has been very clear about their intent in relation to Taiwan.”
Mr Dutton compared the current situation between China and Taiwan to the period before Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.
“There were plenty within Europe that didn’t believe that President Putin was going to go into Ukraine,” he said.
“What I don’t want to see is instability in our region and a situation unfold in Taiwan where innocent women and children are the main victims, similar to what we’ve seen in Ukraine.”
It follows from comments made by China’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian, who defended acts of aggression in the region as self defence.
In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Xiao said China would hope to return Taiwan under its rule by “all necessary means”.
“As to what do you mean by all necessary means? You can use your imagination,” he said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the comments by the ambassador were concerning.
“Our national interest in Australia are best served by peace, stability, and prosperity in the region,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
“That means no unilateral change to the status quo. It means restraint and de-escalation. It means calm and consistent language.”
Mr Dutton said the government had been strong enough in its language and its response to China.
“They’ve been using very similar language to what we were using when we were in government, and that’s appropriate because I’d be reading the same intelligence that I’ve been reading for the last five or six years,” he said.
“We should bolster our defences because we want to make sure that any adversary understands that there would be a price to pay if if there was an attack on our country.”
However, former prime minister Kevin Rudd has described the opposition leader as “Australia’s megaphone diplomacy towards Beijing”.
Mr Rudd hit out at the former defence minister, who said the previous government’s stance on China was a case of political posturing,
“Mr Dutton has multiple cases to answer rather than just wallowing around in the continued rhetoric of hairy-chestedness. It doesn’t advance Australia’s core national security interests one bit,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
“The Australian government has got the balance right into basically rejecting the notion of a list of demands, and its inherent legitimacy.”
Mr Dutton hit back at the comments, saying the same language used by the coalition in office was now being used by the new Labor government.
