A Security Threat !

It has long been assumed that China's hostility to Australia originated from our demand that the source of the pandemic that has swept the world be subjected to a scientific analysis to determine how -and why - it moved from the animal kingdom to affect humans.

The fact that this happened in China is an embarrassment to its Communist government.  They hid the outbreak, and in so doing unleashed it on the world.  They have tried to shift the blame to Europe and the selected ban on Australian imports is an attempt to silence Australia.

The real reason goes back further, to when Malcolm Turnbull was prime minister and Australia became the first country to ban the giant Chinese electronic network from participating in the installation of the 5G in this country.

There was security disquiet that the complex structure developed by Huawei would enable China to eavesdrop in on Australian communications and very quickly this same ban spread to other countries. It quickly became evident  that China would be in a position to simply shut down the entire 5G network if it passed that order on to its Huawei subsidiary.

Huawei denies this and protests that it would not comply with any such order, but that ignores the reality of the regime in power in China.  That power resides in the will of the Communist party.  The Communist government wields supreme power, over and above whatever is written in the constitution.

In2017 the Communist party passed a law that requires all companies, private and publicly owned, to co-operate with the Chinese government on any national security matter.  There is no law in China except the dictates of the Communist party bosses.

If Huawei were allowed to contribute to 5G, Beijing would be able to cause utter chaos in Australia by switching off the communications network and shutting down a large proportion of both industry and transport.  The Australian economy would rest in Chinese hands.

China has imposed selective Australian import bans and we have been able to develop new markets for most of these goods, with the exception of wine.  We are aware that China is looking for an alternative for our biggest export - iron ore - and they have listed a fifteen point manifesto of demands we must meet before they will restore trade to normality.

The number two on that list is acceptance of Huawei as a supplier of parts for the 5G installation in Australia.  We are asked to relinquish our security in exchange to trade preference, and that is something that could come back to haunt us in the future.

It simply means we must enhance our overseas sales efforts to widen our market share.  In the long run, this Chinese animosity may to be to our advantage.  That old adage of putting all our eggs in one basket comes to mind.