“Forward Australia Unfair”

Australia is sending troops to the Solomon Islands (Bloomberg) in order to quell violent protests. The protests are the latest escalation in an ongoing domestic dispute (ABC Australia) regarding the tiny nation’s recent decision to diplomatically unrecognize democratic Taiwan in favor of bowing before totalitarian China. In other words, Australia is taking active coercive steps, at the behest of an anti-Taiwan government, to enforce China’s interests. 

During the pandemic, Australia has made significant strides (The Atlantic) toward establishing itself as the most thuggish and overtly illiberal country in the English-speaking world, which is really saying something given the competition. This latest act of completely superfluous appeasement toward the Chinese Communist Party, forcibly subduing anti-China protests in order to help the Solomon Islands make the transition to full-on Chinese agent in the region, is more sickeningly symbolic than serious, but it establishes a trajectory based on an unstated principle, namely that openly ignoring Taiwan’s cries for support in favor of sidling up to the bullies who are in the process of beating her into submission to steal all her property is now an acceptable diplomatic choice, and indeed that any opposition to that approach (especially if it gets a little out of hand) may be legitimately quelled with force applied from a foreign country.

From the Bloomberg article linked above:

“We are greatly concerned over attacks on Chinese citizens and businesses and have asked the local government to take all necessary measures to protect the safety of Chinese nationals and institutions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing on Thursday in Beijing. 

“All attempts to disrupt the normal developmental relations between China and the Solomon Islands are just futile,” he added.

All attempts to resist China’s economic, diplomatic, and hegemonic bullying are futile, says the CCP. Well, that may be true, as long as local leaders are susceptible to Chinese bribery and threats, and disrespectful of liberty; and it is all the more likely to be true if the so-called democratic partners in the region spend more time playing moral equivalency games to give the appearance of neutrality than they do standing up rhetorically for the concepts of individual rights and national sovereignty.

Explaining why Australia is taking sides on local matters in the Solomon Islands (though pretending not to be), the Aussie Lockdown King offers the following:

“Our purpose here is to provide stability and security to enable the normal constitutional processes” can [sic] proceed, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters on Thursday. 

Stability and security — two of the favorite catchwords of tyrannical rationalization. Another such word, in the progressive age, is “forward,” which has been the slogan of several famous progressive movements and publications, from Trotsky’s to Mussolini’s to Mao’s to Obama’s. Australia’s national anthem, “Advance Australia Fair,” seems to be undergoing another modernizing makeover of late. Perhaps the new title ought to be “Forward Australia Unfair.” Standing up for the interests of communist totalitarians and their paid-off minions, against the “instability” erupting out of anti-communist outcry: that has just become unofficial policy in Australia, the land where police rough up unmasked teenagers on the beach.

With courage let us all combine
To Advance China’s Affairs.

I do not condone the burning of buildings and the stoning of private businesses. But I do sympathize with the Solomon Islands’ most populous province, Malaita, in its fight to preserve national independence, to maintain formal relations with Taiwan, and to reject the Chinese Communist Party’s mafia-style diplomacy.

From Australia’s ABC News, linked above:

In August 2019, a group of senior politicians [in the Solomon Islands] published an open letter condemning the shift in relations.

“We believe the long-term interests of our country — in terms of our development aspirations, as well as respect for democratic principles, human rights, rule of law, human dignity, and mutual respect — lie with Taiwan, not the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” it read.

It also warned that establishing ties with Beijing could see land rights, rule of law and cultural heritage in Solomon Islands “compromised”.

“We are aware of important lessons from many countries — including in our region — who are locked in a serious debt trap as a result of their giving in to China’s lures.”

The Malaita province’s popular premier, Daniel Suidana, explains the dispute even more directly: “We are strongly opposed to PRC communist ideology and investment.” 

Not to worry, all that objection is just wind, for Australia has arrived to “provide stability and security,” ensuring that “normal constitutional processes” of surrendering to totalitarian communism and destroying the local economy and self-governance may proceed apace, and that all objections on behalf of freedom and self-determination will slowly fade into the insignificance of polite dissent, and then into silence, as they always do.


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