Imperial Fruit: Bananas, Costs and Climate Change

The curved course of the ubiquitous banana has often been the peel…

The problems with a principled stand

In the past couple of weeks, the conservative parties have retained government…

Government approves Santos Barossa pipeline and sea dumping

The Australia Institute Media Release Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Department has approved a…

If The Jackboots Actually Fit …

By Jane Salmon If The Jackboots Actually Fit … Why Does Labor Keep…

Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza…

The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power…

How the supermarkets lost their way in Oz

By Callen Sorensen Karklis Many Australians are heard saying that they’re feeling the…

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court

What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to…

Why A Punch In The Face May Be…

Now I'm not one who believes in violence as a solution to…

«
»
Facebook

Seeking the Post-COVID Sunshine: Returning to Henry Kissinger’s Diplomatic Magic

By Denis Bright

The upsurge in international tensions favouring the containment of China has alarmed former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger. Henry Kissinger has recently participated in a virtual meeting organized by the Chinese Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA) to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his epic trip in July 1971. This initiative paved the way for the normalization of relations with the Nixon Administration.

A video from The Economist covers Henry Kissinger’s recent take on the consequences of deteriorating relations between the US and China.

Not all the magic generated by US diplomatic relations with China some years after President Nixon’s visit has completely evaporated in the dangerous rhetoric from the Trump era. Local officials on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen just off the Chinese City of Xiamen insist on keeping tourist services operating to and from China although the Taiwanese government is now opposed to the construction of a six kilometre long suspension bridge across the divide. Bookings are still open for day trips from Xiamen to Kinmen Island.

According to Henry Kissinger, a new normalization in relations between the US and China is likely to come from the sheer necessity of working with the emergent Asian superpower which was first out of the block in its sustained recovery from a quarter of negative economic growth in March 2020:

 

Percentage Changes in Chinese Economic Growth

 

Regrettably, the normalization of relations with China is still politically hazardous venture for the Biden Administration. The far right populism of the Trump era has not fully subsided. Mid-term US congressional elections in November 2022 are far from an epoch away. The domestic challenges to an incoming US administration in its first mid-term political test were apparent under Eisenhower, Kennedy, Clinton and Barack Obama. Tensions with China might simmer until 2023. Even Richard Nixon waited until after the 1970 mid-term election before sending Henry Kissinger off to China. The Republicans retained control of both houses of congress despite substantial net gains by the Democratic Party in house seats.

Strategic initiatives by middle powers in the US Global Alliance could have disastrous consequences if they involve too much risk-taking to snuff out real opportunities for rapprochement in the future. Taking on China might be punching a little above our weight despite the sporting successes at a recent rugby event:

Historical Precedents in the Diplomatic Stakes

When Henry Kissinger visited China in July 1971, Australian perspectives about China were developed through the prism of our embassy in Taiwan. The Nixon Administration did not keep allies informed about Henry Kissinger’s mission to Beijing. The US-China Institute at the University of Southern California offers details of the history of Richard Nixon’s overtures to China which commenced in 1967 when he was just a candidate for president.

Opportunities were available for the normalization of relations between China and the world community in the early Cold War Period through events like the Bandung Conference (Indonesia) in 1955. Domestic tensions in the US and allied countries over the post-Korean war recession prevented the fulfilment of such expectations. This was a wasted opportunity for both China and the countries of South East Asia who were involved for a generation in containment of China.

Diverse Bandung Conference Participants

  • Kingdom of Afghanistan
  • Union of Burma
  • Kingdom of Cambodia
  • Dominion of Ceylon
  • People’s Republic of China
  • Cyprus1
  • Republic of Egypt
  • Ethiopian Empire
  • Gold Coast
  • Republic of India
  • Republic of Indonesia
  • Imperial State of Iran
  • Kingdom of Iraq
  • Japan
  • Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
  • Kingdom of Laos
  • Lebanese Republic
  • Liberia
  • Kingdom of Libya
  • Kingdom of Nepal
  • Dominion of Pakistan
  • Republic of the Philippines
  • Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  • Syrian Republic
  • Sudan 2
  • Kingdom of Thailand
  • Republic of Turkey
  • State of Vietnam (South)
  • Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North)
  • Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen

1 A pre-independent colonial Cyprus was represented by [the] eventual first president, Makarios III.

2 Pre-independence Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was represented by Chief Minister Ismail al-Azhari and used a provisional flag.

Ironically, it was the Country Party arm of the LNP Coalition in 1955 which was most receptive to the diversification of markets for rural products and mineral resources to countries like China and the predominantly non-aligned group of countries from the Middle East to South East Asia. This opportunism from the Country Party co-existed with support for a Taipei-based Australian embassy and the militarization of South East Asia as a bastion against the advance of communism. Some readers might be able to locate the brochure prepared for school students across Australia to support the war in Vietnam and share this link through the replies option to The AIMN articles.

Middle powers like Australia and France are acting irresponsibly if they stoke up international tensions by provocative manoeuvres on the high seas as well as tit for tat electronic warfare through running the gauntlet operations off Central Queensland and the peripheries of China as well as the latest episodes of cyber warfare.

France’s first submarine expedition to the South China Sea is probably motivated by the prospect of more arms exports to countries in the US Global Alliance such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In the short-term, it has the strategic zeal of testing Chinese electronic surveillance of adjacent seaways through the first underwater venture to the South China Sea which returned safely to Toulon after seven months at sea.

Within DFAT itself, there might be concerns about commercial losses from a deterioration in relations with China. It is surely in Australia’s commercial interests to cool down these tensions as trade and investment ties with China are a key factor in our sustainable prosperity. There are indeed some contradictory policies in relation to ties with China.

Australia retains substantial deposits in the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Relations between Australia and China were quite cordial at the AIIB’s Roundtable Discussions (Australia’s Alternate Governor’s Address to the AIIB’s Roundtable Discussion 2020):

“It is my pleasure to represent Australia at this year’s AIIB Annual Meeting as Australia’s Alternate Governor. We are obviously meeting at a time when the global economy faces unprecedented challenges arising from COVID-19, which has been spoken about. Now whilst the pandemic has affected all countries differently, the need to finance large-scale health responses amidst deteriorating macro-economic conditions has been a common challenge.

Australia commends the AIIB for joining the international community’s efforts to help finance the pandemic response. We particularly welcomed the Bank’s effective use of partnerships with other multilateral development banks to deliver much of this support. The AIIB’s COVID-19 Response Facility is an exceptional response to the extraordinary circumstances that the Bank and the world currently face. The longer the pandemic lasts, the more important it will be, for AIIB, to be clear about where it can best add value to the international community’s efforts to alleviate health and economic impacts, working within its own resource constraints and business model.”

France Balances Commercial and Strategic Priorities

With centre-right governments in charge across most of the thirty member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) states, neoconservative political and military leaders are acting in tandem on containment strategies towards China. President Macron’s government in France is strongly en marche with these global developments but French manoeuvres in the South China Sea are still risky ventures if they involve undersea stealth operations by ageing nuclear attack submarines. France has grand plans to re-equip its submarine fleet with four new generation vessels.

Latest challenges for the French ship-building initiatives include the construction of four new nuclear powered attack submarines for deployment between 2030 and far-off 2080. More export contracts would assist in defraying the costs of the long-term commitments.

 

 

The frankness of France’s commitment to the containment of China was covered in recent soft news from the 20h30 Report from Channel 2 in Paris on 11 July 2021.

A reporter and film crew from Channel 2 in Paris toured the Émeraude when it returned to the Port of Toulon in April 2021. This report offered superficial coverage of the submarine’s Exocet missiles and computer guidance systems. Full details of the epic voyage were still withheld for both the submarine and its Loire-class support vessel Seine. These details excluded places visited on both Indian Ocean crossings and even maneuvers associated with the visit to the Kwinana Naval Base near Perth.

French NavalNews did release an official video. Readers will need to be satisfied with the official version of events from Naval News editor Xavier Vasasseur with Captain Antoine Delaveau, Commanding Officer of the Blue Crew assigned to the Submarine Émeraude.

 

 

Details of the visit of the two French vessels to Perth on 11 November 2020 were also covered by Continental Defence in November 2020.

Historically, France’s small fleet of nuclear powered submarines has a tarnished safety record. The Émeraude has been in service since 1986. Ten crew members from its crew died in a naval exercise off Toulon in 1994.

The use of the ageing Émeraude for the mission to the South China Sea was indeed a risky venture. Even between allied submarines and commercial freighters, there have been accidental collisions in uncontested waters. The risks are increased by passive sonar operations.

The British submarine Vanguard and France’s Triomphant were damaged on the night of 3-4 February 2009 during undersea operations in the Atlantic without any substantial injuries to crew or a reported release of radioactive materials (BBC News 16 February 2009). A French Rubis nuclear submarine also collided with an oil tanker while surfacing off Toulon in 1993 (Journal of Commerce 1 September 1993).

There is a risk of similar incidents in stealth operations near China. Stripes.com (29 January 2021) notes the psychological stresses on Chinese crews who monitor manoeuvres in the name of that freedom of navigation imperative:

A fifth of sailors assigned to Chinese submarines patrolling the South China Sea have experienced some degree of mental health problems, according to a study published this month.

“This study demonstrates for the first time that soldiers and officers in the submarine force in the South China Sea are exposed to a number of mental health risks and are suffering from serious psychological problems,” Chinese researchers concluded in the study published Jan. 7 in the journal Military Medicine.

The study’s five authors are affiliated with the Institute of Military Health Management at Naval Medical University in Shanghai, China.

It assessed the “self-perceived” mental health of Chinese submariners, then compared those findings to “Chinese military male norms,” the study said.

Implications for the Forthcoming Australian Federal Elections

If the trendlines in the latest Newspoll can be maintained Labor can best coast towards the next federal election with a largely bipartisan stance on international relations issues. Missionary idealism over international relations issues cost Dr. Evatt the 1954 House of Representatives which followed the first visit of Queen Elizabeth to Australia and the planned fall-out from the Petrov affair. Both events combined to save the federal LNP from defeat with the assistance of that old gerrymander of regional seats.

 

 

Only Labor in government can sort out the current mess with China as the Biden Administration must first quell its own domestic political ghosts from the Trump era. Staying with the advice from Henry Kissinger to win elections in 2022, it is an imperative to the new generation of leaders across the US Global Alliance from Australia to France, Britain and the USA to be on guard against missionary populism of the left and far right variants.

Hopefully, leaders of both China and the USA are aware that a period of megaphone diplomacy may be necessary to resolve current problems. Hopefully, the ground-rules are better explained to countries like Australia given the history of diplomatic U-turns during the Nixon era to protect political leaders who want to be A Grade Players in global diplomacy with observer status at the recent G7 Forum in Cornwall.

Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.

Like what we do at The AIMN?

You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.

Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!

Donate Button

 

17 comments

Login here Register here
  1. Rachel

    Kind of you Denis to see merit in Nixon era diplomacy.

  2. Chris

    Good to see Henry Kissinger continuing to operate without fear or favour.

  3. Ivy

    Denis, thank you for the article about China’s relationships with the US and middle powers such as Australia.

  4. Leila

    Thanks Denis for the coverage of those dangerous submarine expeditions with French vessels 25 years old.

  5. New England Cocky

    Uhm ….. despite all the American chest thumping, Gough Whitlam recognised PRC China before the USA (United States of Apartheid) and his visit to PRC China also pre-dated Nixon’s trip to Beijing.

  6. Tessa_M

    The National Party would sell the local disused wheat silo if it could assist in re-election prospects.

  7. James Robo

    A well researched article. Thanks for the insights.

  8. Lara

    In these times of the COVID-pandemic, global poverty and bizarre climatic anomalies, more nuclear warfare would be an impossible burden for humanity. A more independent media is a great asset in these troubled times.

  9. Paul

    Thanks for the great article Denis!!!

    The old Menzies commitment to great and powerful friends does not always work. Nixon decided to engage with China while the LNP was still defending the logic of an embassy in Taiwan to develop fresh perspectives on China. Time for a bit more independence for Australia.

  10. Towards Australia Nonaligned

    New England Cocky is right. Full recognition of China by the USA had to wait until the Carter years in 1979. The LNP has stoked up so much hatred on relations with China that Labor must wait until it can form majority government to fix up the mess created during those Trump times to sour relations with
    China. All this could come unstuck if a warship or submarine has a collision or explosion near the Chinese coastline. France has few modern submarines and gets involved to promote its arms export industries. Just why Australia signed contracts with France for new submarines is impossible to understand. Unfortunately, domestic political issues must prevail in the lead up to the next election.

  11. Terence Mills

    I note that in recent weeks we have joined the US in first attacking Russia for being complicit in Ransomware attacks and now we are attacking Beijing as being the source of these attacks.

    Do we actually know or are we just blindly following the US in seeking to find a culprit ?

  12. leefe

    “Do we actually know or are we just blindly following the US in seeking to find a culprit ?”

    I think the misgovernment is doing its usual ‘2yr old throwing a tantrum’ distraction act and just lashing out at anyone and everyone who is within reach. As per Ol’ Rupe”s instructions.

  13. Denis Bright in Brisbane

    Thanks for the comments. Everyone can be a proactive citizens’ reporter through a critical awareness of mainstream news presentations.

    I just happened to see that soft news report on the expedition of the French Submarine Emeraude and its supply vessel Seine across the Indian Ocean to Perth and the South China on that seven month voyage which was covered on the 20h30 Report on 11 July 2021. The Emeraude arrived back in Toulon in April 2021. The news item was added as a fill-in on the 20h30 Report and was not a contemporary news item.

    The expedition is also covered by NavalNews from Paris: https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2021/04/video-french-navy-submarine-emeraude-deployed-to-the-indo-pacific-and-south-china-sea/

    However, this coverage is light on details of the calls made by the Emeraude on its long transits across the Indian Ocean in both directions to and from the South China Sea. Did the vessels call at Diego Garcia I wondered but NavalNews in Paris would not provide mw with a detailed map of the route taken.The 20h30 Report did mention a call at a naval base in Guam.

    The reporter from Channel 2 in Paris was given a tour of the submarine back in Toulon but this does not feature on the review of the programme on the 20h30 web site: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-magazine/france-2/19h-le-dimanche/

    One of the personnel on the Seine left this Tweet as the vessel was leaving Kwinana:

    French Navy Loire-class support vessel FS Seine (A604) leaving Perth, Australia after port visit. Assume Rubis-class FS Emeraude (S604) submarine is leaving as well but didn’t see it on the camera – November 14, 2020 #seine #a604 #s604 #emeraude

    France is obviously more open about communications from its vessels than some other Middle Powers.

    So it appears that nuclear powered vessels like the Emeraude can visit Australian naval ports on their extended global expeditions.

    Perhaps this is part of France’s PR programmes to talk up arms sales and not really a serious strategic exercise.

    The Exocet missiles shown on the 20h30 Report are not necessarily nuclear weapons but what happens to the nuclear missiles in other allied ships when they call at Australian ports?

    These issues were the foundations of the NZ Lange Government’s disputes with the US Global Alliance in 1984. Australia sided with the US Global Alliance to isolate NZ despite strong opposition from Labor’s Parliamentary Left Caucus within that Hawke Govermnment almost 40 years ago.

    Our leaders should keep us informed on such vital issues and acknowledge the previous accidents involving French submarine vessels.

    Cabinet documents from the National Archives (NAA) in Canberra probably still censor such policy decisions. The Australian-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) was formed as a result of this dispute. Australia is striving to have NZ back as a full member of the US Global Alliance and those moves have been quite successful initiatives for the US Global Alliance.

    Perhaps one of our readers can check out the situation covering relations with the Lange Labour Government in NZ through a quick search at the NAA in Canberra.

    Alison Bailin from the University of Toronto commenced my interest in thiese issues. She is not a prominent International Relations Theorist. I only know her through computer searches:

    http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/scholar/bailin/bailin2000.pdf

    https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781351157889/traditional-group-hegemony-john-kirton-alison-bailin

    I think her interprepations are spot on the mark in strategic analysis and their in tandem synchronicity with domestic politics and corporate interests are stop on assessments.

    This was shown up in Scott Morrison’s state visit to the USA in 2020 which I covered in a previous article ( https://theaimn.com/seeking-the-post-covid-consensus-is-the-biden-harris-team-energizing-a-cautious-global-progressivism/#comments). It seems like a century ago but it was actually last August.

  14. Jack sprat

    Henry Kissenger’s diplomatic magic in the past has led to the murder of millions across the world ,even exceeding that of Pol Pot who due to Kissenger’s secret war in Cambodia was enable to grab power . He is responsible for the overthrow and assassination of the democratically elected president of Chile Allende and installed in his place the fascist General Pinochet . Here is a list of places where his magic touch in the past has caused many deaths Vietnam ,Laos, Cambodia ,Chile, Bangladesh ,Indonesia ,East Timor,the middle east and the Americas (due to his over enthusiastic enforcement of the Manroe doctrine ) and I am sure I have missed quiet a few more .

  15. Denis Bright

    Thanks Jack sprat. I like those fighting words and that logical conclusion: I am sure I have missed quite a few more-A lovely understatement.

    What is relevant today, is Henry Kissinger’s cautionary remarks against the drift to armed conflict by accident or design.

    Please continue to interact with my articles which are designed to promote discussion.

    Henry Kissinger certainly presided over President Nixon’s military expenditure programme which continues today. Military expenditure as monitored by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute is appalling:

    (Stockholm, 26 April 2021) Total global military expenditure rose to $1981 billion last year, an increase of 2.6 per cent in real terms from 2019, according to new data published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The five biggest spenders in 2020, which together accounted for 62 per cent of global military expenditure, were the United States, China, India, Russia and the United Kingdom. Military spending by China grew for the 26th consecutive year.)

    How could anyone be assured by the expedition of the Emeraude from France to Australia and the South China Sea in the context of France’s accident prone naval record.

  16. Adrian

    Another great article by Denis! All at a glance, as always. The fight against China will never end, no matter what approach other countries will take… The reason is simple. China will do its best to survive and be ahead of the game. And this will create conflicts with other countries interests. The fight will go on forever.

  17. skip

    Gosh dang!! Ol’ “Peace is at hand” monster Kissinger enjoys fulsome servile vile praise?????

    During his brief tenure at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy, Kissinger got a lot done. In his first two years in office, he helped Richard Nixon sabotage Vietnamese peace talks for his own political gain, expanded that war into Laos and Cambodia (the destabilizing effects of which would pave the way for the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the death of up to two million people), and advocated the bombing of, in his own words, “anything that moves.”

    In 1971, Kissinger backed Pakistan in its war against Bangladesh despite evidence of massacre and rape. In ‘73, he orchestrated a military coup against the democratically elected Allende regime of Chile, installing in its stead the violently oppressive Pinochet dictatorship. And in ‘75, the then-Secretary of State lent his tacit support to President Suharto of Indonesia―himself a despot already responsible for the mass killings of hundreds of thousands―in the deadly conquest of East Timor. Kissinger himself, in proposing an intervention in Cyprus, summed up his philosophy best: “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

    Hey whadda ya expect from lap dogs down under in the servile coal/gas/pharma apartheid corporate penal colony.

    Ongoing pillage, murder, incarceration & thievery.

    233 years and counting.

    Morrison & Barnabee says it all.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page