Australia has swiftly turned down China’s offer to “join hands” against Donald Trump’s tariffs, as Washington escalates its trade war with Beijing.
The White House recently imposed an import tax of 10% on Australian goods, but for China - Australia’s biggest trading partner - raised tariffs to 125%.
China’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian argued joint resistance is “the only way” to stop the “hegemonic and bullying behaviour of the US”, appealing for Canberra’s cooperation in an opinion piece on Thursday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, said Australians would “speak for ourselves”, while the country’s defence minister said the nation would not be “holding China’s hand”.
Former Australian here, long story short
In one hand Australia has sold off to China via raw resources, real state, education, etc. so they are quite dependant on them; but in the other hand, China has had no problem throwing its weight around using the above’s fulcrums.
IMO trusting the chinese gov would be silly, as they lie, obsfucate, use and scheme against everyone; they are just another bully.
Trusting any foreign government is silly if it is about something where your and their interests don’t align (or might diverge in the future), trusting any foreign government makes sense if it is about something where you are sure interests will stay aligned for the relevant time period. Governments are not people, you can’t make friends with governments or trust them with matter 10 because matters 1-9 all worked out okay.