Australia in the Asian century

S P SETH

Australia, now and then, gets excited about Asia. It happened again, a while ago, when Prime Minister Julia Gillard presented a white paper, Australia in the Asian century. It outlines a policy over the next decade-and-half to connect more deeply with Australia’s Asian neighborhood to make the best use of new economic opportunities in a vibrant region. Gillard’s excitement has the feel of discovering something new pulsating with life. But Asian countries and cultures have been around for centuries, and Australia has not been able to make up its mind if they presented opportunities or a threat. Will the white paper mean a real change or is it a rhetorical flourish, as has happened in the past?  Only time will tell, if and when the white paper is translated into action.  

However, the tone and direction of the white paper is encouraging because it seeks to understand and develop relations with Asia at a deeper level. As Prime Minister Gillard said, “Success for an open Australia in a middle-class Asia starts in the classrooms, training centres and lecture theatres in our nation.”  To this end, school students will learn at least one Asian language--- Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese or Indonesian. And for this, “we are working to make this access [to learning an Asian language] a core requirement through new school funding arrangements”. At another level, the Australian government will encourage cross-cultural exchanges and institute 12,000 awards to promote it. The government will also seek to expand its diplomatic presence in the region.

What has led Australia to announce this wide-ranging blueprint to develop relations with Asia over a period of time?  Before we examine this, it is important to emphasize that, for most part of its history, White Australia (Australia for Whites only) was the guiding principle of the country’s policy. Therefore, the relationship with Asia was marked by exclusion rather than inclusion. For instance, after the Aborigines who were displaced and decimated (for most part) after the White settlement of Australia from late-18^th century, it was the small community of Chinese settlers who came here in the gold rush period around the mid-19^th century that were the most persecuted race. As John Pilger writes in his book, A Secret Country, “ To the Australian [gold] diggers and much of the population, the Chinese were the Yellow Peril incarnate, plotting to seize and enslave the nation…” Indeed, they were, for the most part, the reason for promulgation of the White Australia policy that excluded all non-Whites from migrating to Australia.

Though this was modified from late-sixties onward and more Asians have been let in as immigrants, that racist mindset hasn’t changed much. In the late nineties, Pauline Hanson, an elected Member of Parliament, became quite a phenomenon baiting Asians as bringing crime into Australia and being otherwise undesirable as immigrants.  Indeed, she brought into open the worst of racism against Asians, with some of them spat at in public places and told to go back where they came from. John Howard, then Australia’s prime minister, even though he didn’t talk Hanson’s rough language, adopted her anti-immigration rhetoric by making it part of his policy when demonizing people fleeing persecution from dreadful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and seeking asylum in Australia. And not long ago, a 5,000-strong mob attacked people of Middle Eastern origin at a Sydney beach arising out of a local incident.

 It is sad to say that the Labor government of Julia Gillard is following the same old policies of its conservative predecessor when it comes to asylum seekers, mostly from trouble spots like Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka. Against this backdrop, one may be forgiven for being cynical about the new enlightened Australia in the pages of its white paper, Australia in the Asian Century.

However, now that some countries in Asia have stronger economies and Australia is making riches by selling its resources, there is a different, even positive take on Asia. China, for instance, is now Australia’s biggest export market, adding to its prosperity. Similarly India, though not in China’s league as an export destination, is increasingly an important trading partner. Japan has been an important buyer of Australian resources for many decades, and is also Australia’s strategic partner, both being part of the US security network.  Indonesia, Australia’s close neighbour, is emerging as a rising economy, with great potential for trade and investment. South Korea is another healthy trade partner.

In other words, Asia is emerging as the continent of great opportunities with voracious demand for Australian resource materials like iron ore, coal etc. The scope for expanded exports of agricultural products is growing with greater demand in Asia, and they are fetching higher prices too. Australia is also proving a big draw card with China’s increasing middle class tourists loving its open spaces and beaches of this vast country. And for the rich Chinese, Australia is expanding its gambling casinos with a new luxurious one planned for Sydney. At the same time, Australia’s education industry has emerged as a major export earner with Asian students.

It is estimated that in the next decade and two, Asia’s currently 500-million middle class will have expanded to about 3-billion, with scope for Australia to create new markets in the services sectors like banking and insurance, and niche markets in sophisticated manufactures, if Canberra plays its cards right. In other words, the sky is the limit.

But things are never that simple. Australia’s relationship with China, its biggest trading partner, is a bit tricky. Even though their trade relationship is growing, China is not happy with what, it perceives as, discrimination against Chinese investments in Australia. At the same time, Beijing is greatly worried about further deepening of US-Australia security linkages, with Australia providing more defense facilities for the new US “pivot” to Asia, announced by Obama during his Australia visit. China sees it as part of a containment ring against increasing projection of China’s power in the Asia-Pacific region.

The dispute between China and Japan over the ownership of Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in East China Sea, if it were to develop into a military clash, is likely to severely test Australia’s relations with China.  The United States has made it clear that it will come to Japan’s assistance if it were attacked by China, because of its treaty obligations. And how far will Australia go with its US ally in this will very much shape Australia-China relations? In other words, Australia’s Asian century is subject to the vagaries of a contest of power in the region between the world’s two major powers, the United States and China.

Australia is quite clear about the importance of its security ties with the United States. The white paper, for instance, says that Australia would “work with the United States to ensure that it continues to have a strong and consistent presence in the region, with our alliance contributing to regional stability, security and peace.” That is not a view that China will share.

Note: This article was first published in the Daily Times.

Contact: sushilpseth@yahoo.com.au