Australian Ambassador to the United States Arthur Sinodinos welcomed the fact that the Biden administration will continue Trump‘s tough policy on China on the 20th. He stressed that this is in line with Australia’s policy toward Beijing over the past year.
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State-designate John Blinken said at a Senate hearing on 19 May that he thought former President Trump was right to take a tough stance on China and supported former Secretary Pompeo‘s decision to find China guilty of “genocide” in Xinjiang.
Snodinos, who attended Biden’s inauguration in Washington, D.C. on the 20th, affirmed Blinken’s statement in an interview with the Australian Associated Press (NCA).
He said, “From Blinken’s comments and other things we’ve heard, the overall (U.S.) position is going to be pretty tough and pretty consistent with what we’ve been doing.”
The Australian government’s insistence on investigating the source of the Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) virus, banning huawei from participating in 5G networks, and offering up the Anti-Foreign Intervention Act to fend off Chinese infiltration of all sectors in Australia have angered Beijing, drawing retaliation in the form of countervailing investigations into Australian wine and suspensions of beef and coal imports.
Faced with Beijing’s crude and brutal moves, the Canberra authorities did not give in and also stressed that they would not back down under China’s economic coercion.
The U.S. government is beginning to focus more on the threat posed by China’s rise and the need for us to be able to counteract it, Snodinos said.
Compared to several major U.S. allies, Australia has maintained a very close relationship with the United States under the Trump Administration, and Snodinos expects that relationship to continue.
Looking back at the relationship between Australia and the United States, we did a good job under the (previous) administration,” he said. It avoided some of the things that happened in other countries. We were able to advance some of our agenda and got a little bit ahead of the curve on China.”
Last September, Snodinos said in a speech at a Harvard University seminar that Australia had no choice but to confront Beijing, not because the Australian government had acted recklessly, but simply out of adherence to principle, and that Australia was prepared to bear the corresponding economic costs.
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