Moment Labor MP appears to blame AUSTRALIA for tensions with China in wake of Covid – and critics say he’s forgetting some very important facts
A Labor MP has been criticized for apparently suggesting Australia was responsible for worsening tensions with China under Scott Morrison’s government.
Jason Yat-Sen Li, a former businessman turned MP in the NSW Parliament, appeared on Q+A on Monday night where he was accused of “rewriting history” for his comments on China-Australia relations.
“What would happen if, God forbid, the coalition won the federal election next year?” Mr Li asked.
‘It’s very difficult to say. My instincts say that it is difficult for a leopard to change its position. As a Chinese Australian, I think back to the dark days of China-Australia relations.
“That was a terrible, terrible time for Chinese Australians. We weren’t just vilified because the People’s Republic of China was seen as extremely unfriendly to Australia and we look Chinese, so we really addressed it in Covid.
“And we certainly don’t want to go back to that time.”
Mr Li, who was born in Sydney but lived and worked in China for eight years, then praised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s approach to Australia-China relations.
“It is certainly one of the best achievements of the Albanian government to get that relationship back on track,” he added.
Jason Yat-Sen Li (pictured), a former businessman and MP, appeared on Q+A this week where he was accused of ‘rewriting history’ for his comments on China-Australia relations
Until Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) visited China in November last year, an Australian prime minister had not been to the country since 2016. He is pictured shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) on the sidelines of the 19th G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro last week
Li’s comments were dismissed by prominent China hawk Drew Pavlou, who said “this version of history effectively erases the CCP’s (Chinese Communist Party) aggression towards Australia under the previous government.”
“The Chinese embassy infamously issued a list of ’14 demands’ ordering Australia to shut down independent think tanks and ‘negative media coverage’ of the CCP,” he said.
“They demanded the repeal of legislation against foreign interference and ordered Australia to drop its call for an independent investigation into COVID-19 and human rights issues against Uyghurs, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“Jason Yat-Sen Li essentially erases this history and pretends that the only reason Xi Jinping imposed sanctions on Australia was because the liberals were undiplomatic.”
Until Albanese visited China in November last year, an Australian prime minister had not been to the country since 2016.
The relationship has faltered for several reasons, with the coalition government raising concerns about foreign interference and alleged Chinese-sponsored cyber attacks in 2017.
But the big flashpoint came in April 2020 when then Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19.
In retaliation, China imposed harsh tariffs on Australian exports, affecting $20 billion of Australian goods including barley, beef, wine, coal, timber and lobster.
Mr Li’s comments were criticized by prominent China hawk Drew Pavlou, who said ‘this version of history effectively erases the CCP’s (Chinese Communist Party) aggression towards Australia under the previous government’ (photo: Mr Li Li and Mr Alabense pose with other Labor Party figures). for a photo during this year’s Lunar New Year celebration in Sydney)
The bitter relationship reached a boiling point when a list of ’14 grievances’ referred to by Mr Pavlou was leaked to Australian journalists in November 2020.
The Chinese government accused the Morrison government of “poisoning bilateral relations” by publishing negative and critical media reports, banning Huawei from the 5G network in 2018, funding “anti-China investigation’ and blocking Chinese investment deals.
The deep freeze between the two countries has begun to thaw under Albanese’s government, with both countries reaching cautious trade deals for goods such as lobster and barley.
Indeed, the pair are more positively intimate, with a Chinese state newspaper recently describing Mr Albanese as a world leader whom others from the West should emulate.
The ABC program originally asked Mr Li for his views on whether the election of US President Donald Trump will change Australia’s relationship with China.
‘We are not a superpower. We are not in a superpower competition with China, except maybe in the swimming pool,” Mr Li joked.
“I don’t think a Trump presidency will affect the way we relate to China. We will have to continue to follow that line. The Prime Minister puts it very well: we work together where we can, we disagree where necessary… in our national interest.’
Mr Li, who has a law degree, worked for a number of insurance and investment companies in China before returning to Australia in 2013.
He has long been outspoken on the issue of anti-China sentiment in Australia.
“Distrust, disenfranchisement and vilification of our fellow citizens would eat us from within – it is not only fundamentally at odds with the Australian values we strive to uphold, but would do more damage to our democracy than any foreign power could ever do,” he wrote in De Bewachter in April 2020.
