Communist dictatorships have always had their useful idiots.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is Beijing’s man in Melbourne. Andrews signed up to China’s bribery scam Belt and Road Initiative against the advice of Australia’s security agencies and in defiance of Canberra.
Andrews’ motive is as much greed as ideology. Andrews is a political thug whose government blatantly defied the law in the “Redshirts” electoral scandal, and crushed the volunteer-run Country Fire Authority in order to pay off his political debts to the Melbourne-based United Firefighter’s Union.
He also began his government by running up a billion-dollar bill when he summarily cancelled a major road building project. Six years later, Melbourne’s roads are carparks and Andrews is desperate for infrastructure.
Naturally, he kowtows and grovels for Beijing’s money – but even the poor defence of “economic benefit” is a chimera.
Chinese President Secretary Xi Jinping openly refers to the BRI as the primary blueprint to herald the arrival of a Sino-centric strategic and economic order in the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia. One of its main objectives is to nurture what Beijing refers to as strategic support states and entities. This itself should indicate to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews that he is reaching beyond his station.
The Premier is defiant. His primary defence is that the BRI will bring economic benefits to Victoria that would not otherwise be available had he not signed on[…]
Read the fine print. About 87 per cent of Chinese funding for the BRI comes from state-owned policy and commercial banks, which are already the most overleveraged financial institutions of any major economy. Of the remaining 13 per cent, about 9 per cent comes from Chinese firms.
China may be desperate to buy influence around the world, but it’s also desperate to avoid going broke while doing so. If Chinese government banks and Chinese firms (which are effectively arms of the government, anyway) are investing overseas, they’re going to make sure who benefits.
What about Victoria’s Big Build plan? To be sure, signing onto the BRI has led to increases in Chinese infrastructure and construction investment in countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Malaysia, Italy and Greece.
But Chinese firms have expected and received the inside running for contracts in these countries as part of special BRI-related deals. The terms have been closely guarded and, when eventually leaked, heavily favour Chinese entities. The degree of buyer’s remorse in these countries initially seduced by special infrastructure-focused agreements is acute.
That is the danger of Andrews promising to increase the participation of Chinese firms under the BRI framework that will be drawn to the more attractive build projects. As far as Beijing is concerned, the decision of Victoria to sign onto the BRI is opening the door for Chinese firms to bypass normal competitive tendering processes that are a hallmark of well-governed democratic political economies.
We’ve already seen plenty of evidence as to how Chinese money is corrupting Australian politics and domestic institutions. The Labor Party takes home literal shopping bags of Chinese cash – in return, Labor politicians spruik shamelessly for Beijing. Australian universities trousers billions from the CCP and ruthlessly persecute anyone who dares criticise them.
Daniel Andrews is just the biggest and most willfully foolish of Xi Jinping’s useful idiots.
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