Former foreign affairs offficial hits out at Anthony Albanese's 'naive' stance ahead of Beijing trip while warning of strategic crisis
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to embark on a six-day visit to China, where he will hold talks with President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking officials where the agenda is expected to cover a range of global and regional matters, along with strengthening ties in areas such as trade and tourism.
Prior to the trip, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, said China was clearly aiming to expand its 'strategic influence' and bolster its 'military power'.
'China's size and weight makes it central to solving global challenges, from climate change to global public health, from international trade to the energy transition,' she said on Thursday at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.
'China continues to assert its strategic influence and project its military power further into our region and we have seen the worrying pace of China's nuclear and conventional military build-up, without the transparency that the region expects.'
Mr Phelan backed the Foreign Minister's assessment, but said the government's broader strategy was misjudged and lacking transparency.
'Penny Wong's absolutely right,' he told Sky News.
'The size, speed and scale of China's military buildup is incredibly concerning.'
He said the Prime Minister had failed to grasp the broader implications of the shifting geopolitical landscape.
'The Albanese visit's coming at the end of a 30-year era, where the US and China have had this mutually convenient symbiotic relationship,' Mr Phelan said.
'And that worked well until it didn't. Now is that time and we're seeing a separation of the two. So, it's a real turning point in history and I'm not sure the Prime Minister fully appreciates the strategic depth of what's happening at the moment.'
Describing the meeting as lacking clear purpose, Mr Phelan questioned the rationale for the trip, saying it had not been properly explained to the Australian public and suggesting that China had already achieved what it wanted by coercing Australia into a more 'compliant' posture.
'The Prime Minister hasn't really explained the purpose and timing of this trip to the Australian public very well. And I think that's a conversation that he's got to have and be honest with the Australian people,' Phelan explained
'China played Albanese very well and I think he's been a little naive. Remember, China unilaterally coerced Australia after the COVID pandemic, it's China that's let those various trade bans lapse, I think they've done that unilaterally, and they've got a relatively compliant Australia out of it.'
While Albanese will be accompanied by business leaders, including mining and banking executives focused on trade, Mr Phelan warned China's interests go far beyond commercial deals.
'China will be lobbying for more access, FDI access to critical minerals and rare earths,' he said.
'The Treasurer has made clear that he's not going to relent in that space. So, it's hard to say what China really wants to get out of this. Or for that matter, what Australia is going to get out of it, other than continuity.
'We don't talk about the flood of internet connected vehicles and other aspects of the energy grid or where the software is going to be written in China. So, it's all sort of one-way traffic in terms of our exports. We don't talk about imports.'
Mr Phelan admitted that he fails to see anything of real significance coming out of these talks in China.
'I don't see a lot of substance coming out of some of these meetings. For instance, the visit to Jakarta on route to the Pope's funeral and so on and because he hasn't really laid out an agenda, it's hard to say what the big takeaway for Australia is,' he said.
His comments appear to clash with the Prime Minister's recent assertion that Australia must act as a 'sovereign nation' and not simply follow Washington's lead, a message echoed by Ms Wong, who stressed that Australia would take its own approach to international engagement.
Nonetheless, Phelan's stark assessment paints a picture of a regional power increasingly willing to exploit trade and defence leverage, and an Australian government that may not yet be fully prepared to meet that challenge.
'We can't even maintain a small naval fleet adequately, so, I think we're in a crisis,' said Mr Phelan.
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