The National Press Gallery was beside itself with affected outrage at remarks by Paul Keating about the AUKUS submarine deal. Predictably, the domestic commentariat focused on Keating’s signature barbs and his inimitable use of incisive epithets, while completely ignoring the essential point of his critique.
According to Keating, the tension between China and the US is due to the fact that China’s economy has already surpassed that of the US in terms of purchasing power parity. Keating points out that this is seen as a great sin by the US ruling elite, which has no experience dealing with a credible challenge to its hegemony on the world stage.
The belief that China’s rise is a threat to US global dominance is widely held throughout the West and especially in the anglosphere, which has long regarded the US as the sole guarantor of international peace and security. But in reality, the US has long been a force for conflict and rivalry, pursuing the ‘divide and conquer’ strategy of empire.
Keating makes the eminently reasonable observation that China poses no threat to Australia, but the US-led drive toward conflict with China clearly does. This is a theme that Malcolm Fraser develops in his remarkable book, Dangerous Allies. The US foreign policy is committed to arrogant hypocritical hectoring and meddling in the affairs of other countries.
If we aspire to be a sovereign, independent nation that values international peace, comity and security, we need to exit this dangerous alliance and adopt instead a foreign policy committed to non-alliance, non-interference and non-confrontation.
John Scrivener, Main Arm
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