The New York Times - USA (2020-12-02)

A10 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONALWEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020

paranoid provocation.

“They are each confirming the

other’s worst suspicions,” he said.

Whispered complaints are out,

replaced by competing news con-

ferences and laundry lists of

grievances. Australia has

launched two foreign interference

investigations with high-profile

raids. It now plans to file a lawsuit

with the World Trade Organiza-

tion over China’s blocking of bar-

ley imports — one of many prod-

ucts that China has rejected as

tensions have soared.

Two weeks ago, in turn, a pair of

Chinese Embassy officials sum-

moned an Australian reporter to a

meeting and delivered a set of 14

grievances. They included aca-

demic visa cancellations, “a cru-

sade” against China’s policies in

Hong Kong, a call for an independ-

ent investigation into the origins

of Covid-19, a ban on Huawei in

2018, and the blocking of 10 Chi-

nese foreign investment deals.

“If you make China the enemy,

China will be the enemy,” one of

the officials said.

SYDNEY, Australia — For the
past few years, Australia has posi-
tioned itself at the front of a global
effort to stand up to China. It was
the first country to ban Huawei’s
5G technology, to pass foreign in-
terference laws aimed at curbing
Chinese influence, and to call for
an international inquiry into the
source of the coronavirus.
Now, Australia is sounding an
even louder alarm. Prime Min-
ister Scott Morrison, already
vexed by China’s blockade of Aus-
tralian imports — wine, coal, bar-
ley and cotton — demanded on
Monday that the Chinese govern-
ment apologize for a lurid tweet
showing an Australian soldier
with a knife at the neck of an Af-
ghan child. The world, he warned,
was watching.
But even as he elevated a Twit-
ter post to a four-alarm diplomatic
fire, he also called for a reset with
Beijing, reiterating that Austral-
ia’s end game was still “the happy
coexistence of two partners.” In
that somersault, Mr. Morrison in-
advertently let the world hear
Australia’s internal dialogue of
doubt — one that echoes around
the globe as China increasingly
asserts its might.
The prime minister gave voice
to the insecurities and anxieties
that come with being caught be-
tween two superpowers. Those jit-
ters are partly about the limited
options in the face of China’s tight-
ening vise. But they are also about
an America in flux.
At a time when Australia’s fa-
vored nation status with the
Trump White House is about to
expire, there is widespread con-
cern that a Biden administration
will focus less on America’s Pacific
partners and more on rebuilding
ties in Europe. That has pushed
Australia deeper into a position of
pleading for help in corralling
China even as it beats its chest for
sovereignty.
“On one level, the prime min-
ister’s reaction was completely
reasonable. On another, it’s at the
upper limit of what’s acceptable
without making things worse,”
said John Blaxland, a professor of
international security at the Aus-
tralian National University. “He’s
got to tread a very fine line be-
cause Australia’s leverage is lim-
ited.”
The country’s entire history
since settlement has been shaped
by unquestioned dependence on
an alliance with a distant and
dominant power, first England,
then the United States. The
prospect of an end to that stability,
with American decline or indiffer-
ence and Chinese dominance, fills
most Australians with dread.
David Brophy, a senior lecturer
in modern Chinese history at the
University of Sydney, said it had
created a counterintuitive dynam-
ic. China often condemns Austral-
ia for doing America’s bidding,
when in fact, Australia is trying
desperately to cajole the United
States into deeper engagement.
“The American presence in
Asia is more important for Aus-
tralia than it is for America,” Mr.
Brophy said. “When Australia
sees any hint of withdrawal, as we
saw at the beginning of the Trump
administration, it stirs up this
sense of panic. It’s not enough to
wait for the U.S. to get back in the
game; Australia has to show it can
do more and will do more.”
Increasingly, that has meant
tolerating economic pain and
abandoning the approach Austral-
ia has long followed with China —
say little and do what must be
done. Mr. Morrison’s government
and China’s propaganda machine
have instead been trading blows
and turns at the microphone.
Geoff Raby, a former Australian
ambassador to China, described it
as a self-perpetuating cycle of

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for

the Chinese Ministry of Foreign

Affairs (and the official who

posted the doctored photo), called

at the time for Australia to “reflect

on this seriously, rather than

shirking the blame and deflecting

responsibility.”

That, of course, is exactly what

the Australian government has

demanded from China with the co-

ronavirus inquiry, which Beijing

treated like a dropped grenade.

Explosive exchanges and accu-

sations of hypocrisy now seem to

come in volleys.

The tweet from Mr. Zhao, a

known provocateur, had an obvi-

ous goal: to deflect criticism of

China’s human rights abuses by

sensationalizing an investigation

by the Australian military that

found its troops had unlawfully

killed 39 Afghan civilians and pris-

oners over an 11-year period.

Mr. Morrison could have ig-

nored the provocation. Instead, he

pounced, and after Mr. Morrison’s

apology demand, the Chinese gov-

ernment paid little mind to his re-

quest for a reset and dialogue. The

official response arrived a few

hours later when a government

spokeswoman, Hua Chunying,

suggested that Australia seemed

to be indifferent to the killings.

“The Australian side is reacting

so strongly to my colleague’s

tweet. Does this mean they think

the cruel killing of Afghan lives is

justified?” Ms. Hua said.

An editorial in the state-run

Global Times added: “The Morri-

son administration is making Aus-

tralia provocative and wanting a

spanking.” And on Tuesday, China

accused Australia of intentionally

“misreading” the tweet to deflect

criticism.

Beyond the juvenile threats lies

a more serious and intractable

disconnect.

In the eyes of China’s most na-

tionalist ideologues, Australia is

violating the most basic rule of

China’s rise: If you get rich with

our help, stay quiet and grateful.

Few countries have gained as

much wealth from China’s growth

as Australia, and since coming to

power in 2012, Xi Jinping has

made clear that he expects silence

and harmony from all who benefit

from the Chinese Communist Par-

ty’s prosperity.

“Never allow singing to a tune

contrary to the party center,” he

once wrote in comments that ap-

peared on party and university

websites in 2014. “Never allow

eating the Communist Party’s

food and then smashing the Com-

munist Party’s cooking pots.”

In the case of Mr. Zhao’s tweet,

Mr. Xi has said nothing — further

highlighting the asymmetry of Mr.

Morrison’s complaint about a

spokesman’s social media post.

To some of Mr. Morrison’s crit-

ics, the photo looked like trolling

that he should have ignored or re-

sponded to at a lower level.

“They seem to have intended to

make Morrison angry, and to goad

him into exactly the kind of emo-

tional response that he has now

given them,” said Hugh White,

who teaches strategic studies at

the Australian National Univer-

sity. “And that is worrying. In any

fight like this one, be very careful

not to do what your adversary

wants you to do.”

Whether Mr. Morrison gets any

aid from the United States or else-

where, Mr. White added, the

episode has already made Aus-

tralia and Mr. Morrison “look rat-

tled and weak.”

That makes China look more

powerful and intimidating.

“The folks in Beijing do not

want us to like them,” Mr. White

said. “They want us to understand

their power and their willingness

to use it. Our problem is that we

are being rather slow to realize

that their power is real.”

Sounding Alarms, Seeking Conciliation: Australia Is Conflicted on China

A Beijing shop selling Australian wine, one of many Australian exports that China has targeted. Few countries have gained as much from China’s growth as Australia.

NOEL CELIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

By DAMIEN CAVE

LUKAS COCH/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, left, has positioned Australia at

the front of a global effort to stand up to China. Australia was the

first country to ban Huawei’s 5G technology. Above, a Huawei

display at a consumer electronics show in Shanghai in 2018.

ALY SONG/REUTERS

Chris Buckley contributed report-
ing.

Australians dread the

prospect of American

decline or neglect.

China has landed a robotic
spacecraft on the moon, Xinhua,
the official statenews agency re-
ported on Tuesday. The probe will
spend two days gathering rocks
and dirt from the lunar surface,
with the goal of returning the first
cache of moon samples to Earth
since 1976.
The spacecraft, Chang’e-5, was
the third successful uncrewed
moon landing by China since 2013,
when Chang’e-3 and its Yutu rover
became China’s first visitor to
make a lunar soft landing. In 2019,
Chang’e-4 landed on the moon’s
far side, the first spacecraft from
Earth to ever do that. At least
three more Chang’e moon landers
are planned for the coming dec-
ade, ahead of China’s aspiration of
building a moon base for astro-
nauts in the 2030s.
A Long March 5 rocket carrying
the probe launched on early last
Tuesday from a site on China’s

southern Hainan Island. In an un-

usual move for China’s typically

secretive space program, the lift-

off and journey to orbit was cov-

ered live by state broadcasters,

complete with footage made by

cameras mounted on the rocket.

The live program suggests the

Communist Party has growing

confidence in the country’s space

program.

If the operations on the moon

and the return to Earth are suc-

cessful, China will be only the

third nation to bring lunar sam-

ples here. NASA astronauts ac-

complished that feat during the

Apollo moon landings, as did the

Soviet Union’s Luna robotic land-

ers, ending with Luna 24 in 1976.

Those samples made major con-

tributions to the understanding of

the solar system’s evolution, and

planetary scientists have eagerly

waited for additional samples.

After the spacecraft entered or-

bit around the moon, Chang’e-

was split into two: the lander now

on the surface and an orbiter that

awaits its return. The spacecraft

braked and successfully entered

an elliptical orbit on Saturday, and

braked again on Sunday to enter a

nearly circular orbit, according to

CCTV, the state television net-

work. Additional maneuvers on

Monday and Tuesday prepared

the landing spacecraft for its de-

scent to the surface.

The lander touched down at

Mons Rümker, a volcanic plain on

the moon’s near side that is esti-

mated to be around 1.2 billion

years old. That is considerably

younger than the places explored

by Apollo and Luna, which were

all more than three billion years

old.

The lander will need to accom-

plish its drilling and scooping

tasks within a single lunar day,

which lasts 14 Earth days. It is not

designed to survive the frigid and

dark lunar night.

The Chang’e-5 lander includes a

small rocket, and before the sun

sets, it will blast off with the rock

and soil samples. This rocket will

rendezvous and dock with the or-

biting spacecraft for the journey

back to Earth. The samples will be

transferred to the orbiter for the

journey back to Earth.

The sample is scheduled to land

in China’s Inner Mongolia region

in the middle of December.

The young age of the samples

could prove valuable to scientists

on Earth, who can use them to bet-

ter calibrate techniques for esti-

mating the ages of geological sur-

faces on planets, moons and as-

teroids throughout the solar sys-

tem.

The specimens may also help

scientists test hypotheses about

what caused the volcanism evi-

dent in the region of the moon

where Chang’e-5 landed.

The launch of the Chang’e-5 spacecraft last week. Its lander plans to spend two days on the surface.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

China Lands Spacecraft

On Moon to Gather Rocks

And Soil a Billion Years Old

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

and KENNETH CHANG

Scientists await their

first look at lunar

matter since the ’70s.

Coral Yang contributed research.