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China has warned Anthony Albanese not to increase defence spending, claiming both countries are ‘friends, not foes’. Xiao Qian, China’s top diplomat in Australia, has criticised US President Donald Trump ‘s push for Western allies to increase defence spending. Following last week’s NATO meeting, all member nations – apart from Spain – agreed to lift defence spending to five per cent of GDP over the next decade.
Trump, who has threatened Spain with retaliatory tariffs , has signalled he expects Australia to follow suit by increasing defence expenditure, but Albanese is so far holding firm. Now, Mr Qian has ramped up the pressure on the Australian Prime Minister to keep military spending down to its current level, which aims to reach 2.3 per cent of GDP over the next ten years. Without explicitly naming the United States, Mr Qian slammed the ‘so-called China threat narrative’, while painting Chinese President Xi Jinping as a man of peace.
‘Such rhetoric and actions are steeped in Cold War mentality, blatantly creating division, fuelling a global arms race as well as threatening world peace and stability, which warrants our high vigilance,’ he wrote in The Australian . ‘By playing up international and regional tensions and slandering China’s normal military build-up, these countries are merely seeking nothing but excuses to drastically grow their military spending, even arbitrarily reaching beyond its geographical scope and mandate.’ Mr Qian accused the US of wanting to ‘maintain their hegemony’ by stifling the ‘development and advancement of countries such as China’.
He also sought to appeal to Albanese’s domestic pressures, claiming an increase in defence spending would come at a high price, especially during the cost of living crisis. ‘Dramatically increasing military spending places a heavy fiscal burden on the countries involved, undermining their efforts to boost economies and improve livelihoods, and further straining a global economy already struggling with weak recovery,’ he said. Mr Qian also claimed China had ‘never initiated a war or occupied an inch of a foreign land’ over the last 70 years – despite invading Vietnam in 1979.
‘China unwaveringly adheres to a defensive national defence policy, with military spending accounting for just 1.5 per cent of its GDP,’ he added. ‘It is far below the global average and paling in comparison to certain hegemons or their allies and partners.’ Mr Qian talked up China and Australia’s reliance on one another as trade partners – a relationship that has thawed significantly under Albanese’s Labor administration.
‘As I often hear from Australian friends, “we have hundreds of reasons to be friends, and none to be enemies”,’ he wrote. Mr Qian added that China and Australia are ‘friends, not foes’. ‘This should never have been in question,’ he said. ‘China has been always developing bilateral friendship and co-operation with the utmost sincerity and patience, and we hope Australia will work with us in the same direction.’
Albanese rejected the Chinese diplomats calls to reduce defence spending. ‘The Chinese ambassador speaks for China. My job is to speak for Australia,’ Albanese told reporters on monday. ‘And it’s in Australia’s national interest for us to invest in our capability and to invest in our relationships, and we’re doing just that.’ Trump indicated last week that he expects his allies in the Asia-Pacific – including Australia – to increase their defence funding in line with NATO members.
‘Yeah, look, if our allies in Europe and our NATO allies can do that, I think our allies and our friends in the Asia Pacific region can do it as well,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday. Ms Leavitt said she would leave the ‘specific relations and discussions’ for individual countries to Trump. This means that Albanese may be pressured to increase defence spending if he hopes to secure a carve-out from the punishing tariffs imposed by the US on imports, including a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong is heading to Washington this week for ‘Quad’ talks with her counterparts from the US, India and Japan. She is expected to hold one-on-one meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. ‘The United States is our closest ally and principal strategic partner,’ Senator Wong said. ‘Our alliance contributes to the peace, prosperity and stability of our countries and the region we share.’