No pat on the back for Canberra from Washington: China Daily editorial

Australia, having dutifully played the role of the vanguard in the geopolitical competition instigated by the United States against China, is suffering the consequences. Its relations with its biggest trading partner having deteriorated drastically.

Rubbing salt in its self-inflicted wounds, Australia's Western allies have been benefiting greatly from its woes.

According to a recent report by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, the value of 12 Australian exports to China fell by $12.6 billion in the first nine months of this year compared with the 2019 figures.

Such a bleak picture is in stark contrast to the report's other finding that during the same period the value of exports of the same commodities from the United States and Canada to China increased by $4.6 billion and $1.1 billion respectively. And media reports from last year also show that countries, including the US, Canada and France, were quick to grab the share of the Chinese market that Australia forsook.

The anti-China politicians in Australia should do some serious soul-searching about what their country has gained from their China-bashing policies. The latest findings, together with the rising calls from the Australian business circle for improving ties with Beijing, should serve as a wake-up call for Canberra to change course.

Canberra has attached top priority to its alliance with Washington but this has not prevented Washington from leveraging gains from Australia's current trade dilemma, instead the latter is paying a hefty bill for nuclear-powered submarine technology that it doesn't need, as well as feeling the pains of its lost trade with China.

Any politicians in Canberra still obstinately believing Washington's claim that the US stands "shoulder to shoulder" with Australia need their heads examined. The US only intends to use Australia as a chess piece in its global strategic playbook and cares nothing about Australia's interests.

Has the US made up the losses Australia has suffered from its trade troubles with China? No, of course not. The same Australian report found that while Australian wine exports to China declined by $480 million, its wine exports to the US during the same period were a meager $7.1 million.

The trade tribulations of Australia, and the US' "thanks for the pickings" show how little genuine concern Washington has for those it manages to drumroll to its cause. Those attending the "democracy summit" the Biden administration will host this week might want to bear this in mind when it tries to sweet-talk them into doing its bidding.

And obviously, those in Canberra need to think hard whether it is worthwhile to tie the country to the US' anti-China bandwagon given the unrewarded sacrifices that entails.