Barack Obama has explicitly declared a long march against China's authoritarianism. And he signed Australia up for the campaign.
In a tough speech to a joint sitting of both houses of the Australian parliament, the US President squarely confronted China's oppression of its people's political rights.
Celebrating the historic triumph of victory, Obama said that other forms of government had been tried and all had failed because ''they ignore the ultimate source of power and legitimacy – the will of the people''.
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US President Barack Obama addresses the Joint Sitting of Parliament at Parliament House Canberra. Photo: Andrew Meares
He predicted that democracy would prevail everywhere: ''History is on the side of the free.''
With the Chinese state-controlled press overnight warning against a ''new Cold War'', Obama committed to co-operating with China but also promised to continue telling it of the need for ''respecting the human rights of the Chinese people''.
He even went so far as to imply that China's much-vaunted economic success was diminished by its authoritarian system: ''Prosperity without freedom is just another kind of poverty,'' Obama said in a speech setting out three principles that would guide America’s new Asia-Pacific commitment.
''This is the future we seek in the Asia-Pacific – security, prosperity and dignity for all. This is the future we will pursue in partnership with allies and friends with every element of power.''
The fundamental rights of all humans included freedoms of speech, press, assembly and religion, all of which are curtailed in China.
He said that the US commitment to the pursuit of freedom was ''in our DNA, it's who we are''.
Obama, who yesterday announced with Prime Minister Julia Gillard a virtual Marine base for the Northern Territory, strongly reaffirmed the US alliance with Australia.
In his speech to the parliament, he referred to ''our new posture here in Australia'' as something that would bring the two countries' militaries closer together and allow the two nations to ''respond faster to the full range of challenges.''
From Australia's viewpoint, the ''rotational deployment'' of Marines is also a kind of tripwire to raise the likelihood that any act of aggression against Australia will trigger an American defence mechanism.
This adds a new layer of assurance on top of the 60-year-old ANZUS treaty, but China's People’s Daily said it put Australia at risk of being ''caught in the crossfire'' if Canberra sought to help Washington damage Beijing's interests.
With both Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott strongly avowing Australia’s commitment to the alliance, all that remained was for Obama to cast a slight on Australia's burgeoning economic relationship with China.
And he did. He did not name China but the implication was unmistakeable.
Speaking of the fact that the US is the biggest source of existing foreign investment in Australia, he added: ''We recognise that economic partnership can’t just be one nation extracting another nation’s resources.''
Australia is now in a strategic spot it has been resisting being drawn into for decades. As the former head of Australia’s defence planning, Hugh White, put it, the new Marine deployment ''puts Australia at the centre of the US military response to China's growing power''.
Or as the People’s Daily might put it, in the crossfire.
From the Age
From the Age