US President Donald Trump’s (left) unpredictability is giving China’s leader Xi Jinping (right) an advantage, says former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. - Reuters
SYDNEY: A former Australian prime minster said the Trump administration’s treatment of longtime allies was providing an opportunity for China, in remarks that came shortly before the US president delivered a personal rebuff.
Malcolm Turnbull, who led Australia from 2015 until 2018, said the world is seeing a more "undiluted” version of Donald Trump in his second term in office. Such behaviour would be viewed as an "advantage” for China’s President Xi Jinping in international relations over the next four years.
"President Xi will aim to be the exact opposite of Trump,” Turnbull said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Sydney on Monday (March 10).
"Where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent. Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful. Where Trump is erratic, he will be consistent.”
Through such an approach, Turnbull said, there would be countries that look at "China on the one hand, and Trump on the other” and would "find China a more attractive partner.”
Turnbull led Australia for part of Trump’s first term in office, and had a sometimes fractious relationship with the US president.
Posting to his TruthSocial platform shortly after the interview, Trump said that Turnbull "never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so.”
"I always thought he was a weak and ineffective leader and, obviously, Australian’s agreed with me,” Trump wrote.
Turnbull has been a frequent critic of Australia’s decision to sign the Aukus security partnership with Washington, arguing that it has undermined the nation’s military independence.
He reiterated that Australia needs to consider how to defend itself independently in the wake of Trump’s return to the White House, pointing to the US president’s treatment of other American allies.
"The closer you are to the US, the more he feels he can extract value from you, you know, stand over you, extort you,” Turnbull said of Trump.
"Is this Denmark’s reward for supporting the Americans in Afghanistan? Is that their reward? To have their prime minister rung up and told that her country has to cede one of its territories?” he said.
"Is this Canada’s reward for decades of solidarity and alliance that they should be told they’re just the 51st state and be threatened with tariffs that are going to send the country into a recession?” he added.
Turnbull said he believed it would be "a lot harder” for Australia to secure an exemption from steel and aluminum tariffs compared with when he managed a similar carve out during Trump’s first term.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been trying to get Trump to agree to an exemption for Australia before the tariffs take force this week, though Turnbull said the president would be reluctant this time.
"I suspect he’ll conclude himself that you give one country an exemption, then you have to give another and another, and before long there are too many exemptions and you haven’t got much of a tariff,” Turnbull said. - Bloomberg
