In 1908, when the US navy docked in Australia, Prime Minister Deakin hailed the coming of the “Great White Fleet”.
“The visit of the United States fleet is,” he explained, “universally popular here … because of our distrust of the Yellow Race in the North Pacific and our recognition of the ‘entente cordiale’ spreading among all white men who realise the Yellow Peril to Caucasian civilization, creeds and politics.”
White men with guns seem naturally reassuring to the psyche of a colonial settler state nestled in the midst of Asia. The armed yellow man induces quite a different effect. Compare the response to the Chinese torch attendants with the reaction to the personal army that George Bush brought to Sydney not so long ago.
Extraordinarily, Australian authorities have publicly threatened the Chinese security detachment – a busload of tracksuited men – with arrest if they lay so much as an Oriental finger on any Aussies.
Do you recall any similar official warnings directed to the US security posse?
Bush’s minders, of course, consisted not of a single bus but 150 national security advisers, 250 Secret Service agents, 200 public servants, 50 political aides, 15 sniffer dog teams, five chefs, six planes, a helicopter, limousines, Secret Service wagons, VIP guest vans and an ambulance.
His men were armed to the teeth and they casually took charge of the city without any governmental protestations about Australian control.
Yes, China is a vicious dictatorship. Yes, the Tibetan people and their protests deserve support. The complaints about demonstrations politicising the Olympics are nonsense. The Games are always political: that’s why China’s murderous gerontocracy wants to host them.
Yet one still feels a certain sympathy for the Chinese community and their resentment about being unfairly singled out.
Australians traditionally show a peculiar sensitivity to injustices committed by foreigners. The French found outrage about their nuclear testing a little hard to take, given Australia’s enthusiasm for uranium mining, just as the Japanese detect a certain hypocrisy in the sensitivity to whaling by a nation cheerfully gunning down Skippy to protect a military base.
More than that, with the Olympics, there’s an Australian history drenched in anti-Asian sentiment. The very first objective of the political party currently governing this country was, famously, the “maintenance of racial purity”, and you can understand why Chinese-Australians might detect in the current atmosphere echoes of our national poet Henry Lawson’s injunction to: “Get a move upon the Chinkies when you’ve got an hour to spare.”
Tibet should be free. Of course it should. But, then, the Chinese might respond: if military occupations are so odious, why are Australians still in Iraq?
Jeff Sparrow is the editor of Overland.
Why pick on the Chinese? Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank and Gaza for over 40 years, and our Parliament had just recently congratulated Israel on its 60th anniversary without a single mention of the plight of the Palestinians.
You should feel embarrassed about the nonsense you write, Jeff. US President has his minders just as the Chinese PM did when visting. The torch does not belong to the Chinese Commies but to the IOC. As such, Chinese commies have no right to muscle in on our security. I guess Jeff would join Chinese commie protests against free speech whcih are about as intelligent and free minded as the uni students protesting against voluntary student unionism. Just another brain dead socialists.
“Tibet should be free. Of course it should. But, then, the Chinese might respond: if military occupations are so odious, why are Australians still in Iraq?”
Jeff I understand your point, but using military force against the largest army on earth is a little daunting and then there is all that lovely trade and need for our resources coming from that country. Western countries need China. Western governments prefer not to do much about this kind of popular sentiment and will speak out about it but I doubt any action will ever be taken.
Also Tibet is an Asian country and the western white supporters by calling for its independence are supporting Asian people. This is hardly racist sentiment.
“With all due respect, the Olympic torch is less a head of state and more a, well, torch.” This observation wins.
“..the Chinese might respond: if military dictatorships are so odious, why are Australians still in Iraq?” Heavens above, please, spare me the bullsh*t! Isn’t that typical of the Left!
Ask yourself what the difference is between the Dalai Lama and Saddam Hussein and the already obvious answer, to anyone vaguely interested in the truth, may become ‘bleeding obvious’.