China has begun its campaign to take Taiwan

Normally, if the response to a speech of mine was that it had been a ‘despicable and insane performance’ from a ‘failed and pitiful politician’, I’d question what went wrong. But since the comments came from Chinese communists about an address I’d made in Taiwan, it’s hard not to feel some pride. Two years ago, I’d been asked to speak at the Yushan Forum, the Taiwanese government’s annual showcase for their international links. Then, I was worried about the optics of calling out Beijing’s behaviour from Taipei so I pleaded diary difficulties. I didn’t want to be accused of complicating Australia’s relations with our prickly largest customer. But this year, after China’s suffocation of Hong Kong, belligerence towards all its neighbours and especially its weaponisation of trade against my own country, it was almost my duty to give the Red Emperor’s next target some moral support. Besides, a good use of ex-prime ministers is for saying what needs to be said without the diplomatic equivocation required of national leaders.

Of course, Covid makes everything harder than it should be. My first observations during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen about the importance of solidarity with Taiwan had to be mumbled through a mask. The main speech involved a Perspex shield between the speaker and the socially distanced audience. Taiwan, which was officially ignored by the World Health Organisation during the pandemic, has so far handled Covid better than just about anywhere else. There have been fewer than 1,000 deaths and no strict lockdowns. It’s a record the government is keen to maintain at least until vaccination rates get to high levels. And being in a Covid bubble for four days with nearly all meetings in the one hotel, in specially designated rooms, was a small price to pay for the chance to salute a people who are now under existential threat.