Seems the PM has been doing secret deals with the Chinese, away from the scrutiny of the local media.
During Saturday’s talks Mr Li, the head of propaganda, media and ideology and ranked five in China’s nine-person ruling politburo standing committee, also had other issues to discuss: the stalled free trade agreement between the countries, the economic crisis and hopes Australia would lobby for China to play a more central role in the International Monetary Fund.
Normally such a meeting would be big news, but it wasn’t because the Australian media was not told.
Yet China’s state-owned media was ushered into The Lodge and Mr Rudd was splashed across the Chinese press with footage of his talks on the nation’s main television station CCTV. As a result, hundreds of millions of Chinese knew more about Mr Rudd’s diplomatic activities than did his own countrymen. Australians were therefore none the wiser about what motivated Mr Rudd to declare on Sunday, less than 24 hours after meeting Mr Li, that he would push for China to be given a more central role in the global financial system. Mr Rudd will argue for China to be elevated within the IMF at next week’s meeting of the G20 in London.
Within hours, CCTV was lauding the outcome on its website under the headline “Australian PM promotes China’s role in IMF”.
It reminds me of Paul Keating’s secret security arrangement with Indonesia negotiated in the early 1990s. The excuse back then was that the Australian people might not accept the deal if they knew about it. My question is: what secret deal did Rudd do with the Chinese that he thinks the Australian people might not accept? The following gives readers a clue.
THE general manager of state-owned Chinese aluminium producer Chinalco, which is in the middle of a $US19.5 billion ($28.28billion) deal to invest in global miner Rio Tinto, has been named to a cabinet post in the central government in Beijing.
So much for the argument that Chinalco will not be influenced by the Chinese government in its dealings with Rio Tinto.