On July 12, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is traveling to Beijing for another “annual leaders’ meeting” with Chinese President Xi Jinping. They will discuss global and regional issues as well as bilateral matters of trade and tourism.
The Australian government’s statement announcing the visit doesn’t mention human rights at all. It only makes a vague reference that direct engagement “at the highest level enables difference to be addressed.” Consistently, this has been the Albanese government’s method of relegating pesky human rights issues to little more than a disagreement, a “point of contention.” But they are not. Human rights are universal, protected, and promoted via a system of global rules and governance that applies to all of our fundamental rights and freedoms.
The Chinese government is one of the most repressive countries, and Hong Kong provides a disheartening case study on this point. Through the adoption of the draconian National Security Law in 2020, it effectively ended the semi-democracy Hong Kong enjoyed.
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