Australia should work with China for global governance

In September, Australia and China commemorated the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War, while China also celebrated its victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

Their victory saw the surrender of Imperial Japan and ended World War II. Australians once knew clearly that China was a very important ally in that struggle.

My grandfather fought the Japanese on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea, as part of an Australian military force of mainly reserves who were hurriedly deployed to face the Japanese threat in New Guinea because Australia's main army was deployed in North Africa.

One significant reason he and his fellow soldiers were able to hold back the Japanese forces and save Australia is that China's fierce resistance had the biggest part of the Japanese military bogged down in China.

During the war, China's Western allies praised the Chinese resistance and provided assistance.

However, a lot of this understanding of China's contribution to victory has been lost in the West, due to the way history was whitewashed in the Cold War.

After its defeat, Japan adopted a pacifist constitution and rose economically under the United States' supervision, so former adversaries like Australia were prepared to move forward and not dwell on the past. But that doesn't mean Australians forgot Japan's atrocities in the war.

My own mother went to her grave unable to forgive the Japanese for their war crimes, because of her father's experience in New Guinea.

A seat in Australia's federal Parliament, Bullwinkel, is named after Vivian Bullwinkel, who was the sole survivor of an infamous Japanese massacre in Indonesia in 1942, when 21 Australian nurses were ordered to walk into the sea and machine-gunned to death.

As someone who is committed to peace, I am happy that Australia and Japan are now friends, but the price of that friendship must not be burying the truth about history, as we are seeing. It dishonors the victims of Japan's aggression, and our brave soldiers who fought and died to defeat them in the war. It also undermines Japan's commitment to pacifism, which has been so important to maintaining post-war peace, and strengthens the Japanese militarists and denialists.

And if we can be friends with Japan, which was the only country to ever threaten Australia, then we should certainly be close friends with China, our crucial WWII ally.

China is Australia's comprehensive strategic partner, and our nation's biggest and best trading partner, so we should stop treating it as an adversary to align with current US policy that is not in our national interest.

This year is also the 80th anniversary of the United Nations, of which Australia and China were founding members. The establishment of the UN was a profound leap forward in global governance, motivated by the determination of the people of the world not to see a repeat of a global conflagration like WW II.

Tragically, the international goodwill that established the UN has frayed, badly, in recent decades. Certain Western powers have led a push to replace the commitment to international law that underpins the UN with their own "rules-based order", in which they make the rules and impose them on the world. This attitude has driven those countries to undermine the UN, provoke conflicts, destabilize the global financial and trading systems, and impede international cooperation.

China has stepped forward with the Global Governance Initiative to preserve the UN-centered system of global cooperation, and to make it more effective in delivering outcomes for humanity. Of its five core principles — sovereign equality, international rule of law, multilateralism, people-centered approach, and real actions — the people-centered approach, in my view, is the most conducive to promoting the common well-being of humanity, because it reminds all governments of their primary responsibility, which is their people.

The actions of governments that have undermined the UN system have almost always harmed, not benefited, their people, and harmed other peoples too, especially when those actions led to deadly wars.

As leading nations in the Asia-Pacific region, and complementary economies, Australia and China should collaborate on applying the principles of the Global Governance Initiative to regional relations and economic development.

Australia should act in its own interests and cooperate with China to help uplift the nations in our region, which would benefit all the people of the region, enhance regional and national security, and promote economic prosperity.

The author is national chairman of the Australian Citizens Party.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.