Key Points
- Peter Dutton has warned world leaders not to stay silent on China as tensions with Taiwan escalate.
- He says calling out Beijing's behaviour will help to keep peace in the Asia Pacific region.
Peter Dutton has warned the international community not to make the same mistakes with China as they did with Russia, as tensions over Taiwan escalate.
The Opposition leader doubled down on his criticism of the Chinese government, saying there was regret stronger action wasn't taken against Russian President Vladimir Putin in the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine.
"There's no sense in a couple of months or a couple of years' time saying Chinese have gone into Taiwan, we didn't see this coming," he told Nine on Friday.
"We're right in shining a huge spotlight on the behaviour, calling it out ... if we do that, that gives us the best chance of keeping peace in our region.
"There'd be a lot of people saying, if only we put more pressure on Putin not to go into the Ukraine ... we wouldn't have the bloody scenes that we see now."
Chinese forces fired 11 ballistic missiles over and near Taiwan following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island last week.
Acting prime minister Richard Marles reaffirmed the need for a "capable" and "potent" defence force amid escalating regional tension.
Mr Marles, who is also the defence minister, would not be drawn on how Australia would defend itself in the face of a possible Chinese attack but called for de-escalation.
"The world wants to see that ... we would all breathe a sigh of relief (if) we saw a return to normal peaceful activity around there," he said.
"From Australia's point of view ... our engagement here is based on the fact that we have an unchanged policy of not wanting to see any change to the status quo across the Taiwan Strait."
The European Union's ambassador to Australia Michael Pulch said he was "quite concerned" with China's military drills.
"We have a One China policy and we stand by it ... we were very clear that Taiwan is not an independent country," he told Sky News.
"We were also very clear that we want to see no unilateral change of the status quo."
China's ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian addressed the National Press Club on Wednesday, where he said there was "no compromise" on Taiwan, and that his nation's 1.4 billion people would decide its future.
He also said for the 23 million people living in Taiwan "there might be a process for the people in Taiwan to have a correct understanding of China."
Responding to calls to ban the Chinese ambassador from the National Press Club, Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the decision rested with the organisation.
"I respect that and ... that is part of the freedom that we should celebrate," he told Sky News.
"Journalists who attended did a very good job ensuring that this was not a one-sided presentation of state opinion from China, but in fact was heavily scrutinised and challenged by those journalists present."
