June 1969:

Following joint decisions by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and European Economic Community to embargo the so-called People’s Republic of China (PRC), Australia has announced it will join the Western sanctions program.

There are some within Australian diplomatic circles who are desirous of rapprochement with Beijing, either to open up a substantial new market, or to cool regional tensions. However, there is now consensus that the PRC itself has made any diplomatic breakthrough an impossibility. Her invasion of Hong Kong and subsequent detention of Australian prisoners of war has become an infamous moment in post-war Australian history. So too have her interventions in Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Macau and the Himalayas been burned into the minds of Australian policymakers.

Prior to the embargo, Australia enjoyed very little direct trade with Red China. The government-controlled Australian Wheat Board allowed a limited wheat trade with a hungry Chinese market, but exports were always limited by international developments and the Republic of China’s (ROC) naval blockade of mainland Chinese ports.

Perhaps in another world, there may have been significant trade between the PRC and Australia by the late-1960s, but this has not come to pass. The main effect of the embargo will therefore be to preclude future trade and people-to-people exchanges, rather than to halt existing commerce. The embargo will also stand in stark contrast to Canberra’s generous commercial agreement with the smaller ROC market.

The Australian embargo will prevent any trade or financial transfers with Red China, but will not apply to third countries, owing to Australia’s increasingly embedded commercial position in Asia.

Australia will encourage its regional allies to join the embargo.