Mr Rudd comes home, mission accomplished
Editorial; 12/4/08
The whirlwind world tour of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is drawing to a close. What has he brought home with him that he did not have when he left Australia almost three weeks ago? In reality, plenty of light and not much heat. The last leg of his 18-day trip has been spent in China, arguably the most important stage — in terms of Australia’s long-term economic future. And it has been in China that the two tiers of the Rudd way of dealing in the politics of the possible have been most in evidence. Writing earlier this week on the challenges facing Mr Rudd when he visited Beijing, The Age gave the Prime Minister due credit for not resiling from speaking out on the human rights abuses in Tibet. He has consistently done so on this trip and in Beijing did so to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Mr Rudd has said that while Australia may recognise China’s sovereignty over Tibet, it does not condone the suppression of dissent. The Chinese response has been dismissive. Tibet is an internal matter; it is the business of no other nation; now let’s talk business. Mr Rudd’s comments on Tibet have not been given any air whatsoever in the Chinese media. Thus the principle and the pragmatic are kept in different corrals.