Scott Morrison appeared before a committee of the United States Congress to urge them to “never be casual” about China's economic threats and their willingness to weaponise trade.
The former prime minister said during his leadership, Australia had been punished for its loyalty to the U.S., and now had many lessons to offer Americans, including the importance of strengthening alliances.
Morrison argued for tighter ties between Australia, the U.S. and like-minded democracies to better ward off any threat.
"Strengthening and deepening the networks of U.S. alliances and partners is critical to resilience and deterrence. This is as true in the economic sphere as it is in the security sphere,” he said.
Morrison was invited to testify before the committee, which was formed in 2023 to assess the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) threat and develop an action plan to defend the American people.
Morrison warned that once the Labor party defeated the Coalition in the 2022 election, China had changed tactics with Australia through more “charm and flattery” to manipulate Australia and isolate the U.S.
He warned that diplomacy with China would never lead to effective solutions.
"We have to be clear-eyed about this and not pretend that somehow this is going to be resolved through discussion," Mr Morrison said.
This comes as reciprocal tariffs are on pause this month after foreign leaders demanded punishing tariffs to be imposed. Some of the harshest tariffs were set to be imposed on China.
The current Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, recently met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in an attempt to mend broken relationships between Australia and China.
