The Australian Government’s commitment to democracy and regional peace could be questioned, after it refused to oppose China’s new laws which threaten military action against Taiwan.

Both Labor and Liberal governments rejected a motion raised on Tuesday 15 March by Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown, which called on the Senate to oppose China’s aggressive anti-secession legislation. China passed these laws as it continues to stockpile missiles along the Taiwan Strait.

“China remains a communist dictatorship. Taiwan is a democratic state,” said Senator Brown. “To sacrifice all democracy and every people’s right to self-determination on the alter of free trade is abhorrent. To tell Taiwan that it is OK for the Beijing dictatorship to threaten war is reprehensible.”

The following day a second motion raised by Democrats Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja was also voted down, which addressed the right of Falun Gong practitioners to freely protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Canberra. The meditation group, which is violently repressed in China, has been prevented from holding signs outside the mission since 2002 by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who claims the protest ‘impairs the dignity’ of the Embassy.

Senator Stott-Despoja said she was disappointed that even the Labor Party chose not to support the motion. “It was a motion which sought to recognize the fundamental right to engage in peaceful political dissent in Australia,” she said. “Labor’s opposition to the motion was a clear indication that it is willing to compromise on fundamental human rights.”

As Australia makes plans for a free trade deal with China, Alexander Downer has already acknowledged that human rights concerns are not being brought into the negotiations.

“If you try to get into a trade negotiation... if you make human rights issues conditions of trade negotiations that will be rejected with China, or for that matter with any other country,” he told ABC radio, “You’re not going to succeed in getting the human rights agenda mixed with the trade agenda.”

However Senator Brown told a conference of Chinese democracy advocates on Saturday 19 March that the best way to provoke change was through business. “I think with a free trade agreement on the table every business which is looking at China has to put the issue of democracy with their contact with Chinese counterparts,” he said.