Is Australia's Penny Wong working to exclude Japan from AUKUS - Wong's King's College UK address was another not too subtle reminder that she, like many Chinese, have not forgiven Japan for errors of its Imperial Army during World War Two

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

    Japanese leaders can be expected to be far more shrewd that Wong and Albanese,and will see through their clumsy attempts to exclude Japan from AUKUS

When Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong first stood to speak as a member of the Senate in 2003 she made special mention of her grandmother:  

My thoughts this morning were of my late paternal grandmother or Poh Poh, as I called her in her language. She was a diminutive woman with an indomitable spirit. A Chinese woman of the Hakka or guest people, she was my grandfather's second wife. When the war came to Malaysia, she and the rest of the family were in Sandakan, a name that many who fought in Australia's defence will be familiar with. Most of the family died during the war and she was left alone to care for my father and his siblings in unspeakable circumstances, which she did through extraordinary determination and a will to survive. She was barely literate; she was humble and compassionate but the strongest person I have ever known. Her name was Madam Lai Fung Shim and that her grand-daughter is here today would have been a source of pride but also probably some consternation to her. How much the world can change in two generations.

Wong has never failed to recount how hard it was for her grandmother, whenever the opportunity arose.  The latest opportunity to re-tell her  grandmother's story arose last week when speaking at King's College, UK: 

“My father is descended from Hakka and Cantonese Chinese,” she said. “Many from these clans laboured for the British North Borneo company in tin mines and plantations for tobacco and timber. Many worked as domestic servants for British colonists, as did my own grandmother.”

While the  United Kingdom was the focus of Wong's admonishment (or wrath) the mention of her grandmother again raises the issue of "most of the family(dying) during the war and (grandmother)  left alone to care for (Wong's)  father and his siblings in unspeakable circumstances

The experience of the Japanese invasion would have been hard on  Madam Shim Lai Fung, but that was the case for most people in the region.

They and their descendants recovered, rebuilt and relations with Japan are strong at every level. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's Look East Policy is a good example of how that relationship has developed. However, it must also be said that many Chinese in China and the region still harbour  resentment towards Japan. 

China has attempted to capitalise on that sentiment, and  Penny Wong's constant reminders of that period in South East Asian history sounds too much like China's anti-Japan propaganda. It does seem as if Wong is on a Chinese campaign against Japan.

Wong has demanded that the UK  confront its colonial past (on a false premise), and it also appears that she wants Japan to beg forgiveness for World War 2, to her, her family, and presumably other Chinese. In doing so it does appear as if she is trying to frustrate any attempt to bring Japan into AUKUS.

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