There is a distinction between a former leader traveling as a private individual to autocratic regions and positioning themselves prominently in an orchestrated display of authoritarian might.
Daniel Andrews chose the latter.
He did not just drop into Beijing for a quiet chat about trade, for example.
He attended Xi Jinping’s military procession in Tiananmen Square, where the event was designed to display reverence and magnitude, then walked the red carpet and shook Xi’s hand for the media.
That is not incidental contact, it’s participation in totalitarian propaganda.
The label of ‘dictator Dan’ that came up during the pandemic may have been a simplistic political attack, a debated image used by his adversaries for media attention.
But optics matter in public life, and Andrews has now given the slur legitimacy.
Simply put, he has demeaned himself and his one-time supporters know it.
Captured here is the remarkable moment when former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was welcomed by President Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan before the commencement of the military parade.
Andrews (pictured, back right) stood for photos just a short distance from global figures like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front right) and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (middle).
Standing among a spectacle of formidable power, hosted by Xi with the presence of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, you forfeit whatever remaining credibility you once possessed.
This parade was designed as propaganda, as China’s show of military might rolled by.
The speeches cast China and its non-democratic allies as the future of global power, tacitly endorsed by a smiling Andrews in thrall, their rise portrayed as irresistible and righteous.
He must have known the frame he was walking into, and if he didn’t then he’s nothing more than a modern version of Lenin’s useful idiot – the term once used to describe Western sympathisers helpful to Soviet propaganda.
What motivated Andrews to be there at all is widely believed to be the power that a photo with Xi has with Chinese business interests. Since leaving politics, Andrews has set up corporate entities with a former multicultural affairs adviser, Zheng Mei, the Australian Financial Review reports.
You would hope the introductions to help garner consultancy work and speaking fees are lucrative, because the dent to Andrews’ reputation at home is real.
Communities who needed no reminding of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine or Kim’s brutality more generally watched a Labor elder statesman lending his image to their credibility.
Even media outlets that once treated Andrews with deference have called it out.
Senior Labor figures are deeply unhappy too, not just the usual Andrews detractors on the other side of the major party divide.
Bob Carr (right) is pictured with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (left) in Beijing on Wednesday. Unlike Andrews, Carr did not attend the military parade
Former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described his attendance as a bridge too far, which is a polite way of saying what plenty of Labor people are saying privately.
Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese has declined to criticise his old friend and former flatmate from many years ago, which only makes the government look nervous about offending Beijing after months of painstaking rapprochement.
It is weakness dressed up as diplomacy.
Defenders insist Andrews is a private citizen. But private citizens do not get ushered down crimson carpets with made for the cameras greetings with Xi.
They don’t get photographed with the world’s leading group of authoritarian dictators other than because of the democratic office they once held.
Simply put, Andrews has certainly become a useful idiot.
There was a better choice available to Andrews if refraining from going there wasn’t his line in the sand.
Bob Carr managed to attend surrounding events then avoided the parade itself, making clear that he never intended to be part of it.
Carr’s engagement can be criticised, but Andrews’ stupidity has stolen the limelight.
If a former foreign minister can see where the outer edge of the line is a former premier should have seen it too.
Andrews either so blindly ignorant to the consequences of his actions or he just didn’t care. Neither scenario is remotely edifying.
