Scott Morrison pushes back against China’s gripes Australia is beholden to the US as he rules out banning social media app TikTok.

Its Chinese owner ByteDance is in talks to sell the application to Microsoft after US President Donald Trump threatened to ban it on national security grounds, a call backed by some Australian MPs.
Mr Morrison said there was “nothing at this point that would suggest to us that security interests have been compromised or Australian citizens have been compromised because of what’s happening with those applications.
“But people should know that the line connects right back to China and that they should exercise their own judgment about whether they should participate in those things or not,” he said.
Mr Morrison said he last spoke to Mr Xi more than a year ago and his last high-level contact with China’s leadership was on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit with Premier Li Keqiang.
“There hasn’t been the opportunity to do so but the welcome and the invitation for such a discussion is always there from our perspective,” Mr Morrison said when asked about the absence of communication with Mr Xi.
“I don’t get hung up on these things to be honest. The phone’s there, it works.
“Those sorts of things are of less concern to me. What matters is the trading relationship, the economic relationship is able to be pursued. That is occurring, it has its frustrations from time-to-time.”
Mr Morrison used his speech to urge like-minded nations in the Indo-Pacific to create an alliance to build a strategic balance in the region as tensions intensify between the US and China.
His speech about the value of alliances came as he unveiled a significant deepening of economic and military ties with Papua New Guinea, including launching negotiations on a bilateral security treatment.
Mr Morrison upgraded the relationship to the level of Comprehensive Strategic and Economic Partnership during a virtual summit with PNG counterpart James Marape.
As well as security, the partnership agreements covers trade and investment opportunities and promoting economic growth, governance, people-to-people links, social and human development, and regional and multilateral cooperation.
The government will also commit to building a solar power plant in PNG, the first major project to be funded from the $2 billion Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.
Australia will also inject $45 million to expand technical and vocational training outside Port Moresby.
Negotiation of the security treaty comes as joint Australian-US plans to develop the Lombrum naval base on Manus Island runs into local resistance.
Mr Morrison confirmed the base had been discussed during the virtual summit. Australia and the US pushed for the base amid alarm over China’s efforts to establish a military base in the Pacific.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said the sentiment behind Mr Morrison’s speech on alliances was correct but he had demonstrated an absence of leadership on post-pandemic economic recovery and climate change in the regional while cutting foreign aid.
“If he is serious about showing leadership in the region, he has to deliver more than words,” Senator Wong told Sky News.
Australian Institute of International Affairs president Allan Gyngell said Mr Morrison’s move to put the onus on China to reopen the lines of communication was “fair enough”, saying the Morrison government had signalled it was anxious to talk.
“From the Chinese point of view, if they want to improve their relations with their neighbours you’ve got to talk to them,” he said.
“One of the burdens that goes with being a large power is the requirement that you work effectively with a range of different countries.”