Nadi: Beijing has laid the blame for three years of spiralling relations with Australia on the former Coalition government, clearing the way for a more stable dialogue with Labor.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday released details of Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with Penny Wong and outlined four proposals to get the relationship back on track.
Australian Foreign Minister, Penny Wong meets with Wang Yi in Bali. Credit:Johannes P. Christo
“The root cause of the difficulties in China-Australia relations in the past few years is that the former Australian government insisted on treating China as an ‘adversary’ or even a ‘threat’, and adopted a series of irresponsible words and deeds against China,” Wang said.
“It is hoped that the Australian side will seize the current opportunity and take concrete actions to reshape its correct understanding of China, reduce negative assets and accumulate positive energy for the improvement of China-Australia relations.”
Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham fired back on Sunday and accused Beijing of being dishonest. As trade minister in the Morrison government, Birmingham was responsible for responding to $20 billion in trade strikes by Beijing.
“It is widely acknowledged that the Chinese government has changed in recent years and Australia’s actions to protect our critical infrastructure or democratic institutions were entirely appropriate in the circumstances,” he said.
“To suggest that Australia acted in isolation would be a rewriting of history.”
Wang’s tone marks a significant departure from years of ongoing hostility between the two trading partners after the Coalition banned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from the 5G network in 2018, called for an inquiry into COVID-19 and criticised China’s human rights record in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. China responded by hitting Australia trade strikes on half a dozen industries and cutting off all ministerial contact for almost three years.
Wang did not address the substantive issues in the relationship in his readout, including the trade strikes on Australian businesses or the ongoing detention of Australians Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei in Chinese jails.
Both issues were raised directly by Wong in her meeting with Wang on Friday, the first formal discussion between Australian and Chinese foreign ministers since September 2019.
Wang offered a vague four-point proposal to fix relations between the two governments.
“First, we must insist on treating China as a partner rather than an opponent,” he said.
“Second, we must adhere to the way of getting along with seeking common ground while reserving differences. Third, we must insist on not targeting third parties. Fourth, we must adhere to building a positive and pragmatic social foundation of public opinion.”
Birmingham said China had breached the China-Australia Free Trade agreement by imposing sanctions. “Instead of setting conditions for Australia, the Chinese government should cease its unjustified punishment of Australian businesses,” he said.
Birmingham said the test of the new dialogue with Beijing will be in the outcome of the meetings.
“The test here over time is whether we do see an improvement in relation to the removal of trade sanctions,” he said.
“It will also be a test as to the treatment of individual Australian citizens who have been unfairly detained and charged in ways where we need to ensure they see transparent justice occur.”
The Australian public’s view of the Chinese government has collapsed under the weight of the ongoing diplomatic dispute. A Lowy Institute poll in June found that trust in China had fallen to 12 per cent, from 52 per cent in 2018.
The Chinese embassy has previously blamed negative media coverage of the world’s second-largest economy for the decline and demanded that the Australian government control independent think-tanks and news coverage to reverse public opinion.
“Australians see China’s foreign policy as a critical threat,” the executive director of the Lowy Insitute Michael Fullilove said at the release of the June report. “Their trust in China continues to fall, and in a dramatic shift, three-quarters of Australians see China as posing a military threat to Australia in the years to come.”
Wang said there was an opportunity for Australia and China to collaborate in the region ahead of the Pacific Island Forum leader’s meeting in Fiji this week. China’s ambitions in the Pacific are set to play a key part in the forum after it secured a security agreement with Solomon Islands but failed to push through a region-wide deal in May.
“China has carried out trilateral co-operation with Australia, New Zealand and other countries in the South Pacific region and achieved positive results,” said Wang. “China is willing to give play to its respective advantages to achieve a win-win.”
The Albanese government has maintained that the trade restrictions on Australian exports have to be removed if the relationship is to recover.
Wong said on Saturday that her meeting with Wang was the first step towards stabilising the relationship.
“We are a government and a nation that has made certain decisions on the basis of our national interest, our national security and our sovereignty and we won’t be resiling from those,” she said.
“But we do think it’s in our interests, and we would stay say in China’s interests, for the relationship to be stabilised. That’s going to take time, that’s going to take effort, that’s going to take work and it’s going to take some nuance.”
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