By Shannon Tiezzi
The two countries appear eager to cooperate economically, but strategic obstacles continue to persist.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Sydney on Monday for the second annual China-Australia Diplomatic and Strategic Dialogue. The bilateral meeting was co-chaired by Wang and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Both Wang and Bishop praised the recent development of China-Australia ties and pledged to seek deeper cooperation on economic and security issues.
It’s been a tense summer for China-Australia relations, thanks to several controversial comments by Australian politicians. In July, Julie Bishop was quoted in Australian media outlets as pledging that the Abbott government would stand up to China. “China doesn’t respect weakness,” Bishop declared, saying that Australia would not be afraid to stand up for liberal and democratic values. Her comments caused a fiery response from Chinese media outlets before Beijing put an end to the fervor by flatly denying that the remarks had ever been made (despite a recording of the on-the-record comments, which were made in an interview with Fairfax Media’s John Garnaut).
Then, in August, Australian businessman and MP Clive Palmer made incendiary remarks about the need to defend Australia against Chinese encroachment. Palmer spoke of “standing up against the Chinese bastards” and listed his reasons for doing so: “because they’re communist, because they shoot their own people, they haven’t got a justice system and they want to take over this country.” A senator from the Palmer-led Palmer United Party, Jacqui Lambie, added her voice to the controversy as well. “If anybody thinks that we should have a national security and defense policy, which ignores the threat of a Chinese Communist invasion — you’re delusional and got rocks in your head,” Lambie said.
Read the full story at The Diplomat