Australia does not have to take sides between China and US: Chinese premier
Australia doesn’t have to take sides between China and the United States, Premier Li Keqiang told lawmakers and business leaders in Canberra.
Li kicked off his five-day visit late on Wednesday as China is eager to engage Australia with its economic clout at a time when the relations between Australia and its long-time ally the US are being tested.
Li told lawmakers and business leaders that he expected “everyone will win” from free trade between his country and Australia as the close relationship between to two countries “moved forward”.
“We respect your choices in your foreign policy,” Li said in his first speech in the Great Hall at Parliament House in Canberra. “We don’t want to see [nations] taking sides as happened during the Cold War.”
Li’s comments followed a report by the Financial Times that said Canberra had rejected a possible deal with Beijing over the US$3.8 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility due to concerns about its impact on Australia’s relations with the United States, citing unnamed Australia officials.
If confirmed, it would be another blow to President’s Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure and economic initiative to project China’s influence across Asia and beyond.
Analysts believe Australia is maintaining a delicate balance between Beijing, its largest trading partner, and Washington, where ties are now clouded by doubts over US President Donald Trump’s Asia policies and his commitment to the region.
“I think Australia is keen to expand trade ties with China, but as a political ally of the US, it needs to get the nod from Washington on the belt and road initiative, which has much symbolic significance for the regional power landscape,” said Pang Zhongying, an international affairs expert at Beijing’s Renmin University.
Trump reportedly blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull before abruptly hanging up during a phone call in February after the Australian leader pressed Trump on an agreement by the Obama administration on resettling refugees.
Boosting economic ties with Australia and seeking support for the belt and road initiative are high on Li’s agenda during his visit to Australia and New Zealand, the first by a Chinese premier in 11 years. He is also the most senior Chinese official to visit Australia since 2014, when Xi finalised the free trade deal.
While Li admitted that the world had seen “some problems” resulting from globalisation, he added that free trade was not to blame and warned against protectionism.
China “cannot close its doors” to solve its trade imbalance with Australia, which last year left Beijing with a US$50 billion deficit largely through its demand for iron ore and coal, he said.
Li and Turnbull will today provide details of an expansion of their two-year-old bilateral free trade pact in the areas of investment and services.
In his welcoming speech to Li, Turnbull said the “next stage” of the bilateral relationship would be announced during Li’s visit.
Turnbull suggested that in addition to trade, the two leaders would discuss tensions in the South China Sea
“Premier Li and I will discuss, as we have before, the importance of upholding and maintaining stability in our region,” Turnbull said. “China has much to contribute to global peace and prosperity in this time of rapid change.”
China will “never seek hegemony and dominance,” Li said, adding that China needed a stable world for its economy to grow.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Associated Press
