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China-Australia relations
ChinaDiplomacy

China not targeting Australia’s Pacific Island ties, says senior Communist Party official

  • In speech in Sydney, Liu Jianchao says the two countries could work together on regional development
  • Liu rejects suggestions that a Chinese warship acted unprofessionally in an encounter with an Australian frigate earlier this month

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Liu Jianchao, from the Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, delivers an address at University of Technology Sydney, in Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday. Photo: AP
Kandy Wong
China does not aim to challenge Australia’s influence among the Pacific Islands, a senior Chinese official in charge of Communist Party diplomacy said in Sydney on Tuesday, amid renewed efforts to improve relations between the two countries.
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“China has no intention of seeking any sphere of influence. We respect the role and the influence of Australia in the Pacific island countries,” Liu Jianchao said in a speech to the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.
Liu, head of the Central Committee’s International Department, said Australia and China could consult each other on regional affairs.

“We could work together for the economic development in these countries,” he said.

03:01

China-Australia relations ‘on the right path’, Xi Jinping tells Anthony Albanese on Beijing visit

China-Australia relations ‘on the right path’, Xi Jinping tells Anthony Albanese on Beijing visit
Liu is the first top-level Chinese official to visit Australia since the Covid-19 pandemic and his three-day trip comes less than a month after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese became the first Australian leader to go to China in seven years.
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