Beijeng, October 30: Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, one of China’s top two emerging leaders, yesterday delivered in Sydney “a blueprint for Australia-China relations” that would sideline recent rows.
He underlined China’s political will to advance free trade agreement negotiations “with a sense of urgency”, backed further Chinese investment in Australia and praised Australia’s unique avoidance of the recession that has engulfed the rest of the industrialised world – hinting that this might be credited to China’s own “dynamic” growth, 8.9 per cent in the last quarter.
Mr Li made the remarks in an animated and warm speech to a business audience in Sydney – which was also expected to be watched by hundreds of millions of Chinese TV viewers last night – before flying to Canberra for an intimate meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. He stressed the importance of “enhancing mutual political trust”.
Putting to rest – for now – angst about Chinese investment in Australia that has beset both sides this year, he said: “China appreciates Australia’s open form of investment policy” and hoped it would “continue to be non-discriminatory”. Canberra does, however, openly discriminate by imposing tougher constraints on investment from state corporations, which dominate Chinese investment.
China was ready, Mr Li said, “to import from Australia not only resources and energy but also other competitive products and services”, including hi-tech items, telecommunications and healthcare, and to engage in “practical co-operation” on energy saving, environmental protection, agriculture and reducing carbon emissions.
He stressed that a new “strategic” approach to the relationship would ensure inevitable problems – such as the visit to Australia of Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer who is outlawed in China, and the arrest in Shanghai of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu – do not push it off course.
Mr Li, who is slated to succeed Wen Jiabao as premier, spoke about the need to “reduce mistrust and properly handle our differences, to ensure our relations are not diverted because of a particular incident”, and to “accommodate each other’s core interests and concerns”. The blueprint, he said, involved more comprehensive links – pointing towards increasing the number of Chinese students sent here and the number of Chinese tourists.
Mr Li’s address to the Australia China Business Council, lavishing extraordinary praise on Australia as a partner and friend, comprised a response to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith’s speech in Canberra on Monday which also underlined the importance of the relationship.
The speeches and the visit – arranged in concert by the two governments, at short notice, following intense behind-the-scenes discussions between Mr Rudd and Mr Wen in Bangkok a week ago – mark a turning point in what had become this year a fraught relationship.
Former prime minister Bob Hawke, who has just returned to Australia from his 82nd visit to China, welcomed the detente: “Everyone has settled down. We need each other too much” to let the friction grow. He was greeted enthusiastically by Mr Li, who arrived at lunch after meeting with his counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Mr Li, who visits Brisbane today for talks with Premier Anna Bligh, is accompanied by senior officials who have crucial responsibilities for expanding economic ties. They include Kong Linglong, director-general of outbound investment at the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top planning agency; the vice-ministers for foreign affairs, agriculture and commerce; Zhu Zhixin, the vice-chairman of the NDRC; and You Quan, deputy secretary-general of the State Council.
—Agencies