Latest news with #ChinaRelations
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Important': Albo's China jaunt defended
A senior Labor minister has hit back at the opposition for criticising Anthony Albanese's lengthy state visit to China, saying the relationship with Australia's biggest trading partner had 'broken down' on the Coalition's watch. The Prime Minister spent much of the last week touting Australia's tourism, trade and research offerings in Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu as part of a five-day business and diplomatic blitz. But the Opposition has argued the trip did not produce any tangible outcomes, despite several agreements being signed. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said on Sunday she found the 'criticism quite extraordinary considering that since we came to government we have removed some $20 billion of trade impediments with China'. China imposed trade restrictions during a trade war with the Morrison-Coalition government. 'We now have in everything from wine to lobster, not to mention the fact that China is our single biggest trading partner,' Ms Rowland told Sky News. 'Our resources sector relies on that relationship.' She noted that Mr Albanese's visit was 'at the invitation … of China'. 'He went with a significant business delegation,' Ms Rowland. 'This is about creating jobs and extra trade opportunities for Australia, and it's important that we maintain this vital relationship.' The business community, represented by the Business Council of Australia (BCA), has praised the trip. The BCA was central to many of Mr Albanese's engagements in China, including high-level talks with Chinese officials and business leaders. With Mr Albanese meeting with Xi Jinping while a face-to-face with Donald Trump elusive, Ms Rowland was asked how she thought the China trip would go down in Washington. 'Our relationship with China is obviously important, as is our relationship with the United States,' she said. 'But here, there are different purposes. 'We will engage in the national interest wherever we can with China. 'We will always act in the national interest, and often we will disagree. 'But this is important from the perspective of our trade and of stabilising that relationship, which, quite frankly, had broken down under successive Liberal governments. 'And it's important that we have a government now that's acting in our national interest, in the interest of jobs and trade and certainty.' Ms Rowland, who sits on the National Security Committee, also downplayed concerns around the Trump administration's demand to hike Australian defence spending and its commitment to AUKUS – a $360bn submarine pact with the US and UK underpinning Canberra's defence strategy for the first half of the 21st century. While Mr Albanese was in China, the man leading the US review of AUKUS hinted Australia would need to guarantee support for the US if a conflict broke out in the Indo-Pacific over Taiwan. It came after the Financial Times reported Mr Colby asked Australia and Japan what they would do to defend the democratically self-governed island from China. Ms Rowland said she was 'not going to engage in hypotheticals' but that the Albanese government did 'not support a unilateral change' on Taiwan. 'What I will note, in going to a related issue about defence spending, that we recognise the US has called for this of a number of its allies,' she said. 'But again, I would point out that we are spending some $10bn over the forwards and nearly $60bn over the next decade on defence spending. 'We will act always in the national interest, and we will ensure that our capabilities are up to scratch.' She refused to comment on National Security deliberations on the US' AUKUS review, but said that 'there is nothing unusual about a new administration having a review of these relationships'. 'But again, we view AUKUS as fundamental to our relationship with the United States, and we are confident in its execution,' Ms Rowland said.
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Australian journalist who was detained in China issues warning
Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in China for three years, has warned the 'scars' of her detention are still present as she watches Anthony Albanese wooed in China. The Prime Minister has been photographed at tourist spots in the country during his six-day diplomatic tour to continue easing relations between the two nations. This included retracing the steps of Gough Whitlam on the Great Wall of China, attending a tennis tournament and visiting a panda research centre in the southwestern city of Chengdu. Ms Lei is now questioning whether the government remains 'clear-eyed' amid its newly improved relationship with China. 'I have said I don't want to be the symbol of disengagement, but I am proud to be the reminder of how China really is, not how it portrays itself by hiding everything from Xinjiang's internment camps – where many Australian Uyghurs' family members are still missing – to its brutal arrests of dissidents,' she wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald. 'I'd like to ask the prime minister this: Now that relations are better, is it easier or harder to broach the hard subjects?' Ms Lei was imprisoned by Chinese authorities in 2020 after being accused of 'illegally supplying state secrets overseas', allegations that were unfounded. She spent almost three years imprisoned. It was previously confirmed by Ms Lei that the allegation concerned the sharing of a government briefing, which had been issued to the media under embargo and broken by a matter of minutes. 'At this time two years ago, I was still locked up in a Beijing prison, a television journalist absurdly accused of espionage,' she said. 'Monthly visits by Australian embassy staff were my only hope of finding out what was really happening in the world until concerted diplomatic pressure secured my release.' 'A Chinese saying, 'You forget the pain once the scar heals', comes to mind. But the scars are still there,' she said. Ms Lei likened the way Westerners, including Prime Minister Albanese, behave when visiting China to deep-sea divers who descend beyond 30 meters 'They get high and giggly and may start dancing or taking off their gear. The rush of sensations leads to soundbites about 'dynamism' and 'rapid growth' and 'incredible opportunities',' she said. 'I don't see observations that show an understanding of what makes China tick. 'Australia, nevertheless, may need to consider how much hardball it is willing to play with China,' she said. She also took aim at politicians who might only believe the projected impression China offers to them. 'I can almost hear visiting politicians thinking, 'If only we could pass big projects with China's speed and execute them at its rate!',' she said. 'For every one of China's impressive infrastructure projects or breakthrough technologies, flip it over and look at the price tag. 'Are there worker organizations or lawyers to protect their rights? Without fear of arrest and torture?' 'Are there investigative journalists taking leads and exposing scandals leading to legislative change? How stringent and independently verified are the environmental standards?' Ms Lei highlighted officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who refuse to declare assets or send their family abroad. 'China operates on a 'party first' principle. It is built into every message the citizen receives. Individuals can be easily sacrificed to ensure party longevity,' she said. 'To save the party's face or interests, China has no qualms arresting and torturing innocent individuals and manipulating the narrative. I know it personally.' The final shot is a reference to an incident in June last year when Chinese media officials attempted to block Ms Lei from appearing on camera during a press conference beside China's second-in-command Premier Li Qiang. The whole interaction lasted the duration of the 20-minute press conference. The journalist also opened up about why she thinks she was incarcerated, suggesting it was an 'act of retaliation against then foreign minister Marise Payne'. The former cabinet minister had requested an independent investigation into the cause of the COVID epidemic, including China's management of the initial outbreak. 'What revenge might China take against Australians over the rescinding of its purchase of the Port of Darwin?' Ms Lei said. Her final point in the column, which was published on Friday, was to emphasize that all Australians need to be 'clear-eyed and cool-headed' regarding China. The journalist said the country is divided, with some Australians calling Albanese a 'sell-out' for trading with China while others say the US tariffs have left the country with no choice. 'Both sides have a point,' Ms Lei said. 'It is the responsibility of all of us... Let's not scapegoat our leader when we all benefit from China's money,' she said. 'China loves nothing more than to see us distracted and divided from endless bickering.' 'I am glad the prime minister raised the case of the Australian citizen and democracy activist Yang Hengjun, who remains imprisoned in China, but I'm disappointed that others are not doing more.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted the federal government for comment. The has been shorter on concrete outcomes than in previous years, when his resumption of dialogue with China saw $20 billion worth of Chinese trade sanctions lifted from Australian exports. A few agreements to boost trade and tourism links have been reached. While detained, Ms Lei said she was forced to shove sanitary pads in her shoes due to the inadequate footwear. She was also often pinned to uncomfortable chairs with heavy wooden boards and shares a cramped cell with a single bed and one toilet with three others, forcing the group to take turns sleeping. The mother-of-two told officials her eyesight had deteriorated after spending long hours in her cell and was told it would be a 'hassle' to get her reading glasses.
New York Times
07-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
How Harvard's Ties to China Helped Make It a White House Target
The Great Recession left Harvard University in a financial crisis. Its endowment had plummeted by nearly 30 percent, or more than $10 billion, in 2009. To help recover, Harvard's leaders found part of the answer in China. Already, American business was pouring in, as Washington and Beijing encouraged — if at times warily — a policy of engagement as the best way to build bridges between the two countries. China promised enormous academic and economic opportunities, and Harvard had something wealthy and well-connected Chinese craved: prestige and access to influential networks for themselves and their children. Between 2010 and 2025, Harvard attracted $560 million in gifts and contracts from China and Hong Kong, the most of any American university, partly from private donors and foundations, as well as a small amount through contracts with government entities like universities. 'The confluence of new, enormous property wealth and especially favorable relationships' — with China's leadership and scholars — 'have happily converged,' wrote Harvard Magazine, a university-affiliated publication, almost breathless in describing the optimism in Sino-American relations at the time. Now Harvard's ties with China are coming back to haunt the university. Those connections were forged when Harvard was more financially vulnerable and when much of the foreign policy establishment believed that higher education could play a part in pushing America's democratic ideals to China and the rest of the world. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
News.com.au
06-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
China ties should not come at ‘expense of the US', Coalition heavyweight warns
A Coalition heavyweight has called on Anthony Albanese to prioritise the US alliance, warning that countering China without Washington's backing would cost Australian 'hundreds of billions'. It comes ahead of the Prime Minister's state visit to China next week. Mr Albanese will meet Xi Jinping for a fourth time since 2022. Meanwhile, a firm date for a face-to-face with Donald Trump is yet to be set. Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said on Monday Mr Albanese was playing a 'very dangerous' game. 'The Prime Minister must have a great hand of cards because he has really got the chips on the table on this one,' the former deputy prime minister told Seven's Sunrise. 'You need to understand the United States is the cornerstone of our defence … it is not going well. 'This is the fourth meeting he has had with the leader of China but that is a totalitarian regime.' Mr Joyce said he was 'truly concerned' that Mr Albanese has not met the US President, pointing to the Trump administration's snap review of AUKUS. China is Australia's biggest trading partner, with two-way trade worth $325bn in 2023-24. The Albanese government has negotiated the removal of some $20bn in residual trade barriers from the Australia-China trade war waged under the former Coalition government. At the same time, it has pumped billions into countering Beijing's influence in the Pacific and committed tens of billions to defence spending. Asked if it was not good for Australia to 'make friends with China', Mr Joyce said it should 'but not at the expense of the US'. 'You need to understand that we live in the realm of the Western Pacific,' he said. 'If things go pear-shaped, we are in trouble – real trouble. 'If we … have a defence policy that doesn't include the United States, we need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defence. 'We are way, way behind where we need to be.'
South China Morning Post
03-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
New memoir reveals Lee Kuan Yew's approach to China diplomacy: ‘he wasn't like the West'
Singapore 's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew recognised early on that China demanded respect and equality in diplomacy – a posture that earned him Beijing's enduring trust, according to veteran newspaper editor Cheong Yip Seng. In his newly released memoir Ink and Influence: An OB Markers Sequel, Cheong reflects on Lee's deft handling of China relations, drawn from personal experience covering his landmark 1976 visit to Beijing and later working closely with him as editor-in-chief of Singapore newspaper The Straits Times from 1987 to 2006. Ink and Influence outlines Cheong's four-decade-long career in journalism and his interactions with political leaders while at The Straits Times before he served as Singapore's non-resident ambassador to Chile. Cheong then offers his thoughts on the way forward for the Singaporean media outlet. Speaking to This Week in Asia during the book's launch on Wednesday, Cheong said that although Singapore was more developed than China in those days, Lee held the Chinese in high regard. 'He wasn't like the West, for example, who would demonise. He could see where are the strengths of the Chinese, where are the weaknesses, and be honest. But more importantly, [there was] a lot of mutual respect,' Cheong said. Singapore's veteran newspaper editor Cheong Yip Seng during the launch of his latest book 'Ink and Influence: An OB Markers Sequel' at the Central Public Library on Wednesday. Photo: Nicole Cheah Cheong, 82, recounted an anecdote published by the Chinese in 2018 when China honoured 10 foreigners with the China Reform Friendship medal to mark the 40th anniversary of the country's opening up. The write-up for Lee, who was one of 10, recalled a 1978 visit by Deng Xiaoping to Singapore when Lee asked to have a spittoon and ashtray placed in the Istana next to Deng, after Lee recalled Deng smoked and he had seen a spittoon in the Great Hall of the People on his previous visit to China.
