China-Australia relations: is Canberra taking a ‘less combative’ stance with Beijing despite tensions?
- China and Australia have had no ministerial-level contact for the past year after a fallout that started over calls for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus and spiralled into a broad trade conflict
- But comments from Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggest Canberra could be looking to tread a ‘middle path’ with China that diverges somewhat from the interests of its allies, in particular, the United States
Australia has seemingly moved towards “less combative” interactions with China, despite ongoing tensions and alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his cabinet expressed a desire for a “positive” and productive relationship.
But comments made by Morrison on Wednesday, the same day the Chinese embassy in Canberra called a press conference to defend allegations against China’s treatment of Uygurs in its northwestern province, have been viewed by foreign relations experts in Australia as a “more deliberate and careful articulation of views on China” from Canberra.
“We want to see a positive relationship between the larger countries that are impacting on our region,” Morrison said on Wednesday, adding that Minister for Defence Peter Dutton shared the same view. Dutton, the former home affairs minister who has been tough on migration and has taken aim at China, surprised many last week when he said during a TV interview that he wanted to “work collaboratively” with China to ensure peace in the Indo-Pacific region.
“But again, those relationships can’t be achieved as the product of a less free and a less open Indo-Pacific,” Morrison added. “So, our objectives here are very clear, and we would be keen to work with China to those ends, as we’ve consistently said, and so we’ll continue to work positively to that end and we would welcome discussions that are about those objectives.”
Australia, more than any other OECD country, enjoys a complementary rather than competitive economy with China. This makes us natural economic partners. Political differences should not poison that opportunity
One Canberra observer said Morrison could be looking to tread a “middle path” with China that diverges somewhat from the interests of its allies, in particular, the United States.