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.