https://www.scmp.com/rss/323468/feed James Laurenceson is currently Director and Professor at the Australia-China Relations Institute (UTS), University of Technology, Sydney. He has previously held appointments at the University of Queensland, Shandong University (China) and Shimonoseki City University (Japan). His research focuses exclusively on the Chinese economy and has been published in international, peer-reviewed journals such as China Economic Review, China Economic Journal, Journal of Chinese Economics and Business... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com For the first time in a long time, a year can begin with a realistic assessment that Australia-China relations are on an upward trajectory again. After winning last May’s federal election, the new Albanese government set “stabilisation” as the objective for Canberra’s relations with Beijing. Rather than reaching for something loftier, “stabilisation” made sense given the new Labor government was inheriting a relationship in its worst state since 1972, the year the Whitlam government moved to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3207632/fresh-hope-prosperity-australia-china-ties-year-rabbit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3207632/fresh-hope-prosperity-australia-china-ties-year-rabbit?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jan 2023 20:00:17 +0000 For those wanting to instil a view that economic exposure to China is dangerous, the Australian experience has become Exhibit A. During 2020, Beijing unleashed a campaign of trade disruption in response to political disputes with Canberra that affected Australian exports worth around $A20 billion (US$13 billion). All of the sanctions remain in place. With this as background, an international audience might be surprised by developments over the past week. It began with the Australia China... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3193088/australias-trade-ties-china-show-theres-no-need-throw-baby-out-bath?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3193088/australias-trade-ties-china-show-theres-no-need-throw-baby-out-bath?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Sep 2022 04:30:12 +0000 The US has “got our back”. This talking point is repeated by Australian government ministers with rising fervour, as China continues its campaign of trade punishment against Australia. Think-tank experts and media commentators amplify it further. Knowing the acute Australian desire for reassurance, American officials and diplomats are only too happy to oblige, while also encouraging Canberra not to back away from the increasingly adversarial stance it has taken towards Beijing. In March, Mike... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3142080/no-evidence-us-has-australias-back-its-dispute-china-despite-all?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3142080/no-evidence-us-has-australias-back-its-dispute-china-despite-all?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Jul 2021 22:45:17 +0000 Great power competition in the Asia-Pacific region has been building for years, but Covid-19 has turbocharged the shifts taking place and China finished 2020 in a significantly stronger position compared with the US than when the year started. Meanwhile, Canberra’s relations with Beijing continue to deteriorate and there’s little reason to be optimistic that a sudden, positive turnaround will be seen in 2021. As competition, rather than cooperation, has become the dominant frame through which... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3116389/will-china-squeeze-australia-even-more-2021-its-increased?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3116389/will-china-squeeze-australia-even-more-2021-its-increased?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Jan 2021 21:00:17 +0000 As China piles on the trade pressure, the reality of Australia’s economic place in the world has been laid bare: it is on its own. In a 2017 book, Allan Gyngell, a former director general of the Australian Office of National Assessments, wrote that a “fear of abandonment” drives how Australia acts in the world. This probably explains some of the ideas now being heard. One is to seek protection by taking Australia’s security treaty with the United States and moving it “beyond the military realm... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3112060/why-australia-its-own-its-trade-conflict-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3112060/why-australia-its-own-its-trade-conflict-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Dec 2020 21:45:17 +0000 China-Australia relations are unravelling at a pace that could not have been contemplated just six months ago. In recent days, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review’s Mike Smith were forced to flee China following intimidation by security agencies and the imposition of an exit ban, later lifted following negotiations led by Australian diplomats. Australian journalists’ China departure ‘terrible blow to mutual understanding’ Chinese media... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3100981/australia-china-ties-are-fast-unravelling-could-just-be-starting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3100981/australia-china-ties-are-fast-unravelling-could-just-be-starting?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Sep 2020 06:38:22 +0000 A fraught debate in Australia surrounds the country’s response to the Belt and Road Initiative. Some suggest Canberra wishes to stand apart from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious global trade strategy, but the reality is more complicated. Australia can actually point to a long and consistent position that has emphasised a willingness to engage. Since May 2017 Australian leaders have publicly offered support for efforts to improve infrastructure and other development opportunities in the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3020622/australias-belt-and-road-dilemma-pacific-china-partner-or?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3020622/australias-belt-and-road-dilemma-pacific-china-partner-or?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00:13 +0000 Australia-China relations need a reset. But this is unlikely as long as the Australian prime minister himself remains a stumbling block.  This month, Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador to China, said that things haven’t been this bad since 1989, when the Chinese government crushed student-led protests in Beijing.  Responding to such claims, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was only prepared to concede there’s “a degree of tension in the relationship”.  ‘China wages psychological warfare... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2143690/australia-china-relations-need-reset-and-malcolm-turnbull?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2143690/australia-china-relations-need-reset-and-malcolm-turnbull?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Apr 2018 01:15:45 +0000 Liaoning ( 遼寧 ), in China’s rust-belt northeast, is in recession. Output growth has not merely slowed since the boom times, it’s turned negative. This is just the second time that a shrinking provincial economy has been confirmed since the National Bureau of Statistics began collecting quarterly gross domestic product data in the late 1990s. The other was in 2009, when Shanxi ( 山西 ) fell into a six-month slump. Liaoning is a powerful example of the problems afflicting China’s economy today. It... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2029089/economy-faltering-chinese-consumers-arent-buying-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2029089/economy-faltering-chinese-consumers-arent-buying-it?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:35:13 +0000