Australia to bury hatchet with China – in fence between Beijing and Washington

PM Scott Morrison is set to use first meeting with Xi Jinping to mend ties between the nations

He has previously said Australia did not want to choose between Beijing and Washington

But there are questions about the long-term sustainability of the country’s balancing act

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is gearing up for his first meeting with Xi Jinping. Photo: EPA

Published: 1:30pm, 17 Nov 2018Updated: 2:00pm, 17 Nov 2018

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will use his first meeting with Xi Jinping to draw a line under recent tensions with China, analysts said, as Canberra straddles the fence in the growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

Morrison will rub shoulders with the Chinese president at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Papua New Guinea this weekend as relations warm between the sides after one of the rockiest years for ties in recent memory. “It seems to me that both Beijing and Canberra are very keen to see an end to the freeze we’ve seen – a reset, you might call it,” said Hugh White, a defence and intelligence analyst at the Australian National University (ANU). “Morrison can’t repudiate what was done, but he has I think toned down the rhetoric far enough and been careful enough in his comments.”

Both Beijing and Canberra are very keen to see an end to the freeze we’ve seen

Relations soured dramatically after former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called out China by name while introducing new anti-foreign interference laws last year, thrusting into the open long-simmering concerns about Beijing’s growing influence across the region.

Since replacing Turnbull after a leadership coup in August, Morrison, who leads the centre-right Liberal Party, has softened the rhetoric while embarking on a flurry of diplomatic activity to mend fences with Beijing.

“I think it’s important to note that differences on policy haven’t really been the problem,” said James Laurenceson, deputy director of the Australia-China Relations Institute in Sydney. “The biggest part of the problem for Australia-China relations over the last 18 months has been the rhetoric.”

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Trade Minister Simon Birmingham visited China days apart in their first trips to the country as part of Morrison’s administration. Payne’s meeting with her counterpart Wang Yi was the first by an Australian foreign minister on Chinese soil in almost three years, in what The Australian newspaper dubbed a “great leap forward” for relations.

Under Scott Morrison, Australia is trying to straddle the fence in the growing rivalry between the US and Beijing. Photo: AFP

In his first big foreign policy speech on November 1, Morrison emphasised Australia’s “vitally important” relationship with China even as he stressed the importance of a strong US presence in the Asia-Pacific. On November 12, he said Australia did not want to choose between Beijing and Washington, its biggest trade partner and principal defence ally, respectively, but would enhance relations with both. “The more stable the region is, the more prosperous the region is,” Morrison, who previously served as treasurer, told the Australian Financial Review.