ACRI Facts

From April 6-7 2017 Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump met for the first time since Mr Trump’s inauguration. The Xi-Trump summit took place at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Both Chinese and international media acknowledge there were few tangible outcomes from the Xi-Trump summit. However, the cordial tone and lack of controversy are generally considered positive steps towards ameliorating tensions in US-China relations during the first months of the Trump administration.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Australia from March 22-26, attending official events and dialogues in both Canberra and Sydney. It was the first visit of a Chinese Premier to Australia in 11 years.

On March 3 2017 former Australian Prime Minister John Howard addressed an audience in Sydney at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) annual Economic and Political Overview event.

Among other things he offered his assessment of the Australia-China and Australia-US relationships in the context of the new Trump administration.

Mr Howard said Australia’s policy toward China ‘should essentially be a continuation of what it’s been to date’, that Australia should not be forced to choose between the United States and China:[1]

Continuity, and no willingness to run American-style freedom of navigation

Australia’s position on the South China Sea remains pragmatic, unchanged over the last few years.

There is no evidence that hawkish calls for Australia to run American-style freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) directed at China have influenced the policy of the Turnbull Government.

Those calls had been made by three US admirals on at least three separate occasions between the dates February 22 2016 and December 14 2016.

What do Chinese media and commentators make of Trump? This ACRI survey goes beyond the English-language Global Times to look at a range of Chinese sources. The overwhelming impression: restraint.

‘One China’ policy

Last updated February 10 2017. 

By James Laurenceson

Chinese investors remain prominent relative to those from other countries but marginal compared with local buyers. More than a year of heightened compliance activity by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has yielded little evidence that foreign investment rules have been widely flouted.

1. Education is Australia’s largest services export, worth $19.4 billion in 2015, making it the third largest export behind iron ore and coal.[1]

2. Globally, China is the number one country of origin for students enrolling in higher education abroad.[2]

Chinese students comprise 17 percent of the global total of tertiary-level, internationally mobile students.[3]

Bids by China’s State Grid for electricity distribution assets in South Australia (2012) and Victoria (2013) were approved on the basis that they were in the national interest. On Thursday Treasurer Scott Morrison blocked State Grid’s bid, along with that of Cheung Kong Infrastructure’s, for NSW electricity distributor Ausgrid. He said it was his preliminary view the deal was contrary to the national interest on the grounds of national security. On Friday the Treasurer said that Ausgrid’s assets and the structure of the deal was different to previous cases. 

A decision by Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison on whether to approve the partial sale of NSW electricity distributor, Ausgrid, is expected shortly.

1. In March only three companies made the shortlist to buy a 50.4 percent share of NSW electricity distributor Ausgrid. All were Chinese. Since then one has dropped out leaving State Grid, a Chinese state-owned company, and Cheung Kong Infrastructure, a Chinese privately-owned company, as the only bidders.[1]