Foreign affairs

By James Laurenceson

Note: This article appeared in the Global Times on August 4 2020.

Amid tensions with the US and Australia, China has accused the two countries of ‘smearing China’ on a series of issues and told them to ‘stop interfering in China's internal affairs or damaging Chinese interests’.

This edition features:

- Summary and analysis of major developments in July 2020 by Elena Collinson and James Laurenceson.
- Perspectives: ‘On being 'very different countries': AUSMIN and China's rise’ by Professor James Curran. Perspectives is UTS:ACRI's monthly commentary series, featuring a piece on a topical subject in the Australia-China relationship from an invited expert contributor. 

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS IN JULY 2020 

By Professor James Curran

During discussions with American thinkers, analysts and officials in New York and Washington DC in late 2017, one particular conversation gave a chilling insight into how some see the ultimate strategic calculations in US-China relations.  

Australia’s relationship with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in recent years has been characterised by increasing levels of political friction driven by concerns around national security, human rights and sovereignty, among other issues, with Australia on the receiving end of muscular rhetoric from the PRC government and its state media outlets. In some instances, this has been punctuated by statements from the PRC government suggesting economic consequences for Australia. In April, for example, the PRC Ambassador to Australia warned that PRC consumers could boycott Australian exports

In the mid-2000s Australia had delivered a China-led mining boom that continues today. Australia’s success as a producer of raw materials such as iron ore is well known. While domestic demand is negligible, in 2019 Australia’s iron ore exports totalled $96.1 billion (Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2020). The partner that has made this possible is China, buying 82.2 percent of Australia’s exports. China has also been a major supplier of the capital needed to develop Australian mines (Ferguson et al., 2020).

Elena Collinson wrote a response to 'Beijing Calling: How China is testing the alliance', an essay by Professor Michael Wesley, Deputy Vice-Chancellor International at the University of Melbourne, that was published in the July 2020 edition of Australian Foreign Affairs magazine. 

Read here.

This edition features:

- Summary and analysis of major developments in June 2020 by Elena Collinson and James Laurenceson.
- Perspectives: ‘People-to-people links: the lifeblood of the Australia-China relationship’ by Peter Osborne. Perspectives is UTS:ACRI's monthly commentary series, featuring a piece on a topical subject in the Australia-China relationship from an invited expert contributor. 

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS IN JUNE 2020 

By Peter Osborne

Looking for a relevant opening sentence on what individuals and businesses can do to contribute to an ongoing strong, mutually beneficial relationship between Australia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), I stumbled across a pertinent quote from Confucius on friendships:

By James Laurenceson

Note: This article appeared in The China Story, a blog by the Australian Centre on China in the World and the China Policy Centre, on June 30 2020.

Irrespective of the result of the US presidential elections in November, it is worth subjecting to some scrutiny the statements and positions on the People's Republic of China (PRC) taken over a long political career by the Democratic nominee for President, Joe Biden.