Australia is working to stabilize relations with China, but could not return to the thriving economic relationship with its biggest trading partner that existed 15 years ago, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) said yesterday.
Icy bilateral relations that deteriorated during the previous conservative Australian government’s nine years in power have shown signs of improvement since Wong’s Labor Party was elected almost a year earlier. Minister-to-minister meetings have resumed, China has recently lifted restrictions on Australian coal imports and Canberra hopes a three-year-old tariff barrier on Australian barley would be lifted within months.
However, Wong said that trade relations could not return to the level when conservative Australian prime minister John Howard was in power from 1996 until 2007. Trade was then separated from political and strategic priorities.
Photo: AP
“I have been very clear that we seek to stabilize the relationship,” Wong told the National Press Club. “I think both countries know we are not going to go back to where we were 15 years ago.”
During Howard’s era, “you could have your strategic relationship with the United States and the economic relationship with China and the worlds stayed separate — we don’t live in that sort of world anymore,” Wong said.
China has imposed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers to Australian exports in the past few years, particularly since the previous government angered Beijing by calling for an independent investigation into the causes of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Australian businesses and state leaders were impatient for Chinese barriers to be lifted for exports including wine, wood and seafood, Wong described diversifying to other markets as “a smart thing to do.”
“Even with increased diversification, China will remain Australia’s largest trading partner for the foreseeable future, and a valued source of foreign investment, where it meets our national interests,” she said.
Australia has blocked the sale of assets including critical infrastructure to Chinese companies on national security grounds in recent years.
Canberra is working toward maintaining a predictable, rules-based Asia-Pacific region “where no country dominates and no country is dominated,” Wong said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon