'Encouraging start': Chinese Ambassador to Australia discusses bilateral relations

well it's a uh big audience today and i'm very much honored uh thanks david for your introduction and good to see so many friends from the press including some of my uh colleagues from the development of korean uh canberra and so many friends from the press ladies and gentlemen good afternoon it's indeed my great pleasure to address the national press club thank you all for your presence today my special thanks to uh peter phillips he's there we are we talked about addressing the mpc last month where uh when i'm seeing sydney and thank you for your advice and thanks to uh maurice raleigh rally ceo of nbc for writing me to extend their kind invitation which gives me an opportunity to share my views on the much discussed much talked about china australia relations i feel very much honored to be chinese ambassador to this country both china and australia are great countries we are two great peoples our two peoples have always cherished cherished friendly sentiments to each other in the past six or seven months since i came here as ambassador i didn't travel both in the in the eastern coast and also on the western coast and i uh try to reach out and meet as many people as possible including the federal government the city governments also so many colleagues and friends from different walks of life in australia and my my feeling is very strong about the hospitality and friendship that australian people are having towards the chinese people towards china i also feel very strongly about their expectations for a sound stable friendly and cooperative relationship between two countries and as ambassador as a new ambassador caime had a very special juncture i have been very very very encouraged well ladies and gentlemen this year happens to be the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between china and australia if we look back at the past 50 years we have indeed made great achievements in developing our bilateral relations contacts and exchanges at all levels and in your fields have been very frequent friendship and mutual trust have been constantly enhanced the progress in practical cooperation has been incredibly outstanding here i have some figures for you china has been australia's largest trading partner since 2009 our trade volume has surged from less than 100 million 100 million us dollars in the year 1972 to over 207 billion us dollars in the year 2021. this counting for 34.2 percent of australia's total import and export in the year of 2021. and australia's treated surplus with china has reached 60 billion us dollars in that year alone from that year we have another four years and that number has almost a double you can imagine what this is a huge number china is australia's top export destination which exported china accounting for 38.8 of australia's total export in goods in 2021 chinese was also australia's largest source of imports with imports from china taking up 28.1 of australia's total imports of goods in 2021 and starting from 2018 china became australia's largest source country of international international tourists and tourist spending as over one million chinese tourists spend over 10 billion australian dollars annually during their stay in australia despite the impact of coffee 19 china continues to be the largest source of international students for australia as of may this year there are 131 131 400 chinese students studying in australia accounting for about 20 28 of australia's total international students well ladies and gentlemen these are just some of the many many figures but they are telling us a very important fact that the cooperation between china and australia is important to both sides and it's mutually beneficial in nature in the past couple of years unfortunately the relationship between china australia was caught in difficult situations due to reasons known to all this has greatly impacted the biological exchanges cooperation in various views and severely damaged the friendship between our two peoples these some this is something we don't want to see and it goes against the interests of our two countries and our two peoples now with the recent federal election we have a new australian government of course this is the domestic affair of this country it's the choice of the australian people but it did provide us with a possible opportunity to reset the relationship between our two countries chinese premier league channel sent his congratulatory messages to the new prime minister of australia and prime minister albanese returned with a letter of thanks defense ministers foreign minister former two countries held their bilateral meetings we have also seen ministerial communications between the two countries on education or you can of eat the economy and on trade the meeting between the two foreign ministers was especially productive important consensus were reached the two sides reaffirmed their comprehensive strategic partnership and expressed willingness to strengthen engagements enhance mutual trust properly handle properly handle differences remove obstacles and promote practical cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect and a mutual benefit these consensus are significant for the future development of china-australia relations the positive progress in our bilateral relations is encouraging it's encouraging start and of course there's a lot of work to be done it's very important for both sides to make further efforts to keep the momentum take actions for substantive progress and strive to bring our biological relations back on the right track in this connection state counselor wang yi from china put forward proposals from the chinese side which we released briefly by the way it was proposals if you refer to the chinese version it was shiva means hope and it's not demand as we've been reported in the in in certain media and i would like to share with you my views on the following points first to reshape the perception on china and regard china as a partner rather than the rival the essence of the point made by the chinese side is actually the relationship between china and the current international order is china champion or challenger the fact of the matter is china is a participant a builder and a contributor to the existing international system china is the founding member of the united nations and the first country to cite the unchartered china is a member of almost all universal inter-government organizations in the world china is the largest troops contributing country among the p5 of the u.n city council and we are the second largest budget contributor to the u.n peacekeeping china attained the poverty reduction goal of the un's 2030 agenda for sustainable development 10 years ahead of statue contributing more than 70 percent of the to the global poverty reduction efforts as u.s general secretary antonio guterres said in a decade since china has become an increasingly important contributor to the work of the organization and a major pillar of international cooperation in the past more than 40 years or more of reforming an albanian absolute outside the world tremendous changes have happened in china china's comprehensive national strengths has been significantly enhanced but chinese diplomatic philosophy chinese foreign policy remain unchanged china supports necessary reforming improvement to the current international order and system but china never seeks to start a new one china firmly opposed the international system with u.n at its core the international order based on international law and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purpose and principles of the u.n charter because it serves the fundamental interests of china china is developing but china's development movement is to achieve above and beyond not to challenge or replace any other country no matter how china develops itself now or in the future china will never seek hegemony expansion or sphere of influence the development of china-australia relations is at a pretty good juncture china's policy of friendship and cooperation towards australia remains unchanged an objective and irrational perception of australia on china and a positive and pragmatic policy towards china are fundamentally significant for a long-term stable and predictable partnership between china and australia second to create a favorable atmosphere and consolidate the cooperative relations of mutual benefit practical cooperation has been the backbone for china-australia relations making greater contributions to the development of china-australia relations for the past 50 years even in times of difficulties and fluctuations as we experienced in the past several years extensive and in-depth practical cooperation between two countries play this special role as a stabilizer and a ball last without which our biological relations could have been even worse china and australia are economically highly complementary towards each other australia has been a long-term stable supplier of a mineral and energy resources for china china has been a competitive commodity supplier for australia as well such practical cooperation has fostered a close partnership in our two countries when we cooperate we both win when we don't we both lose so it is imperative for the governments of our two countries to adopt positive policies towards each other take positive and concrete measures to improve the atmosphere of cooperation solve differences through consultation create favorable conditions to better serve our mutually beneficial cooperation at present the global economy is facing difficulties such as high inflation weak recovery and tight supply chains the world bank the world bank forecasts that the global growth will slow down and economic recession will be hard to avoid under such circumstances to maintain practical cooperation between china australia is not only conducive to the stable economic development of our two countries but also to carry special significance for us to deal with the current global economic challenges thirdly to respect each other seek seek common ground properly handle difference there are many areas where china and australia share currencies there are many issues on which china australia have common grounds in these other areas we have been collaborating and we should continue to cooperate to the interests of both sides areas like economic development improvement of people's livelihood environment production regional cooperation climate change combating cross cross-border crimes free trade multilateral multilateralism among others at the same time as the no saying goes no two leaves are alike china and australia we are different in many aspects in history in culture in religion in development stage and in political system different as we are there are no areas where we have fundamental conflicts of interest so it is very important for both sides to take constructive approach towards these differences try to narrow down differences through communication dialogues in his spiritual mutual respect mutual respect the least thing we should do is to allow these differences to object to obstruct even hijack the overall relationship and cooperation with our two countries the world is diversified and the political system is taking different forms in different countries whether certain country has chosen a good political system or not is for the people of that country to have the say as we as we are say it in the in in china only the wearer of the shoes knows whether the shoes fit or not the key question is whether the system could help his people to live a better life

Channel: Sky News Australia

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Length: 17min 13sec (1033 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 09 2022