IN FULL: Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian delivers address to Australia's National Press Club | ABC News

[Music] today at the national press club china's ambassador to australia xiao chen the ambassador was previously china's top diplomatic representative in indonesia before taking up his current position in canberra early this year here's xiao chen with today's national press club address hello and welcome to the national press club of australia for today's westpac address i'm david crowe chief political correspondent for the city morning herald and the age and also a director of the club here our guest today is his excellency chan ambassador of the people's republic of china with his address to the national press club of australia this is his first address to the national press club he arrived here in australia in april after a career in the diplomatic service in many countries for china most immediately just four years in indonesia a brief stop in beijing and then here to his appointment in australia over his career he has served in ethiopia india and many other countries before this appointment in australia talking to him before this speech i found it interesting that his background includes many things but at universities among other subjects western literature including iconic american author jack london so he's a man of very many interests we welcome him to the club today uh please welcome him to the podium [Applause] thank you well it's a big audience today i'm very much honored uh thanks david for your introduction and uh good to see so many friends from the press including some of my uh colleagues from the dominican medicorian uh camper 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 is there we are we talked about addressing the mpc last month where uh when i'm in sydney and thank you for your advice and thanks to uh maurice raleigh riley 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 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 uh both uh in the in the eastern coast and also on the western coast and i 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 coming at a very special adventure 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 you 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 that's counting for 34.2 of australia's total import and export in the year of 2021. and australia's trade 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 1 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 131 131 000 400 chinese students studying in australia accounting for about 20 28 of australia's total international students for 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 exchange corporation in various views and has 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 biological meetings we have also seen ministerial communications between the two countries on education or you can econo 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 priority cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect and mutual benefit these consensus are significant for the future development of chinese-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 councilor 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 of xiva 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 uh 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 the contributor to the existing international system china is the founding member of the united nations and the first country to cite 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 security 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 uh 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 open absolute outside world tremendous changes have happened in china china's comprehensive national strength has been significantly enhanced but chinese diplomatic philosophy chinese foreign policy remain unchanged china supports necessary reformity 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 chinese policy of friendship and cooperation towards australia remains unchanged an objective and the rational 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 better two countries play this special role as a stabilizer and the ball lasts 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 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 with 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 role that 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 common injuries there are many issues on which china australia have common grounds and these are the areas we have been cooperating 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 the spirit of 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 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 the system of socialism with chinese characteristics under the leadership of the chinese communist party has achieved remarkable success it fits china it's good for china and it has won the heartfelt support of 1.4 billion chinese people here are some figures after 40 years of reforming opening up from the year 1978 to the year 2018 china's economy has grown 225 votes capita gdp has increased from 155 u.s dollars in the year 1978 to 80 800 us dollars in the year 2018 per capita income has grown 22.8 vote and china has contributed over 30 percent of the world's economic growth and it has become the world's leading power of economic development china has successfully built up a modestly prosperous society in all respects chinese people have been lifted out of absolute poverty in a complete way the efficiency of china's whole process people's democracy speaks for itself it took china decades to go through the development journey that took developed countries centuries to complete australia is a diversified country in many aspects and diversity is an important contributor to australia's success the past five years the past five decades have shown that china and australia we can be friends we can be partners in spite of our differences in political system and development stage the fourth point to the vet to develop an inclusive relationship based on the interest of our own two peoples as independent sovereign states china and australia each has its own national interests each also conducts exchanges with other countries in the world and builds various partnerships china and australia share mutual interests with each other while at the same time each shares mutual interest with other partners as well one centuries are sometimes the same or similar with the others but sometimes not which is pretty normal china respects australia's normal exchanges in cooperation with other countries china has no intention to interfere in or undermine australia's relations with a third party at the same time it is our belief that china and australia should make independent judgments and decisions to develop our own bilateral relations based on the interests of the people of china and the people of australia free from interference from a third party 50 years ago prime minister whitman overcame tremendous tremendous over difficulties and challenges made the brief decision to establish diplomatic relations between australia and china in the initiation of cooperation with china and engagement with asia have proven that australia is fully capable of playing its role independently in international affairs as an important major country in as asia-pacific as a founding member of apec australia has its unique geographical and cultural advantages australia could play an even bigger role to promote exchanges cooperation between the east and the west and could make even greater contribution to the prosperity and stability of the east pacific region fifthly and the last point to promote mutual understanding return to peoples to lay down a solid foundation of mutual friendship amity beating our peoples holds the key to sound relations with our two countries over the past 50 years there have been established more than 100 pairs of sister provinces sisters cited states and sister cities building china and australia before kobe 19 pandemic there were nearly 200 flights between our two countries every week carrying nearly 2 million passengers visiting each other every year and china has been australia's largest source of international students for seven consecutive years since 2015. and in addition to this there are more than 1.2 million overseas chinese working and living in different parts of australia making outstanding contribution to australia's economic social and multicultural prosperity and at the same time to the friendship exchanges cooperation between two countries everyone is entitled to his own views but unargue unarguably the policy adopted and the information released by the government do have direct influence on the attitudes of the public if the government of our two countries adopt positive policies and positive measures towards each other protect and encourage the french friendship between two peoples it would be highly conducive to a healthy and stable development of our bilateral relationship media has a special role to play in the forming of public opinion here at mpc i'm talking to the media but allow me to be frank is my at least this is my feeling how i feel about it since i came here about six months ago seven months ago that here in this country the media coverage on china are mostly not positive or to be straightforward and mostly negative it is simply difficult to find out news about china that is positive there are we do have but it's it's pretty low disproportionately low no country is perfect no country is perfect however a coverage on a country that is always in a negative perspective it's nowhere near to telling the truth about that country that's how i feel about it and the coverage on china of such kind is a medications are many times misleading it's also harming the friendship between our two peoples so it's important to take an objective perspective on china tell stories about china in old dimension this could be helpful for the australian public to know what china truly is well ladies and gentlemen this about our biological relations but the taiwan question has received much attention recently on august 2nd the u.s house speaker nancy pelosi visited china's taiwan region this is a serious violation of the one china principle and violation of the provisions of the three china u.s joint communiques it has a severe impact on the political foundation of china-u.s relations and seriously infringes upon china's sovereignty and territorial integrity it gravely undermines peace and stability across the sarah street and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for the so-called taiwan independence speaker pelosi insisted on visiting taiwan region in disregard of china's strong opposition making it clear to the world it was the u.s side who first took provocative actions to change and undermine the status quo and it is the u.s side it should and must take full responsibility for the escalation of tensions in taiwan street china is compelled to take counter measures to safeguard its national sovereignty and territory integrity which is legitimate and justified australia government has reaffirmed on several occasions its commitment to the one china principle as is clearly stated in the 1972 jointly communicate between china and australia here i quote the australian government recognizes the government of the people's republic of china as the sole legal government of china acknowledges the position of the chinese government that taiwan is a province of the people's republic of china the end court the one china principle is a solemn commitment by success of australian governments either liberal or labor for the past five decades this principle should be strictly abide by and fully honored it should not be misinterpreted or compromised in practice we hope that australian side could take china-australia relations with serious attitude take the one china principle seriously handle the timeline question with caution but without discount ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen the coming december 22nd it's coming december 22nd we mark the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between china and australia i think it's perfect time for our two countries to review the past look into the future take concrete actions in the spirit of mutual respect and mutual benefits strive together to bring china-australia comprehensive strategic partnership back on the right check it's going to be in the interest of our two countries and our two peoples thank you for your presence and thank you for your patience thank you thank you ambassador we have many questions from the media and thank you again for your first speech to the national press club um clearly uh the tensions over taiwan are a major subject at the moment and you spoke about the importance of economic growth and economic partnership between australia and china and the the growth that china's achieved over decades but do you accept that gdp growth does not mean much if war breaks out and if a nation is conducting military drills around the straits of taiwan that that then causes uncertainty and fear that then undermine that growth now nancy pelosi's visit last week has led to several days of military drills and the pla announced yesterday that it was going to continue drills including from the reports i saw in the china daily surface to ship simulated attacks now in what way is that the action of a stabilizing nation how long will those military drills continue is it a question yes hello thanks david well it's a question the last one this question but i think before the question there were a couple of points you made as a statement allow me to say a few words on the other points that you made before your question i think the question now is really about uh the essence of one china policy uh the uh the critical point is if we if every country uh put the one china policy into practice with sincerity with no compromise it's going to guarantee the peace and stability across thailand state the uh the the visit the visit by uh speaker pelosi to the taiwan region is the exactly the reason that it has caused the violation of the uh commitments by the u.s government to one china policy and has caused the excavation escalation of tensions across taiwan streets and the chinese side is taking action in reaction to what has been done by the u.s side and our purpose is to send messages clear and cut clear now to those who are violating the commitment of one china policy who are supporting one china one taiwan or to china's we're sending a message to those who are uh trying to speak taiwan from china the message is clear this is a action in reaction to the provocative provocations from the u.s side from the separatist movements in taiwan island and the action the reaction is legitimate it's uh justified and it's is there's no reason for a reapproach and as for how long the military exercise and jews are gonna last uh i think our spokesman for the national uh defense minister fans also our spokesperson for the minister foreign affairs have made it pretty clear that uh these are the actions uh as a counter measure to what has happened what has been done by the u.s side what has been done by the regime in taiwan and it's a determination to show that on the question taiwan there's no room for compromise it's not something like economic development or trade relations or specific issues in some other areas on the quest from taiwan it's an issue relating to sovereignty and territory integrity there's no room for us to compromise and as for how old is going to last at proper time i think there will be announcement thank you the next question is from anna henderson and helen chen from sbs and i will just translate in english anna henderson sbs world news you mentioned the 50th anniversary of relations between australia and china to mark this is it possible that china will make practical moves to improve their relationships such as lifting trade restrictions on australia and or releasing australian citizen chengle well thank you for the question uh as i said as i said in my uh in my dress in my speech uh there was a difficult time for a couple of years in the past between our two countries and now there's a opportunity for a possible recessive relationship and here we have a good start ever since the new labor government came into power and but this is good to start only and there's a lot to be done to really reset this relationship and there's a lot of issues on the table many disputes to be solved our policy is that we are for friendly cooperation with australia we're ready to work together with rosalie a new government to put this relationship back on the right track specifically i think has been very helpful if both sides take objective perspective on each on each other take positive policies and concrete actions and in this process uh the issues on the table will be uh gradually solved or we were going to find out solutions to these issues currently there have been uh top-level communications there have been high-level uh contacts even uh face-to-face contacts but we have not yet come to the stage to discuss about how to solve those specific issues either political issues or trade issues or some other individual cases issues already we are ready to compare those with the new government and to get engaged in this process as for the uh the the trade disputes as you mentioned uh i i would rather not to use the word uh sanctions uh i think uh i think this issue perhaps i could categorize it in different uh groups uh one is uh one kind is uh um trade dispute at the uh between the two governments at the government level these are mainly on the tariffs terrorists on certain broadcasts from australia and those were imposed by the chinese customs indeed it happened yeah that's true it was a official action in response to the complaints from the some of the chinese companies who are involved in the similar businesses they complain about the damping of certain programs from australia and once there's complaint complain according to the wp wto the chinese government has the obligation and the right to increase tariff to protect our own industry and the case is now in the wto and we're ready to sort it out and solve this disputes uh uh through wwto with the labor government uh if the new government in this country is ready to discuss it bilaterally it's okay we're ready to talk about the things second type is more about the people's attitudes when there was some policies taken or actions taken by the previous australian government on some of the major chinese companies chinese projects chinese businesses in this country for example huawei zte and many other chinese companies causing similar damages economically to these companies basically it's a been stopped huawei of any kind of business in this country and that's a huge uh disruption to the normal business relations between two countries and these actions have been sending very negative messages to the people in china and they're not happy to be honest and they are if you look at the reaction from the public in china at that time even nowadays they're still not happy about uh those actions and um just like you uh you go to shops and you you you buy something and uh you want you are you're offended you're not happy then perhaps you are thinking about go to some other stores to buy the similar products so there are people in china who are really calling for um buying some other products rather than the australian products that's the attitudes of the public it happened uh when we have uh some problems with our relations with other countries as well for example our our neighbor neighboring country to the east and there was more a severe reaction from the chinese public the third and for this kind of problem my expectation is that once we have a more positive messages more positive actions more positive policies to be taken by the new government is going to improve the atmosphere and the people in china will be happy to come back to the market to come back to australia to buy the the best quality australian products which are very popular in china that's true and third category is the um the caution taken by the uh some of the chinese companies they are thinking like um what has happened to huawei and the zte is it going to happen to me tomorrow is it is going to happen to my company uh some other day so so there are companies from china who used to be interested in the australian market but they became cautious and some of them try to find out alternatives like you know investing in latin america or in africa that's true as ambassador in this country i'd love to have more investment from china in australia and i would like to see a improvement of uh environment for the businessman to do business in this country we have so many things we can we can cooperate it's beneficial to both sides thank you oh sorry for the individual cases um there are a couple of australian citizens uh in china they are under custody according chinese rules and laws and their basic rights how well protected don't worry about that and um during the pandemic during the severe uh periods of the pandemic in in the cities where they are detained there were times when they were not accessible to their relatives or the diplomats of australia it was because of pandemic now they are they can get easy to get access to uh to to them to their to relatives either in australia or their uh also their embassies in in china and the cases is still under the jurisdiction process and um we're going to sort it out according to the chinese rule and the laws thank you um well that uh communicates the australian concern about chiang lai that's for sure the next question is from stephen jetchitz from abc hi ambassador thanks for your time i'm told that the taiwan affairs offices in fact just this morning released a new white paper on taiwan and the white paper asserts that china will quote not renounce the use of force and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures it also says while use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances it doesn't lay out what those circumstances are sir can you explain to australians who are concerned and worried about the prospect of a chinese invasion of taiwan and the inevitable consequences of that invasion what constitutes precisely in the minds of the chinese government a compelling circumstance that would justify a use of force across the strait well thanks for the question uh in the first place uh my brother not use the word invasion when we talk about china and taiwan taiwan is different from any other uh scenario situation towing is not a independent state it's not independent state taiwan is the province of the people's republic of china the status taiwan is in the in cairo declaration is in the uh foster pro-declaration is in the u.s resolutions it's in uh bilateral documents between china australia taiwan is a province of china and the the the issue between china and taiwan is an issue between the central government of peoples without china with a local government it's an issue of reunification complete reunification and issue of taiwan coming back to the uh to the motherland um as for the our approach uh to the question of the taiwan i think it's consistent clear and pretty open we have made that on many medications over the past several decades actually that the people in the mainland people in taiwan are chinese we are both chinese and the the taiwanese are comparative of china and the least thing we're ready to do is to use force and that is one of the reasons why china has been so patient for several decades we are waiting we're waiting for a peaceful uh unification and but uh we cannot we can never uh rule out the our option to use other means so when necessary when compelled we are ready to use all necessary means as to what does it mean by all necessary means you can use your imagination but the people but the 1.4 billion chinese people are absolutely determined to protect our sovereignty territory in great turkey will never allow taiwan to be separated from china i think that is our policy thank you next question is from ben pakham from the australian ambassador thank you um your colleague the chinese ambassador to france told french media recently that when china takes over taiwan it will re-educate its 23 million people can you confirm with a yes or no is that chinese government policy will china re-educate taiwan's people to change their minds about the chinese communist party well thanks ben for your question but i uh i didn't i didn't read the news about my colleague's remarks on this particular issue i think uh given the situation that [Music] the people in taiwan i mean the people in taiwan are under a regional regime for many decades it is uh reasonable for us to understand that their perspective about china their uh perspective about their muslims might take some more different views i think this is a a a a fact but i think the key point now is not about the either education or re-education uh the uh 1.4 billion chinese people including uh 80 million people in uh in taiwan are all uh or chinese yeah so they are like a yes is that a yes it sounds like a yes what do you mean by yes that that it is chinese policy that they will need re-educating well i'm not going to speak on behalf of our ambassador in france i mean i'm asking on a point of policy the policy on the point of policy i haven't read about such a uh official policy but i think my personal understanding is that uh once uh chinese uh taiwan's uh uh uh united coming back to the motherland there might be process for the people in taiwan to have a correct understanding of china along the lines of the camps that you have in xinjiang the education process in xinjiang are we talking about a different topic well that's a re-education process isn't it no there's no i i would rather not use the word reeducation the people in xinjiang are also chinese citizens and they receive education in school in colleges in universities about china about their motherland yeah that's pretty normal thank you thank you ben the next question is from chris yeoman from the nine network ambassador christian nine news i was interested in your comments on respect for international law and also that we needed to have positive policies and your guidance for the media in australia about being positive towards china if i could just make a couple of observations about why people might have a negative view you've occupied and militarized the south china sea in contravention of international law recently you threatened an australian air force aircraft flying over those waters under rights under international war you've imp und international law you've imprisoned our citizens without rights to national justice you have launched thousands of attacks against private and public sector through cyber uh you've interfered in our politics our universities and our our diaspora and the people that you call the 1.2 million overseas chinese many of them we would call australian citizens who owe a right a duty to australia so can you see why it might be that some australians would think that when you talk about international law and positive policies you do not do what you say well uh i mean the is it a statement you have no question no i made some observations given you thought we were so you are making observations you are making statements i'm making some observations you were talking about reporting so i was wondering why you might think that people would not see those things as being negative policies well i invited me to comment on your observations i'm inviting you to comment on whether or not you're occupying and militarizing the south china sea in contravention of international law and whether or not you threatened australian aircraft in that airspace okay i'll uh i'll i'll try to brief because you covered quite a number of issues first of all in the south china sea uh china and several other countries we are all claimants of certain areas and territories in south china sea and china we inherited this claim from our previous government and who is now in taiwan the so-called republic of china and there's no there's no uh room for the people of the republic of china to uh uh to uh to to deviate from our uh uh farm claim and uh and we'll continue to stick to the position to protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity but at the same time understand there there are differences there are disputes between china and some other countries so china and relevant claimant countries are involved in discussions consultations even negotiations bilaterally and multilaterally we are involved with asean countries in the formulating code of contact code uh declaration a doc declaration of conduct now in the process of formulating a coc code of conduct trying to sort out a framework for addressing such issues in the future secondly about the uh the uh the existence of china china in this areas and the military is the tsunami it is the the uh necessary measures we have to take to protect the security of the areas which belong to us and as have been do has been has been done by many other claimants as well they have done that much earlier thirdly you mentioned about the aircraft uh incident yeah about uh between china and australia uh me i pointed out that um that incident uh was it very unfortunate had happened not the industry and south china sea in general there's a two big area you cannot say that it happened in in the earth it's happened at a particular uh location that location is within the territorial space of an island that blossomed to china so it's just like you are you're in your house within your compound somebody's uh driving around carrying a gun and trying to peep into your wind to see what you're doing within your family and what you're talking about between your family members you you kind of you feel a bit threatened you feel uncomfortable so you have to you have to come out and tell those people to to keep dissidents at least that's the point i want to make his house and then about the chinese australians this i want i want to see a viewers on this pursue sensitive there are many there are 1.2 billion chinese australians and these are naturalized australians they are australian citizens they are loyal to australia they are not loyal to china but at the same time they came from china their ancestors they have blood uh relation with china so they are a linkage of friendship and cooperation between our two countries and you have to if you if you watch very carefully my embassy is very careful ever since i came here seven months ago i never comment on the chinese australian issue during the federal election i didn't make any comment even when i met some of the chinese australians i never talked about the elections it's their domestic affairs it's for the australian people including the chinese religious to make their own choices at the same time i want to emphasize this here australia is diversified from different parts of the world come into this country they form the community a nation called australian people and chinese people are part of those people they are making contributions to this great country their interests just like many other ethnic groups in this country should be respected thank you next question is from claire armstrong from news corp australia thank you ambassador for your time you said that changly allays rights were protected she is an australian citizen a journalist who almost two years ago to the day was arrested the details of the charges against her remain unknown she was tried in secret the australian ambassador was not allowed in the courtroom when this happened and there is no details about when she may be sentenced or what her future is her family have raised concerns about her health issues and alleging there have been even restrictions on food so how are her rights protected and if china is serious about resetting the relationship with australia why won't you release her well thanks for the question i understand that any citizen from australia who is detained obviously should be not a sensitive issue and uh just like assange you know or uh uh uh uh mr pavlov who's detained in the united kingdom uh the case of chennai but the person you're talking about is a studio in the jurisdiction production process and in addition what i've said earlier i want to emphasize that this case involves national security she's been charged uh uh transmitting uh information relating to national security uh overseas so uh it is a common practice in not only in china but also in many other countries as well that when cases involved involving national security the trial is conduct in a way usually it's not open to the public and you there's no appetite to release her at this stage is what you're saying well i think we all have to respect the the laws and the regulations of china it's still on the process thank you next question is from kieran gilbert from sky news ambassador thank you for your address he said that china isn't seeking to be a hegemony or expand a sphere of influence is china planning to establish a military base in the pacific possibly on the solomons and as we look at the human catastrophe in ukraine what can the international community including china learn from that catastrophe when dealing with taiwan well thank you for your question it's a the relation between china and the pacific island country has been the uh all of the most discussed issues uh within the past couple of months allow me to say that uh we're having relations with uh we're developing a relationship with many countries in different parts of the world in in the in southeast asia with asean countries with south asian countries with central asian countries african countries even european countries and latin american countries our relationship with a pacific country is just similarly part of our relationship with different parts of countries in different parts of the world and the purpose is to develop a friendship of cooperation and to help uh this region and these countries for a political stability social harmony and more importantly a priority economic economic development as for the uh the relation between china and the southern islands i think uh our our foreign minister our spokesperson and also our our people have made it pretty clear on several occasions that uh uh trying to come to some islands upon request of the government of that country and we are there's no reason for us to refuse to help but the purpose is help them to stabilize to prosper and to to improve there is no intention for china to set up the so-called military base in sonoma islands and the leader of the country have said similar thing i think should i see that the pages turned what is next to be done is uh i hope that uh china and australia we can cooperate either bilaterally or trilaterally a quadruple way to cooperate within china australia plus pacific island countries for the stability social harmony and economic development for example climate change i think there's a lot we can do between china and australia to help those countries to improve their uh their uh their situation thank you next question is from andrew tillett from the australian financial review uh yes thanks david uh ambassador thanks for appearing today um i just want to go back to taiwan and implicit in your comments is sort of you talk about it for obviously from the the the prc perspective but there are 23 million people in taiwan don't they get a say in what should happen to their future a bigger partner there are 23 million people in taiwan don't they get a say in what should happen about their future you talk about reunification but it would be on china's terms wouldn't it i mean one country two systems the deal that was offered to hong kong is dead we said we've seen that in the last couple of years that might have been a deal that the taiwanese were tempted by in the 90s but would would not be now so you talk about you know the the white paper the paper out today talks about leaving um the option of taking taiwan by force but what about the 23 million taiwanese people don't they get a say in their future well first uh thank you andrew for your question a few words on the hong kong have been applying this one country to this system uh generally it's been successful there have been problems uh in during the process that is because there are some loopholes in this process and by taking necessary measures at the national constitutional level we have solved the problem and we have full confidence that the future of hong kong will be uh even uh uh brighter and if you if you look at the numbers uh the economic development performance uh the hong kong's performance economy has much better than than it was then the number it was when it was under british colony rule and their economic performance is much better than the united kingdom sorry to say that and so we have reason to believe there'll be a future and look at the china's development and there's a much much bigger room for hong kong to get more prosperous in the future secondly on the question of taiwan i think you're talking about the [Music] the view and wishes of the timeless people taiwan is part of china and uh 1.4 billion chinese people are determined to protect that uh to be uh to be pro to be affected and the future of taiwan will be decided by 1.4 billion chinese people and i at the same time i believe that uh the majority of the people in taiwan believe they are chinese they believe taiwan is proud of china and taiwan is province of china we have for reunification there we do have a group of people a handful of people perhaps they are seeking for taiwan independence movement graduate independence they are trying to uh remove for marx that are italian timeless people these are the people are they are chinese and these activities uh they're being resisted by the majority of people in taiwan that's what we believe well don't majority the opinion polls show that most people in taiwan prefer the status quo not independence not being part of china but the status quo the current system well i think the the poll is misleading if you look at uh for the last previous election you know in this country federal election the opinion posts turn out to be just the opposite i think uh it is quite obvious uh even even the chinese the the people in taiwan who are in power in the in the local government if this university in taiwan believe they're chinese they want they will they want to have uh china to be part of china to have taiwan to broader china thank you thank you andrew next question is from mark reilly from the seven network uh mr ambassador just a couple of statements you've made today if i could ask a question on those you said that this is a possibility for a reset in the relationship prime minister albanese said he's prepared to meet president xi in bali the g20 in november will china allow that to happen will there be an invitation to the prime minister to meet with president xi you've also given us quite a discursive admonition to um countries in the region about acting with mutual respect cooperation and friendship and then you've said quote australia should handle the taiwan question with caution that sounds like a threat is it thanks for the question for the bilateral relationship as i said our policy to australia remains unchanged we are for a friendly collaborative relationship between china australia as i said personally when i just came here i'm a new ambassador i'm here to seek friends notice rivals or adversaries or human enemies but at the same time you know after the couple of years of difficult situations between china australia there there's going to be a process for us to reset and gradually improve our relationship and now what we have now is just a good start and there's more to be done including creating a favorable atmosphere of between our two countries politically political relations is important when we have a good one they are helpful to our cooperation in other views other way around is going to damage hurting our corporations as for the top-level contacts there have been communication vision to prime ministers by sending exchange of letters or messages and there have been minister level meetings i personally would wish to see a gradual improvement of atmosphere to create a favorable condition for a more wide range of communications at various levels various levels including the top levels and second on the taiwan question across from taiwan caution is to just to remind it's not um here as ambassador in this country the least thing i would do is to uh to make demand or to sound like demanding australia is a big nation it's a it's a great nation i have all my future respect but i would like to remind that big and great as australia as it is it is important for the government in this country to stick to the commitment of one china policy and this commitment should be not only in words but also in these not also not only in name but also in essence and it should be practiced with absolute sincerity but without discount thank you uh i would like to follow up on that question about a bali meeting because i'm curious about you sound like you are you are in favor of improving relations towards a meeting between anthony albanese and president xi can you identify right now any obstacle any reason why they should not be able to have a formal meeting in bali at the g20 well if you look at the past couple of years when we have a political difficulties uh you know you feel uh uncomfortable to meet each other and let's take in a very bad example if you are you know say talking bad about me why should i meet you uh you uh you humiliated me publicly and do i should i meet you to be humiliated again face to face the the meeting at the top level is very important not in the sense of a symbolic symbolism but also in essence once we have a high-level meeting we hope is going to be helpful in developing a more positive relationship instead of instead of making it worse so uh when there was no top-level uh meetings between the two countries during the past couple of years it's the it is because we did not believe the meeting would help to improve the relationship and we were concerned a meeting could perhaps make things even more deteriorate as for the few upcoming multilateral forums like uh east asia summit apec summit a g20 summit going to be in bali and the apec in thailand i guess and uh asean in pam yeah and we are i think we're gonna communicate with our australian colleagues through the mathematic channels to see one appropriate or when we have a necessary condition an atmosphere whether or not both sides have the willingness to to get engaged in a top-level meeting as ambassador i'm hoping for the best and i'm going to try to make my own efforts towards that direction the next question is from dominic nini from aap dominic giannini from aap thank you ambassador um given your focus on sovereignty and non-interventionism how are we supposed to take that seriously from china given the failure to condemn russian's invasion of ukraine and continued cooperation with russia and how are we to take your condemnation of australian media seriously given the the quashing of dissidents and and disinformation around in china thank you for the question it's a very uh interesting question in a sense that uh it's been asked again again on many occasions for the past couple of months my answer is there's no simple answer to a question of complexity if you look at what has happened in ukraine it involves many aspects involves the relations i mean the disputes between nato and russia there is security concern from russia and they are feeling that they've been countered again again at least six or seven times by the expansion of the nation or nato to eastwards which is a broke uh break away from their promise and that not to do that and uh there's also a i for that for this issue i think it's a we're for a bilateral negotiation between nato members israeli united states and russia to sit down and negotiate for a comprehensive sustainable security mechanism and the second layer perhaps the relation between disputes between ukraine and russia and these two countries are both friendly countries to china we have good relations with russia for true yes at the same time we have a very good relation with ukraine as well also very in-depth cooperation in many areas including technology and there's no reason for us to support one against the other or other iran but these two countries used to be the used to be part of the former soviet union and so the relation between these two countries is rather complicated we are for a bilateral discussion at the table uh to find out a political solution between these two countries and thirdly perhaps is the rule of ukraine via the the relation between nato and uh russia uh i'm gonna i'm not gonna comment on that but may i just remind that we have some very important views expressed by uh dr heron kissinger um a couple of years ago in the new new york times he is for a more strategic kind of vision to properly handle these issues thank you and on the media in china uh-huh the media in china how you criticize the australian media for not giving china enough positive attention is china cracking down on media in its home country i don't quite catch the point of making you man yeah the media in china are also being affected on attitudes towards australia when they have a very when they know that there's a very positive attitude in this country about uh china which is very unfortunate and it's not necessary we might have different views on many issues between china australia but there's uh there's uh there's so many things uh where we have in common and we can cooperate and um even you know it's it's uh and we have uh diplomatic channels just quite open between our two countries when we have difference we can we can talk we can sit down and discuss try to sort it out and try to narrow it down if possible otherwise we can perhaps leave this side and focus our efforts on the common areas and go on with their cooperation because it's good for our two countries and instead of uh you know focusing too much publicly on the differences countries have differences even among people even being among brothers and sisters you have different views even between husband and wife sometimes you quarrel but it's one thing you the for the husband who i have to quarrel and fight at home is something else if they fight downtown in the street it's going to change the nature of the marriage so i'm for i'm for a uh proper proper uh modality to handle the difference between two great nations we have so many things we can cooperate and we should not allow these differences to hijack our cooperation thank you thank you ambassador we've got one last question which is from chloe burris from network 10. thank you mr ambassador australia's been very clear in asking for a de-escalation of the military drills china's foreign ministry has in turn accused australia of breaching the un charter do you share that view i i didn't catch your uh question china has accused australia of breaching the u.n charter by calling for a de-escalation of the military drills do you share that view well let me see a few points on this issue if you follow the uh the statements of the chinese embassy spokesperson the beautiful lady there she is our spokesperson uh after what has happened uh uh recently uh by uh speaker pelosi's visit to china's taiwan province we have made a number of uh remarks and uh uh number one these remarks are in reaction to the remarks made by the australian side uh when there was a when there was a view expressed in the public in the media in this country about the relation uh between china's u.s visa via taiwan question my spokesperson made a statement or remark just to tell what it is our position on thailand question our position on the speaker policies visit our position on one china policy and our request we asked for australia to understand and support the china's position of one china policy which is also a policy of the australian government then after some further statements by the australian government either the minister foreign affairs or minister minister for foreign minister uh we made further remarks he elaborated on our positions but continuously we've been asking for understanding appreciation of our one china policy from the australian side it was only after the joint statement by the three foreign ministers australia u.s japan they will not only uh express their uh serious concern but also used contamination on china's missile launch in the so-called japanese eez exclusive economic zones it was only then that the spokesperson of my embassy made a remark expressing our serious concern strong discontent and we use the word contamination because number one it was the u.s side who's the one who fired the first shot the other ones will violate the one china principle they say they are committed to one china principle in words but actually they are doing something just the opposite and uh the other one who provoked it we were the ones who reacted for defense to protect their territorial sovereignty and the integrity and secondly uh the area in question without china and japan will still a unresolved issue there is no solution which area i mean this particular area belongs to either china or japan so it's an area the area in question i mean the area where the ballistic missile dropped in is an area of dispute between china and japan and usually between among countries when there's a dispute between two countries the non-claimed countries stand in neutral instead of choosing to support one against the other because it involves territorial dispute so we were surprised by australian governments to choose inside to support uh japan and and japan japan's claim was legally unfounded and it is invalid and uh thirdly uh our wish is that uh um as uh good partners visiting china australia uh we hope that our sweden government uh uh respect china's uh territory integrity and the national unity and the stick to the white china policy not only as just as i said in words in deeds and in action and it's an issue not to be compromised and it is an issue not to be a discussion practiced in a blurred way yeah it's an issue so sensitive to china if i if we can make compromise on many many other issues economic issues trade issues or any other issues there's absolutely no room for us to compromise on the question of the taiwan because it's a question of sovereignty and territory integrity just like no australian government would ever compromise on australia's territory integrity and just like maybe it's not a good example but tasmania was is will be a part of australia and this this evolves to territory integrity and i will i hope we could have some understanding from our friends and colleagues from this country thank you thank you please join me in thanking the ambassador for his speech today thank you we appreciate your time and we appreciate this is your first speech to the national press club and on behalf of the national press club i have a bottle of pen folds because penfolds and treasury wines has just had a success in china in beating a copycat winemaker to reinforce their brand so please accept that from the national press club a good australian wine what a great honor

Channel: ABC News (Australia)

Views: 62,183

Keywords: Australia, abc, abc news, news, japan, australia, richard marles, marles, anthony albanese, japanese, military, deputy prime minister, tokyo, australian, japan news, china, threats, conflict, war, unrest, xi jinping, aukus, australian pacific, asian pacific, hong kong live, xi jinping live, xi china, china live, china news, china president, umbrella protests, umbrella movement, Xiao Qian, chinese ambassador, press club, australian press club, press club live, Xiao Qian press club

Id: AXeHRtmWJ68

Length: 81min 24sec (4884 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 10 2022