24 March 2009, Address to students at Sichuan University
The Australia-China Relationship Today
Well thank you Vice President Shi for that warm welcome and also thank you for the great honour of inviting me to address one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China.
It’s very auspicious that my first public engagement on my first official visit to China should be at a great seat of learning.
Firstly let me repeat the Australian Government’s and the Australian people’s deepest condolences on the terrible loss the citizens of this great province suffered in May last year.
I know that many of your families will have been very badly affected.
Despite the urgent and intense response of the national and provincial governments, and the inspiring efforts of the many volunteers and China’s military personnel, the physical and psychological effects of the earthquake still endure.
Our thoughts are with all those affected and with all those working to rebuild thousands of destroyed houses.
I am pleased that Australia has been able to make a contribution to the rebuilding effort.
The scale of the Australian community’s response, which raised more than A$30 million in total, underscores the depth of Australia’s feelings.
The impulse to assist in different ways was felt right across Australian society.
The University of New South Wales for example has provided 10 full tuition scholarships for Sichuan University students, for Masters degrees by coursework to be undertaken in 2009.
My own university, the University of Western Australia, has offered a student from this University a postgraduate scholarship in the field of infectious diseases, studying with Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Marshall.
Australian companies, including the ANZ Bank and Bluescope Steel, have been prominent in the reconstruction activities.
My home State, Western Australia, donated A$1 million, the largest single contribution by an Australian State Government to the earthquake relief effort.
Western Australia, is the heart of Australia’s vast mineral and petroleum resources industry, just as Sichuan Province is the bastion of China’s mineral wealth.
Some students here today are mining and agricultural science students and will go on to continue Sichuan University’s tradition of contributing to China’s technological growth.
Others among you are engineers, no doubt preparing to advance the remarkable story of China’s space industry.
A former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, and his Science Minister, Barry Jones visited here in 1986.
Mr Jones visited the Xichang Satellite Launching Base here in Sichuan, and Australia subsequently became the first Western country to launch commercial satellites from Xichang.
I am proud to say that Australia had the vision to recognise the potential of China’s space industry.
The Australia-China relationship today
Australia’s establishment of diplomatic relations with China in 1972 by the Whitlam Government, together with Australia’s One China policy has underpinned Australia-China relations for more than 30 years.
From those beginnings, and starting with trade in minerals resources from Western Australia, great things have emerged.
The relationship between Australia and China is now broadly based and very productive. Our leaders and our Governments are committed to taking this relationship to an even higher level.
It has become a relationship beyond trade, extending to a strategic dialogue, climate change, human rights, regional security, and disarmament.
It is also built on rapidly expanding people-to-people ties, with a growing number of Chinese tourists visiting Australian shores and over 100,000 Chinese students studying in Australia.
When young Chinese study in Australia both of our countries benefit. China builds its knowledge and its expertise; and when a young Chinese student returns home with the benefit of education experience in Australia, Australia gains an Ambassador for life. The enhanced understanding developed through these links sees both our countries prosper.
I also welcome the closer links that will be created between Australia and Sichuan with the future delivery of two panda cubs from Sichuan to Adelaide Zoo.
Later this week, I will have the opportunity to take part in the second Australia-China Strategic Dialogue with my counterpart, Foreign Minister Yang in Beijing.
This follows the very successful Dialogue we had in Australia last year, the inaugural Dialogue.
The Australia-China relationship is now stronger and more broadly based than ever before.
The range of issues we need to discuss is correspondingly much wider. From bilateral, to regional, to global.
There is a range of regional institutions in which our shared aspirations for this region give us a chance to work together, where we have the opportunity to discuss our respective approaches to peace and security and prosperity in Asia.
We have a strong record of cooperation in APEC and, more recently, in the East Asia Summit.
China is now a major global political and economic force, and makes its influence felt in world affairs. So Australia engages closely with China on a wide range of international issues affecting our national interests.
The forthcoming Strategic Dialogue is but one element of a growing suite of high-level dialogues Australia holds with China.
Significantly, the bilateral relationship is underpinned by frequent high-level visits.
Prime Minister Rudd visited China last April, following on from earlier visits to Australia by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Prime Minister Rudd returned to Beijing in August last year to attend the Olympics. The Prime Minister’s impressions of the host nation’s remarkable achievements were shared by the millions of Australians who watched the Games.
We are also proud of the achievement of the Australian team, which came sixth in the medal tally.
Both Australia and China are now committed to developing the relationship from one focused on economics to a more broad-based partnership.
In pursuing that partnership, we acknowledge the reality that we have different approaches to key interests. These reflect our different history, our different political systems, as well as different interests.
For example we don’t always see eye-to-eye on questions of human rights, but, as in any mature partnership, in the context of mutual respect and trust, these differences can be aired. Australia values very much our annual human rights dialogue in which these issues are discussed frankly between our two countries.
Security and stability in Asia
Today, we look to China to play a leading role in regional and global affairs, a role befitting its growing economic and political influence.
China’s leadership has a fundamental and abiding interest in the security and stability of North East Asia, and a significant contribution to make in helping the region respond to challenges such as North Korea’s nuclear program, and the six-party talks process.
The world looks to China to play its role as a responsible and constructive actor in regional affairs.
We see the positive trend in relations between China and other regional powers as a very welcome development. One example is the recent trilateral discussion between China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
This is of great importance to a country like Australia. Our prosperity, like that of China, is linked to the stability and growth of the Asia-Pacific region.
We are encouraged by the dialogue that is taking place between the new United States Administration and the Chinese leadership, which bodes well for cooperation on pressing international challenges including the global economic crisis.
The global economic crisis
It is Australia’s view that addressing the current economic crisis requires unprecedented levels of international coordination, including the implementation of fiscal stimulus packages.
We welcome the vigorous stimulus measures China has adopted, which make a vital contribution to the task of restoring confidence, and will help the Chinese economy counteract the effects of falling global demand.
China is better placed than most to weather the global financial crisis, given its sound fiscal position and low public-debt burden, its huge current-account surplus and foreign currency holdings.
Australia, too, has adopted stimulus measures, a A$10 billion package in December last year and most recently a A$42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan.
The G20, the Group of 20 is an international institution of developed and important emerging economies that, like the Financial Stability Forum, originated in response to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-98.
The G20, which includes China and Australia, is the forum best equipped to lead the global response to the current crisis.
Australia wants ambitious outcomes from the forthcoming London G20 Summit.
The scale of this crisis means the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions need a significant increase in their resources. As well, it’s vital that the weight of significant countries like China is properly reflected in international economic decision-making.
We welcome the recent expansion of the Financial Stability Forum to include emerging markets, including China.
Like China, we want to see the G20 take a firm stand against protectionism.
We are pleased that China shares this view.
Deepening our commercial ties
Our two countries enjoy growing economic ties.
In recent years, the rapid growth of China’s resource requirements has made this ever clearer.
Australia is one of the world’s great minerals and petroleum resources producers. We are a competitive and a long term reliable supplier of key resources like coal, iron ore, liquified natural gas and alumina, and have the world’s largest accessible reserves of uranium.
The size, complexity and the increasing openness of China’s economy have led to the deepening and broadening of our economic interests.
These significant shared opportunities are reflected by the visit to China early next month of my colleague the Australian Minister for Resources and Energy, and Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson.
Australia also has a strong, well-regulated financial services sector. Our banks are safe. Of the world’s 100 largest banks, only 11 have credit ratings of AA or above. Those 11 include Australia’s four largest banks.
Australia's funds management industry is one of the largest in the world.
Australia also has world-class universities and research institutions. Many of them have established highly productive, long-term strategic relationships with Chinese universities, such as the comprehensive partnership agreement between Monash University in Victoria and Sichuan University.
Australian agricultural exports, as well as education and tourism sectors, have been making great progress in the Chinese market.
And we are focused on the potential of significant provincial economies like Sichuan.
Our leaders have in recent months reaffirmed the importance of negotiations fora Free Trade Agreement between Australia and China.
We believe that Western China could benefit from the trade liberalisation that would result from a successful conclusion of the Australia-China free trade negotiations.
It is our very strong hope that genuine progress in the negotiations is achieved this year. My colleague the Trade Minister Simon Crean will be in Beijing next week to advance these negotiations.
2010 Shanghai World Expo
I conclude by inviting you to experience the sights, sounds and flavours of Australia at the Australian national pavilion, should you visit the Shanghai World Expo next year, 2010.
It’s the first world expo to be hosted by China and also the largest in history. The opening is now just over a year away.
Australia recognises this expo is a national priority for China, so we are making an unprecedented investment in our national pavilion.
The theme of the expo is ‘Better City, Better Life’. Australia, as home to some of the world’s most liveable cities, including my home Perth in Western Australia, is well-placed to contribute to the debate about sustainable development and urban planning.
Conclusion
It is remarkable how far Australia’s relations with China have come.
What’s even more remarkable is the potential for further growth, given the critical role China will play in this the century of the Asia Pacific.
This potential is best met if it is underpinned by growing people-to-people links.
It rests with students like you, and your Australian counterparts, to build those closer people-to-people relations so that our two countries can work even more closely together on our common interests and our common challenges.
Thank you.