Official Aus-China Media Roundup 15 December
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relationship Each week China Matters collates news items about the Australia-China relationship Media Roundup Issue 102 (15/12/18 – 20/12/18) 1. Ties with China testify to Australia’s deft handling of foreign policy 15/12/18 John Howard The Australian Australia should never sell short its foreign policy achievements. I reflected on this during the high-level dialogue I attended in Beijing last week. I had been invited by former foreign minister Julie Bishop to lead Australia’s delegation. High-level dialogues, which involve a mixture of diplomats, former ministers, business figures and cultural leaders, and are conducted under Chatham House rules, facilitate much more direct discussion than is sometimes possible in the more formal exchanges between government officials. At last week’s dialogue our team included former Labor foreign minister Stephen Smith, whose contributions reinforced to our Chinese hosts the essentially bipartisan character and continuity of Sino-Australian relations, and Jennifer Westacott of the Business Council of Australia. Journalist Rowan Callick and author Richard McGregor, who have extensive background knowledge of China, also attended. The participation of National Museum of Australia director Mathew Trinca emphasised cultural links. Read more (Paywall): https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/ties-with- china-testify-to-australias-deft-handling-of-foreign-policy/news- story/9d3dadd84c6ab64bc0ff6d813739a126 2. How the Huawei princess at the heart of the US-China trade war affects Australia 15/12/18 Jennifer Duke & David Wroe The Sydney Morning Herald The extraordinary arrest of Chinese tech heiress in Canada, at the request of the United States, on accusations of breaching sanctions against Iran could seem a world away from Australia. China Matters Media Roundup Issue 102 (15/12/18 - 20/12/18) relationship Each week China Matters collates news items about the Australia-China relationship But the action against Sabrina Meng Wanzhou has set off reactions around the world and there are real ramifications for Australia, which is geographically near to Asia, politically aligned with America and economically close to both. Meng, the 46-year-old daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and heiress to his corporate empire, is considered tech royalty in China and a crucial executive in one of the world’s most controversial companies. Chinese media have railed against the arrest, describing it as a “dirty trick” that will see the US facing consequences. Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/how-the-huawei- princess-at-the-heart-of-the-us-china-trade-war-affects-australia-20181214- p50mb8.html 3. US-China clash a reminder of ideals lost in cyberspace 15/12/18 Alan Dupont The Australian Welcome to the tech wars. Despite her release on bail, the arrest of senior Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has ratcheted up simmering tensions between China and the US in a global contest for technological supremacy between the leaders of competing and increasingly incompatible systems of governance. This quest for information dominance is a driver of global cyber conflict, a shadowy undeclared war that is intensifying and becoming a serious security concern for Australia. Control of three key enabling technologies — semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence — would give the pre-eminent cyber nation a decisive advantage in this high-stakes competition. Technological excellence has always underpinned economic and military capability and is a powerful catalyst for change in the international system. No longer is the internet dominated by the US and the West, as other states seek a more prominent role in shaping the rules of the digital age. Two other dimensions of the emerging tech wars have equally profound consequences. China Matters Media Roundup Issue 102 (15/12/18 - 20/12/18) relationship Each week China Matters collates news items about the Australia-China relationship Read more (Paywall): https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/uschina- clash-a-reminder-of-ideals-lost-in-cyberspace/news- story/5d69066033f62431653972fbc8f56df7 4. Beijing and Taipei collide over consulate assistance 15/12/18 Primrose Riordan The Australian China’s offer of formal consular assistance to Taiwanese citizens involved in a fatal car crash near Perth earlier this week has provoked a diplomatic stand-off with Taipei’s officials in Australia. The move by Chinese officials has been described by diplomatic observers as “very unusual” and potentially a strategy by Beijing to assert Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, representing Taiwan in Australia, said one Taiwanese tourist died and two were injured in a horrific head-on accident last Sunday involving three vehicles on Western Australia’s Indian Ocean Drive north of Lancelin. China’s consulate in Perth released a statement on Wednesday describing the “Taiwanese compatriots” as Chinese citizens, and noting an offer of formal assistance from Chinese consul-general Lei Kezhong. Read more (Paywall): https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign- affairs/beijing-and-taipei-collide-over-consulate-assistance/news- story/0c36ee7c2e1bc708dc2f7c2f086c90a8 5. Australia is navigating a diplomatic course between China and the US 16/12/18 James Curran East Asia Forum One feature of the Australian government's 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper was the balance struck between tough talk on China's challenge to US hegemony in Asia and the message that regional military modernisation posed no threat to China Matters Media Roundup Issue 102 (15/12/18 - 20/12/18) relationship Each week China Matters collates news items about the Australia-China relationship Australia. Despite the dysfunction roiling Australian politics since then, this judgment still holds. Both the current Morrison government and the Labor Party opposition are showing signs of finding a strategic path through this era of sturm und drang. They know that keeping faith with the American alliance requires scepticism towards aspects of President Trump's foreign policy, and that the United States is being tested in Asia as never before. They know, too, that despite Trump's warmth towards Prime Minister Morrison at the recent G20 Summit — where he channelled Vietnam era rhetoric by saying that "we will be with Australia all the way" — that his words do not convey the gravitas of old. Accordingly, political leaders in Canberra have rediscovered the tradition of asserting, where necessary, greater self-reliance within the alliance. Read more: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/12/16/australias-diplomatic- course-between-china-and-the-united-states/ 6. Huawei: Australia fears the Canadian Club 16/12/18 Andrew Clark Australian Financial Review "[Australia] is in a tricky spot, worried about having to choose sides." Apart from transposing "Australia" for "Canada", this is a quote from a recent news report about Canada – a country that has many similarities with Australia – finding itself in a dangerous position as the unwilling meat in the sandwich in growing tensions between the world's two super-powers, the US and China. […] Those tensions relate to an undeclared US-China cyber war. If the Cold War, which ended about 30 years ago, was a largely undeclared, Strangelovian conflict between two nuclear-armed-to-the-teeth states, the current, also undeclared, cyber war is a battle for technological supremacy in a world of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and pilotless drones. It's also a war where states such as Canada and Australia are vulnerable. As veteran Australian foreign policy analyst Allan Gyngell points out, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, "is saying we don't have to choose between China and the US", China Matters Media Roundup Issue 102 (15/12/18 - 20/12/18) relationship Each week China Matters collates news items about the Australia-China relationship in their escalating tensions, but "choices are being imposed upon us much more frequently." Read more (Paywall): https://www.afr.com/news/economy/huawei-australia- fears-the-canadian-club-20181216-h196b1 7. America, China and the art of confrontation 17/12/18 Gideon Rachman Australian Financial Review Tell me how this ends? was the despairing question attributed to American generals as they contemplated the quagmires in Vietnam and Iraq. The same question needs to be asked by US policymakers now, as they consider the escalating tensions between America and China. The world’s two most powerful countries are locked into confrontations on a range of issues, including trade, technology, espionage and control of the South China Sea. Broadly speaking, there are two ways of interpreting these clashes. The first is that Donald Trump’s administration is determined to reset the US- China relationship. The second is that the US has now embarked on an effort to block China’s rise. The first approach focuses on objectionable Chinese behaviour; the second objects to the very idea of China as a rival superpower. Read more: https://amp.ft.com/content/ec5f406a-01db-11e9-9d01- cd4d49afbbe3 8. China’s terracotta warriors will visit Melbourne for National Gallery of Victoria’s Winter Masterpieces series 17/12/18 Dee Jefferson ABC News Warriors from China's famous terracotta army will march on Melbourne next winter, as part of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Winter Masterpieces series. China Matters Media Roundup Issue 102 (15/12/18 - 20/12/18) relationship Each week China Matters collates news items about the Australia-China relationship Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality will present key works from the vast underground necropolis surrounding the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, which was uncovered by farmers in Shaanxi province in 1974. The stars of this exhibition are eight life-sized warrior figures, two life-sized horses, and two half-size chariots — part of an army of thousands created in the third century BC, to guard the tomb of the Emperor. The elaborate public works project spanned roughly 30 years and involved the labour of 700,000 workers.