Australia's Relations with the People's Republic of China in the Twentieth Century
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Laurea Magistrale in Relazioni Internazionali Comparate Tesi di Laurea Looking Forward: Australia’s Relations with the People’s Republic of China in the Twentieth Century Relatore Ch. Prof. Duccio Basosi Correlatore Ch. Prof. Roberto Peruzzi Laureanda Alessia Stella Matricola 831521 Anno Accademico 2011 / 2012 Contents Acknowledgements Abstract Introduction p. 1 1. The Australian Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century p. 7 2. The People’s Republic of China and Australia’s Ambivalence p. 45 3. 1972-2012: Forty Years of Diplomatic Relations p. 87 4. Other Voices: From Yellow Peril to Multiculturalism p.146 Personal Conclusions p.183 Bibliography p.188 Index p.196 Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank the Zilles family who gave me support and affection during my stay in Melbourne. Its presence has been invaluable to me and I will be always grateful and pleased for the time we spent together, living at best my Aussie experience. The majority of the bibliography of the present dissertation comes from the State Library of Victoria. The vastness of material it contains represents an important cultural richness to Australia and allowed me to analyze carefully the various themes emerged in my work, examining most of the evolution of Australia’s foreign policy towards China. Thanks to the competent and helpful staff of the Library who helped me in my researches selecting unfailingly the books I needed. I would also like to extend special thanks to all those who contributed to make my time in Australia unforgettable and those who shared with me this unique experience. Abstract The primary intent of the present dissertation is to analyse Australia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China from 1949 until the first decade of the 2000s. However, before examining the Sino-Australian relationship, it is analysed the history of Australia’s foreign policy, significantly developed at the beginning of the 1900s. Firstly closely subdued by Great Britain and later largely conditioned by United States, Australia’s foreign policy attained some degree of independence when it was expanded to the countries of the South-East Asian Region. In 1949, Australia faced one of the central events of the region, the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the country with which Canberra has developed one of its most important bilateral relationship. As a matter of fact, the growing importance of China led Canberra to strengthen its connections with Beijing, although diplomatic relations between the two countries were not established until 1972. As a result of the Chinese internal troubles, its international challenges and its regional predominant influence, the People’s Republic of China has represented the most complex foreign policy dilemma to Australia. During the 1950s and the 1960s, the Sino- Australian relationship was also influenced by Canberra’s dependence to Washington and its hostility towards the Chinese Communists. On the contrary, in the following decades, both countries have enjoyed a relationship of mutual understanding and cooperation, albeit some problems and crisis affected the friendship. The dissertation examined the reasons of such problems, explaining how the historical and political relations, guided mostly by economic reasons, have developed creating also important social and cultural connections. These connections increased to a point in which the strong and dynamic interactions between the two nations led to the growth of a significant community of Chinese Australians. The last part of the dissertations represents the cultural counterpart of the political and diplomatic Sino-Australian relationship. They are described the experiences lived by the Chinese and the Australians citizenship in first person. The Chinese, in particular, narrate their lives in Australia and the problems they encountered: from the menace of Yellow Peril which affected the first Chinese gold-seekers, to the menace of the Red Peril which blamed the Chinese Communist, to the last generation of Chinese Australians who were born and grown in Australia, knowing little or nothing of their Chinese historical roots. Introduction On 21 December 2012, Australia and the People’s Republic of China celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The bilateral relationship has reached a point in which the two countries share interests and mutual respect, especially in economic relations. These connections have strengthened in particular since the 1990s, when China’s growing market needed even more row materials –of which Australia is rich.1 Today, China is Australia’s largest trade partner, in terms of both exports and imports while China’s economic liberalisations and its growing investments in Australia offer the best prospects to maximise economic interests –in 2010 Beijing became the third investor in Australia after Washington and London. Visits by senior members of the Australian and Chinese Governments grew year by year along with an increasing number of institutions and organisations. Forty years of relationship has consolidated not only diplomatic and economic relations but also a vast range of socio-cultural connections. Since the 1970s, Australian and Chinese diplomatic efforts have cooperated to establish cultural and social interactions through programs of students exchanges, tourism visits, arts and music reciprocal exhibitions. Furthermore, activities in agricultural, sciences and industry cooperation helped both Australia and China to learn each other’s experiences, methods, technology and research. Cultural cooperation, especially in the form of students exchanges, helped to open national consciousness of Australians who have considered Chinese as a menace for long time, regarding them with distrust. As a matter of fact, Australia’s relations with China have been distinguished by more than a century of suspect and unconditional fear which were first manifested towards the Chinese gold diggers arrived in Australia in the half of the 1800s. Over the years, Australians developed a real aversion against foreigners; the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 and the later White Australia Policy resulted directly from the exclusion of the Chinese. Being historically a part of the British Empire but situated in a far Asia-Pacific outpost, Australia did not share the political and cultural heritage of its geographical region. When Canberra started to assert some form of independence, it found itself alone and far from its allies. Australians, considering themselves in danger of external attacks, 1 G. Gabusi, 2012, “I rapporti Australia-Cina nel secolo asiatico”, in Orizzonte Cina, Novembre 2012, www.merdidianionline.org (January 2013). 1 developed a foreign policy based on fear and dependence to the British Empire. When the Motherland revealed itself unable to defend them against the Japanese during the Second World War, Australians rapidly shifted towards the United States, who were able to assure major protection, becoming Canberra’s most important ally. The rise of China’s international influence in the half of the 1900s challenged Australia’s traditional foreign relation policies. As never before, Canberra had to face the necessity of its participation in the South-East Asia regional events; Australians shared the same interests and necessities with other countries of the region, a place where China was becoming a major feature. As a result of its growth some Asian countries strongly directed their policies, especially the economic strategies, on the basis of the Chinese ones. Australia’s deeper engagement with Asia at the beginning of the 1970s was partly the result of the Chinese increasing importance in the region; Canberra was intent to strengthen its ties with Beijing because its unprecedented growth and its openness towards the “Western World” offered the opportunity to give a new direction to its foreign policy. Gough Whitlam, who is often defined “the father” of the Sino-Australian relationship, sustained Australia’s engagement with China when an anti-China policy was seen as the only solution for Canberra. He has the merit of having strongly emphasised and led the importance of China and the importance of Australian independent policy directions towards Asia. If, under the Whitlam Government, China and the Asia-Pacific Region became the most important challenges for Canberra’s new voice in the regional agenda, today Julie Gillard has relaunched “the Asia challenge” into “the Asian Century”. Last October (2012), the Prime Minister released the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper and affirmed that ‘whatever this century brings, it will bring Asia’s rise, where Australia should actively plan and shape its national future’.2 China has always been seen as the pillar of the Australian foreign policy evolution towards Asia and over the years it has taken a new relevance: it was no more limited to the bilateral relationship but it needed to be implicated in the South-East Asia Region. China and Australia share the same environment and although each Asian country owns its proper cultures, they took part in the same traditional historical and economic evolution. Some factors, however, have interfered in the Asian relations, annoying Beijing in particular. The United States, in fact, is today a permanent feature in the Asia-Pacific, a 2 2012, Australia in the Asian Century, Foreword by Julie Gillard, see asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au (January 2013). 2 presence seen with diffidence by China, whose diplomacy