New frontier for China-Australia relations: ambassador

China’s ambassador to Australia said his country would be interested in investing in landmark events such as the Brisbane 2032 Olympics as part of a “new frontier” in economic relations.

Chinas’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, says China and Australia don’t need to confront each other. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

China’s ambassador to Australia says his country would be interested in investing in landmark events such as the Brisbane 2032 Olympics as part of a “new frontier” in bilateral trade and investment relations that will span renewable energy, manufacturing and green technology. Xiao Qian told The Australian during a visit to Brisbane last week that after five years of “turbulence and zigzags” in bilateral relations the environment was rapidly improving.

Mr Xiao said Australia and China could make the “best of best partners” co-operating in areas of technology, manufacturing and renewable energy as well as previously rejected Belt and Road initiatives.

“We have basically stabilised the relationship between the countries,” he said. “And both sides agree to co-operate in so many areas where we have common ground. We will move forward to explore new frontiers like climate change, green energy and infrastructure.

“Brisbane is a great city that is going to host the 2032 Olympics so perhaps that is an area where China and Australia can co-operate. China benefited a lot from Australia’s commitment and contribution to the success of the Beijing Games in 2008 and more recently the Winter Olympics so we want to reciprocate.”

He brushed off fears that China and Australia would one day clash militarily, saying the scenario was unthinkable given our close ties. Mr Xiao’s sanguine comments are a sign Beijing and Canberra have successfully reset their relationship despite Australia’s recent signing of a controversial AUKUS submarine deal with the US and UK.

“By having a nuclear-powered submarine, it is not going to help Australia with its national security,” he said.

“China and Australia have their differences in certain areas but fundamentally there is not a single area where China and Australia have to confront each other.

“We were on the same side in World War I and II and were working together to fight international terrorism. In history, you cannot single out one incident to say that we have been a threat to each other. China is developing but our policy remains unchanged and the policy towards Australia is a friendly policy.”

He said Australia should think more about an independent defence policy “rather than serving the interests of a third country,” in reference to the US.

Ambassador Xiao Qian.

Mr Xiao said he had recently visited several key Chinese investments in Australia, including Arrow Energy, the LNG joint venture between PetroChina and Shell that operates out of the Surat and Bowen basins.

“When I was in WA recently, I also visited a lithium factory invested in by a Chinese company that is exploiting that mineral for the purpose of making lithium batteries for electric batteries,” he said.

He said that since the signing of the China-Australia free trade agreement in 2015, trade and investment ties had expanded beyond key commodities such as iron ore and energy. “Now we have wine, barley and a range of agricultural products,” Mr Xiao said.

“And these are areas we should continue to work on and expand. Some new frontiers such as climate change are areas where both governments are committed.”

Mr Xiao said another sign of increasingly warmer ties between Australia and China was the large number of Chinese students returning to Australia.

“When I went back to China for my annual leave last month, the majority of the people on the plane were Chinese students,” he said. “This is a very good sign of the resumption of education co-operation between our two countries.

Warmer ties?

“In the last three years, because of Covid-19 students had to stay behind in China to study online. Now the Chinese government has a policy to encourage the students to go back to campus. Currently we have 180,000 students studying in Australia.”

Mr Xiao said he would encourage Australian governments at both the state and federal level to reconsider investment in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“I think as far as the Chinese side is concerned, we are open to welcome Australia to come back to the Belt and Road,” he said. “This is an initiative for economic development not for security or political purposes.”

Originally published as New frontier for China-Australia relations: ambassador