Partner or opponent? Chinese mindset still intractable

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s four provisos for getting the broken Australia-China bilateral relationship “back on track’’ show a continuing disregard for Australian democracy and Australia’s serious and legitimate concerns about China’s regional aggression. It is now clear why Foreign Minister Penny Wong attempted to lower expectations after meeting Mr Wang in Bali on Friday night. “We’ve got a path to walk,” she said. A long path, judging by Mr Wang’s attitudes.

Penny Wong (L) speaks with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) during their bilateral meeting. Picture: AFP.

Mr Wang wants Australia to treat China as “a partner rather than an opponent’’ and seek “common ground while reserving differences’’. Australia, he said “must not target third parties’’, without mentioning the US, whose regional involvement, like that of other allies, is fundamental to Australia’s security. Both nations must build “a public support featuring positiveness and pragmatism”. Pledges to pull back from its aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea and the Pacific, or to resume a normal trading relationship, were notably absent from China’s list. So were commitments to free Australian TV anchor Cheng Lei and Australian writer Yang Hengjun in China.

The Albanese government, in the national interest, has not backed away from the concerns of the Morrison government that Mr Wang now claims were the “root cause’’ of the relationship breakdown.

Mr Wang also defended China’s increased security presence in the Pacific, which the Albanese government is proactively opposing.

Unlike in a one-party authoritarian state, no Australian or other democratic government can inflict “a public support featuring positiveness and pragmatism” on free citizens. Australians, well versed in the details of China’s expansionism, its military build-up, aggression and the potential threat it poses to the nation’s shipping lanes through the South China Sea, have developed their own well-formed opinions over time. The Australian public’s trust in China has dropped to 12 per cent, down from 52 per cent in 2018, a Lowy poll shows. After an almost three-year Chinese freeze on ministerial meetings, the encounter between Senator Wong and Mr Wang was a positive step. But it was no reset.