Beijing slams Australia-China council

China’s Foreign Affairs spokesman accuses National Foundation for Australia-China Relations of containing ‘anti-China elements’.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has accused the Australia-China council of having ‘anti-China’ elements. Picture: AFP.

China has hit out at the Morrison government’s National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, criticising some of its directors as “anti-China elements”.

The foundation, which was announced with much fanfare early last year by the Morrison government as a way to boost increasingly tense ties with China, has got off to a slow start this year, during which time it has seen the resignation of its chairman Sydney businessman Warwick Smith.

Comments made by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs make it clear that it is unhappy with several members of the board, which was appointed earlier this year – although it does not mention any by name.

“If the Australian side does hope this institution will play a positive role in enhancing mutual trust and expanding exchange and cooperation with China, it shouldn’t allow anti-China elements to be part of it,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

“Such arrangement runs contrary to the original purpose and mission of the Foundation and sends gravely wrong message to the outside world,” he told reporters.

China’s nationalistic Global Times has claimed two members of the advisory board had been funded by the US Department of State with another “a member of the anti-China cult”, the Falun Gong.

Mr Wang urged the Federal Government to “immediately rectify its wrongdoing, demonstrate sincerity and contribute more to mutual trust and cooperation between the two sides, rather than doing the opposite”.

The MFA comments make it clear that China is unhappy with several board appointees, with the Foundation, now chaired by former Hong Kong based BlackRock executive Pru Bennett, in a difficult position.

Ms Bennett, who was head of BlackRock’s investment stewardship team for the Asia-Pacific region, is seen as an expert on corporate governance issues.

While the Foundation has a clear mission to help boost Australia-China relations, the MFA comments now make it clear that some of the Morrison government’s appointees to the board have resulted in exactly the opposite effect by angering China.

Ms Bennett, who is now based in Sydney as senior adviser with corporate relations firm Brunswick, has kept a low profile since the announcement of her appointment by Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne in June.

Ms Payne and Mr Morrison are now in the difficult position of having a foundation which was specifically set up to improve relations with China, criticised publicly by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs over some of its appointees.

Mr Wang said China had noted a “flurry of media reports recently” which he said “revealed that those Australian institutions and individuals (which were) taking the lead in fuelling hostility towards China have received funding from the US government.”

“We hope the Australian side will face up to these facts, discard double stands and ideological bias when talking about “counter foreign influence” and “foreign influence transparency” and refrain from political manipulation and acting in a selective and discriminatory way,” he said.

The Foundation was announced by the Morrison Government early last year with a budget of $44 million over five years to help boost ties with China in the wake of increasing political tensions, with plans for it to start operation early this year.

A close adviser to Perth businessman Kerry Stokes, Mr Smith resigned as chairman of the board in April expressing his frustration at its slow start.

In his letters of resignation to the Morrison Ggvernment in April, Mr Smith said the Foundation had had a “tortured and unspectacular start.”

He said he felt the board was becoming an agency of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was “not the right model to address some of the longer term objectives we have in terms of soft diplomacy with China.”

He said it would be “far better” to apply the resources being set aside for the new foundation to “to more strategic activity with China” and business and other groups to develop their own relationships with China “as has been the case for a long period of time.”

In an interview with The Australian last week, Mr Smith said Australia-China relations were at the worst level he had ever seen.