China media says Canberra ‘negative’

China’s reaction to Australia’s foreign white paper have been muted but complaining.

“Australia is geographically distant from China, but it has been trying to get involved in the disputes that China has with its neighbouring countries.”

The reactions in China to Australia’s foreign affairs policy white paper have been muted since the document’s release on Thursday morning — with the predictable exceptions of an official defence of Beijing’s South China Sea program, and academic antipathy to the “Indo-Pacific” concept.

The only substantial coverage of Australia in the Chinese media on Friday was instead a touching story from Xinhua news agency of the Queensland ambulance crew who went out of their way to give a dying woman a view of the ocean she loved, at Hervey Bay.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang described the white paper as giving “an overall positive evaluation of China’s development and China-Australia relations, but made irresponsible remarks on the South China Sea issue”.

Then he reiterated the government’s consistent stance on criticisms of Beijing’s annexation of parts of the sea: “All fair-minded persons are aware that the situation in the South China Sea has been stabilised and eased.”

Mr Lu said: “Australia is not a party of the South China Sea issue, and has kept saying it takes no stance on the relevant territorial sovereignty disputes. We urge the Australian side to honour its commitment and stop irresponsible remarks” on the issue,” which Beijing believes is close to resolution through negotiations with the disputant ASEAN countries.

He added that China has “always observed” the rules of a rules-based order — whose value is stressed in the white paper — “which are based on the purpose and principle of the UN Charter, not those ones unilaterally defined by any country”.

Global Times is the only publication to editorialise about the white paper, commenting that although it “stresses the importance of China-Australia ties, people can sense the wariness toward China”.

It said: “Australia is geographically distant from China, but it has been trying to get involved in the disputes that China has with its neighbouring countries. It has called on the US to play a balancing role and incited China’s neighbours to adopt a tough attitude toward China.”

The newspaper said: “Chinese students and visitors bring huge sums of money to Australia every year. China is also the main buyer of Australian minerals and beef. Yet, criticism of China from Australian officials and biased reporting against China in Australia’s media continues.”

Although Australia “calls itself a civilised country, its behaviour is confusing. While it is economically dependent on China, it shows little gratitude. Being on the periphery of the Western camp, it has often tried to meddle in Asian affairs on behalf of the West.”

“As the US government welcomes China’s peaceful rise,” Global Times said, “Canberra continues with its negative attitude. Australia is difficult to be reasoned with or be comforted. Fortunately, the country is not that important and China can move its ties with Australia to a back seat and disregard its sensitivities” — while Australia was showing “how difficult it is for China’s soft power to ascend”.

Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, said at a conference on China-Australia relations in Beijing late Thursday that Australia is “excising and ostracising China from a new form of elite that it is trying to construct, called Indo-Pacific”.

He said: “This is an indication of the resolute determination of Australia to play a more prominent role in the region, with or without the US. Australia is trying to find its own certainty.”

Andrew Parker, PwC’s Asia Practice Leader, and one of the most prominent Australians in the Asia relationship, said that the white paper “offers a balanced and realistic assessment of the world that we live in. That world is changing and so must we.”

He said: “A confident and more assertive China is challenging 70 years of US primacy in the region. Managing our relationships in the region will only get more complex as we balance our relationship with our largest trading partner in China and our security guarantor and our largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States.”