Editorial: Tasmania’s relationship with China needs care

Five years since Xi Jinping’s visit to Hobart, Tasmania’s relationship with China has blossomed. It will require work, thought and care to ensure it continues to flourish.

FIVE years since Xi Jinping’s visit to Hobart, Tasmania’s relationship with China has blossomed. It is one of those rare examples of a long-term government strategy that has worked largely as intended and has delivered many of the benefits that were so keenly anticipated and pursued.

Tasmania’s relationship with China is undoubtedly one that enriches both sides. China contributes more than $1 billion a year in export income to this state. Chinese students make up the largest single cohort in our university. Chinese tourists are our second-largest market. Port visits by Chinese icebreakers help cement the state’s status as an Antarctic hub. And Chinese businesses have shown a great readiness to invest in Tasmanian businesses, most recently in powdered milk producer Bellamy’s.

These are good things for Tasmania. In the past few decades, China has opened up to the world to become a global economic superpower. There is no question that we should as a state seek to develop a mature bilateral political and economic relationship.

That relationship enriches us in other ways than just financially. There is the benefit of scientific and cultural exchange, of increased understanding and goodwill and friendships at a personal level. Like any relationships, there will be ups and downs.

Tasmania is a robust democracy, where free speech is to a large degree cherished and celebrated. Everyone has a right to express their opinions. Greens leader Cassy O’Connor, for example, has raised concerns about the Chinese political influence in the state. There are other topics where the Australian Government’s view will be starkly different from the Chinese government’s — matters such as human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang.

Just as the Chinese legal and political system is owed respect, so too must China respect the political culture of other nations.

The critical goal for government is to ensure the growing relationship continues to work in Tasmania’s best interests and that an imbalance in economic influence doesn’t translate into an imbalance in political influence.

Premier Will Hodgman is right to say that Tasmania should manage its relationship with China carefully. Part of that is ensuring that Tasmania is not overly reliant on any single trading partner for its future prosperity. As a small player on the world stage, we are subject to international economic forces we can never hope to influence — trade wars and tariff fights. It may be that developments in the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has far-reaching impacts, for example. Putting our export industries on a broad footing is prudent policy.

Five years from now, our relationship with China will have developed even more deeply than it has in the past five. Like all good relationships, it will require work, thought and care to ensure it continues to flourish.