AUSTRALIA, CHINA and the US

Ross Rogers Jr, calls our attention to thie article: "Australia offers to help US-China relations" by Virginia Marsh in Sydney and Richard McGregor in Shanghai (Financial Times (10/24/03)

Australia said it would seek to use its good relations with the US and China to promote a constructive dialogue between the two superpowers in a bid to diffuse regional tensions over Taiwan and North Korea. But Canberra, the US's closest Asia-Pacific ally along with Japan, was immediately reminded by Hu Jintao, China's president, that China expected Australian support for its reunification of Taiwan, one of the issues that most divides Washington and Beijing. John Howard, the Australian prime minister who this week hosted back-to-back visits from the US and Chinese presidents, said Canberra's good relations with both Washington and Beijing gave it an important role in ensuring regional stability. "Our aim is to see calm and constructive dialogue between the United States and China on those issues which might potentially cause tension between them," Mr Howard told Mr Hu before the Chinese president spoke to the Australian parliament.

It has long been a central aim of Australian foreign policy to avoid having to take sides in any conflict between the US, its long-term ally, and China, which is on track to becoming its biggest trading partner in several years. Mr Hu pointedly said that he expected Australia to stand by its commitments on Taiwan under the one-China policy, an issue that strained Beijing's relations with Canberra in the early years of Mr Howard's leadership. But in a longer and far more wide-ranging speech than that given to parliament by George W. Bush, Mr Hu said the potential for economic co-operation between Australia and China was "immense" and pledged to intensify trade and economic ties. "China and Australia are highly complementary from the economic point of view," he said, adding that Australia was blessed with rich resources.

Since establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1972, successive governments in Canberra have worked hard to gain access for Australian companies, particularly resources and rural exporters, to the vast Chinese market. Australia sees its trade ties with China mirroring those it has established with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which built their economies on Australian raw materials but on a much larger scale. Two-way trade between the two Pacific rim states has trebled since 1996 to almost $23 billion a year. The two countries also signed an economic framework agreement this week to study the feasibility of a bilateral free trade deal, the first such deal that China has contemplated with a western nation. "I am convinced that this framework will help steer our bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and other fields to continuous new highs," said Mr Hu, who will travel to New Zealand Saturday after concluding his three-day visit to Australia.

Mr Hu said the relationship between Canberra and Beijing was proof that countries with different social systems could develop close ties and welcomed Australia's involvement in resolving the region's "hot-spot issues" such as the Solomon Islands. Unlike Mr Howard, however, he did not refer directly to North Korea. The Australian prime minister, echoing comments made by Mr Bush in his speech to parliament, said Canberra welcomed China's "wholly positive approach" to the issue of North Korea's nuclear capabilities".

RH:
This is a strange reversal. Traditionally colonies were supposed to supply raw materials to industrial nations. Now Australia is filling that role.