On May 6, China’s National Development and Reform Commission stated that from now on, all activities under the China-Australia Economic Dialogue mechanism jointly led by the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments of the Australian Federal Government will be suspended indefinitely.
Obviously, this statement of the National Development and Reform Commission is a response to Australia's many actions against China over a period of time.
Why did China-Australia relations suddenly get cold?
What does China's countermeasures mean to both parties?
In this issue of "News 1+1", Bai Yansong connects with Wang Fan, Vice President of China Foreign Affairs University, and pays close attention to it.
How to view the nature of the National Development and Reform Commission's statement?
Wang Fan, Vice President of China Foreign Affairs University: The National Development and Reform Commission is directly in charge of my country's economic development and many cooperation projects, especially large-scale cooperation projects such as the "Belt and Road" initiative.
The main cooperation between China and Australia is in economic cooperation. The statement issued by the National Development and Reform Commission has an important impact on China-Australia relations, especially the economic cooperation between China and Australia.
The China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue mechanism involves many cooperation projects in the “Belt and Road”, including many investment projects.
The current suspension indefinitely is the result of a series of major changes in China-Australia relations.
This result is something China does not want to see, but we also have to face this reality.
Because Australia has done many restrictions and suppressions first, including the suspension of the "Belt and Road" project, and many high-tech manufacturing cooperation projects, I am afraid it will be affected, and tourism and cultural exchanges may also be affected.
Australia's losses should be greater
Wang Fan, Vice Dean of China Foreign Affairs University: The results now are what both sides, especially China, do not want to see.
This will also have some impact on China's trade and the Chinese economy. Of course, it should have a greater impact on Australia.
① Australia’s exports to China are huge, and 98% of Australia’s trade surplus is trade with China.
② Australia's trade with China has solved the employment of more than 600,000 of them.
③Australia has always wanted to return to the Asia-Pacific economically and has to cooperate with many countries in Southeast Asia. In fact, China has a lot of cooperation with Southeast Asia. As the relationship between China and Australia has deteriorated, Australia wants to return to the Asia-Pacific and cooperation with Southeast Asian countries will also face more problems. Great difficulty.
"I can restrict you, but you can't counter me", why does Australia have double standards?
Wang Fan, Vice President of China Foreign Affairs University: This is a very strange state of mind.
①Australian politics is now full of some arrogant and ignorant politicians. They are very short-sighted when considering issues and are affected by so-called ideological prejudice. Therefore, when judging issues, they do not consider Australia’s national interests, but merely consider them. A "political show" considers issues from a so-called political factor, without rational and objective judgment.
② Australia may feel that China-Australia cooperation for so many years has formed a mutually beneficial and win-win situation for both sides. China should not adopt such a tough policy on these issues, but in fact this is a huge misjudgment. For China, You are related to my core interests, and it involves violating our attitude towards the concept of win-win cooperation, so we must adopt a resolute policy.
In other words, we cannot expect China to swallow the bitter pill on the issue of core interests, on the issue of development interests, and on the issue of cooperation interests. For China to swallow the bitter pill, in fact, it will only let Australia take its own fruit.
We cannot expect to blame China for no reason and engage in political manipulation on the one hand, and on the other hand we want to obtain huge commercial gains from China-Australia relations. Such a situation cannot arise. Australia is still unrealistic on this issue. Fantasy.
Australian politicians "take the wrong medicine"?
Wang Fan, Deputy Dean of China Foreign Affairs University: At first glance, it seems that these politicians have taken the wrong medicine, but in fact, as far as Australia is concerned, he has double anxiety.
① He is afraid of China's development and believes that China's continuous development will affect Australia's so-called leadership position in the Asia-Pacific region, especially the South Pacific region.
②Australia is an island country in the South Pacific. It has to rely on maritime power for a long time for security. In the past, it relied on Britain and later on the United States.
During Trump's time, Trump paid little attention to alliance relations, and Australia had an anxiety of being alienated and even abandoned.
So if you look at it in stages, Australia's tough policy towards China basically coincides with the time period when Trump came to power.
One thing Australia wants to do is to vote for the United States with a "voting certificate" to tell the United States that Australia is very important and that Australia is indispensable in the United States' global strategy. Australia can also play a greater role in containing China.
Australia is also a very important member of the "Five Eyes Alliance" initiated by the United States. Therefore, these politicians have come together and adopted a tough approach to China in a series of policies. In fact, these measures have brought a lot to Australia itself. hurt.
While undermining China-Australia cooperation, while also wanting to have ministerial-level dialogue and contact with China, why is Australia so contradictory?
Wang Fan, Deputy Dean of China Foreign Affairs University: I think Australia’s biggest problem now is to say one thing and do another.
In fact, we had many communication mechanisms in the past, and we also made various protests and warnings to Australia, but he turned a deaf ear to it and continued to adopt relevant policies.
Now I feel that if China-Australia relations really continue to deteriorate, the losses to Australia will be very great, so Australia feels that it needs to stop the continued deterioration at a certain time.
But for Australia, we are more concerned about your actions. Your correct attitude towards the development path of other countries and whether you can correctly view the development model of win-win cooperation. I think these are the most important for Australia. He We must return to the right track before we have a new opportunity to restart China-Australia relations.
Will China-Australia relations be even colder?
Wang Fan, Vice President of China Foreign Affairs University: We can understand from the statement of the National Development and Reform Commission that, in fact, China-Australia relations have reached a low point. How many cooperation projects, light industrial products, high-tech products, "Belt and Road" and other cooperation projects have been achieved. Stopped, only some areas that still left a little bit of leeway are still going on.
If you go further down, the situation is very bad, and it is close to the bottom.
I hope that China-Australia relations can stop the decline, but the process of falling to the bottom may take a long time. It all depends on what actions Australia will take.
Faced with China-Australia relations, can we only be forced to wait?
Wang Fan, Vice Dean of China Foreign Affairs University: We have to prepare with both hands. We hope Australia will know how to get lost. The current China-Australia relationship is overcast with one word. We hope that the two countries can share the clouds and see the sun together, so that China-Australia relations can be realized. Able to get back on the right track.
However, it does not depend on the Chinese side, it mainly depends on Australia.
Then we also have to plan for the worst. China's current strategic resources and strategic space, as well as the current double cycle, enable us to have stronger strategic autonomy.