Tensions between Australia & China

[Ordie]

August 22, 2009

Tension Increases as China and Australia Grow Closer

By MICHAEL WINES (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/michael_wines/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
BEIJING — China (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo)’s diplomatic relationship with Australia (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/australia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo), so recently flourishing despite occasional spats, this month has taken a severe turn toward the governmental equivalent of thrown dinner plates.
Public exchanges between the nations, already testy after China’s detention of four employees of the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, grew sharper when Australia granted a visa to Rebiya Kadeer (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/rebiya_kadeer/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the American-based rights advocate for China’s Muslim Uighur minority. Ms. Kadeer was accused by Chinese officials of plotting riots last month in China’s Xinjiang region.
The Australians recalled their Chinese ambassador to the capital, Canberra, for talks on Wednesday, after a week in which Beijing’s state-controlled news media excoriated Australia’s “Sinophobic politicians” and suggested that China’s billions were better spent trading with friendlier nations.
The Chinese also canceled planned visits by Vice Premier Li Keqiang, the heir apparent to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/wen_jiabao/index.html?inline=nyt-per), and the vice foreign minister, He Yafei, who was supposed to attend a meeting of Asian nations. Columnists in the Chinese press have also advocated limiting Chinese tourism in Australia and curbing the number of Chinese students studying there.
Australia’s prime minister, Kevin Rudd (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/kevin_rudd/index.html?inline=nyt-per), countered that the nations’ relationship is always “full of challenges” and that their broader ties will endure. “We share enormous common interests with our friends in China, but we have continuous differences,” he was quoted as saying.
Hardly all Australians are persuaded. “I really don’t think there’s anything that Australia can do,” J. Bruce Jacobs, a China specialist at Monash University in Australia, said of the tiff. “The Chinese seem to have various people they like to pick on — the French, because of the Dalai Lama (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/_dalai_lama/index.html?inline=nyt-per), and us, because of Kadeer. I think all of this is driven by political imperatives within China.”

Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/world/asia/22australia.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

[Shuimo]

The CPC is utterly faceless in this stand-off!

I feel there is little wrong with Australia, if any!

The CPC intentionally let Rebeya slip out of China, an act that is full of political wickedness!

Australia cannot afford to dote on the unreasonable demands of the CPC!

[pg_ord]

Australia needs PRC more than PRC needs Australia.

[Bohemoth]

Someone let the dogs out. :)

[Shuimo]

Someone let the dogs out. :)


They let it for no reasons at all?
Surely not!
They want to make Rebiya a female Dalailama sort of figure!

[digrar]

Australia needs PRC more than PRC needs Australia.


It's a two way street. To get the vast amounts of energy and minerals from elsewhere would cost them dearly and would have a severe effect on their economy.

[Dave242]

Australia needs PRC more than PRC needs Australia.

How do you work that one out?

Dave

[Shuimo]

It's a two way street. To get the vast amounts of energy and minerals from elsewhere would cost them dearly and would have a severe effect on their economy.

The CPC is just making a storm out of a tea cup!
You bet it the CPC wud soon pick up talk of seeking common interests whiling putting aside differences given its terrible domestic mess!

[pg_ord]

How do you work that one out?

Dave
PRC can reduce trade with australia .... for example it can source its energy needs (both nuclear and conventional) with increasing trade with central asia.... any revolt arising out of shortage of resources will be crushed with brutal force in PRC.... Australia cannot afford to do that.... it needs china to sell yellow cake and has just entered an agreement with a Chinese petroleum company.
anyways it is just an opinion..... I would ofcourse like to hear your opinion on this one ;)

[hulaku]

Didnt China and Australia have a deal worth 50 billion dollars for supply of Australian minerals to China?

[digrar]

Natural Gas. It happened last week. "We are very upset with you, here, have 50 billion dollars."

[grendel]

PRC can reduce trade with australia .... for example it can source its energy needs (both nuclear and conventional) with increasing trade with central asia.... any revolt arising out of shortage of resources will be crushed with brutal force in PRC.... Australia cannot afford to do that.... it needs china to sell yellow cake and has just entered an agreement with a Chinese petroleum company.
anyways it is just an opinion..... I would ofcourse like to hear your opinion on this one ;)


Let me simplify it for you:

China buys iron ore, coal, gas, uranium, etc from:

Central Asia, consider:
*How many different countries China will have to separately buy these from;
*China will have to upgrade/build new roads/rail lines to transport these on, over deserts and mountains over long distances;
*China will have to build separate oil and gas pipelines to the countries it buys from;
*Some of these pipelines will have to pass through other countries to get to China, so China will have to negotiate with and pay these other countries as well;
*Are these resources available all year long? Are roads/rail passable in winter?
*What about the security situation of these countries and the countries that the pipelines will have to pass through?

Versus -

Australia:
*China negotiates with one country;
*The commodities are transported to China by sea;

Take your pick...

[Dartthedark]

It's now everything right on the table top showing world and her own people how strong it can be, but who knows what's going on under the table. China's had expertise for this, even paying much higher cost to maintain critical relations underneath and her own face. being hardline in forigen affair never failed to get support from Chinese people, nationalism is the best way to help government get credit in the coutries like china.