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Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister, has called on the Australian government to “fix” ties with Beijing and condemned anti-Chinese statements as “altogether unnecessary”.
Speaking to CGTN Digital at the Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday, Carr said that Australia could have a pragmatic relationship with China while retaining “the principles we adhere to”.
“The tilt against China has been very pronounced in Australian foreign policy and its been altogether unnecessary. It started in January last year and it was almost as if Australian leaders were competing with each other to make anti-Chinese statements.”
Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr talks to CGTN Digital in Boao in south China's Hainan Province, April 10, 2018.
Carr, now the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, was speaking after a succession of negative stories in the Australian press.
“Someone in Canberra has got it terribly wrong. Why should Australia be the most anti-Chinese of all America allies?
“Now, the obligation is on Canberra to fix this up. The problem started with Canberra. There’s been an anti-China panic set off in the Australian media. I’ve carefully studied it and it’s been without any evidentiary base.”
The former New South Wales premier stressed that China’s reform and opening-up process, which began 40 years ago, had benefited Australia and the wider world as well as China.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr speaks at the TV debate of "40 Years of Reform & Opening: China and the World" during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018 in Boao, south China's Hainan Province, April 10, 2018.
Carr was speaking shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined a four-point plan to further opening up, emphasizing improvements to market access for foreign enterprises, making China a better environment for investment, protecting intellectual property rights and increasing the scale of imports.
“This confirms that 40 years of opening up is going to continue. It’s going to be broadened and it’s going to be deepened. It’s done so much good for the Chinese people, for the world as well, including the Australian people."
He added that the growth of China had been a boost for Australia in difficult times. “My country, Australia, avoided the recession of the global financial crisis because of demand from China. It kept us afloat economically. Chinese demand is powering a large part of the world’s growth.”
Carr said the policy detail in Xi’s speech, which plans to lower tariffs on automobile imports, was particularly striking.
“What was good about this is that there was so much specific policy. The commitment he made on autos, the commitment he made on intellectual property.”
China’s switch of emphasis from high-speed to high-quality growth will require the continuation of the opening up and reform policies, Carr argued. “It means accepting imports, it means reforming the finance sector, it means allowing more foreign investment. That’s the way to get more quality growth.“
In the context of trade friction between Washington and Beijing, the 70-year-old predicted the measures would contribute “to a period of heightened US-China cooperation”.
Carr, who when in political office in Australia placed an emphasis on conservation measures, also praised the “very encouraging” progress China has made on air quality and the focus Beijing has placed on environmental protection, adding “that the Chinese people are desperate to see more of it”.
(CGTN)
