The Wider Agenda With China
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday April 14, 2008
LU KEWEN, a.k.a. Kevin Rudd, may get a good run in the Chinese press, but he cannot win in the Australian media. While one headline accused him of putting trade ahead of human rights in his talks in Beijing last week, another said his human rights call on Tibet had been spurned anyway. It remains to be seen whether the Prime Minister has made any dent in the granite facade of China's policy on Tibet. However, if there was any breakthrough with the top Communist Party leader, President Hu Jintao, on Saturday, it will show itself in ways that do not reflect foreign pressure.
Anyway, pursuing deeper trade and investment with China is not necessarily in conflict with human rights goals. Indeed, businessmen looking for a lasting presence in a market have an interest in equal treatment under stable and accessible rules, fair adjudication of disputes, and, increasingly, guaranteed access to communications and information. As a byproduct, the space for Chinese interest groups and differing opinions may be widened a little. To this end, Mr Rudd has directed Chinese attention to three areas where more work and understanding is required. As the world's largest coal user, on one hand, and the largest coal exporter on the other, China and Australia have a global responsibility - as well as self-interest - in seeing if coal can be made a cleaner fuel in the short term. The joint pilot project now agreed needs the best minds applied, and official obstacles cleared. The negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, launched two years ago after a lengthy feasibility study, need more top-level patronage, especially on the Chinese side where officials have sheltered behind spurious fears of an Australian threat to Chinese farm communities. Third, there has been a need to reaffirm market principles in the raw materials trade, where the Chinese have reacted strongly to the attempted merger of our two biggest iron ore producers, Rio Tinto and BHP-Billiton.By outlining the principles under which Chinese or other foreign investments will be scrutinised in the national interest, Mr Rudd should be able to persuade the Chinese they are not victims of discrimination, or government-aided price extortion. Australia will not become a captive supplier, but a Chinese investment window into our resource companies will be a reassuring factor, not a threat, as it has been with Japanese and South Korean investors. And under an free trade agreement, more Australian businesses would have the chance to help increase China's own markets and output.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald