China\u2019s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, sought to reassure on Wednesday that China\u2019s increased involvement in the Pacific, particularly in policing efforts, should not be a cause for alarm for Australia. Xiao, speaking at his first news conference of the year in Canberra on Wednesday, maintained that Australia should not harbour anxiety about China\u2019s intentions in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cPacific Islands countries is an area where China and Australia can cooperate and can contribute together instead of asking them to choose between the two,\u201d Xiao said. \u201cWhat China has been doing is to help them to for their social stability, economic development and for bilateral trade relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns about China\u2019s encroachment in the South Pacific escalated last year when the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, raising fears of a military buildup in the region. \u201cWe\u2019re not seeking military strategies, we\u2019re not seeking military purposes, and there\u2019s no need for any so-called anxiety on the part of Australia,\u201d Xiao said.<\/p>\n
Addressing Nauru\u2019s decision on Tuesday to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, Xiao said it was a sovereign choice by Nauru and would not impact Australia\u2019s relations with the small island nation. \u201cThe relation between China and Nauru is a reflection of the overwhelming, increasing consensus in the international community that in this world, there\u2019s only one China, and Taiwan is part of China.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding Australia-China relations, Xiao acknowledged that ties had stabilised after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s visit to Beijing in November, marking the first by an Australian leader in seven years and the lifting of trade blocks imposed in 2020 on a raft of Australian exports. He expressed China\u2019s desire to continue the good momentum\u2019 in further improving the relationship, while also highlighting the need for collaboration in the defence sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defence relationship between our two countries is an area really we need to put more inputs and work harder on, Xiao said. \u201cThis is an area it\u2019s so important to the mutual trust and confidence between our two countries and two peoples. If you can have trust between two militaries, you do have real trust.\u201d Xiao added that China had lodged a diplomatic protest with Australia over its congratulations to Taiwan, which China claims as its own, over the election of a new president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China\u2019s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, sought to reassure on Wednesday that China\u2019s increased involvement in the Pacific, particularly in\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":25353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[7176,1539,158,8437,8438,2129,8440,4625,8443,8442,7180,8446,8441,8439,4056,8444,4591,5688,165,8445],"class_list":["post-25352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-2024-taiwan-presidential-elections","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-china-australia-relations","tag-chinas-ambassador-to-australia-xiao-qian","tag-chinese-encroachment","tag-concerns","tag-cooperation","tag-diplomatic-protest","tag-diplomatic-recognition","tag-lai-ching-te","tag-mutual-trust","tag-nauru","tag-pacific-islands","tag-pacific-ocean","tag-prime-minister-anthony-albanese","tag-security-pact","tag-solomon-islands","tag-taiwan","tag-trade-blocks"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}