Aussie China News
A weekly roundup of your favourite (and least favourite) Australian digital media coverage of China.
Hello everyone and welcome to a new issue of Aussie China News!
This post covers Australian digital news and commentary on China between Friday 10th March and Friday 17th March.
News
Politics
Xi did it!
2952 to 0: Party vote gives Xi life term as China’s president
AFR, Fri 10 Mar 2023
Xi Jinping was awarded a third five-year term as China’s president on Friday, putting him on track to stay in power for life at a time of severe economic challenges and rising tensions with the US and other nations. The endorsement of Mr Xi’s appointment by the ceremonial National People’s Congress was a foregone conclusion for a leader who has sidelined potential rivals and filled the top ranks of the ruling Communist Party with his supporters since taking power in 2012.
Rudd warns of China’s shock new shift in mindset
Courier Mail, Sun 12 Mar 2023
The former PM and new ambassador to the US has told of the “deadly serious” free-fall in US-China relations.
Security
You knew it was coming… AUKUS:
China says AUKUS deal a nuclear proliferation risk
Michael Smith, AFR, Fri 10 Mar 2023
China says Australia’s deal to buy US and British-designed nuclear-powered submarines, to be announced on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), is a “serious nuclear proliferation risk”. In its first official response to details of the AUKUS security agreement that emerged on Thursday, China’s foreign ministry said the deal had been opposed by regional countries and the wider international community.
Penny Wong hits back at China’s claim Aukus nuclear submarines will fuel an arms race
Daniel Hurst, The Guardian, Tue 14 Mar 2023
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has hit back at China’s response to Aukus, insisting that its criticisms of the nuclear-powered submarine deal are “not grounded in fact”. In an interview with Guardian Australia, Wong also signalled that she planned to make further visits to south-east Asia and the Pacific to reassure the region that Australia does not seek to escalate military tensions.
China warns AUKUS deal is accelerating an arms race in Australia's backyard
Anna Henderson, Finn McHugh, Tys Occhiuzzi, SBS News, Tue 14 March 2023
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has called the deal a "huge achievement", while Chinese state media has described it as an offer of "death and destruction".
China is determined to thwart AUKUS, driven by distrust and fear of a US nuclear build-up
Bill Birtles, ABC, Wed 15 Mar 2023
China has made no secret of its plans to diplomatically thwart Australia's AUKUS submarine plan, which it sees as part of a broader US effort to contain China's future military dominance of Asia. Beijing's mission to the United Nations on Tuesday slammed the announcement that Australia will obtain several American nuclear-powered submarines as part of the deal, saying it "fuels arms races and hurts peace and stability".
China to be briefed over AUKUS nuclear submarine plans despite ramping up criticism
Courtney Gould, news.com.au, Wed 15 Mar 2023
China has repeatedly knocked back offers from Australia to be briefed about the submarine plan, but it seems to have finally taken up the call.
‘Wilfully blind’: Labor MPs blast Paul Keating over China, AUKUS
Matthew Knott and James Massola, Sydney Morning Herald, Wed 15 Mar 2023
Labor MPs have accused Paul Keating of being out of touch on China and launching gratuitous attacks on Foreign Minister Penny Wong after the former prime minister accused the Albanese government of making a colossal blunder by backing the AUKUS pact.
China won’t catch up to subs with US tech: Kim Beazley
Gus McCubbing and Campbell Kwan, AFR, Wed 15 March 2023
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has reiterated bipartisan support for the AUKUS deal, shortly after Paul Keating blasted it. In an appearance at the National Press Club, Keating called the AUKUS submarine deal Labor’s “worst international decision” since conscription.
Australia's $368 billion submarine deal – has it come too late to stop China?
Tom Flanagan, news.com.au, Wed 15 March 2023
Australia will have to wait at least 10 years for the AUKUS deal to deliver its nuclear-powered submarines.
Chinese official asks if Australia’s Aukus nuclear submarines intended for ‘sightseeing’
Daniel Hurst, The Guardian, Thu 16 Mar 2023
A Chinese embassy official asked Australian officials during an Aukus briefing whether the nuclear-powered submarines were intended for “sightseeing”, according to multiple sources. Guardian Australia understands several others in the room found the intervention curious, because the Australian government has made no secret of the fact the nuclear-powered submarines are to be used by the Royal Australian Navy.
Tech
Home Affairs looking at how TikTok could be weaponised in Australia
Anthony Galloway, Sydney Morning Herald, Sun 12 Mar 2023
A high-level security review examining privacy concerns about TikTok and other Chinese social media giants is considering how to prevent political censorship and disinformation on the platforms. The seven-month inquiry will be handed to Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil in the coming weeks and comes as laws are set to pass in the United States that will give the Biden administration legal authority to ban companies including TikTok, which is owned by the China-based ByteDance.
Economics and trade
Australia wants India to become one of its largest trading partners as both countries detach from China
Avani Dias and Som Patidar, ABC, Sat 11 Mar 2023
India could become Australia's second-largest trading partner after China. Last year, the countries signed an interim trade deal, close to a full trade agreement. Major agricultural exports like dairy, chickpeas, and beef have previously been excluded due to farmer protests.
Society
India rejects visa application of Chinese citizen living in Australia as a permanent resident
Avneet Arora, SBS Punjabi, Tue 14 March 2023
Chinese national Lan Shao applied for a visa to travel to India with her family, only to receive two consecutive rejections on her successive visa applications earlier this year. She has now appealed to the Indian prime minister seeking to repeal the decision.
China is officially reopening to foreign tourists in a major easing of COVID-19 restrictions
SBS News, Tue 14 March 2023
China will once again start issuing a range of visas to foreigners as of Wednesday, the country's embassy in Washington said, a major easing of travel restrictions in force since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move marks the latest step towards reopening China to the outside world, as Beijing gradually breaks with the strict zero-COVID strategy that defined its pandemic response until a few months ago.
Warning as Aussie tourists expected to ‘rapidly return’ to China
Chantelle Francis, news.com.au, Thu 16 March 2023
Australian tourists eager to return to China as it fully reopens its border are being warned things won’t be the same as they were three years ago.
Opinion and analysis
Worried by those who think diplomacy is the only answer
Letters, The Age, Sat 11 Mar 2023
It worries me to disagree with those – including your correspondents – who think war can be avoided by diplomacy. It also worries me that some see global warming as more important than making sure we can defend ourselves should another country want to invade us. It worries me because they are right to think that diplomacy is better than war and they are right to think that global warming will kill many more than any particular war. Yet human nature being what it is, some rulers with territorial ambitions are not amenable to diplomatic overtures any more than career criminals in our own community.
Why I’m not giving up on the China reopening theme
Jun Bei Liu, AFR, Sun 12 Mar 2023
Tribeca’s Jun Bei Liu says China’s reopening is only getting started, and names five ASX stocks set to benefit.
SVB and China’s menacing rhetoric are two new risks for investors
John Kehoe, AFR, Sun 12 Mar 2023
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and China’s menacing rhetoric towards the United States are two new global risks that are troubling investors and policymakers. The first is an immediate interruption to financial markets and the latter is now an ongoing risk that investors will need to build in to their contingency plans.
Will China really funnel weapons to Russia through Belarus?
Nikola Mikovic, The Interpreter, Tue 14 March 2023
With war on his doorstep, the Belarusian president is juggling Beijing and Moscow to reap the benefits of geography.
Be alert and alarmed, but don't be duped on China
Crispin Hull, The Canberra Times, Tue 14 March 2023
Australians should take special heed of the analysis of the noted defence strategist Peter Jennings and then draw the exact opposite conclusion from his about what should be done.
Two sides of the argument:
Will the AUKUS alliance end Australia's trade thaw with China?
The Australian, Wed 15 Mar 2023
The question now is will Australia's AUKUS announcement, and China's anger about the deal, be just another irritant in the relationship?
China’s sound and fury over Aukus will mean little for ties with Australia
Benjamin Herscovitch, The Guardian, Wed 15 Mar 2023
Leaving aside the former prime minister Paul Keating’s anti-Aukus spray at the National Press Club on Wednesday, perhaps the strongest criticism about this week’s trilateral submarine deal between Australia, the US and the UK has come from Beijing.
The e-CNY: Implications for the Future of Digital China
Benjamin Green, Australian Institute of International Affairs, Wed 15 March 2023
Alongside the promulgation of a radical new plan for the development of a “Digital China,” China’s domestic governance institutions are undergoing changes that include a vision for big data-driven financial oversight. At the crossroads of these two developments lies the e-CNY, a sovereign digital currency that many believe will have profound implications for the future of China’s digital economy.
How China lost Asia
Yoon Young-kwan, The Strategist, Thu 16 Mar 2023
Since the dawn of international politics, smaller states have faced the formidable challenge of navigating great-power rivalries. Today, it is the geopolitical contest between the United States and China that has compelled countries to balance their competing national interests. Which side they gravitate towards depends on domestic and external circumstances.
Is China becoming a peacemaker, or is it just as aggressive as before?
Nick Bisley, The Conversation, Thu 16 Mar 2023
International media is flush with reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping may imminently visit Russia and hold a video conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he pushes China’s vaguely worded peace plan to end the Ukraine war. Beijing styling itself as a force for global peace is an image that jars with the assertive and abrasive foreign policy Xi has adopted.
Is a stable Afghanistan where China, Russia and the US cooperate?
Hilmand Dehsabzi, The Interpreter, Fri 17 Mar 2023
Three of the world’s most influential powers have skin in the game when it comes to preventing another civil war.
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