澳大利亞準備在與中國的爭端中付出代價 - 貿易部長說

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

Australia Prepared to Pay Price in Dispute with China, Trade Minister Says

Eric Martin and Michael Heath

Thu., July 22, 2021, 9:11 p.m.

(Bloomberg) -- Australia is prepared to take the economic hit from China’s trade measures in order to defend its sovereignty, Trade Minister Dan Tehan said, even as he pursues efforts to open dialogue with counterparts in Beijing.

 “If we have to pay an economic price for that, that’s something that we’re prepared to pay,” Tehan said in an interview in Washington, where he’s meeting with the Biden administration to try to work out how to counter China’s actions. “In the end our values are so important to us and we think that they’re something that we have to protect above all else.”

Australia’s ties with China have frayed since 2018, when it barred Huawei Technologies Co. from building its 5G network, and went into freefall last year as Prime Minister Scott Morrison led calls for an independent probe into the origins of coronavirus in Wuhan. Beijing has responded with a volley of punitive trade actions that have hit commodities from coal to barley, lobsters and wine.

“There is collective action we can all take with regards to dealing with economic coercion,” Tehan said of how best to react. “I think we do have to look at whether we can develop other tools to deal with it.”

Bringing attention to Beijing’s action at forums like the World Trade Organization ensures there’s a “reputational element” for China, he said, adding that whether other tools were needed was part of his discussions with U.S. officials in the past couple of days. While the U.S. has said it won’t leave Australia alone on the field, it hasn’t gone beyond rhetoric so far.

Still, direct communication would be the best way to resolve the issues, Tehan said. In January he sent “a long letter” to Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao setting out “ways in which we could cooperate and the areas we needed to discuss.” He’s yet to receive a response.

The impact of China’s punitive actions has been somewhat blunted -- apart from firms and farms directly impacted -- by the soaring price of iron ore that Beijing is unable to source in the quantities it needs beyond Australia.

But prospects of reconciliation look limited in the near-term.

Asked about Australian agriculture losing market share in China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a news conference this month: “We will not allow any country to reap benefits from doing business with China while groundlessly accusing and smearing China.”

The U.S., Australia and other nations this week formally attributed a Microsoft Exchange hack to actors affiliated with the Chinese government and accused Beijing’s leadership of a broad array of “malicious cyber activities.”

Tehan said the response was important because it wasn’t Australia alone, but a group of countries saying that “this activity needs to stop and that there are better ways with which we can engage” with each other.

Translation

（彭博）- 澳大利亞貿易部Dan Tehan表示，儘管他正在努力與北京的同行展開對話, 亦已準備承受中國貿易措施對經濟的打擊，以捍衛其主權。

Tehan正在華盛頓與拜登政府會面, 試圖找出如何反擊中國的行動。在接受採訪說: “如果我們必須為此付出經濟代價，那是我們準備付出的”; “最終，我們的價值觀對我們來說是非常重要，我們認為它是我們必須首先保護的東西” 。

澳大利亞與中國的關係自 2018一直在惡化。當時澳大利亞禁止華為技術有限公司建設它的 5G 網絡, 並隨著總理Scott Morrison (莫里森) 在去年領導呼籲對武漢冠狀病毒的起源進行獨立調查後而陷入困境。作為回應，北京採取了一系列懲罰性貿易行動，打擊了從煤炭到大麥、龍蝦和葡萄酒等大宗商品。

Tehan談到如何最好地做出反應時說: “在應對經濟脅迫方面，我們都可以採取集體行動”; “我認為我們確實必須考慮是否可以開展其他工具來處理它。”

他說，讓人們在世界貿易組織等論壇上, 關注北京的行動，以確保中國考慮其“聲譽因素”。他並補充說，過去幾天他與美國官員討論了是否需要其他工具。雖然美國已經表示不會讓澳大利亞獨自應對經濟脅迫，但到目前為止，它只止於言辭。

Tehan 又說，然而直接溝通將是解決問題的最佳方式。今年1月，他向中國商務部長王文濤發出了 “一封長信” ，列出了 “我們可以合作的方式和需要討論的領域” 。但他還沒有收到答覆。

中國懲罰性行動的影響, 除了直接影響公司和農場, 在某種程度上是減弱了- 因為鐵礦石價格飆升，北京無法在澳大利亞以外採購到所需數量的鐵礦石。

但在短期內和解的前景看起來不樂觀。

當被問及澳大利亞農業在中國失去市場份額時，中國外交部發言人趙立堅在本月的新聞發布會上說：“我們不會允許任何國家在與中國做生意中獲利的同時, 無端指責和抹黑中國。”

美國、澳大利亞和其他國家本周正式將 Microsoft Exchange 黑客攻擊攪事者, 歸咎於與中國政府有關聯，並指責北京領導層進行了一系列廣泛的“惡意網絡活動”。

Tehan 表示，對應黑客攻擊的反應很重要，因為不僅是澳大利亞单獨事的，而是一系列國家 事的。 又表示 “這種活動需要停止，我們通過相互接觸, 可達至更好的對應方式” 。

              So, it seems that when comparing Canada and Australia in how to deal with the economic coercion from China, Canada is in a low key while Australia is more open. I like Tehan’s view point when he said that, “In the end our values are so important to us and we think that they’re something that we have to protect above all else.”

It is also interesting to note that while China is expressing the view point that, “We will not allow any country to reap benefits from doing business with China while groundlessly accusing and smearing China”, I notice that China is still doing business with EU and the US and reaping profits yet at the same time they are accusing China in violating human rights in Xīnjiāng etc.