Canberra should not be swayed by US in handling its relations with China

The Chinese and Australian national flags in Sydney, Australia. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong's visit to China this week, the first ministerial visit in three years between the two sides, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries on Wednesday, was a rare opportunity created by the two sides to put their troubled relations back on the right track again.

In fact, a thaw in their frosty bilateral ties already began last month in Bali, Indonesia, when President Xi Jinping met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the G20 summit. On Wednesday, Xi exchanged congratulatory 50th anniversary messages with Albanese and the Australian Governor-General David Hurley, further proof that China is committed to reversing the ill trend in bilateral ties.

Wong's visit can help the two sides foster a desirable momentum in bilateral cooperation, and this is in line with the positive signals that Canberra has also been sending since Albanese took office.

Although China and Australia have no fundamental disputes between them, bilateral ties have encountered difficulties in recent years, as Canberra drew closer to Washington as the US gave greater attention to the region. Under the previous government of Scott Morrison, Australia often enthusiastically served as a forerunner in the US' "Indo-Pacific strategy" aimed at containing China's development.

Some ideologically-obsessed Australian politicians and media deliberately spread the US' confrontational narrative against China in Australian society and thus created a poisonous atmosphere for what used to be robust and mutually beneficial ties between the two countries.

The anti-China rhetoric and behavior that ensued prompted many Chinese people to reconsider their friendly view of Australia. After all, who would want to do business with a country or send their children to study in a country that is full of hostility?

As well as viewing relations with China objectively, the Australian government should also look at Australia's relations with the US with a clinical eye. Washington having blown the dust from a zero-sum playbook that had been consigned to the archive is unmindfully trying to repeat the past.

If some in Australia still think their country can reap economic gains from China while being an enthusiastic bandwagoner of the US strategy they need look no further than travails that have befallen the US' allies in Europe to see where that might lead.

Some European countries have blindly followed the US strategic playbook in fanning the flames of conflict in Ukraine only to find they are having to pay a dear price in terms of high inflation and an energy crisis.

Canberra should bear in mind that in pursuing its objectives, Washington doesn't care what the collateral damage might be.