China’s ambassador to Australia has called for Australia and China to harbour less “bias and bigotry” towards each other and work harder to build mutual trust, saying no one is benefiting from the current “cold war mentality”.
Cheng Jingye also rejected suggestions China is intentionally over-burdening some Pacific island nations with debt to bring them under Beijing’s control, saying it is “absurd” to suggest such a thing.
His remarks come a day after Julie Bishop, the foreign affairs minister, confirmed the Turnbull government will compete with China’s infrastructure development spree in the South Pacific to ensure small island nations in Australia’s neighbourhood “retain their sovereignty”.
Australian foreign policy experts are increasingly wary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious trillion dollar plan to expand Beijing’s influence across 70 or more countries, including in the Pacific, with a spending spree on hundreds of large infrastructure projects that dramatically expands China’s geographic footprint.
Cheng spoke at an Australia-China Business Council event in Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday, using his opening address to call on Australians to view China far more favourably.
He said China was willing to work with Australia to improve bilateral relations, but Australia had to stop being suspicious of Chinese motives.
He said the Chinese state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi recently held a meeting with Julie Bishop where he outlined China’s plan for its development path and its visions for developing relations with other countries.
“He pointed out China follows a development path that is completely different from that of traditional major powers,” he said.
“China never interferes in the internal affairs of [other] countries, let alone carries out so-called ‘infiltration’ of other countries. China’s idea is to carry out equal cooperation with all countries, including Australia, to achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.”
Cheng said it was his belief that, in order to “disperse the clouds”, Australia and China needed to be more inclusive and behave with less bias and bigotry.
“We need to see each other’s development and positive intentions from a more positive perspective with less cold war mentality,” he said.
“We need to build more mutual trust, with less misunderstanding. We need to develop more connections between our two countries and two peoples with less barriers. And we need to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns while managing the differences in a constructive manner.”
After his speech, when Cheng was leaving the event, he gave unscripted remarks to journalists that were more pointed.
He said it was “ridiculous” and “absurd” to suggest that China was over-burdening some Pacific island nations with debt.
“We have a growing economic cooperation with some island countries, they are on an equal footing and I think it is mutually beneficial,” he said.
“We have always been sensitive to any possible debt burden, and any items that we have in cooperation with those countries we have been very careful about their ability to [repay] the debt.”
When asked who he had in mind when he mentioned bias and bigotry, he said it was up to others to come to their own conclusions.
“You can make your own judgements,” he said.
