Skip to main content

Site navigation

  • University of Technology Sydney home
  • Home

    Home
  • For students

  • For industry

  • Research

Explore

  • Courses
  • Events
  • News
  • Stories
  • People

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Study at UTS

    • arrow_right_alt Find a course
    • arrow_right_alt Course areas
    • arrow_right_alt Undergraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Postgraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Research Masters and PhD
    • arrow_right_alt Online study and short courses
  • Student information

    • arrow_right_alt Current students
    • arrow_right_alt New UTS students
    • arrow_right_alt Graduates (Alumni)
    • arrow_right_alt High school students
    • arrow_right_alt Indigenous students
    • arrow_right_alt International students
  • Admissions

    • arrow_right_alt How to apply
    • arrow_right_alt Entry pathways
    • arrow_right_alt Eligibility
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for students

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Apply for a coursearrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Scholarshipsarrow_right_alt
  • Featured industries

    • arrow_right_alt Agriculture and food
    • arrow_right_alt Defence and space
    • arrow_right_alt Energy and transport
    • arrow_right_alt Government and policy
    • arrow_right_alt Health and medical
    • arrow_right_alt Corporate training
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Tech Central
    • arrow_right_alt Case studies
    • arrow_right_alt Research
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for industry

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Partner with usarrow_right_alt
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Explore our research
    • arrow_right_alt Research centres and institutes
    • arrow_right_alt Graduate research
    • arrow_right_alt Research partnerships
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for research

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Research centres and institutesarrow_right_alt
  • University of Technology Sydney home
Explore the University of Technology Sydney
Category Filters:
University of Technology Sydney home University of Technology Sydney home
  1. home
  2. arrow_forward_ios ... Newsroom
  3. arrow_forward_ios ... 2023
  4. arrow_forward_ios 04
  5. arrow_forward_ios Australia must avoid knee-jerk policy reactions regarding China

Australia must avoid knee-jerk policy reactions regarding China

16 April 2023
800x450 Australia and China flags waving in the sky

FreshStock / Shutterstock


James Laurenceson

 

James Laurenceson, Director, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney

Download

This article appeared in The Australian on April 16 2023.

The visit to Australia last week by Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu confirms that official relations between Canberra and Beijing are back on track.

Ma’s big message?

‘China is ready to move forward’ from the dysfunction of recent years.

Political leaders and officials are now discussing the full range of issues, including contentious ones like strategic competition, human rights and the Australians that remained detained in China, Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei.

And there’s more to be upbeat about than Canberra and Beijing returning to constructive dialogue. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released new numbers showing that over the past 12 months China snapped up Australian goods worth $179bn, a new record.

Add in another $10bn or so from services like education and tourism, which are now getting a fresh boost after China reopened its borders earlier this year.

Australia’s appetite for imported goods from China is bouncing off historical highs, too, at $111bn.

This success isn’t much thanks to Beijing.

Political ups and downs have been a constant since diplomatic relations were struck in 1972.

But in 2020 it was Beijing that broke a longstanding tacit agreement not to respond to political disagreements by disrupting mutually beneficial trade.

Instead, success owes most to the thousands of Australian and Chinese businesses that navigated the geopolitical challenges to not only preserve, but expand, the value that the bilateral relationship delivers.

And give Canberra some credit, too.

There was a lot to criticise in the Morrison’s government’s handling of China relations.

But in September 2021, more than a year after Beijing decided to close its market to a range of Australian exports, treasurer John Frydenberg still took the view that ongoing engagement by businesses had ‘brought great benefits to them and to Australia overall’. He recommended that ‘they should continue to pursue these opportunities where they can’, albeit with eyes wide open to risk.

A month before losing office, Morrison himself insisted that ‘ongoing engagement between private industry and business with markets like China is very important and I will continue to encourage that’.

The Albanese government has stuck to the same script.

Addressing the Australia-China Business Council last September, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts said that commercial relationships were regarded as ‘complementary’ to the government’s efforts to stabilise the broader relationship, and he encouraged those in the audience to ‘stay engaged in the China market, while accounting for risk’.

This month, Trade Minister Don Farrell made clear that Canberra’s idea of trade diversification was not about reducing the importance of China. It meant ‘getting back into China, but also opening up with India, the United Kingdom, with the European Union’.

None of this good sense was preordained or can be taken for granted in the future.

Canberra can expect pressure from Washington to follow it down the path of trying to contain China’s rise.

Last October, the Biden administration cut off China’s access to advanced semiconductors in a move that Farrell described as ‘draconian’.

Presidents Biden and Trump have upped the ante, but US efforts to recruit allies and partners to its cause are nothing new. In 2015, it was President Obama who asked Prime Minister Tony Abbott to stop selling iron ore to China.

Abbott declined.

But these days Australia’s very own coterie of ‘‘little Americans’’ are on board.

Earlier this year, former head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings, insisted that ‘the government should be advancing every possible measure to reduce economic dependence on China’.

What dependence would that be?

When Beijing disrupted access to its market, many Australian businesses shrugged their shoulders – disappointed, but hardly panicked.

Coal, cotton, copper and more are traded in open and competitive global markets. So, when Beijing closed the door, these markets simply re-directed Australia’s exports elsewhere, almost overnight and at low cost.

These markets are underpinned by international trade rules. Last week also saw Beijing change course on the tariffs it imposed on Australian barley, knowing that the World Trade Organisation would soon adjudicate its actions to be inconsistent with these rules.

There have been calls as well for Australian trade policy to embrace concepts like ‘trusted trade’. This takes forms such as ‘friend-shored’ supply chains. The idea is superficially appealing – if governments can drive more trade to our strategic mates, then geopolitical risk can be reduced.

But businesses have already shown that they can effectively manage geopolitical risk, certainly better than bureaucrats ever could.

And our strategic mates often don’t want what we sell. In 2014, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton warned Australia not to put all its eggs in the China basket.

Malcolm Turnbull quipped in response: ‘I’m sure that we’d love to export vast quantities of iron ore to the United States but they’ve never shown any enthusiasm in buying them.’

When China stopped buying some of our goods a few years ago, our strategic mates didn’t come to the rescue. In fact, the country that snapped up the most lost Australian sales to China was the US.

Canada and New Zealand were also leading beneficiaries. No surprise: yes, they are strategic mates, but also commercial rivals.

Touted increased purchases driven by ‘‘shared values’’, like Australian ‘democracy wine’, didn’t materialise either.

China took a witless policy turn in 2020. Australia can do better than respond with a witless policy turn of our own now.


Author

Professor James Laurenceson is Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

Share
Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn
Back to Commentary

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and the Boorooberongal People of the Dharug Nation upon whose ancestral lands our campuses now stand. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands. 

University of Technology Sydney

City Campus

15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007

Get in touch with UTS

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Facebook

A member of

  • Australian Technology Network
Use arrow keys to navigate within each column of links. Press Tab to move between columns.

Study

  • Find a course
  • Undergraduate
  • Postgraduate
  • How to apply
  • Scholarships and prizes
  • International students
  • Campus maps
  • Accommodation

Engage

  • Find an expert
  • Industry
  • News
  • Events
  • Experience UTS
  • Research
  • Stories
  • Alumni

About

  • Who we are
  • Faculties
  • Learning and teaching
  • Sustainability
  • Initiatives
  • Equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Campus and locations
  • Awards and rankings
  • UTS governance

Staff and students

  • Current students
  • Help and support
  • Library
  • Policies
  • StaffConnect
  • Working at UTS
  • UTS Handbook
  • Contact us
  • Copyright © 2025
  • ABN: 77 257 686 961
  • CRICOS provider number: 00099F
  • TEQSA provider number: PRV12060
  • TEQSA category: Australian University
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Accessibility