Tony Abbott defends adviser who said China is an unwilling global leader
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Version 0 of 1. Tony Abbott says his department head was not being provocative when he suggested China was unwilling to play a constructive global leadership role. The secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Michael Thawley, told a conference at the Australian National university on Tuesday that China was not willing or able to play a “serious” leadership role in the world. Fairfax Media reported Thawley had told the conference: “China won’t help you produce a solution. China will get in the way or out of the way.” Asked whether Beijing was willing or able to play a global leadership role, Thawley said: “The answer is no, it’s not willing or able to play a serious global leadership role.” The undiplomatic remarks from Abbott’s top bureaucratic adviser have already been contradicted by the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, who told Sky News on Wednesday that China was a very significant player. “With the extraordinary rise of China as an economic power, with power shifting from the west to the east, China is a significant player,” Bishop said. “It is the number one trading partner for about 120 countries around the world. While its economic power does not eclipse that of the United States it’s nevertheless a very significant economic regional and global player.” Bishop said it was her view Australia played an important role in encouraging China to rise peacefully and embrace its global responsibilities. “Australia is able to facilitate engagement with China at many levels and I believe that that’s the role we should continue to play in the hope that China does become a responsible global player,” she said. The prime minister was asked about Thawley’s comments at a media conference on Wednesday. He said Thawley’s intervention had not been provocative. The senior mandarin, former diplomat and former foreign policy adviser to John Howard had contributed to a “broad–ranging discussion about issues in our world and in our region”. “Obviously what we want to do is encourage China to assume a role commensurate with its strength,” he said. “That’s why, under the right conditions, which we were able to obtain, we were so keen to be involved in the Asia infrastructure investment bank. “The Asia infrastructure investment bank is a good illustration of the role that China can have within a rules-based international order.” Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said she was in the audience when the departmental head made his remarks. “I was a little bit surprised, I must say,” Plibersek told the ABC. Asked whether the analysis reflected an institutional view within the government that China could not be trusted, Plibersek said: “I think that’s a flaw at the core of the government. “We need to make the most of the opportunities that being part of the fastest-growing part of the world offers us. “To have this sort of comment expressed by the prime minister’s most senior policy adviser perhaps gives us an insight into why the prime minister made those strange comments to Angela Merkel that Australia’s relationship with China was governed by fear and greed.” |