Australia: Labor Party says relations with China won't change even if they come to power

Australia's Opposition leader indicated that the country's relationship with China is expected to remain problematic even if his centre-left Labor Party comes to power for the first time in almost a decade. Anthony Albanese addressed the National Press Club on Tuesday which is seen as an unofficial campaign launch ahead of the elections scheduled in May. Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is likely to address the Press Club next week. During his address, Albanese claimed that Australia's policy towards a more assertive China will not cause a rift between the parties during the election campaign.

"Whoever’s in government, it will be a difficult relationship. It will be difficult because the posture of China has changed. It is China that has changed, not Australia that has changed. I don't blame the government and never have for the current circumstances," Albanese said as per the Associated Press (AP). Since 2013, when Albanese was the Deputy Prime Minister of a Labor government that was voted out of office, Morrison has been the third Prime Minister of the conservative coalition. Tony Abbot, the first conservative Prime Minister, hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2014 which was seen as the high point in bilateral relations.   

Major Australian exports to China have been affected since 2018

However, relations between both countries deteriorated after Abbott's successor, Malcolm Turnbull, introduced new treason and espionage laws in 2017, which made a covert foreign influence in politics illegal. Meanwhile, Chinese officials have refrained from talking to their Australian counterparts throughout Morrison's tenure, which began in 2018, and major Australian exports such as coal, wine, and barley have also been affected. Exporters have largely backed the government's willingness to antagonize China with policies like pushing for an independent probe into the COVID-19 pandemic's origins. 

The Labor government would deal with China in a mature way: Albanese

Albanese claimed that a Labor government would deal with China in a mature way, rather than provocatively to score some domestic political points. "I don't argue that a change of government will simply change the relationship. Because that’s just something that we have to deal with," he told as per the AP. According to Albanese, the three pillars of a Labor government's foreign policy would be Australia's relationship with the US, engagement with regional allies, and participation in multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

(With inputs from AP)

Image: AP/Twitter/@Anthony Albanese