Australia insisted yesterday that its ambassador to China didn't rush home a day earlier for crisis-management consultations amid soured bilateral ties between the two major regional trading partners.
Putonghua-speaking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Ambassador Geoff Raby often returns from Beijing this time of year, downplaying the trip's significance.
But he conceded to reporters in Canberra that, "Obviously, it's a good time to take stock of the relationship and how we move forward."
Raby canceled engagements in Beijing to return to Canberra yesterday for "emergency meetings," the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported.
"He hasn't been rushed back to Canberra; he comes back on a regular basis," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told ABC Radio yesterday, adding that it was "a very good time" for Raby to return.
Jill Collins, counselor for public affairs and culture at the Australian embassy in China, told the Global Times that the envoy "is away from Beijing at the moment," declining to comment further on his agenda.
The embassy does not have a practice of commenting on details of the ambassador's schedule, Collins noted.
Bilateral relations appear to have chilled following the arrest of Australian mining giant Rio Tinto's Shanghai executive, Stern Hu, an Australian passport-holder, for his alleged involvement in commercial bribery. Also not helping ties was Canberra's decision to allow a visit by the US-based Uygur exile Rebiya Kadeer. The Chinese government has accused Kadeer of masterminding the July 5 riot in Urumqi that caused almost 200 deaths.
Beijing this week reportedly canceled a planned September visit to Australia by Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei in response to Canberra's decision to issue Kadeer a visa.
The Foreign Ministry wasn't available to comment on the issue yesterday.
Negotiations between Chinese steel mills and the world’s giant miners, including Australia's BHB Billiton, Rio Tinto and Brazil's Vale, have long exceeded their annual June 30 deadline for iron ore price-setting.
But there has been good news, as PetroChina this week signed a $41.3 billion deal with Exxon Mobil to purchase liquefied natural gas mined Down Under, Bloomberg said.
Australian Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson hailed the agreement as a "landmark in our relationship with China."
Han Feng, deputy director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times, "The Rio Tinto case and iron ore price talks are mainly examples of conflicts of commercial interest, and they won’t influence Sino-Australian relations by a large margin."
Trade ties between China and Australia are mainly characterized by large energy deals, he said, adding that they are still in need of long-term and stable trust to improve political ties.
"The row … is not likely to affect the economic exchange of both countries," Zhang Liangui, a professor of international political strategy at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, told the Global Times.
"Both countries are just making gestures, without any substantial gain or loss," Zhang said.
Zhang said that some Western countries see Kadeer as leverage to contain China, which is enjoying rapid development.
"It does no good for China to quarrel with Western countries over and again," Zhang said. "China must learn how to open dialogues with foreign countries; nationalism will only cause confrontations."
"Western nations are cautious about China's rapid growth and try to make trouble for China," Zhang said. "And the Chinese should also learn to talk with other countries to express our fundamental interests."
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