The relationship, he says, has been built by leaders across the political spectrum in Australia. It is a relationship to which the current government is also committed, but currently undergoing strain. Indeed, Prime Minister Rudd is peculiarly well prepared to work with the Chinese leadership in getting the most out of the relationship for both countries. But, as Hawke concludes, this is not a task at which government alone can now succeed; it is one on which government will need support from the community more broadly. For reasons that have been traversed elsewhere, bipartisanship in managing the relationship with China has been fractured, hopefully only temporarily. The China relationship is one that is too important to come to without a carefully considered and coherent national view. The complexities of China’s place in the world and the pervasiveness of its impact on our lives over the coming years will require greater depth of understanding and effort from more elements in community than it has required in the past. We shall set out some of the challenges over the coming week. Next year we shall devote an issue of the East Asia Forum Quarterly (EAFQ) to exploring them in more detail.
In Brief
In a few days the People’s Republic of China celebrates is sixtieth anniversary. Over the coming week we have invited leaders and scholars inside and outside China to reflect on where China has come over the past sixty years and where it might be headed in the future. We begin the series with reflections by former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, on the impact of Deng Xiaoping's commitment to opening up on Australia and the rest of the world. He claims, rightly I believe, that, as China embarked upon its remarkable transformation, Australia developed an exceptional relationship with China, the strength of which has been remarked upon and valued not only because of the mutual benefits it has brought to both Australia and China but also by other powers as they sought to comprehend and manage China’s emerging role in the world.