* Australia urged to stop raising concerns about the territorial dispute
* Communist Party-owned tabloid calls White Paper remarks an 'immature outburst'
* References to 'Indo-Pacific' rather than 'Asia-Pacific' being viewed dimly by Chinese observers
The first White Paper in 13 years urged China to uphold a rules-based order — a reference to Beijing ignoring a 2016 international court ruling on its military base and island construction activities in the disputed South China Sea.
While noting some positive language about the development of Australia's relationship with China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Lu Kang urged Australia to stop raising concerns about the territorial dispute.
"Australia is not a party to the South China Sea issue," he said at a regular briefing in Beijing.
"Australia has claimed many times it does not take sides on the sovereignty issue of the South China Sea, so we urge Australia to keep its promise."
The White Paper also committed Australia to deeper engagement with other democracies in the region — a move widely viewed as a hedging strategy against the rising authoritarian power.
"The rules accepted by the international community are not made by any particular country", Mr Lu said.
"China follows rules based on the present aim and situation of the United Nations, and not based on any political aims of any particular country".
In response to the White Paper, the Communist Party-owned tabloid, Global Times, went much further than the official language, using an editorial to argue Australia's cautious stance on China is ungrateful.
The nationalistic outlet said in recent years, Australia had become something of a distant propaganda outpost agitating for neighbours to be wary about China.
Seemingly exasperated at why Beijing's economic influence in Australia has not eased people's concerns, it said China "could relegate ties with Australia to the back of the line, and ignore its immature outburst".
Other countries, such as Vietnam, have upgraded existing facilities, but the scale and pace of China's construction is unprecedented.
Locals don't perceive China as a rule breaker
"The language about a rules-based order has widely been interpreted as being against China", said Chen Hong, a professor at China East Normal University in Shanghai.
"Many people here believe China does not break rules, so it's not in China or Australia's interests to perceive China as a rule breaker," he said.
The White Paper's references to the "Indo-Pacific" rather than the "Asia-Pacific" are also being viewed dimly by Chinese observers.
"This phrase or construct has been created to ostracise, to exclude China," Professor Chen said.
"China welcomes Australia to be an active part of the Asia-Pacific club.
"I don't think this is a good way to help the bilateral relationship."
Overall though many Chinese analysts have noted the White Paper's focus on changing power dynamics, and Professor Chen said Beijing understands Australia's need to prepare for an unpredictable future.
"The White Paper indicates Australia's thinking to find its own way in the region without the leadership of the United States, so against this background, this White Paper is full of uncertainty," Professor Chen said.
Chinese officials 'respect the stand we have taken'
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has brushed off China's criticisms.
"The Ministry for Foreign Affairs described our analysis of the China-Australia relationship as objective, and the feedback I have had from senior Chinese officials is that they respect the stand we have taken in the White Paper," Ms Bishop said.
"Last night I met with the Chinese Ambassador [to Australia] and he was very positive about the Australia-China relationship."
Ms Bishop said the White Paper was a clear statement of Australia's values.
"The White Paper is principled, it's pragmatic and it sets out very clearly our interests, our values and our priorities, and I think other nations will respect that."
China’s inexorable rise is helped by Trump’s retreat
"Former Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr says America will find it hard to contain the rise of China as the dominant power in the region "
By Ishaan Tharoor January 11 at 12:59 AM
The first stop on French President Emmanuel Macron's trip to China this week was, curiously, not Beijing. Macron arrived in the central Chinese city of Xi'an, a town fabled for its imperial tomb filled with terra-cotta warriors as well as its role as the historic gateway to the Silk Road. The French president was deliberately pandering to China's sense of its past.
“Our relationship is anchored in time, and in my opinion is based on civilization, in the sense that France and China are two countries with very different cultures but which both have a universal calling,” Macron told Chinese media .. https://thediplomat.com/2018/01/why-did-frances-macron-start-his-china-trip-in-xian/ . “They are two countries that have always been eager, across distances, to meet and recognize each other. It’s for all these reasons that I wanted to start my state visit in Xi’an — it’s a way to experience ancient China.”
Macron used the occasion to extend a hand to Beijing .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/world/asia/china-france-xi-macron.html : “What I came to tell you is that Europe is back,” he said, signaling a contrast between the “America First” nationalism of President Trump and the openness of China's other interlocutors in the West. In turn, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed his desire to “protect multilateralism” and the pillars of the global economy.
The rhetoric is already a dramatic illustration of how far China has come. For decades, the ruling Communist Party has publicly groused about the “century of humiliation .. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/12/07/out-of-china-barbarians/ ” endured by China at the hands of imperial European powers from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. Resentment over this experience of colonial bullying and coercion, subjugation and war, remains a crucial plank of Chinese nationalism.
Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, pose next to the famous terra-cotta warriors in Xi'an, China, on Jan. 8. (Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
But it's being superseded by another, more confident nationalist narrative, one based in reasserting China's historical primacy. China's gross domestic product is projected to surpass that of the United States .. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-us-vs-china-economy/ .. by the end of the next decade. The country's leadership sees its ambitious new economic projects — such as its vast “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure initiative across the landmass of Eurasia — as tools to restore Beijing's traditional role as the leading trade power in Asia, casting a shadow over a network of lesser tributary states.
“Of the global powers that dominated the 19th century, China alone is a rejuvenated empire. The Communist Party commands a vast territory that the ethnic-Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty cobbled together through war and diplomacy,” wrote Ed Wong, a former Beijing bureau chief for the New York Times .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/sunday-review/china-military-economic-power.html . “And the dominion could grow: China is using its military to test potential control of disputed borderlands from the South China Sea to the Himalayas, while firing up nationalism at home.”
“With China’s economic footprint across the Asia-Pacific region already large, countries in the region are now increasingly concluding that the U.S. is consigning itself to growing economic irrelevance in Asia,” former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd wrote last month .. http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/84NCKcrD2IbQ3sw7absKZM/Kevin-Rudd--The-Trumping-of-Asia.html . “U.S. financial institutions will, of course, remain important, as will Silicon Valley, as a source of extraordinary innovation. But the pattern of trade, the direction of investment, and, increasingly, the nature of intra-regional capital flows, are painting a vastly different picture for the future than the one that has dominated post-war Asia.”
This is not necessarily a source of jubilation among Chinese strategists. The Chinese economy flourished while the United States, with its far-reaching military presence, anchored the regional order in the Pacific. Beijing is not ready nor interested in replacing Washington in this global role.
Trump and Xi are greeted by children waving flowers and flags at a welcome ceremony in Beijing on Nov. 9. (Andy Wong/Associated Press)
“It seems Donald Trump’s view is: if China can take a free ride, why can’t we? But the problem is that the U.S. is too big. If you ride for free, then the bus will collapse,” Jia Qingguo, the dean of the Department of Diplomacy at Peking University, said to the New Yorker's Evan Osnos .. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/08/making-china-great-again . “Maybe the best solution is for China to help the U.S. drive the bus. The worse scenario is that China drives the bus when it’s not ready. It’s too costly and it doesn’t have enough experience.”
“I think Trump is America’s Gorbachev,” Yan Xuetong, the dean of Tsinghua University’s Institute of Modern International Relations, said to Osnos. That's not a kind reference, as the New Yorker journalist explained: “In China, Mikhail Gorbachev is known as the leader who led an empire to collapse.”
But there are still fears about what a budding Chinese empire means for the world, no matter when it fully arrives. Under Xi, hopes for Chinese political liberalization have vanished; the space for civil society has shrunk and China's rulers have set about crafting the most technologically sophisticated and far-reaching security state ever seen .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/01/07/feature/in-china-facial-recognition-is-sharp-end-of-a-drive-for-total-surveillance/ . Xi's rosy language of common dreams and a shared destiny belie a darker edge.
[As Trump's word, when you can make sense of them, do.]
“Chinese citizens and the world would benefit if China turns out to be an empire whose power is based as much on ideas, values and culture as on military and economic might,” Wong of the Times wrote .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/sunday-review/china-military-economic-power.html . “It was more enlightened under its most glorious dynasties. But for now, the Communist Party embraces hard power and coercion, and this could well be what replaces the fading liberal hegemony of the United States on the global stage. It will not lead to a grand vision of world order. Instead, before us looms a void.”
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
