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Two billionaires with large Chinese business interests, Kerry Stokes and James Packer, have slammed Australia’s conduct of its relationship with China and said Australians seemed ungrateful to their largest trading partner.
“Simplistically, as a layman, China has been a better friend to us than we have been to China,” Mr Packer said at a conference on Friday. “Now I think that if that continues for long periods of time, friendships get damaged.”
Mr Stokes, who is a major donor to the Australian War Memorial, said he was physically repulsed by the presence of US troops on Australian soil not under Australian command and believed the upgrade of the military relationship had upset many ordinary Chinese.
The comments from two of the most influential Australian businessmen are a blow to the Labor government’s foreign policy, which has tried to balance a close military relationship with the US and the important economic relationship with China.
Relations have been complicated by the decision this year to base a semi-permanent contingent of US marines in the Northern Territory.
A month ago Opposition Leader Tony Abbott spoke about political reform during a speech in Beijing and said companies controlled by the Chinese state shouldn’t be allowed to control Australian companies. Some Coalition MPs have recently complained about Chinese interests buying Cubbie Station, Australia’s biggest cotton farm. Kevin Rudd criticised human rights standards in a Beijing speech while he was prime minister.
Mr Stokes didn’t mention Mr Abbott or Mr Rudd by name but said politicians had been “disrespectful and wrong” by calling for political change in China. “It is hard to think of anything more disrespectful than going there and asking them to change the decor,” he said to a conference organised byThe Australian.
Mr Stokes and Mr Packer both have an interest in good relations with China. Mr Packer is the executive chairman of Crown, which owns one third of Melco Crown Entertainment, which owns a casino license in Macau. Mr Stokes is executive chairman of Seven Group Holdings, which owns WesTrac, which sells Caterpillar mining equipment and vehicles in north-east China, and a stake in the Agricultural Bank of China.
A top Chinese banking executive reinforced their comments. “Obviously this is not an invasion,” said Helen Wong, chief executive of HSBC China. “China has a choice as an investor and if it isn’t welcomed we can go somewhere else.”
Mr Stokes criticised the Rudd government’s 2009 defence white paper, which recommended a more aggressive military posture, for feeding Chinese concern that Australia was choosing the US over China. He said there was growing negativity towards Australia in China’s online world which was a potent barometer of social attitudes and would feed into the Chinese government’s view of Australia.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr this week warned a more democratic China could be intensely nationalistic. Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the marines base would improve regional security.
Mr Packer cited data that Australia’s exports to China were 66 per cent as big as exports to China from the US, which has about 15 times as many people as Australia.
He said Crown’s investments in China were among the largest of any Australian non-mining company, and yet relatively small, which showed why Australian businesses needed to work harder to break into the market. “Resources will always be the largest opportunity . . . but selling services is going to be a great opportunity,” he said. “There is a perception, whether fair or unfair, within China that Australia is, for want of a better description, a less grateful friend than it should be.”
About 100 million Chinese people wrote blogs, Mr Stokes said. “It’s in the social media we find the uneasiness towards Australia,” he said.
Stokes and Packer: We need to bow to China
“Simplistically, as a layman, China has been a better friend to us than we have been to China,” Mr Packer said at a conference on Friday. “Now I think that if that continues for long periods of time, friendships get damaged.”
Mr Stokes, who is a major donor to the Australian War Memorial, said he was physically repulsed by the presence of US troops on Australian soil not under Australian command and believed the upgrade of the military relationship had upset many ordinary Chinese.
The comments from two of the most influential Australian businessmen are a blow to the Labor government’s foreign policy, which has tried to balance a close military relationship with the US and the important economic relationship with China.
Relations have been complicated by the decision this year to base a semi-permanent contingent of US marines in the Northern Territory.
A month ago Opposition Leader Tony Abbott spoke about political reform during a speech in Beijing and said companies controlled by the Chinese state shouldn’t be allowed to control Australian companies. Some Coalition MPs have recently complained about Chinese interests buying Cubbie Station, Australia’s biggest cotton farm. Kevin Rudd criticised human rights standards in a Beijing speech while he was prime minister.
Mr Stokes didn’t mention Mr Abbott or Mr Rudd by name but said politicians had been “disrespectful and wrong” by calling for political change in China. “It is hard to think of anything more disrespectful than going there and asking them to change the decor,” he said to a conference organised byThe Australian.
Mr Stokes and Mr Packer both have an interest in good relations with China. Mr Packer is the executive chairman of Crown, which owns one third of Melco Crown Entertainment, which owns a casino license in Macau. Mr Stokes is executive chairman of Seven Group Holdings, which owns WesTrac, which sells Caterpillar mining equipment and vehicles in north-east China, and a stake in the Agricultural Bank of China.
A top Chinese banking executive reinforced their comments. “Obviously this is not an invasion,” said Helen Wong, chief executive of HSBC China. “China has a choice as an investor and if it isn’t welcomed we can go somewhere else.”
Mr Stokes criticised the Rudd government’s 2009 defence white paper, which recommended a more aggressive military posture, for feeding Chinese concern that Australia was choosing the US over China. He said there was growing negativity towards Australia in China’s online world which was a potent barometer of social attitudes and would feed into the Chinese government’s view of Australia.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr this week warned a more democratic China could be intensely nationalistic. Defence Minister Stephen Smith said the marines base would improve regional security.
Mr Packer cited data that Australia’s exports to China were 66 per cent as big as exports to China from the US, which has about 15 times as many people as Australia.
He said Crown’s investments in China were among the largest of any Australian non-mining company, and yet relatively small, which showed why Australian businesses needed to work harder to break into the market. “Resources will always be the largest opportunity . . . but selling services is going to be a great opportunity,” he said. “There is a perception, whether fair or unfair, within China that Australia is, for want of a better description, a less grateful friend than it should be.”
About 100 million Chinese people wrote blogs, Mr Stokes said. “It’s in the social media we find the uneasiness towards Australia,” he said.
Stokes and Packer: We need to bow to China