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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Opinion -> 
Sino-Australian ties will grow
    2015-05-11  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Xu Qinduo

    xuqinduo@gmail.com

    THE Reserve Bank of Australia finally made an interest rate cut to a historic low of 2 percent as a step to shore up economic growth last week. The bank said, “it will continue to assess the outlook and adjust policy as needed to foster sustainable growth.”

    The move by the central bank has been in response to concerns over the slowing Chinese economic expansion and weak business investment. This is only the latest demonstration of how close the relationship is between China and Australia: if China sneezes, Australia catches a cold.

    The relationship between China and Australia is characterized by strong trade links. China is Australia’s largest trading partner while Australia is a major exporter of resources to China. However, there are now concerns on the Australian side as to how the Chinese economic slowdown will affect performance Down Under, with some warning that it will leave Australia in a “dire” fiscal position.

    A closer look at the facts on the ground actually says the opposite. Contrary to the “dire” prediction, there’s a promising future for Australia.

    In a recent article in Australia’s largest newspaper The Australian, Chinese Ambassador to Canberra Ma Zhaoxu noted that China’s “new normal” of medium growth will provide fresh opportunities for the nations to grow together.

    As pointed out in one newspaper, it is worth remembering that, “while China will not again grow as fast as it did in the past decade, the size of its economy is now so large that it remains the economic behemoth that will determine much of Australia’s economic fortune.”

    Due to a slump in commodity prices, the value of Australian iron ore exports to China also fell slightly. But, said Ambassador Ma, “the volume has remained high and reached a record 548 million tons in 2014,” up by 31.6 percent from 2013.

    More recent trends show that Australian exports are now actually expanding well beyond the resource sector.

    Figures released by the Australian Grape and Wine Authority in January revealed a growth in Australian wine exports to China for the first time since 2007. Research by the University of Adelaide shows that China’s wine consumption could grow by 60 percent in the next five years, which represents a great opportunity for Australia.

    On education, Ma says, not only does China continue to be one of the largest export markets for Australian education services, “many more Chinese parents are planning to send their children to Australia for study.”

    In terms of investments, statistics issued last week show that China, for the first time, has become Australia’s biggest source of foreign investments, overtaking the U.S. in the last financial year.

    A Credit Suisse report says Chinese buyers could pump as much as A$60 billion (US$47.6 billion), or some 300 billion yuan, into the Australian housing market over the next six years.

    

    Many in Australia hope that the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which will be signed later this year, will be the shot in the arm Australia’s economy needs. But the deal alone is not enough, says Edward Kus, the executive director of the Australia-China Young Professionals Initiative.

    He says Australia needs confident, far-sighted leadership aimed at engaging with China and the rest of Asia. The 2012 Asian Century White Paper published by the Australian Government helped change the rhetoric of China engagement. But the government and Australian business must be proactive in taking the rhetoric from paper to practice.

    Kus is right. Not understanding China could become a potential source of tension in the China-Australia relationship. For example, the annual Lowy Institute Poll has consistently shown that a majority of Australians believe that too much Chinese investment is being allowed into Australia.

    But people should be able to see the big picture: that what China means for Australia is business and people-to-people exchanges while other countries tend to be involved more in military affairs, such as military bases and weaponry.

    (The author is a current affairs commentator with China Radio International and a visiting scholar at the University of Melbourne.)

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