The Development Of Sino-Australian Relations After Cold War

Both Australia and China are two great powers in Asia-Pacific region. China-Australia relationship has a long history and the private exchanges among them emerged in the early 19th century. The formal contact between these two governments was in the 30years 20th century, and they fought against Japanese fascist aggression together. After the founding of New China, Australia followed the United States to take hostile policy on the new China. In the 70years 20th century, because of the changed international environment, the United States adjusted its China policy and resumed bilateral relations with China. Australia established diplomatic relations with China. After the establishment of Sino-Australian diplomatic relations, bilateral relations have developed rapidly, especially in economic cooperation which has made gratifying achievements. But in the later Hawke Government, by "6.4" events, Sino-Australian relations had cracks. Until in the early 90's, the relationships between Australia and China changed slightly. After Keating government came to power, Australia implemented a more pragmatic foreign policy on China and vigorously developed the bilateral trade relations. In early Howard governing, setbacks and contact co-existed in Sino-Australian relations. But in its later stage, the bilateral relations entered a high-speed and stable period of development. After Kevin Rudd came to power, Sino-Australian bilateral relations developed rapidly and achieved dramatic results in areas of political, economic, and cultural exchanges. However, the recent "Rio Tinto incident" and "Kadeer incident" made Sino-Australian relations nosedived, even got low in ten years. The development of Sino-Australian relations twists and turns, major factors affecting the development of Sino-Australian relations are the U.S. factor, the Taiwan factor, the human right factor, and the Australia's fear of China's rise. In order to make the healthy development of Sino-Australian relations, China must continue to strengthen economic cooperation with Australia and encourage more non-governmental exchanges between two parties, which is the only way to get better tomorrow of Sino-Australian relations.