No need to be ‘anxious’ over China’s growing Pacific presence, envoy tells Australia

Build now, pay later? Debt-ridden Fiji turns to China for port upgrades

Xiao told reporters that Pacific island countries want to have political ties with China, sell products to the Chinese market, and receive investment and help from China in infrastructure, telecommunications and maintaining social order. Security “is part of the relationship between China and Pacific Island countries, to help them to social stability,” he said.

“It is not a strategy for military security, its a strategy to help policing their nation for social stability and basic order,” Xiao said, adding that there was “no need for any so-called anxiety on the part of Australia”.

Defence was an area “we need to work harder on,” he said, also saying that China had lodged a diplomatic protest with Australia over its congratulations to Taiwan, which China sees as its own, over the election of a new president.

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China-Australia relations ‘on the right path’, Xi Jinping tells Anthony Albanese on Beijing visit

China-Australia relations ‘on the right path’, Xi Jinping tells Anthony Albanese on Beijing visit

Ties between Australia and its largest trading partner China improved last year after China lifted trade blocks imposed in 2020 on a raft of Australian exports.

A Chinese review of large dumping tariffs on Australian wine continued, an embassy official told the press conference.

“I cannot expect the case will come to such a conclusion,” he said.