Suchergebnisse

The Tiananmen events of June 1989 shattered the dream of a special relationship between China and Australia, making human rights one of the major issues to be addressed in their bilateral relations. Though differences emerged, they still needed manageable and constructive linkages because both of them were fully aware that confrontation could damage their common interests in economic prosperity and regional peace and stability. Consequently, the engagement in human rights was the mutual demand and pursuit between Beijing and Canberra. By means of engagement, Canberra expected that with the growth of China's economy and reform this moderate approach would bring about to China better conditions for more progress in human rights, though it might be at a slow speed. In the process of China's post-Tiananmen evolutionary human rights diplomacy changes, Australia was one of the countries to be won over by China in facilitating its policy implementation. Admittedly, China's bilateral dialogue approach and technical cooperation with Australia and some other Western countries contributed to the successive failure of the American attempt to take multilateral actions to pass an anti-China resolution in the UN Human Rights Commission (replaced by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2006). Meanwhile, China had to take such steps as responding to concerns on rights issues raised by its dialogue partners and accepting and implementing UN human rights instruments to maintain the engagement approach. Resultantly, the process of China's engagement with Australia and other Western states in human rights is also a process of its learning how to deal with Western pressure constructively and how to improve human rights at home. (Asian J Polit Sci/NIAS)

In China's post-modernisation years, Sino-Australian trade in goods, a chief component of their economic relations, has displayed some mutually acknowledged important characteristics, of which two major ones are a steady growth in value and a complementarity in commodity trade. Viewed largely from a Chinese perspective, this article aims to undertake an in-depth study in order to reveal the genuine trade relationship between the two countries. While elaborating on the ebb and flow and the complementarity of trade, the article will focus on investigating the fundamental factors in shaping their trade relationship.

In 1949, the Chinese Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, retreated to the island of Taiwan. Since then, the Communist Party of China has been faced with the problem of how to unify Taiwan with the mainland. Chinas position towards Taiwan can be divided into two phases: firstly, the liberate Taiwan phase from 1949 to 1978, &, secondly, the peaceful reunification of one country with two systems since 1978. In 1979, when China formally adopted its reforms & opened up its economy, reunification with Taiwan became closely connected with Chinas modernization. Australia wanted to prevent war across the Taiwan Strait & sent a clear message to the Taiwanese that a decision to proceed with independence would not receive international recognition or support. It is concluded that over the years, Australia has made useful contributions to the Kampuchean peace process & the development of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. R. Prince