Australia yesterday said a “most unhappy” China had axed a senior minister’s visit in retaliation for letting exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer into the country, dealing another blow to troubled ties.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said China’s Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei (何亞非) had cancelled a trip to a regional forum this month in a diplomatic snub, adding that Australia “very much regrets” the move.
“The Chinese officials made it clear that they were most unhappy with her visit,” Smith told parliament. “They made it clear that the visit by vice-minister He to the Pacific Islands Forum dialogue would not take place and that China would be represented by an ambassador.”
China vehemently opposed the visit by Kadeer, whom it accuses of inciting last month’s rioting in the Xinjiang region that left at least 197 dead.
The canceled visit further tests relations between the key trading partners which were hit last month by China’s detention of an Australian mining executive on spying allegations, later downgraded to industrial espionage.
China was instead represented at the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns by special envoy Wang Yongqiu (王永秋). Smith said Vice-Minister He had been due to meet senior Australian officials on the forum’s sidelines.
“Australia very much regrets that China has decided to effect that response,” he said. “If China does take further action as a result of allowing Rebiya Kadeer to come to Australia, we will of course regret that.”
Chinese foreign ministry officials in Beijing declined to comment.
Relations with China have plummeted over the past two months despite Mandarin-speaking Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s pledges to bolster ties with the Asian giant and key trading partner.
Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull accused the government of a “ham-fisted” approach to China, saying relations were at their lowest point in years.
“Our relations with China are at ... the lowest ebb they have been for many, many years,” Turnbull said. “[Rudd] has been making an absolutely ham-fisted effort with our diplomatic relations.”
“He has mishandled relations... he obviously has no leverage with China left at all,” Turnbull added.
Resource-rich Australia has profited from China’s lightning growth over the past decade with two-way trade worth US$48 billion last year, official figures show.
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