Former prime minister says US-China relations are ‘bad’ as he prepares to become ambassador to Washington. Follow live
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In an interview with the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Kevin Rudd said recent brash rhetoric from the Chinese government could be partly attributed to China’s own domestic challenges, including slow economic growth and pressure over its Covid measures. Rudd added:
The overall state of the US-China relationship is in bad strategic repair. But as Foreign Minister [Penny] Wong said recently in a speech here in the United States, our job as friends, partners and allies of the United States, and as strategic partners with China, is to encourage both Beijing and Washington to move in the direction of a new strategic framework of managed strategic competition to build new strategic guardrails into their relationships so that we do not end up with a crisis, escalation and war by accident. That I think is a responsibility we share with all US allies around the world and partners of China.
Certainly what drives, I think, Australian strategic thinking is how do we deter our friends in China from taking premeditated military action against Taiwan, which will then be a fundamental destabilisation of the strategic status quo?
One of the reasons which Prime Minister [Anthony] Albanese explained to me why he and the foreign minister asked me to do this job is because we’re all anxious about the current state of great power relations in the world. And therefore, if I can play some very small role in our own dealings with the administration in Washington in helping to provide advice on how things might be stabilised in one way or another, then I’ll play that small role, but only on the basis of guidance and instructions from Canberra. That’s the job of an ambassador.
Continue reading…Former prime minister says US-China relations are ‘bad’ as he prepares to become ambassador to Washington. Follow liveGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastIn an interview with the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Kevin Rudd said recent brash rhetoric from the Chinese government could be partly attributed to China’s own domestic challenges, including slow economic growth and pressure over its Covid measures. Rudd added:The overall state of the US-China relationship is in bad strategic repair. But as Foreign Minister [Penny] Wong said recently in a speech here in the United States, our job as friends, partners and allies of the United States, and as strategic partners with China, is to encourage both Beijing and Washington to move in the direction of a new strategic framework of managed strategic competition to build new strategic guardrails into their relationships so that we do not end up with a crisis, escalation and war by accident. That I think is a responsibility we share with all US allies around the world and partners of China.Certainly what drives, I think, Australian strategic thinking is how do we deter our friends in China from taking premeditated military action against Taiwan, which will then be a fundamental destabilisation of the strategic status quo?One of the reasons which Prime Minister [Anthony] Albanese explained to me why he and the foreign minister asked me to do this job is because we’re all anxious about the current state of great power relations in the world. And therefore, if I can play some very small role in our own dealings with the administration in Washington in helping to provide advice on how things might be stabilised in one way or another, then I’ll play that small role, but only on the basis of guidance and instructions from Canberra. That’s the job of an ambassador. Continue reading…