Neatly tucked away on page 21 of today’s Australian is an interesting contribution from Robert Gottliebsen. ‘For the first time in countless months the tiniest “green shoots” have emerged from Beijing, …’
The possible good news for the future of Australian-Chinese consisted of three possibly promising thoughts hidden within the usual vindictive statements. They are as follows:
“An increasing number of clear-sighted Australians have, one after another, raised their voice in support of improving ties with China”.
“Getting Sino-Australian ties back on a healthy track would best serve the nation’s interests”.
“Australian society views have poisoned the atmosphere for meaningful interactions between the two countries”.
The continued purchases of iron-ore might be a fourth positive indication if there was no alternative source for the best quality iron-ore. The enormous rise in the price of iron-ore has in recent days fallen sharply, and time will tell if this further boosts the status of Australia in China. Even China might be finding boom-time prices a bit discomforting.
Gottliebsen finishes his thoughtful article as follows: “China’s major carbon problem is in steel and cement ...”
“Both nations have a common interest in devising low carbon steel and cement. Businesses in both nations are looking at green steel and other ways of reducing the carbon in steel and cement”.
“Surely this is an area we can start to work together because our interests are aligned’.