Senator TEAGUE(3.43 p.m.) —I have great pleasure in supporting the speech of the now chairman of the Senate Foreign, Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee and to welcome and endorse fully this important report entitled Australia China Relations . I happened to be directly involved in the formulation of the terms of reference that came to the Senate and I have worked very closely with other senators over a three-year period now in the determination of the 12 chapters and the 23 recommendations of the report.

It is a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between Australia and China—that is, it deals with the political relationship, the economic relationship, and social and cultural aspects of the relationship. It deals with particular parts of the economy—with commerce, with trade, with joint ventures, with investment from one country to the other and with every aspect of our growing economic relationship.

The terms of reference also required us to directly assess the concerns of Australians in China relating to human rights. A full chapter was devoted to this in the report. We were also required in our terms of reference to look at the situation in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Sometimes we referred to three Chinas. Of course, there is only one China—and we recognise the republic in Beijing as China—but we are aware of the separation, at least for the time being, of Taiwan and Hong Kong as British colonies which are to be handed back to China in a year's time.

There are very real concerns in Australia about the particularities of the second and third Chinas, as they are colloquially called, when looking at this part of Asia. I think that there is a mature and well developed assessment of each of these economies in the report. There is bipartisan support to maximise Australia's commercial relationship with Taiwan and to in no way whatsoever change the political relationship which exists—that is, that we recognise the government of China in Beijing.

We also encourage, as the representatives of China and Taiwan see fit, the negotiations for a harmonious and peaceful relationship of more and more substance between China and Taiwan. We see it as being in the interests of China, Hong Kong and Australia that there is a stable transition in a year's time when Hong Kong reverts back to Chinese sovereignty.

In the introduction to the report there is reference to five members of the committee visiting China. The chair of the committee was my very good friend Senator Gerry Jones. I was deputy chairman of the committee during that period. Accompanying us on the visit were Senator Chris Ellison, Senator Sue West, Senator Bryant Burns and the secretary, Paul Barsdell. We had a wonderful team approach while we were visiting China and it directly affected the way in which we received scores of submissions for our inquiry. That all helped in the writing of our report.

I want to acknowledge and thank, as we do in the report, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress of China—in particular, the chairman, Mr Zhu Liang, whom I have met on several visits to China, and the deputy chairman, Mr Zhu Qizhen, who has served as China's ambassador to the United States. These two gentlemen are extraordinarily experienced in foreign affairs matters relating to the China.

We visited Beijing, Lanzhou in Gansu Province, Qingdao, Shanghai and Shenzhen. We wanted to visit the major cities, Beijing and Shanghai. We wanted to visit some coastal regions in this part of Shandong and Shenzhen near Qingdao, but we also wanted to go to an inland region. In this case, it was the capital of Gansu Province.

While we were in Hong Kong we were able to meet with Governor Patten, the senior Chinese official in Hong Kong, Mr Zhou Nan, and the President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, the Hon. John Swaine. These three discussions were of great value to us and formed the chapter we have on Hong Kong.

In the couple of minutes remaining, I wish to refer to the growing prospects of Australia having economic and other relationships with China which will be of mutual benefit to the two countries. Before I make those few remarks, I wish to join the chairman and the whole committee in thanking the secretary of the committee, Mr Paul Barsdell, the research officer, Alistair Sands, and the other staff for their professional work and diligent personal assistance to us. Three years ago there were others who assisted this committee, but they no longer make up the secretariat of the committee. They are first-class members of the Department of the Senate and I thank them very sincerely for their work. I thank the members of the committee for the care they took on the committee.

The final remarks I wish to make relate to the 70-year period which began in 1980. That was when Deng Xiaoping gained full political support, after the 10 lost years of the cultural revolution, for the open door policy. For the first time in history, China actually began to emerge into the modern world. Prior to that there was the cultural revolution, the ups and downs of Mao Tse-tung's period since 1949, the civil war, the Japanese aggression, the war lord period and the period of imperialism that cut up and divided China. Before that there was the dynastic history without which we would not see the strengths of the modernisation that we now have in China.

Up until 1979, and the beginning of Deng Xiaoping's open door policy, China was submerged and not living up to its full potential. It is only with the progressive economic policies of modernisation, of realistic economic achievement and of prosperity for the people of China that followed Deng Xiaoping's initiatives that we have seen China given a chance. It has been 17 years that we have observed this. Both in China and in Australia people are looking forward to 2050—a 70-year period from 1980 to 2050; if you like, a 70-year period in which it is expected that China will become the biggest gross economy in the world and the largest population in the world. This is of enormous significance for Australia and Australia's relations within APEC and north Asia.

I reiterate, as the committee does in this report and in its recommendations, that we have a bipartisan approach to China in this parliament and in the nation, that Australia, for its own national interest, needs to see its opportunities and to build, in all the ways that we have outlined in this quite large and comprehensive report, a relationship of mutual benefit, of real trust and real openness so that we see the benefits flowing to the Australian and the Chinese people. I have very much enjoyed involvement in this Senate committee and in this report in particular. I commend the report to the Senate and, indeed, to all Australians.