Topic：China-Australia Relations under the Current Australian Albanese Government

Time：2023年5月26日（周五）15:00-17:00

Venue：北外西校区国际大厦910会议室

Speaker：Colin Mackerras

Moderator：李又文 北外区域与全球治理高等研究院副院长

Contents:

The talk will cover the period since May 2022, when Anthony Albanese was elected Australian prime minister.

It will focus on attempts by Australia to “stabilize” relations after the disastrous previous period. It was, however, note the serious blocks caused by the signature of the AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) Agreement and several other serious issues noted as in the category of “national security”. It will also note economic engagement: China is still by far Australia’s largest trade partner, but investment, tourism and other factors still suffer the effects of COVID-19 and political factors. Student exchange is beginning to revive but only very slowly.

Overall, the relationship is improving, but only amid important counter-trends, meaning that the relationship does not look like being able to return soon to earlier very good days.

Biography:

Professor Colin Mackerras (马克林,Officer in the Order of Australia, Fellow of the Academy of the Humanities of Australia) is a specialist on Chinese history, Australia-China relations and Western images of China, and has published widely on all those subjects. He has written or edited over 40 books and authored nearly 200 scholarly papers about China. Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1939, he has visited China nearly 70 times. He worked at Griffith University from 1974 to 2004 and has been a professor Emeritus at the University since retirement. He taught first at the Beijing Foreign Studies University from 1964 to 1966 and has taught there many times since. He has also taught several times at the Renmin University of China in Beijing. He won a Friendship Award(中国政府友谊奖)from the Chinese government in 2014 and in 2016 a Special China Book Award(中华图书特殊贡献奖), given to foreigners who have made outstanding contributions in spreading Chinese culture through their writings. His most important books include Western Images of China, (Revised EditionOxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1999); China’s Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation (RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2003); and 我看中国1949年以来中国在西方的形象(Zhongguo Renmin University Press, Beijing, 2013). He has also attended numerous conferenceson Asia, especially China, in Australia, China, the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.